NCJ Number
137138
Date Published
1991
Length
142 pages
Annotation
Strategic management applied to police departments to enhance professional law enforcement involves defining the police mission, constituting police departments, and managing police performance.
Abstract
Police executives and scholars are increasingly raising basic questions about the mission and goals of the police, testing the limits of police methods, and experimenting with internal administrative devices designed to encourage the use of discretion. New developments in policing have important implications for the effective organization and management of police departments. Forces shaping modern police management include social and economic changes in cities that affect the tasks police must perform and the resources available to them, the revolution in managerial thought, and the evolution of policing. Strategic concepts in police management and professional law enforcement are examined. The police mission is defined in terms of organization, crime control, reactive approaches, fear reduction, the community's role in crime prevention, the weakness of unilateral police action, self-defense and private security, and the establishment of effective partnerships. Concepts of financial responsibility, political accountability, and police independence are addressed in relation to police management strategies. Attention is also paid to strategic uses of administrative systems, organizing principles, centralization versus decentralization, staffing, human resource planning, police recruitment and selection, training, performance evaluation, and promotion and career development. The importance of leadership and overcoming resistance to change in police management is stressed. 151 notes and 1 figure