NCJ Number
170268
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1997) Pages: 547-576
Date Published
1997
Length
30 pages
Annotation
The impact of the community policing movement on the organizational structures of large municipal police agencies during 1987-1993 was studied by means of a quasi-experimental research design that combined data from five separate databases.
Abstract
The study sought to determine the effects of the efforts of community policing reformers to reverse the progression toward more bureaucratic organizational forms. The study participants consisted of a nonrandom sample of 236 large municipal police agencies. The sample was grouped according to the level of community policing implementation, as reported to the Police Foundation in 1993. Data were analyzed by means of paired t-tests and repeated-measures multivariate analyses of variance with covariates. Results revealed that the sample agencies experienced only minimal changes in organizational structure during the study period. In addition, no significant differences existed in the levels of change between police agencies that claimed to practice community policing and those that did not. Findings suggested that in this sample of agencies, community policing advocates have tended to be unsuccessful in implementing their structural reform agendas. Tables, footnotes, and 101 references (Author abstract modified)