The Police in America

Chapter 4
Police Organizations

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 Quasi-Military Style of Police
Organizations
Officers wear uniforms
Military-style rank designations
Hierarchical command structure
Authoritarian organizational style
Officers have legal authority to use deadly force and
carry weapons
Criticisms
• Cultivates an “us versus them” attitude
• Encourages the idea of a “war on crime”
• Authoritarian style is contrary to democratic principles
and produces low morale
• Rigid structure leaves room for job dissatisfaction
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 Police Departments as
Organizations
Dominant style - Complex bureaucracy
Characterized by:
• Complex organizations
• Tasks assigned to “bureaus”
• Hierarchy and clear division of labor
• Responsibility for specific tasks is delegated to lower-ranking
employees
• Clear chain of command
• Clear unity of command
• Written rules and regulations
• Flow of information according to the chain of command
• Clear career paths
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 Pros and Cons of Bureaucracy
in Policing
Problems
• Rigid, inflexible, and unable to adapt to external changes
• Communication within the organization often breaks down
• Tends to become inward looking, self-serving, and isolated from
the people it serves
• Accused of not using the talents of its employees and even
stifling creativity

Positives
• Development of many specialties
• Control of police discretion and the reduction of misconduct
• Written rules on the use of deadly force or the response to
domestic violence
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 Informal Aspects of Police
Organizations
Vertical cliques: Formed between lower
and higher ranking officers
Horizontal cliques: Formed between
similarly ranked officers

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 Bureaucracy and Police
Professionalism
Professionalism is challenged by the
bureaucratic nature of policing

Professional departments adopt a “by the

book” approach to policing

The bureaucracy imposes formal controls

over the behavior of police officers
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 Changing Police Organizations
Community policing
• Decentralizes decision making (territorial and
administrative)

Task forces
• Officers are selected from different ranks
based on their talents

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 Community Policing
Community policing attempts to modify the
police organization through
debureaucratization
• Decentralize
• Deformalize
• Despecialize
• Delayerize

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 COMPSTAT: Computer
Statistics
Clarifies the department's mission, goals, and values
Holds managers accountable
Organizational power and authority are transferred to
commanders who are responsible for geographic
areas
Resources are transferred to commanders
Data are used to identify problems and to evaluate
success and failure
Middle managers are expected to use innovative
problem-solving tactics
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 Civil Service
Formal and legally binding procedures governing
personnel decisions
Nearly universal
Purpose - To ensure that personnel decisions are
objective
Reinforces the hierarchy of police departments
• Rewards hierarchy
• Status hierarchy
• Seniority hierarchy
• Rank hierarchy
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 Police Unions, 1
Majority of police officers are represented
by unions
Three major police unions
• Fraternal Order of Police
• International Union of Police Associations
• Teamsters Law Enforcement League

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 Police Unions, 2
Collective bargaining
• “The method of determining conditions of
employment through bilateral negotiations”
Grievance procedures
• Provide due process to employees
Impasse settlement and strikes
Impact of police unions
• Improvements in salaries and benefits
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 Police Organizations and Their
Environment
Contingency theory
• Organizations are structured to achieve specific
goals (crime control)
Institutional theory
• Organizations operate in relation to their
external social and political environment
Resource dependency theory
• Organizations must obtain resources to survive
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