The military form of organization has been a long standing model for police organizations; however, there has been many arguments regarding the value of traditional policing in today’s society. Line level officers are at the bottom of the hierarchal totem pole, and in most cases they are not considered as professionals as compared to other ranks supervisory ranks and pay grade. Critics of the pyramid structure, believe that a decentralize structure will provide better communication, efficiency and effectiveness. However , Several authors advocate for higher spans of control and believe it will reduce problems such as: (1) higher spans of control reduces distortion of information as it flows through the organization; (2) slow ineffective decision …show more content…
An officer who has been appointed with the rank of police chief has tremendous authority and influence within their jurisdiction; however, with the rank and file comes greater responsibilities and tasks to carry out. The Chief of Police is the highest ranking law enforcement officer in a local government and is also referred to as the commissioner or superintendent (Peak, 2012). A police chief is a political figure because he is in constant dialogue with the mayor, city council members and administrators, labor organizations, citizens, media, and law enforcement agencies in all level of the government (Peak, 2012). The chief is responsible for generating and revising general orders, policies and procedures that will act as guiding principles for the integrity and protection of his officers and department. The chief is an advocate and will provide support for his officers when necessary and he also administer disciplinary actions on officers who violate his written policies and …show more content…
In many ways, a supervisor is like a coach and in order to avoid criminal and civil litigations against the individual officer, the supervisor himself or herself, and the organization, a supervisor must be able to identify each of their officer’s weaknesses, strengths, and personal goals (More & Miller, 2015). There is no perfect management system that will administer to use of force incidents, and it is a supervisor’s responsibility to educate, counsel and monitor their subordinate’s actions. The police and corrections department must understand the strategic importance of innovation in order to better serve the community, prevent recidivism, and instill equal delivery of service. Innovation is also a strategy towards reshaping and redefining an
For the purpose of this paper, the Houston Police Department’s organizational structure will be used to illustrate the chain of command. The jail operations are designated to Strategic Operations as you can see from the diagram below, and it is overseen by the executive assistant chief, assistant chief and captain. The captain over jail operations is responsible for all three shifts at the city jail, and he assigns three lieutenants to supervise each shift (days, evenings, and nights). Within Houston’s jail facility, there are both classified officers and civilians performing various assignments and tasks. The immediate concern that was brought to attention pertains to a sexual misconduct allegation from a female inmate against a correctional
As American history has shown us, with great power also comes great responsibility. The great power part has not been as much of a problem as the great responsibility has. And as history have shown us, many of those officers show great control and responsibility, but there are a small percentage of those officers who are corrupt.
In conclusion, the Rampart scandal was terrible for LAPD’s image and reputation, it was terrible for the people who were harassed by the police, and it was bad for the officers who were sucked into being corrupt and unethical. Throughout this paper there is a resounding aspect of supervision. With better supervision there may be some dislike, but it will keep the department in order and it will create the cohesiveness that a department needs to be successful.
Policing in the United States has mainly been based and expanded on the ideas of English way of policing. The English way of policing has not only been used as the basis for American policing but it has also been used to commence an era of evolving police agencies. In its early years, policing in the United States was largely regarded as a civic duty or responsibility of community members. The appointed officers were neither trained nor paid for their services to community members. Consequently, the chosen Sheriffs were usually motivated by financial incentives and lost their focus on enforcement of the law, which contributed to the perception that policing was primarily reactive in nature. However, the nature and structure of policing changed significantly following the emergence of urbanization, industrialism, and the society, which resulted in increase in crime. This forced the police or law enforcement officers to adopt a more proactive approach rather than the reactive approach that was traditionally associated with law enforcement. Notably, the history of policing has been characterized by considerable changes from time to time due to several factors like technological advancements and increase in threats to security.
I will break my paper into three parts. In the first section, I will explore a case example of the problems of police accountability in Oakland, and argue that there is a need for change. Second, I will look at two tasks – tasks #24 and #34, which I chose to evaluate the departments’ efforts to make reforms that are aligned with the accountability-based police structure. Next, I will look at cross pressures and organizational change principles (Fe...
(Swanson, Territo and Taylor, p. 2). However, in recent years some major changes have occurred in a shorter time period. Innovations in law enforcement During the past two decades, I have observed major changes in the viewpoint of society towards police officer's as the symbol of trust and dignity, the technological advances of communication and information systems in law enforcement, and the revision of selection and hiring practices for police officers. Organizational change occurs both as a result of internal and external agents (Swanson, Territo and Taylor, p. 664).
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Department (WCSD) has a wide span of control. However in terms of the number of direct reporting employees, the sergeant in the jail division has the broadest span of control. Wide spans of control promote efficiency, productivity, and are cost effec...
In law enforcement, discretion is left up to each police officer to make responsible and reasonable decisions on situations while in the field. A police officer will have no choice but to use discretion in certain situations and make decisions on what type of force or punishment is necessary for the situations. Many people in the society always believe that police officers can make any decision they wish to at any time while working. This is very wrong because there are situations whereby a police officer or even the chief of police has no other choice, but to follow the law in making decisions. The role of the police administrator is double challenging because, he/she must determine how best to use discretion as well as encourage or dissuade discretion by subordinate members ...
At some point in our lives, everybody eventually comes in contact with a law enforcement officer, some people for different reasons. Law enforcement officers work around the clock to keep citizens safe. Many people do not know a lot about law enforcement, some of those will be discussed. Those topics include agency administration, issues with law enforcement in today’s society, and law enforcement history. To start off, agency administration can vary from department to department.
In Florida, every law enforcement official uses the tools of planning, management, and evaluation. For example, a patrol officer plans how to cover a beat, makes rounds or manage activities, and evaluates how they did at the end of the day. An officer plans what to do and how to do it before taking action. Unfortunately, this same approach is not consistently applied in police agencies and security operations as a whole. In fact, although a certain degree of planning is usually conducted by all prevention organizations, the major emphasis has traditionally been on the management and evaluation of an officers work; every sergeant knows to manage a police force in such a way that the commander will conclude that they are doing a good job. The major purpose of the discussion that follows is to provide crime prevention personnel information about planning, management, and evaluation so they can take advantage of those tools in performing their jobs.
This paper is an attempt to articulate the organizational change that is taking place within the Police Department and how the existing norms, culture, and organizational profile affect the desired change, as well as the resistance to change that might be affecting the change agent and the personnel affected by the change.
Delivering services of protection is a daunting task which the US criminal justice system has endured, however; its cordial approach to deterring crime and criminal accountability is due to many contributing factors. In addition to highly developed federal administrative agencies that oversee less inferior law enforcement department, departmental organizational effectiveness must also be considered when determining overall health of the US CJ system. In order to efficiently deliver the public’s expectations of protection and safety, the development of the CJ system encompasses decision makers from all level of government including legislative body members. However, the effectiveness of the criminal justice organization is highly dependent on federal, state, and local departmental interactions.
A common style of police leadership is a more bureaucratic style where the leader manages “by the book”, everything must be done in accordance with pre-written policies and procedures (Cordner & Scarborough, 2010). When a certain problem or concern isn’t covered by the book the leader refers to the next level for a decision. This style removes the ability of the leader to manage and forces a strict accordance to the “book”. This style can be very effective when dealing with dangerous situations which can be a common occurrence in police work.
It is necessary for different ranking levels to resolve issues. For example, the “Chief” of an organization does not always have time to answer all of the little questions or deal with every issue. When there is a chain of command, the lower level employees can utilize the chain of command to help resolve issues in a timely manner. Without this structure, employees would “flood” the “chief” with all of the issues, and the supervisors will be kept out of the loop of what’s going on. Nevertheless, I believe the paramilitary structure will work in policing for the reasons, information flows up the chain of command from the street officer to the police administration and orders and commands flow down the chain to the street officer. The chain of command and the paramilitary structure have been retained, regardless to the complexity of the police bureaucracy. Therefore, no matter how defined the hierarchy is or how flat the structure is, the goal was to be more consistent with community-oriented policing (Travis,
All roles within local, state, and federal agencies provide what we have made of law enforcement today. The levels within the department are effective in the support of their own and effective uses of personnel. Departments are further finding ways to operate more effectively and make the funding of their departments go further. The different roles and training that go into the officers and the multiple forms of patrolling is a time honored tradition that has adapted over time and offered a safer approach to apprehending today’s criminal.