Lanterna Rally

Author: Edward A. Thibault

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9780131122994

Our approach to police organizational management is proactive rather than reactive, with police managers anticipating events through planning, using police personnel and resources effectively, and delivering a whole range of police services to the community. This proactive concept is not new. In the preface of the 1829 duty manual of the recently organized London Metropolitan Police, Commissioners Rowan and Mayne wrote, It should be understood, at the outset, that the object to be obtained is the prevention of crime. To this great end every effort of the police is to be directed. The security of person and property, the preservation of public tranquility, and all other objects of a police establishment will thus be better effected than by the detection and punishment of the offender after he has succeeded in committing the crime. Every member of the police force, as the guide for personal and professional conduct should constantly keep this in mind. Officers and police constables should endeavor by such vigilance and activity as may render it impossible for anyone to commit a crime within that portion of the town under their charge. Thus proactive policing is a grand and noble tradition of the first modern police force and policing throughout the ages. Based on the authors' experience in education, policing, and management, three important considerations must be made before discussing proactive management for American policing. First, we believe that sound management is management based on a combination of theory and practice. Practice without analysis causes us to repeat the mistakes of history, so our theoretical analysis must be directed toward the practical for implementation into the day-to-day rigors of operating a police department. Second, we reject complete adherence to the authoritarian as well as to the purely participatory styles of management. In the authoritarian model, which dominates many police organizations, important elements of planning and communications are eliminated or lost. In the full participatory model, response to emergency and life-threatening situations is hampered because too many people are involved, and decisions take too long. In crisis management, for example, one person has to be in charge of the crisis-management team, with subordinates responding to this top administrator. Third, we rely to a great extent on the consultative style of management. As will be shown, the consultative style leaves room for change and "doors open" throughout all elements of the police organization. It can be an efficient and dynamic style of management, provided that the necessary elements of a well-run law enforcement agency are met. Consultation also includes discussions with the community on law enforcement and safety problems. It is one of the key ingredients for community-oriented and problem-oriented policing, which are being publicly advanced by police and community leaders. Proactive planning to deal with an infrastructure attack or activity by a "spree" sniper has to be done in consultation with private and public agencies and the community. This new edition of Proactive Police Management provides a review, analysis, and synthesis of the various approaches to police management, including traditional scientific management, the behavioral/systems approach, and the human relations approach. There is enough detail concerning basic organization and management skills that police managers and students of police management will find the text useful. At the same time, major conceptual contributions from the behavioral sciences and human relations are explored in the context of police management. Most important is the constant theme of being proactive: planning ahead, anticipating the future, and attempting to establish some control by police managers over those future events. Community policing is emphasized. Overall, community policing echoes the relationship between police and the community before automobiles and wireless radios. Much attention is also paid to evolving theories, such as total quality management and reengineering, along with new applications of computer technology, such as the spatial and time analysis of crime events. This combination of new proactive management concepts and the application of new technology continues to revolutionize policing as well as other private and public services in the United States. In the first edition, we wrote that most police departments operate on traditional organization principles as stated in O.W Wilson's classic police administration text from the 1950s. Since the 1990s, college-educated and professionally trained managers have become concerned with twenty-first-century proactive communication advances and organizational theories that can be readily applied to their departments. Policing today remains in the limelight in terms of ethics, the use of authority and force, the crime problem as related to increased drug use and trafficking, and repeated calls by state and national leaders for dealing with crime and terrorism problems. Correspondingly, many police managers complain that they must do more with less under the burden of antiquated civil service and collective bargaining rules and reduced budgets. From the viewpoint of the general public, there is widespread support for police to contain crime. Communities will no longer tolerate corruption and brutality, as shown by the response to police brutality and racism in Los Angeles, New York City, and Cincinnati, along with the racial profiling issues in New Jersey and Maryland. The events of September 11, 2001, have had a profound impact on American policing. Departments of all sizes and types are now taking on additional responsibilities related to homeland security and emergency planning. It is against this background that we present the proactive style of management. This book is widely used both as a textbook for college and university classes in police management and as a reference text for police managers in dealing with operational issues in their departments. It is also used for training police supervisors and administrators and is required reading for civil service promotional examinations.