Police in America
Chapter Four
Police Organizations
Quasi-Military Style of Police
Organizations
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Originated with Robert Peels’s plan for the
London Metropolitan Police in 1829
Officers wear uniforms
Military-style rank designations
Hierarchical command structure
Authoritarian organizational style
Legal authority to use deadly force and carry
weapons
Quasi-Military Style of Police
Organizations
 Criticisms:
Cultivates an “us versus them” attitude
Encourages the idea of a “war on crime”
Authoritarian style contrary to democratic
principles and produces low morale
Rigid structure leaves room for job
dissatisfaction
Police Departments as
Organizations
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Dominant organizational structure and
administrative style is as a complex
bureaucracy, with a hierarchical
structure and an authoritarian
management style.
 The only exceptions to this rule are
very small departments.
Police Departments as
Organizations
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Characterized by:
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1. Complex organizations
2. Tasks assigned to “bureaus”
3. Hierarchy and clear division of labor
4. Responsibility for specific tasks delegated to lower-ranking
employees
5. Clear chain of command
6. Clear unity of command
7. Written rules and regulations
8. Flow of info according to chain of command
9. Clear career paths
Vancouver Police
Police Bureaucracy
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Modern police bureaucracy began to emerge in
the early 20th century, as a part of the
professionalization movement.
With the creation of new specialized units,
departments became more complex
organizations.
Experts borrowed modern management
principles from business administration and
applied them to police administration.
Leaders of this movement were August Vollmer,
Bruce Smith, and O.W. Wilson.
Pros and Cons of Bureaucracy
in Policing
The Problems
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Rigid, inflexible, and
unable to adapt to
external changes
Communication within the
organization often breaks
down
Tend to be inward looking,
self-serving, and isolated
from the people they serve
Are accused of not using
the talents of their
employees and even
stifling creativity
The Positives
 Informal Aspects
Horizontal
and vertical
cliques
 Capacity to coordinate
many activities at once
through specialization of
departments
Control of police
discretion
Reduction of
misconduct
Administrative rule
making
Bureaucracy and Police
Professionalism
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Professionalism challenged by the
bureaucratic nature of policing
 Professional departments adopted a “by
the book” approach to policing
 The bureaucracy imposes formal controls
over the behavior of police officers
Changing Police Organizations
Community Policing
– Decentralizes decision making (territorial
and administrative)
Task Forces
– Officers from different ranks based on
talents
Creating Learning organizations
– Think about needs, plan and implement
change, and learn from achievements and
failures
COMPSTAT: Computer
Comparison Statistics
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Clarifies the department’s mission, goals, and
values
Holds managers accountable
Organizational power and authority transferred to
commanders who are responsible for geographic
areas
Resources are transferred to commanders.
Data used to identify problems and to evaluate
success and failure.
Middle managers expected to use innovative
problem-solving tactics
Civil Service
 Formal
and legally binding procedures
governing personnel decisions
 Nearly universal
 Purpose: to ensure personnel make
decisions objectively
 Reinforces the hierarchy of police depts.
– Rewards hierarchy
– Seniority hierarchy
- Status hierarchy
- Rank hierarchy
Police Unions
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Majority of police officers
represented by unions
 Three major police unions:
1. Fraternal Order of Police
2. International Union of Police
Associations
3. Teamsters Law Enforcement
League
Police Unions Continued
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Collective Bargaining
– The method of determining conditions of
employment through bilateral negotiations
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Grievance Procedures
– Provides due process to employees
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Unions and Shared Governance
 Impasse Settlement and Strikes
 Impact of Police Unions
– Improvements in salaries and benefits
Police Organizations and Their
Environment
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Contingency Theory
 Organizations are structured to achieve specific
goals (crime control)
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Institutional Theory
 Organizations operate in relation to their
external social and political environment
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Resource Dependency Theory
 Organizations must obtain resources to survive
Contingency Theory
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The dominant theoretical framework for understanding
the structures and practices of police organizations.
The belief that organizations are created and structured
to achieve specific goals.
Makes two primary assumptions:
– Police organizations must adapt themselves to the
external environment when their existing goals are
affected by changes in their operating conditions
– Police organizations must be dynamic so that they
maintain “fit” between themselves and their
environment over time
If there is a gang problem, an organization will create a
gang unit. Also, based on failed crime control, police
have adopted community policing.
Institutional Theory
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Police organizations are social institutions that operate in
relation to their external social and political environment.
Central premise is a belief that the organization and
activities of the police must be understood in the context
of their institutional environment. This environment
consists of powerful influences including the mayor, city
council, special-interest groups, citizens, and other
criminal justice agencies.
In order for police departments to establish legitimacy,
their organizational structures and operational activities
must be performed in accordance with the ideas and
beliefs held by these powerful influences.
Resource Dependency Theory
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Organizations must obtain resources to survive,
and to obtain these resources they must engage
in exchanges with other organizations in their
environment.
Those in an organization’s environment that
have the capacity to provide resources have
influence through resource exchanges.
Organizations actively scan their environment for
opportunities that may provide access to
valuable resources.
Questions?
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Next class, Friday September 25th
 Guest speakers?
 Walker Chapter 5-6
 Have you scheduled your ride along?