NCJ Number
74497
Date Published
1979
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Styles of decisionmaking at various levels of the British police service are critiqued.
Abstract
The patrol officer is under the stress of having to deal with immediate unpredictable situations that require quick action informed by instantaneous decisionmaking. A military-style organizational structure is traditional for training and commanding officers who must act frequently under crisis circumstances. In training, recruits are taught to act according to fixed regulations and a minimum of innovativeness. Machine-like performance mastered through training and obedience is believed to be the most appropriate decisionmaking style for line officers. Having been conditioned to act under authoritative regulations, the line officer promoted to management continues to make decisions in accordance with traditional policy, with little thought given to change and innovation. While patrol officers must appropriately act quickly with little time to consider alternative behaviors, management personnel should engage in extensive information-gathering, analysis, and discussion with others in the department as well as representatives of the public, so that traditional policies which are no longer effective under changed circumstances or which can be improved by new methods may be discarded or revised. Training programs must delineate differences in decisionmaking styles between line officers and management, in order that contemplative and open-minded management personnel not be viewed as indecisive and ineffective. Views of an ideal chief officers held by a sample of management trainees are appended, and five references are provided.