Gauging Employee Familiarization With Mission: A Qualitative Review of Service Delivery Attitudes

• NCJ Number: 194706
• Journal: Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2002 Pages: 3-20
• Author(s): Richard C. Lumb; Kenneth Miller
• Date Published: March 2002
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined employees' perceptions of community-policing by job type in four medium-sized law enforcement agencies in North and South Carolina.

Abstract

Employees' perceptions of community-policing in their agencies were obtained through focus groups of employees with the same job type. Participant statements recorded during the focus group meetings were analyzed by the authors. All chiefs and sheriffs were optimistic about their respective agency's level of engagement in community-policing. All felt that additional training was needed but that the agency as a whole was performing its duties under a community-policing mandate. Deputy chiefs or chief deputies supported community-policing and considered it to be in use throughout their agencies. They expressed concern, however, for the consistency of community-policing practices by commanders below them. Most lieutenants felt they were out of the community-policing loop while bearing the responsibility of implementing community-policing through their management of field personnel. Sergeants understood community-policing and generally felt that in an ideal world it could work as envisioned; however, they were concerned about having a sufficient number of officers available to meet service calls and also design and implement community-policing initiatives. Sergeants preferred the strategy of having specific officers assigned as community-policing officers, so as to leave the majority of personnel available to respond to calls for service. Patrol officers tended to view strong law enforcement and community-policing as mutually exclusive rather than complementary, and they felt overworked in attempting to do both. They also felt that agency management personnel were not listening to their problems. Civilian employees knew little about the concept and mission of community-policing, and they were frustrated and angry because their agencies excluded them from involvement in the agency's commitment to community-policing. Given these findings, this article describes a model for organizational change that emphasizes open communications across rank and job type and the inclusion of all job types in planning and decision-making. 18 references