Limits of Rationality in Police Management or Limits on Police Management by Rationality

• NCJ Number: 86562
• Author(s): C J R Roche
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

A British superintendent of police argues that the trend toward total scientific management is not appropriate for the police services and suggests alternative reforms.

Abstract

Police agencies, like many other organizations, are moving steadily along the path of scientific management toward total rationality, as evidenced by the growth of research and planning departments and computers. Recent changes in local government which espouse corporate management strategic planning have impacted the police by drawing chief constables into the planning process. Thus, it is likely that comprehensive rationality is about to take off in the police service. If the current management techniques are to succeed, an organization must be able to state its objectives clearly and measure objectives and links at all organizational levels. On the other hand, an exclusively objective philosophy constrains effective administrative and operational management. It encourages bureaucratization, allows analysts to influence the decisionmaking process by simply couching their proposals in a facade of rationality, and makes police more vulnerable to local government officials who control funding. This type of management mitigates against the authority and confidence of operational police officers who instinctively know the true value of statistics to the individual social problems they face daily. Although scientific analysis is important to police work, officers must still remain in good part intuitive and be proud of the fact. To modify the present trend, the police must first clarify the relationship between information and decisionmaking. Management should be taught to police officers by police who are sympathetic to needs and operations of police organizations. Another exciting direction for police management lies in the theory that contemporary organizations need to be less concerned with specifying courses of action than with developing a role as an initiator, facilitator, and goal to local learning. The paper includes 18 footnotes.