Preview

Police Organizational Structures

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
431 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Police Organizational Structures
Police Organizational Structures Organizations are entities of two or more people who cooperate to accomplish an objective. (Peak, Policing America, 2012). A police department structure must be parallel so that this way its structure can be effective in completing the overall goal of protecting and helping the public. Over the years police agencies have followed a traditional structure but by the passing of years the structure is starting to evolve. Traditional police structure
Traditional structures are based upon principles such as “specialization, Hierarchy of offices, rules and regulations, technical competence, official activity demands the full working capacity of the official and the office management following exhaustive stable written rules. These principles allow the structure to work efficiently. With that said “most police organizations are based on a traditional pyramidal quasi-military structure” (Peak, Policing America, 2012).in where all those principles are present shows an inverse relationship between rank and the number of personnel allows the structure from anyone having too much of authority. this is called the hierarchy rank which allows an organization to have a chain of command. for example from the base of the pyramid up the base is supervisor then mid-level managers and the top is administrators the higher you are on the pyramid the more responsibility you have. So in the chain of command the supervisor would report to mid-level managers and the mid-level managers would report to the administrators. Basically this structure in the past a police officer would be hired and would be able to get promoted through political favoritism it didn’t matter if the person was qualified or not because they attained he job through political favoritism.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cjs 210 Week Checkpoint

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The different tasks and duties that the police department performs are divided among its members. The tasks of the organization are divided according to personnel. Work assignments are designed so that tasks are given to particular personnel to get accomplished. In the police department, patrol functions are separate from detective functions, which are separate from internal investigative functions. Where the officers are located and the times that they work are established so that the area is covered at all times. The chain of command is established so that each member knows their duties and who they report to. The superiors will know who they are in charge of and the areas that they are in control of. The police departments' operational units are responsible for maintaining order, enforcing the law, and providing services to citizens. Organization is very important to the effectiveness of the police department. Police have areas, or a beat, that they are assigned to in order to maintain order, enforce the law, and provide services to citizens. The patrolmen have times that they are assigned to these areas since the job is one that is a twenty-four hour job and areas must be covered at all times. They also have a purpose which is to complete or maintain the task that they are hired to perform. It is very important for the police department to be organized in order to maintain a safe community for everyone to live in. While it seems that crime is getting worse, Organization is very important to the effectiveness of the police…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This author believes that traditional thinking officers and supervisors may hinder proper decision making when it comes to today 's criminal acts. In traditional thinking officers "the central tenet is that things are as they have always been and the future will be likewise thus they cannot be any other way" able to know (2009). The point being is fate, and all that needs to be learned by any organization is fate and how to organize their lives in accordance with it. In this world, argumentation and logic doesn 't exist because no alternatives exist. Changes need to be made so traditional thinking officers can openly see that the nation is changing and different thinking techniques need to be applied.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Organizing police departments in a militaristic manner is a theory that contends to lessen corruption amongst the police officers within the department. Depending on how stringent the military model is followed, a police department could have a well functioning system or it could create quite the opposite and develop a department full of corruption, chaos, and mismanagement. Because a department uses the military as a model to develop itself, it does not mean that it is foolproof. Many factors outside of organizing can lead to a well-balanced department or a department as involved in crime as the criminals from which they swore to protect the public. Using a hierarchy of command in departments gives a sense of stability, it delegates responsibilities and it has a person who is…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    American law enforcement organizations is hierarchal and it is a bureaucratic structure adopting ways of the military. The quasi-military structure found in police departments will emphasize the importance of specializations in task, duties, objectives, and responsibilities. Each level in the chain of command has specific authority and tasks to carry out. Historically speaking, Peel’s principles of a professional police organization can be seen in today’s philosophy of community-oriented policing (COP). Peel’s principles emphasized the following guidelines for a professional police organization: (1) a police mission statement and core values; (2) crime prevention; (3) respect or citizenry; (4) respect for the law; (5) minimizing the use of…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This thesis will examine the public perception of the consolidation of two of Michigan’s small police departments, The City of Walled Lake and the…

    • 3402 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Using a law enforcement agency as an example before any changes could be made to the policing organization it would have to travel up the change of command and be approved by political figures in society responsible for funding the police department. A police department might be structured like a regular organization but must answer to many people in society. In order to receive the necessary funding to function properly within their jurisdiction a police department must get funding from the state government. Without this funding the criminal agency, in this case the police department cannot function properly.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    As we begin lets first get an understanding for what a police organization is defined as. “The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. “ (“The Role and Responsibilities of the Police”, 2009) A police organizations role is usually defined as an agency within a defined…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    As public expectations of police change from crime fighters to public safety problem solvers, police administrators must modify their organizational structure in order to meet broader mission statements…

    • 2492 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Management like police captains, chief of police, and first line supervisors have to walk a thin line making sure to uphold the law and not bend. Promoting based on favorites or the good ole boy system is a sure way to lower morale, thus setting in resentment toward each other and lower performance.…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Myers, R. (2007). From Pyramids to Network: Police Structure and Leadership in 2020. Retrieved from http://policefutureists.org/pdf/FromPyramidstoNetworkCALEANov2007.pdf…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Police Department Roles

    • 1381 Words
    • 5 Pages

    By being visual to the community, the fourth responsibility of preserving the peace is achieved. This responsibility goes hand-in-hand with the third responsibility of being visual to the community. “All enforcement activities improve the peace of a community” (CJi Interactive, 2011). Police officers can cultivate a positive image and positive attitudes just by being visible to the public.…

    • 1381 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Policing Systems

    • 2686 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Throughout the interview process I was able to understand and gain an adequate perception of how others felt about law enforcement here in the United States. I found that many answers were universal and were not only the views of one particular race. Law enforcement is set in place to up hold the laws and to protect and serve the people of the United States. However, I found that a few of my interviewees felt that law enforcement was biased and were not for all people. The interviewing process was very interesting and being able to listen to the participants’ responses was very enlightening. No two people had the same perception however, there were many concerns that were similar.…

    • 2686 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    These units some times are run within the department or can be a total outside agency to insure that there is not corruption from within the Internal Affairs unit, as was alleged in the 1992 NYPD corruption scandal. Such a unit may be all that is needed to prevent many officers from being tempted into falling for corrupt behavior. However a system of fear is the least effective because there are always those who are willing to risk the consequences. Although the police agency could be the main source of controlling its own corruption problem, support and assistance from the local community is also required. It is important that the public be educated to the negative effects of corruption on their police agency. They should be taught that even 'gratitude’s' (the most basic and common form of police corruption) is only a catalyst for further future corruption. By revamping our system to a code of military like honor, the problem of corruption would fade away. Unfortunately, this is either not going to happen or won’t happen until our country’s citizens rise up against the corrupt overseers. Since this may take a while the community should establish review boards and investigative bodies to help keep a careful eye on the agency. If we do not act to try to control it, the costs can be enormous, because it affects not only…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Police Administration

    • 2689 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Since the early part of the twentieth century, academicians and criminal justice practitioners have debated whether police officers should be required to have a college education as a minimum qualification to be hired. Today, there is general agreement that a college education will not necessarily make a person a good police officer, but a good police officer can be made better by having one. Many police executives believe formal college education can improve critical thinking skills of officers and that is becoming a more important factor as the complexity of police work continues to increase.1 According to a recent article in Police Chief Magazine “We expect (police officers) to understand and apply the law evenly. We expect them to grasp the nature of social problems and the psychology of people with different attitudes toward the law. We expect officers to professionally and effectively handle disputes involving people from varying cultural, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.”2…

    • 2689 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When looking at the two different types of police organization management models you have the Closed-system models which consider organizations insulated and closed off from their environments and opposite is open system model which Organizations exist in a complex environment they can’t shut out. The managerial philosophy of closed-system is based on the Belief that a department’s agenda should be set by its own administrators, not the community or external elements such as the cultural and demographic characteristics of the community, legal decisions, political decisions to be stable and predictable, and assume that it does not intervene in or cause problems for the functioning of an organization.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics