Proactive Police Management (5th Edition) - Hardcover

Edward A. Thibault; Lawrence M. Lynch; R. Bruce McBride

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0130225193 ISBN 13: 9780130225191

Publisher: Prentice Hall College Div, 2000

Synopsis

Based upon the authors' extensive experience in teaching, policing, and management, this introduction to management in the day-to-day rigors of a police department stresses that management is only effective if it is based upon a combination of both theory and practice. Proactive rather than reactive in approach, it shows how successful police managers anticipate events through planning, use police personnel and resources effectively, and deliver a whole range of police services to the community. Chapter topics include the consultative style and various approaches of management; community policing and problem-oriented policing; basic operating principles; leadership styles; internal and external communication skills; the patrol function; training; proactive technology; human resource management and general personnel issues; and auxiliary function. For current and future police managers and administrators.

About this title

From the Publisher:

This edition reviews the history of law enforcement management and examines traditional management models using a historical perspective. It maintains a proactive emphasis--encouraging forethought and anticipation of events.

From the Inside Flap:

Preface

Our approach to police organizational management is proactive rather than reactive, with police managers anticipating events through planning, using police personnel and resources effectively, and delivering a whole range of police services to the community. This proactive concept is not new. In the preface of the 1829 duty manual of the recently organized London Metropolitan Police, Commissioners Rowan and Mayne wrote:

It should be understood, at the outset, that the object to be obtained
is the prevention of crime. To this great end every effort of the police
is to be directed. The security of person and property, the preservation of
public tranquillity, and all other objects of a police establishment will thus
be better effected than by the detection and punishment of the offender after he
has succeeded in committing the crime. This should constantly be kept in mind
by every member of the police force as the guide for his own conduct. Officers
and police constables should endeavor by such vigilance and activity as may render
it impossible for anyone to commit a crime within that portion of the town under their charge.

Thus, proactive policing is a grand and noble tradition of both the first modern police force and policing throughout the ages.

Based on the authors' experience in teaching, policing, and management, three important considerations must be made before discussing proactive management for American policing. First, we believe that sound management is management based on a combination of theory and practice. Practice without analysis will cause us to repeat the mistakes of history, so our theoretical analysis must be directed toward the practical for implementation into the day-to-day rigors of operating a police department.

Second, we reject complete adherence to the authoritarian as well as to purely participatory styles of management. In the authoritarian model, which indeed dominates most police organizations, important elements of planning and communications are eliminated or lost, whereas in the full participatory model, response to emergency and life-threatening situations will be hampered if too many people are involved; one person often has to be in charge—subordinates must respond to others.

Third, we rely, to a great extent, on the consultative style of management. As will be shown, the consultative style leaves room for change and "doors open" throughout all elements of the police organization. It can be an efficient and dynamic style of management, provided that the necessary elements of a well-run law enforcement agency are met. Consultation also includes discussions with the community on law enforcement and safety problems. It is one of the key ingredients for community-oriented and problem-oriented policing, which are being publicly advanced by police and community leaders.

Proactive Police Management, Fifth Edition, provides a review, analysis, and synthesis of the various approaches to police management, including traditional scientific management, the behavioral/systems approach, and the human relations approach. There is enough detail concerning basic organization and management skills that police managers and students of police management will find the text useful. At the same time, major conceptual contributions from the behavioral sciences and human relations are explored in the context of police management. Most important is the constant theme of being proactive: planning ahead, anticipating the future, and hopefully establishing some control for police managers over those future events.

Community policing is emphasized. Overall, community policing echoes the relationship between police and the community before automobiles and wireless radios. Much attention is also paid to evolving theories, such as total quality management, and to new applications of computer technology—which together continue to revolutionize policing as well as other private and public services in the United States.

In our first edition, we wrote that most police departments operate on traditional organization principles as stated in Wilson's text. Since 1986, college-educated and professionally trained managers are today concerned with communication advances and organizational theories that can be readily applied to their departments.

Policing today remains in the limelight in terms of ethics, the use of authority and force, the crime problem as related to increased drug use and trafficking, and repeated calls by state and national leaders for dealing with crime problems. Correspondingly, many police managers complain that they must do more with less under the burden of antiquated civil service and collective bargaining rules and reduced budgets. From the viewpoint of the general public, there is widespread support for police to contain crime. Communities, however, will no longer tolerate corruption and brutality. It is against this background that we present the proactive style of management. HIGHLIGHTS

Proactive Police Management is widely used both as a textbook for classes in police management and as a reference text for police managers in dealing with operational issues in their departments. It is also used for training police supervisors and administrators.

Historical and Police Culture Context, places the skills and concepts needed to become a professional police manager in a historical (Chapter 1) as well as a police subculture context. Modern police management has a legacy from public administration, the social sciences, and traditional policing policies adapted throughout the United States and England. Basically, with few exceptions, the modern police organization is the result of an Anglo-Saxon heritage with a unique American contribution. This book concerns the American experience in modern police administration. The latest contributions owe much to the behavioral sciences, particularly psychology and sociology.

More modern police administrators have been promoted through the ranks. This increases the importance of the effect of the police subculture on these managers. The police subculture will shape their everyday policies in many ways that these managers may not even comprehend, especially in the crucial areas of internal discipline, training, personnel selection, and personnel management. The increasing number of African and Latino Americans and women is having a strong impact on this subculture.

A knowledge of subcultural norms is important for police management. For the police manager, an understanding of the police subculture is more important than are all other administrative skills and knowledge combined.

Basic Organizational Concepts, provides the fundamental conceptual framework for the structure of the police agency. To have a department operate effectively, both the formal and the informal goals of the department have to be made explicit. There are general purposes for any department, including community service, criminal apprehension, and crime prevention. However, a small department may wish to define its purposes in terms of community service, whereas a metropolitan police agency has to have broader goals, including traffic engineering, vice, organized crime, and so on. It is important for police managers to understand the specific purposes of their own departments so as to implement them effectively. Chapter 3 also includes discussions on the extended use of civilians in police agencies and the accreditation movement.

For a department to go from basic organizational conceptual models to one of high operating efficiency, certain basic operating principles have to be implemented. These basic concepts, such as range and span of control, unity of command, division of work, and so on, are basic to the operational knowledge of all police managers and supervisors from the chief on down to the supervising sergeants. With these concepts in place, it becomes possible to have an efficiently operating department whose internal policies make for consistency and cost-effective operations.

A basic review of leadership styles allows us to have an understanding of how the implementation of authority by police managers can make or break a department. The style of leadership in the police management team will give an indication of the type of department being managed. Elements of democracy and hierarchy that are needed to have an optimally efficient department demand a fairly complete knowledge of the styles of police leadership. Although many writers would like effective leadership to be scientific and cut and dried, it is still an art—the art of the possible. No matter how many books are written on leadership, the subject still concerns a human being leading other human beings. In this area we review the concept of reengineering, which is often associated with restructuring and downsizing in large, complex organizations and also the need for emotional intelligence.

Good communication skills are at the very center of good management. It is more than having a radio, a cell phone, a beeper system, or a computerized communication center. Communication relates to how human beings understand each other. Policing and police management are human services made possible by communication between individuals. The implementation of first-class communication skills is the heart of the police organization. Chapter 6 also reviews how computers and advanced technology are revolutionizing police operations. However, we feel that the police manager has to assume leadership and allow technology to assist, not drive, policy decisions.

Once the major concepts are in place, it is necessary to operate the police agency on a daily basis to get the job done. Much of the daily work revolves around the patrol function and the various line functions related to carrying out the patrol operations. These basic line functions include traffic, youth services, vice (including organized crime), and investigation. Following our earlier editions, we present a mix of new and old community relations programs that are offered by these areas.

The proactive approach is seen as a positive approach to increase the effectiveness of the delivery of line and patrol services. Advanced planning and analysis of a metropolitan or even smaller area means that patrol activity is directed activity; in other words, the patrol is sent to do specific jobs in specific areas along with the normal activity of responding to citizens' phone calls.

Traffic is seen as primarily a planning/accident investigation activity. Traffic flow is basically an engineering problem where police pressure can be helpful but not related to the core of the problem. Accident investigation is a technical function somewhat different from criminal investigation.

Vice, including organized and economic crime, is a place for specialists and officers who can work closely with a multitude of jurisdictions on the local, state, federal, and even international level. Youth services are seen as both preventive and useful for the solving of cases through youthful informants. Some specialized knowledge is needed concerning youth culture and gangs, and many departments are instituting or have instituted specialized youth officers or youth bureaus for this area. Considerable time has been spent on investigations in many departments with no criteria of when to stop them. To make investigations functionally efficient, a management control system of specific responsibilities and the ability to stop them when necessary is vitally important.

After reviewing patrol operations trends, we focus attention on directed patrol, foot patrol, bike patrol, problem-oriented policing, and community-oriented policing. At this time community policing is the subject of much debate among police administrators since this philosophy offers so much in delivering services to citizens.

Administrative functions deal with how young uniformed police officers on the line related to the basic administrative staff. Although primarily task oriented, this is also a function of two-way communication. Community relations are seen as the police being part of the community they are policing rather than simply the speech-making function of a special unit. Many departments have instituted a legal adviser, who, besides solving legal problems, can be an important link to the district attorney's office.

Internal affairs and disciplinary problems are seen to be intertwined. The citizens-review board approach is rejected as being too political, whereas having the police protecting their own and hiding bad police work and corruption is also rejected. A positive approach between these two models is recommended. A. department needs an ongoing anticorruption goal with clear-cut policies and an internal affairs officer or unit that will treat everyone fairly. This is seen as one of the toughest problems in managing a police agency but one that must be met head-on with solid due process for officers but an overriding concern with eliminating corruption.

Our chapter on human resource management presents a wider focus onto general personnel issues, including officer recruit steps, affirmative action, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), sexual harassment, and police stress.

A major concern with training is quality control and an up-to-date curriculum that promotes the full range of police services, with a major emphasis on human services. Training is seen as an ongoing function. Society changes, innovations in police work come into the field every year, and new police management texts are published, and a professionally trained and operational police officer has to be aware of all this.The only way to have an aware and professionally trained police officer is to have a management team that allows for ongoing training for all of the officers over the duty year.

Planning and research is the core of the proactive approach. The basic idea is to plan ahead so that the police agency can deal with changing situations before they happen. Most police departments are reactive; that is, they wait for events to happen and then respond to these events. This means that many departments do not do the operational planning or have the resources to meet emergencies and unforeseen situations. Planning is also related to fiscal affairs, and it is vital in this age of scarce resources for major police administrators to have top-flight budgeting skills.

Auxiliary functions entail a variety of administrative activities. When we examine the communication function in this chapter, we are focusing on the actual carrying out of communications in the department and how the communication unit is organized. Other concerns discussed involve (1) vehicles (maintenance, turnover, and garage considerations), (2) the maintenance of the police laboratory (either as a centralized regional laboratory or as a facility that can be operated by the department depending on its needs, size, and capabilities), (3) property rooms, and (4) records management.

One of the most important areas of police management skills concerns collective bargaining. With police unions being adversarial, the collective bargainin...

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall College Div
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0130225193
• ISBN 13: 9780130225191
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 467