NCJ Number
84716
Journal
Bramshill Journal Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Dated: (Winter 1981-82) Pages: 13-17
Date Published
1981
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Efforts to develop scientific management procedures in policing should not be presumed to replace the need for persons of experience, intuition, and insight to determine the priorities, objectives, and choice of methods for policing.
Abstract
Management information systems and professional analysts are valuable in providing accurate data relevant to policing as well as professional analysis of the data, but decisionmaking must be done by persons who understand the objectives and practical problems of policing. Scientific management procedures can provide decision support systems by providing data and establishing the principles proven effective in management, but actual decisionmaking is a blend of rationality and intuition. Intuition and wisdom based on experience and personal insight are required because the dynamics of policing can never be completely captured or quantified by scientific data and analysis. The police service must first clarify the relationship between information and decisionmaking. This could be based on the analysis of Thompson and Tudlen (1959) which adds to the traditional view of the link between decisionmaking and uncertainty by classifying various states of uncertainty and different types of decisionmaking processes. This analysis distinguishes between uncertainty (or disagreement, for that is the same at the organizational level) over organizational objectives and the uncertainty over the cause and effect relationships which are embodied in particular organizational actions. Seventeen references are provided.