NCJ Number
209836
Journal
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2005 Pages: 24-35
Date Published
2005
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether the cultivation of a service-oriented culture in the Royal Thai Police (RTP) increases the likelihood of a successful implementation of community-policing concepts.
Abstract
The Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) in Bangkok is the oldest police force in the country and the busiest. This study considered the MPB to be representative of the RTP as a whole, so the officers of the MPB were the target population. This population was divided into nine subpopulations (strata), based on the authorized areas of the nine divisions. Further, a police station was selected as a representative unit of analysis for each of the strata. Field data collection was conducted in November and December 2003 and involved the administering of questionnaires to officers at selected police stations. A total of 656 questionnaires were returned, an average response rate of 43.7 percent. The independent variables, which involved factors related to a service culture, consisted of service quality (exceptional service response to citizens' needs and requests); interpersonal relationships (the extent of officers' communications with other personnel and officers' input to their supervisors); internal agency communications with officers; the structuring of the organization to service citizens; innovativeness; service orientation; and external communication (citizen input in setting police policy). The dependent variable was the extent to which the police and citizens cooperate in policing and in defining and responding to citizens' problems. Findings show that three out of the seven dimensions of service-culture values correlated positively with the extent of community policing commitment. The three values were service quality, service orientation, and external communication. Suggestions for cultivating a police culture conducive to community policing are to identify current organizational cultural values, keep existing relevant values, suppress the values that do not support community service, and select and internalize the values that reinforce community policing. 4 tables and 40 references