NCJ Number
216853
Journal
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 2006 Pages: 326-341
Date Published
2006
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article presents a partial paradigm for police management that integrates two aspects of police work: discretion and community conflict.
Abstract
The main argument is that discretion and community conflict, taken together, can establish the identity of police management as an independent academic discipline. Much of the police-related management materials are disconnected from the realities of everyday policing and fail to form an independent academic discipline. The author offers a series of hypotheses that support an emerging paradigm for police management that takes into account the critical processes common to local policing efforts, which are: (1) the management of police discretion in order to (2) regulate community conflict. In other words, police managers are tasked with managing the exercise of police discretion within the setting of community conflict. Several perspectives on discretion are offered, such as discretion as an instantaneous reaction and discretion as an ambiguous concept. The general governance of discretion is described and is considered central to the ability of police managers to adequately provide community services. The basic concepts in the management and exercise of discretion are summarized and include the concepts of freedom, accountability, logical reasoning, ethics, and decisionmaking. Next, the principles of community conflict management are considered, which begin from the premise that community conflict is a naturally occurring condition within all communities. Some causes of community conflict are discussed before the author illustrates the way in which the management of police discretion and community conflict is intertwined. Since each work environment is unique, the author presents an example of how the police management paradigm might be applied to a small police agency. References