The Environment of Police Administration
Part I The Nature and Setting of Police Administration
Chapter 2 The Environment of Administration
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Learning Objectives
Identify several organizational environments.
Discuss how police departments respond to their organizational environments.
Distinguish why a police department must be an open system and respond to its environment.
Understand the nature of politics and how politics affects the police organization.
Identify a community’s power structure and its implications for the police manager.
Evaluate the relationship between the police and community, and understand the barriers to developing better relationships.
Discuss community policing and its ability to improve police-community relationships.
Discuss the role of the media in police administration and how the police executive can develop better relations with the media.
Understand the meaning and implication of cultural diversity within the context of policing.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
The Environment of Government
Technological
Legal
Political
Economic
Demographic
Ecological
Cultural
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Reactions to the Environment
The theory of uncertainty and dependence
Organizations must maintain a balance throughout changes between organizational outcomes and environmental expectations.
Organizations are dependent on the environment and citizen support.
The theory of natural selection
Some organizations react to their environments more efficiently than others.
Organizations that don’t efficiently meet environmental demands are eliminated.
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Interaction between Environment and Organization
“Closed” System Model
Organizations are insulated and closed off from their environments.
“Open” System Model
Organizations exist in a complex environment they can’t shut out.
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Closed Systems
Planning, decision-making, and day-to-day operations are conducted without regard to the environment.
Belief that a department’s agenda should be set by its own administrators, not the community
Results in isolationism, ineffectiveness, and sometimes failure on the part of the police department
Focus on traditionalism: how things have always been done
Reduces agency’s ability to cope with changes in the community
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Open Systems
Organization is involved in dynamic interaction with environment
Reacts to changes in the environment by balancing the actions of the organization
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Police and Political/Governmental Interaction
Separation of Powers
Government is divided into three branches:
Legislative
Executive
Judicial
Federalism
Three-tiered form of government providing checks and balances:
Federal
State
Local
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Forms of City Government
Council-Manager Form
Separates politics from administration
Mayor-Council Form
Strong mayor configuration: mayor is primary administrator exercising control over departments
Weak mayor configuration: mayor’s power is limited, in that policy making and administration rests with the council
City Commission Form
Each member of the council also serves as the head of one or more of the city’s departments
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Three Types of Municipal Executives
Misfeasors
Exert a great deal of effort to become involved and get things going
Nonfeasors
Frequently abdicate their authority, choosing to do little or nothing to avoid upsetting community leaders
Malfeasors
Promote corrupt practices or allow them to exist within government
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Relationships between Municipal and Police Executives
Team Approach
Police and government executives form an active partnership and collaborate in much of the police decision and policy making
Professional Autonomy Approach
Police executive has virtual autonomy over police formulation
Police and government executives negotiate budget issues
Political Activist Approach
Governmental executives perceive themselves as the primary law enforcement executive and dictate policy to police chiefs
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
The Community Power Structure and the Police
The community exerts a variety of influences on its police department.
Community power: the politics, decision-making, and other processes that determine community direction
Community power structure is dependent on variables.
Pluralism: taking more than one idea, concept, or principle into account
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Threats to Police—Community Relationships
Excessive force
Police corruption
Rudeness
Authoritarianism
Politics
Racial profiling or biased policing
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Evolution of Community Policing
Police-community relations programs of the 1950s and 1960s
Team policing strategies of the 1970s
Increase in citizen fear of crime and drugs that began to dominate public policy formation in the 1980s
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Community Disorder and Crime
Broken windows
Deterioration of neighborhood quality of life begins with minor neglect and disorder problems.
Unchecked minor problems worsen over time.
The best way to attack crime is to deal with minor problems before they become major problems.
Problem solving
Need to solve problems, not just symptoms of problems
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Themes of Community Policing
The police should be accountable to the community.
They should be connected and integrated into the community on a personal level.
They should be oriented to solving general problems instead of focusing on incidents.
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What Is Community Policing?
A cooperative effort to substantively solve crime and disorder problems
Community Partnerships
Efforts by the police to work with the community to solve common problems
Problem Solving
Act of identifying problems that are issues with the police and public, and attempting to solve them rather than merely respond to them
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
The Media: The Police Department’s Window to the World
Media characterizations of police influence public perceptions and expectations of the police.
Members of media consider themselves to be the “fourth branch of government.”
Dispensing truth and reporting the news
Constructing a “social reality” of crime and government
News may be “packaged” so that sales are maximized
Police and the media depend on each other.
Police and the media sometimes face conflict.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Managing the Police-Media Relationship
Assign a public information officer from the police to deal with the media.
Encourage reporters to participate in police ride-alongs.
Train police officers in media relations.
Give reporters free access to all departmental records that are legally available to them.
Conduct regular meetings between police and media.
Have police officials participate in broadcasts to open communications with the public.
Issue press credentials to give legitimate reporters access to information.
Train public information officer in conflict management.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning
Cultural Diversity
The number and population of various cultural and ethnic groups residing in a community
Vast social, political, and economic differences among the many subcultures in our society
Disadvantaged cultures view the police as an arm of the dominant class with the primary function of repressing them.
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Value Statements of Community Policing
Protecting constitutional rights and democratic values.
Engaging a wide range of police resources to further the ends of crime reduction.
Engaging in crime prevention.
Developing an understanding of neighborhood crime problems and the corresponding concerns of citizens.
Conducting themselves with integrity and honesty.
Soliciting citizen input into the police enterprise.
Encouraging and developing community partnerships for improving the community.
© 2011 Delmar, Cengage Learning