NCJ Number
179848
Date Published
1999
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Based on a national mail survey of police chiefs, this study examined the effect of police organizational structure on community policing innovations.
Abstract
The Division of Governmental Studies and Services at Washington State University has conducted a mail survey of a large sample of municipal police departments in continuous 3-year intervals since 1978. Either a police chief or an appointed representative was asked to identify from a prepared list the presence or absence of innovative programs and strategies implemented in the past 3 years in his/her agency. The responses were used to gauge innovative organizational change as represented by scores from 18 items. Indexes composed of each set of items served as dependent variables that represented external and internal innovation, respectively. Scores for these indexes ranged from zero for departments with no innovations to a maximum score of 12 for the external innovations scale and six for the internal innovations scale. The study found that the effect of organizational structure on community policing innovations was limited. Moreover, the findings suggest that community-policing innovations are primarily a reaction to external pressure rather than the result of a serious reform effort that involves changes in structure and personnel, similar to the circumstances that produced the transition in American policing from a political model to a professional-legalistic model during the first half of this century. The authors conclude that the lack of structural and other administrative changes is the primary weakness in the implementation of the community-policing philosophy. 3 tables and a 56-item bibliography