Police Organization, Role and Function:

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Police Organization, Role and Function

• Chapter raises three questions about police
  departments
• What kind of organizations are police
  departments? (Organizational structure)
• What are they supposed to do? (Police Mission)
• What do they actually do? (Police Role)

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1) Organizational Structure

• Note the importance of agency size
• The Military framework
• Hierarchical
• Closed system
• Impersonality
• Formalization
• Professionalization
• Military culture group cohesion use of force
• Bureaucratic organization
• Division of labor specialization
• Emphasis on standardization accountability

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2) Police Mission

• Police Mission entails multiple goals
• Law enforcement
• Order Maintenance
• Public Service
• Problem solving
• Protection
• Goals may be mutually conflicting
• Goals are broad diffuse (difficult to measure
  success)

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Closely related the Police Mandate

• Mandate Mission X Authority
• Authorization to
• Use coercive methods
• Search and seizure
• Use force (including deadly force)
• Use other extraordinary methods
• If Mission is internally incongruent, then police
  are given an impossible Mandate

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3) Police Role

• The Functions and Activities by which police try
  to carry out their mission
• Patrol Function
• Investigation Function
• Support Function
• Special Services
• The Styles and Strategies by which police carry
  out these functions and emphasize different parts
  of the mission

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Patrol Function the most basic and universal
  part of policing
• Almost all officers enter policing as patrol
• Small depts all officers are patrol
• Large depts largest number of officers patrol
• Different kinds of patrol activities
• General patrol
• Focused patrols
• Areas (hot spots)
• Activities (drug trade vice gangs special
  problems)
• Traditional patrol methods in-vehicle
• Advantages and disadvantages?
• Alternative methods foot bike boat horse

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Patrol Function Proactive vs. Reactive?
• Reactive responding to reports of crime
• Most crimes identified through citizen calls
• Response time critical factor?
• Proactive trying to prevent crime
• Aggressive patrols making arrests stops
• Deterrent patrols being visible
• Problem-solving patrols identifying troubles
• Outreach patrols connecting to community

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Patrol Function Experiments and Research on
  Strategies
• Kansas City experiment (deterrent patrol)
• Other studies of aggressive and targeted patrol
  show more success (but not always)
• Avoid simple general conclusions (which text
  favors)
• The results have been more mixed than it says
• Drawing strong conclusions from New York results?

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Investigative Function collecting information
• To solve crimes and identify suspected offenders
• To collect evidence and witnesses for prosecution
• General Investigation
• By patrol officers (first-responders) most
  critical?
• By detectives (following up on incident report)
• Half of cases are dropped not investigated
• Most investigations last only a few days
• Most crimes are not solved by detective work or
  crime scene analysis (robberies burglaries
  thefts arsons)
• What about CSI? combines confuses 3 different
  jobs detectives, evidence technicians, and
  scientific analysts

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Investigative Function Other kinds of
  Investigations?
• Focused or targeted investigations
• By detectives in special units or tasks
• Limited to specific types of crimes or problems
• Drugs vice financial crimes fraud cybercrimes
• Proactive investigations
• Undercover
• Stings
• Raise considerable legal and practical questions
  (e.g., entrapment corruption misconduct)

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Evaluation research on Investigation tactics
• Most cases unsolved
• Most investigations very brief
• Initial investigations by patrol officers
  critical
• Delay in calling police critical (greatly
  reduces chances of solving case)
• Technology is valuable in some cases but
  over-rated in most

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Any Alternatives to the Traditional Professional
  Policing Model?
• Many tweaks and variations have been suggested
  over the past 3 decades (but none have really
  been permanent)
• Most likely alternative Community Oriented
  Policing
• Different model of social control
• Different model of police organization
• Focus on collaboration problem-solving

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3) Police Role (cont.)

• Community Oriented Policing Model
• Implementation
• Federal COPS program created in 1996
• Widespread adoption of elements of COP
• Few systematic implementations of COP as a true
  alternative policing strategy
• Very little meaningful research on COP
  implementations
• Future of COP is uncertain due to introduction of
  Homeland Security?