Common Police Culture and Alternative Culture Solutions - Case Study Example

Report on Police Culture Contents INTRODUCTION 3 2 BODY OF ANALYSIS 3 3COMMON POLICE CULTURE 4 4ALTERNATIVE CULTURE SOLUTIONS 5 5HOW THE COMMISSIONER SHOULD MANAGE THE CHANGE PROCESS. 6 6IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 7 7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 8 Bibliography 10 1 INTRODUCTION The Law enforcement agency is meant to be an honourable organisation with committed men and women whose primary goal is ensuring there is safety in the community to an extent of risking their lives to see this objective is achieved (Siegel 2010). Police culture refers to the attitudes police officers have towards use of discretionary powers especially where their cruel actions when handling criminals are seen as justified. This can happen through unlawful searches, use of excessive force and testimonies that are not true. According to Coady (2000), police culture is the acceptable practices, rules and principles that are applied by the law enforcers together with their rationale and beliefs, norms and values that inform police conduct. The police are associated with a cynic view of the world, a machismo attitude and strong solidarity towards fellow officers with a conservative political outlook. Police culture is hard to change since police work is viewed as a mission and anything that is conducted to achieve that mission is justifiable. There is need to change the old ways of the police force to improve the general outlook of such discipline forces. This is for better service of their communities as well as the satisfaction it will give the police officers when performing their duties. This will instil the spirit to offer better services towards the general public. 2 BODY OF ANALYSIS Organisational culture is the set of behaviours or unwritten rules that guide the behaviour of individuals in an organisation (Lewis 2011). For the law enforcers, these unwritten rules are guided by the function of policing itself. As such, creates a unique culture with characteristics such as conformity and solidarity among the police officers. Loyalty and solidarity among the WA police has developed to an extent that police officers do not only trust their colleagues with their lives when carrying out their duties but also maintaining the code of “brotherhood” therefore maintaining silence at all times where their colleagues are involved in misconduct. This has enhanced the rate of corruption in the institution that is meant to be corruption free since loyalty is valued more than integrity (Dixon 1999). According to the stimulus article, conformity is rife at WA police whereby officers are expected to conform to certain behaviours for example arresting rather than negotiating and those who defy this are stigmatised. There are two differing views in relation to culture change. The first one is that police culture will never change since the role of police strengthens the cultural characteristics that make police culture unique and unchangeable. According to this view point, it is the police work that informs such conduct. Acquisition of this culture is by socialization and at times occurs unconsciously. The second view is that police culture can change and continues to change. Societal expectations and technology have changed how the police operate. Culture change is constant. As such, it is important to ensure that the not so much liked police culture especially by the public is changed for a good overall performance by the institution (Westmarland 2002). 3 COMMON POLICE CULTURE There are several problematic cultures that are evident in the police force. Some of these negative behaviours need to be broken in order to positively change the way police conduct their business. These include: A) Some police organisations including WA put people in leadership positions without offering them training relevant for the position. It is assumed that so long as an individual is given the duty to lead, it will be as expected. Some people however are unable to achieve this objective as leadership requires training. It is learned and acquired, not hereditary or by assumption (Prenzler and Ranzler 2002). B) The trainers in charge of training police officers in the academy still hold the belief that effective training is achieved by putting stress on the trainees. Therefore, many drills are created or performed to push the trainees out of their comfort zone by creating stressful situations. Putting people under such extraneous conditions may set the trainees up for failure when they get to the field. The training should instead instil levels of confidence and competence to the officers rather than demoralizing these values. C) Many police training academies believe in yelling and screaming at the recruits and punishing them with extreme exercises. This boot camp mentality produces different kinds of graduates. Those who understand the game and play by the rules, the second category ends up thinking that this is how one is supposed to treat people when in a position of authority. This is then reflected in the way such officers behave when they join the forces. Always treating people with disrespect since they feel that they have power over them especially if they are entrusted with leadership positions. The third category result to being subservient in similar capacity (Fleming and wood 2006). D) Corruption and mishandling of criminals. Police officers have in the past been known to brutally injure citizens suspected to be criminals to a point of using live bullets to catch criminals. They have also been accused of receiving bribes from other people in return for favours. The loyalty that has been entrenched deeply in colleagues’ relationships hinders the good officers from reporting such incidents. Misconducts are swept under the carpet in order to protect them. The stimulus article reveals that such incidents take place even with full knowledge of others but due to loyalty they chose to turn a blind eye. E) The notion held by the police that asking for help represents weakness especially for the female officers. They tend to go at a problem without asking for help in order not to look weak in the eyes of their colleagues. They insist on the maxim that big boys and girls do not cry, as such they take it all in and soldier on (Fleming and wood 2006). 4 ALTERNATIVE CULTURE SOLUTIONS A) According to Jabri (2012), the solution to getting leaders who are competent is by first acknowledging that leadership is not about just a higher rank or title. Those putting you in leadership expect performance for the good of the organisation. Therefore, leaders should be trained and chosen by merit. There should be constant training in the organisation for all police officers starting with the lowest rank to the highest. This way, it will be easy to assign leadership positions to people who well understand the ropes of the job they are entrusted with. This will also involve the change of the organisational structure. The top ranking officers should be easily accessible if the lower ranking officers need their attention. It is difficult to access them and officers have to go through certain levels of authority before they can reach the commissioner. This should change, rather than going through the usual red tape. This will motivate the officers since they will feel valued, and be part of the decision making process. B) Police training academies should change their tactics when offering lessons recruits. The trainers should understand that training in context is the effective way of achieving success. Putting stress on the recruits will only set them up for failure since their levels of confidence and competence are likely to dwindle. Proper effective training is better than stressful drills that ruin the recruits overall performance in their real jobs. C) The trainers should use better methods of communication rather than yelling and screaming to the recruits. By using proper communication methods, the trainees will learn that people in spite of their positions should be treated with respect always. This will also improve the way officers handle and treat suspected criminals. D) The police officers should put integrity before loyalty; they should respect the code of conduct and report the law breakers such as corrupt officers or those who are known to bend laws to acquire favours from the public. It is important to always observe laws are followed to the letter since they have been entrusted with this duty. E) Police officers should be trained how to work as a team rather than carrying out tasks alone in order not to look weak before their fellow officers. Police work should be a team effort (Poole 2000). Male officers should respect female officers since they have undergone through the same training and carry out the same tasks the male officers do. They should not discriminate people because of their gender, age or race. All police officers should be treated equally. This will improve the officers self esteem and levels of confidence. 5 HOW THE COMMISSIONER SHOULD MANAGE THE CHANGE PROCESS. Organisational change is inevitable since organisations have to change constantly in order to ensure demands of the changes in environment are met (Poole 2000). The commissioner should consider the need and the likely results of the change in the organisation and also as the present dynamics in the process of change. Several steps needs to be followed to achieve this objective A) Motivating change He should first create awareness of the existing negative police culture in the institution. It is important to convince the whole organisation of the need for changing the existing police culture, giving the negative outweighing factors over the positive. He should make the whole WA police organisation aware of how the culture continues to impact the organisation negatively. The commissioner should aim at creating a shared vision of the intended change. The intended change should contribute to the organisations capability and overall possibility. It should reflect on the improved work performance of the police officers and better quality output. The commissioner also has to show commitment to changing this culture by offering enough supportive power towards the intended changes, otherwise if there is no enough support, it will affect the trust and willingness of the police officers in adopting the change. The commissioner should ensure that there is sufficient communication and information towards the change process. As such, he will avoid rumours associated with change which might influence the police officers in to resisting the change due to uncertainty. Some might think that there is a hidden agenda towards the process of change rather than the real intention which is to improve the institutions performance. B) The commissioner should develop a transitional plan Besides knowing where the organisation is headed, he should also know how to get there. This can only be achieved through developing concrete ideas about the process of change. This requires putting the vision into an operation mode, which is, clearly defining the most important details, minimising differences in interpretation, and shared understanding of the impact the intended change will have on the entire organisation. There should be a broad plan clearly stating the first step towards implementing the change (Weinstein 2005). The commissioner should also asses the readiness of the people. He should also be patient as people can take time before getting used to the idea of new rules and regulations. He should also develop a realistic view of the future, and provide sufficient information to all stakeholders involved in the culture change. The commissioner should also be well equipped to deal with change resistance. Not everyone is willing to change due to little understand or simply ignorance. It will be in order, to analyse the type of resistance that is likely to occur in the process of achieving change. The commissioner should also make people own the change process. Creativity is of essence in solving problems. Creativity is only achievable if people feel responsible. Involving the police officers in decision making geared towards changing the police culture through activities such as brainstorming is a way of achieving success towards the change process. 6 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN A) Develop momentum The commissioner should be optimistic that change will be achieved therefore set examples to be followed by other stake holders. This attitude generates support in the change process. B) Planning and developing short term wins Tangible results need to be seen for the stakeholders to maintain the confidence that change will be achieved. Creating short term wins ensures that credibility and motivation are retained in the entire process of achieving change (Jabri 2012). The commissioner can also consider rewarding those seen to positively embrace the culture change such as those police officers who maintain integrity by reporting misconduct of their colleagues. C) Understanding and identifying factors that restrains change There are always unexpected aspects in the process of implementing change. Such hindrances maybe the unwritten rules, past experiences people have had with change or other negative situations that were unexpected (Weinstein 2005). Addressing such issues needs persistence and patient. 7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS It is important to understand that change cannot be forced on people. It is a process that requires sufficient time before people can understand and adopt it. It is easy to resist change since people associate it with uncertainty therefore resisting it can be as a way of safeguarding oneself against hasty decisions (Lewis 2011). Change also tends to defy the planned logic manual structure to achieve it since it can easily be influenced by the uncontrollable forces. Therefore the commissioner should be aware of the flexibility in achieving change in the organisation. In order not to stifle change, the commissioner should: A) Motivate other police officers to be self-organised. B) Encourage decision making as team work by all the stakeholders including low ranking officers. C) Be optimistic and always honour those who deserve it rather than always being cynical about situations. D) Encourage others to use their creativity in solving problems. E) Supplying sufficient information to avoid assumptions, secrecy and rumours that lead to change resistance. F) Be open to learning new ideas. Bibliography COADY, T. (2000). Violence and police culture. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press. WESTMARLAND, L. (2002). Gender and policing: sex, power and police culture. Cullompton, Willan. LEWIS, L. K. (2011). Organizational change: creating change through strategic communication. Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell. DIXON, D. (1999). A culture of corruption: changing an Australian police service. Sydney, NSW, Hawkins Press. POOLE, M. S. (2000). Organizational change and innovation processes theory and methods for research. Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press. JABRI, M. (2012). Managing organizational change: process, social construction, and dialogue. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. SIEGEL, L. J. (2010). Introduction to criminal justice. Belmont, CA, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. WEINSTEIN, J. A. (2005). Social and cultural change: social science for a dynamic world. Lanham, Md. [u.a.], Rowman & Littlefield. FLEMING, J., AND WOOD, J. (2006). Fighting crime together: the challenges of policing and security networks. Sydney, University of New South Wales Press. PRENZLER, T., AND RANSLEY, J. (2002). Police reform: building integrity. Annandale, NSW, Hawkins Press. Read More