NCJ Number
211994
Date Published
October 2005
Length
126 pages
Annotation
Three articles focus on issues related to "knowledge management" (KM) in law enforcement agencies.
Abstract
As used in these articles, "knowledge management" refers to activities that identify and apply the intellectual assets of employees, databases, and expertise derived from doing a specific job over time. The author of the first article studied KM in policing, using a literature review, field observations and interviews, secondary data analysis, and case study analysis. The study found that although police were not familiar with the KM concept, they were engaged in some of its activities in the course of solving problems. Having become informed of the concept by the author/researcher, police managers adopted a more conscious and structured effort to manage the knowledge resources of their agency. The second article reports on a case study of the Redlands Police Department that examined innovation leadership. The findings indicate that the police innovator is more than an individual who is intrigued with new ideas, but rather involves facilitating the development of an organization in which knowledge is constantly tapped to produce innovative approaches to the organizational mission. The third article presents 12 guidelines for adopting and implementing KM as an organizational development and management strategy designed to foster innovation in a police organization. These include adopting and promoting an organizational mission and values that facilitate KM; practicing and promoting innovation leadership centered on KM; restructuring the department to facilitate KM; conducting a knowledge inventory and establishing a knowledge repository; understanding, promoting, and accommodating the protocols for accessing data and knowledge; and structuring police knowledge into policy, organizational, and tactical packages to promote meaning and use. References accompany each article.