NCJ Number
181548
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 66 Issue: 12 Dated: December 1999 Pages: 14-22
Date Published
December 1999
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article presents guidelines for use by police leadership in planning, organizing, and managing a police agency's change to community policing.
Abstract
The guidelines are based on the experience of the Michigan Regional Community Policing Institute with more than 20 police agencies throughout Michigan. The discussion emphasizes that the move to community policing can be successful only if the police leaders and crucial members of the agency effectively manage the change process. The leader must have some idea of the destination or goals of becoming a community policing agency, be willing to be flexible and adaptable given changing conditions, and be willing to meet whatever challenges arise on the road to change. A leader needs three things to build this road map: (1) an understanding of the stages to go through to make transformational change happen in an organization, (2) an understanding of the underlying elements for change in the move to community policing, and (3) an understanding of the crucial challenges a leader must address in any transformation change effort. Exploration is the first step of any change effort. A decision point concludes the exploration stage and requires the leader to weigh the available information and make a choice to invest the added time and resources needed for change or to maintain the status quo. In the commitment stage, the leader makes the decision to pursue change and presents the idea to the organization's management team. Planning is an organization-wide effort. The implementation stage is perhaps the most visible component of the change process. The next stages include monitoring and revising, followed by institutionalization. The overall navigational system for change includes 5 core principles, 22 elements, and the 6 stages of the change model. 5 references