Police Organization and Management: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

This textbook will teach students in criminal justice programs the essential skills needed for effective police administration and management. Although it is written in a manner that graduate students would find stimulating and thought- provoking, its target audience is juniors and seniors. The author uses a three-pronged approach. Each topic is explored from a traditional, modern, and futuristic perspective. This approach combines theory and practical application in a manner that helps the students grasp all the ramifications of the issues at hand. To assist in this, commentary solicited from police administrators (from middle-management to police chief) that reflects their experiences and thoughts on the various issues is offered. In addition to the commentary, realistic and pragmatic examples are provided to clarify the concept and to show its practical applications.

This text was written to bridge the gap between purely theoretical and strongly practical texts. The use of theory to establish the concept and realistic illustrations and practitioners' perspectives to demonstrate the link between theory and reality gives this text a dimension found in very few texts. Furthermore, by using a three-pronged approach (traditional, reform and community or yesterday, today and tomorrow), readers are offered the basis from which the concepts originate, their transformation and possibly future implications, in a well-rounded manner allowing for a full view of the ideas and concepts.

Combines a theoretical and practical approach

Explores a variety of police administration issues from three perspectives, political/traditional, reform/modern, and community/futuristic.

Realistic illustrations and practitioner's perspectives

M. L. Dantzker, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Program, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas-Pan American.