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Article

Creating a Change Culture in a Police Service: The Role of Police Leadership Neil Dubord� and Curt Taylor Griffiths��

Abstract Despite the increased emphasis on best practices and evidence-based policing, creating a change culture in

police services has remained elusive. Few police agencies have developed the capacity to assess the effectiveness and

efficiency of their operations, and there has often been a lack of innovative police leadership to lead reform efforts. This

article presents a case study of a municipal police service that transformed the delivery of patrol services and, in so

doing, altered the culture of the organization. The role played by an independent review of the department’s patrol

division, the service delivery model that was developed, and the strategies used by senior management to secure buy-in

from the membership via a department-wide collaborative process are discussed. The discussion concludes with the

identification of key requirements for police leaders to create a change culture in their police services and, in so doing,

improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the delivery of police services.

Introduction

In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis

on the economics of policing, centred on the increas-

ing costs of policing, and the requirement that police

services ensure that their policies and operations are

effective and efficient (Griffiths et al., 2013). Canadian

police services, similar to their US counterparts, are

under increasing pressure to adapt to the increasing

array of demands that are being made on them,

including shifting community expectations (Schafer

and Varano, 2017, p. 394).

There are questions, however, as to whether

Canadian police leaders have been catalysts for sub-

stantive change in police services. The role that

police leaders can play as agents of transformation

in altering the culture and operations of police

services has received little attention from police re-

searchers. Studies of innovation in policing have

tended to focus on the ‘decision’ to innovate

rather than on the process of innovation, the out-

comes of these efforts, and the impact of change on

the culture of the police organization (Schafer and

Varano, 2017, p. 393).

There are few examples of organizational reform

in Canadian policing. The following discussion pre-

sents a case study of how senior management in one

Canadian police service significantly altered and

how police services were delivered and, in so

doing, created a change culture in the service

itself. It details the process that was followed to fa-

cilitate the participation and commitment of offi-

cers to the development of a new model of service

�Delta Police Department, Delta, BC Canada ��School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC Canada. E-mail: [email protected]

168

Advance Access publication: 17 September 2018 Policing, Volume 15, Number 1, pp. 168–180 doi:10.1093/police/paz055 � The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions please e-mail: [email protected]

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delivery. This case study provides insights into the

challenges of police leadership as well as the oppor-

tunities for police leaders to innovate and improve

the effectiveness and efficiency of police service de-

livery. The case study also illustrates the role that

empirical research can play as the catalyst for

change and transformation in police service.

Leadership, innovation, and barriers to organizational change

Studies have identified innovation as a key element

in ensuring that organizations are able to meet the

demands placed on them by changing organiza-

tional and environmental demands (Hueske and

Guenther, 2015, p. 114). Change in an organization

can be driven from within by effective leadership or

by external decisions and events (Sandberg and

Aarikka-Stenroos, 2014; Hueske and Guenther,

2015, p. 114).

Leadership has been defined as both a ‘property’

and a ‘process’: a property in that leaders have cer-

tain behaviour patterns and attributes that make

them effective, and a process that denotes how the

leader is able to influence personnel in the organ-

ization to achieve a certain goal (de Vries, 2006, pp.

164–165; Kalyal, 2019). It is important to secure the

commitment of personnel in the organization, one

observer noting, ‘There can be no leaders without

followers’ (de Vries, 2006, p. 165).

There are, however, a number of barriers that can

hinder, block, or otherwise impede innovation

(Hueske and Guenther, 2015; Mirow et al., 2008).

These include the external environment, comprised

of the organization’s various stakeholders, the or-

ganization, including leadership and resources, and

the culture of the organization, including the atti-

tudes and motivations of personnel (Griffiths et al.,

2015; Hueske and Guenther, 2015, p. 113). It has

been argued that organizational change can only

occur through employees, and that it is important

to understand the factors that contribute to em-

ployees supporting change initiatives (Choi, 2011).

Efforts to transform an organization may also be

hindered by a lack of a sense of urgency, the failure

to include personnel who are not part of senior man-

agement in the change process, a lack of vision and a

strategic plan, a failure to effectively communicate this

strategic plan to all sectors of the organization and

secure buy-in, and the failure to anticipate and address

potential obstacles to change (Kotter, 1995). As well,

change efforts may be hindered by the uncertainly that

surrounds change, Adams (2017, p. 3) noting:

Energy and focus becomes directed to-

wards managing uncertainty. Energy

and focus becomes inward looking in

an effort to protect what used to be.

Lack of trust begins to grow as people

feel isolated from the bigger picture and

threatened by lack of communication.

The new generation of police officers has also

been identified as presenting both a challenge and

an opportunity for police leaders. As a group, mil-

lennial officers are likely to be impatient for pro-

motion, desire real responsibility, have an aversion

to hierarchy and titled authority and want to have a

voice in decisions that are made (Batts et al., 2012;

Eldridge, 2012, p. 2; Olson and Wasilewski, 2014).

Among the more common reasons that leadership

fails are the tendency of many leaders to avoid conflict

that may threaten their acceptance, what de Vries has

called the ‘tyrannization of subordinates; micro-

management, wherein leaders are unwilling to dele-

gate; and, inaccessibility which isolates leaders from

the rest of the organization’ (de Vries, 2006, pp. 68–

72). While change may be pursued by leadership for

opportunities, including to improve the organization’s

performance, for employees change may be viewed as

disruptive and intrusive (Strebel, 2006, p. 45).

Reform efforts and organizational change in policing

In the business sector, organizations must be in-

novative to remain competitive, be profitable, and

Creating a change culture in a police service Article Policing 169

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drive consumers to their products or services. The

‘business’ of policing, however, is for the most part,

a monopoly, and the delivery of service is difficult

to evaluate: the public cannot assess the quality of

service they receive because there is usually only a

single police agency operating in a jurisdiction. The

business concept of ‘kaizen’ or continuous im-

provement is seldom applied to policing because

there are not the same pressures facing police or-

ganizations to change and innovate as they are in a

highly competitive corporate environment.

However, as the cost of policing has become a con-

cern for all levels of government, coupled with

increased public demand for transparency and ac-

countability, police agencies across Canada must

build continuous improvement directly into the

culture.

A challenge is that police services are ‘tradition-

bound’, clinging to outdated and ineffective man-

agement practices, and are often slow to innovate

and adapt to changing demands and environments

(Batts et al., 2012, p. 2; Palmer and Cherney, 2001).

A report on Canadian policing in the 21st century

concluded that ‘Police services have been organized

for an older reality. The fundamental changes that

have taken place in the safety and security landscape

over the past few decades have not been reflected in

police institutions’ (Council of Canadian

Academies, 2014, p. 151).

Recent Canadian research has provided import-

ant insights into the factors that facilitate and

impede reform (Kalyal, 2019). Receptivity to

change in a police service has been ascribed to a

number of organizational features, including the

capacity to identify and implement new initiatives,

readiness for change, and an organizational envir-

onment conducive to change.

Attempts to bring change and innovation to a

police service have been equated with ‘bending

granite’ (Guyot, 1979). It has been noted that

‘Implementing and managing change within poli-

cing organizations is often a lengthy and difficult

process’ (Shafer and Varano, 2017, p. 394).

Canadian police services have been criticized for

not undertaking needed reforms in a variety of

policy, strategic, and operational areas (c.f. Fraser,

2017; Government of Canada, 2007; Task Force on

Governance and Cultural Change in the RCMP,

2007). Kempa (2014) has argued that there is an

important relationship between questions sur-

rounding the economic sustainability of policing

and police reform and that police services will

have to adapt to this changing reality.

Police scholars have noted that, although there is

widespread public support for innovation, efforts

to change police practice often fall short (Skogan,

2008, p. 23). Risk avoidance by police leaders, re-

sistance by mid-level managers, officers in specialty

units, patrol officers, and police unions have con-

tributed to the failure of reform efforts (Skogan,

2008). Line officers, for example, may resist

change if ‘it requires that officers do many of

their old jobs in new ways and that they take on

tasks that they never imagined would come their

way’ (Skogan, 2008, p. 26).

Reform efforts in policing have traditionally been

initiated from the top-down and from the outside-in

(Bayley, 2008, p. 7; Duxbury et al., 2017, p. 4). Efforts

to implement problem-oriented policing, for ex-

ample, have been met with resistance and it has

been difficult to integrate this approach into oper-

ational policing (Bayley, 2008, p. 10). When change

does occur in response to external pressures, it has

most often been slow, incremental, reactive, and non-

transformational (Mastrofski and Willis, 2011;

Duxbury et al., 2017, p. 4). From interviews with

police and community stakeholders, Duxbury et al.

(2017) found that the drivers of change were largely

external to police services, while the barriers to change

were primarily internal to police organizations.

Observers have noted that significant changes in

how a police organization carries out its mandate

require more than the exhortations of senior lea-

ders and the creation of special units (Mastrofski

and Willis, 2011, p. 102). Although the importance

of involving front-line workers in workplace deci-

sion-making is widely recognized in the business

world, this has not been a feature of police

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organizations (Sklansky and Marks, 2008, p. 1).

There is, however, considerable potential in the

use of a ‘bottom-up’ approach to police reform

(Sklansky and Marks, 2008, p. 3).

A key feature of reform efforts is that rank-and-

file officers are rarely consulted about proposed

changes and provided with a substantive role in

implementing initiatives (Bayley, 2008, p. 13).

Reform efforts are most effective when officers are

brought into the process as agents of change and are

given a substantive role in the design and imple-

mentation of initiatives (Toch, 2008). Innovation

not only results in a change in how a police service

carries out its mandate but also functions to alter

the organizational culture of the police service.

Efforts to reform police services have also been

hindered by the absence of a robust programme of

police research in Canada, a situation that has been

described as ‘disjointed, incoherent, fragmented,

and inconsistent’ (Griffiths et al., 2013, p. 11).

There are few partnerships between academics

and the police and even fewer institutional relation-

ships between the two parties. This is due in large

measure to a lack of understanding among police as

to the role of academics and to the absence of an

overall strategic framework and organization to fa-

cilitate the creation of sustainable relationships

(Griffiths et al., 2015, p. 29).

This has often resulted in what has been termed

the ‘dialogue of the deaf’, wherein there are discon-

nect and mutual misunderstanding between the

police and academia (Bradley and Nixon, 2009, p.

423). There are only few examples of independent

evaluations of Canadian police services focused on

the identifying ways in which the effectiveness and

efficiency of policing can be improved (see;

Griffiths and Pollard, 2013; Griffiths et al., 2017).

The process by which police services can innov-

ate, develop, and sustain initiatives that fundamen-

tally alter how policing services are delivered has

not been explored in the Canadian context and re-

mains poorly understood. There is little research to

date on the change management process (Duxbury

et al., 2017, p. 21). Although it has been argued that,

‘There are no universal rules when it comes to lead-

ing and managing change’, examining the experi-

ence of one police service can be instructive (By,

2005, p. 375). The following discussion presents a

case study in which the leaders in one Canadian

police service created a change culture that resulted

in the development and implementation of a new

model of patrol deployment.

Method

This discussion draws from the materials gathered

from the patrol review and from the strategies used

by the Delta Police Department (DPD) leadership to

create a change culture in the department to facilitate

the implementation and sustainability of a new model

of patrol deployment. N. D. is the Chief of the Delta

(BC) Police Department and led the efforts to imple-

ment a new model of service delivery based on the

recommendations of a review of the DPD patrol div-

ision. C. T. G. is a university-based police scholar and

lead a project team that reviewed the patrol division.

C. T. G. was the lead investigator of a department-

sponsored review of the DPD Patrol Division.

The Delta (BC) police department

The City of Delta is home to 110,000 residents and

enjoys a relatively low crime rate and high standard

of living. The municipality is comprised of three

distinct communities, each of which has a distinct

sociodemographic profile. It encompasses 180 km2

and includes farmland, suburban neighbourhoods,

and town centres in each of the three communities.

The community of Delta is a high-income com-

munity with a comparatively low crime rate. The

municipality ranks sixth in median household

income (Statistics Canada, 2017). It also has one

of the highest levels of per capita income in the

region and a higher ratio of police officers to popu-

lation than police services in surrounding commu-

nities (Conor, 2018, p. 22). In addition, surveys

indicate that the DPD enjoys a high level of

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public confidence (Delta Police Department, 2019).

This would suggest that the primary driver of

change was not external factors but rather the de-

partment’s leadership.

The DPD is an independent municipal police de-

partment with a provincially appointed police gov-

ernance board. It has an authorized strength of 195

members and 67 civilians, with an actual strength of

over 200 members to provide for secondments and

to ensure appropriate staffing levels in all areas. The

DPD is a full-service police department with three

Bureaus including Administration, Community

Policing, and Investigations. In addition, Delta

Police integrates on a regional level with a variety

of units including Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Traffic Services, Integrated Gang Taskforce,

Integrated Road Safety Unit, and Combined Forces

Special Enforcement Unit.

Traditionally, the DPD deployed patrol re-

courses across two large zones, North and South.

Although patrol officers responded to calls for ser-

vice in a timely manner, there was no ownership of

problems or places. The use of proactive time was

left to the discretion of individual officers and often

did not support the priorities of the department,

which were focused on community engagement

and partnerships.

Patrol officers were randomly deployed across

the three communities and this precluded officers

from developing relationships with community

residents. The DPD had no established service

standards and the priorities for policing were de-

veloped by the police with little or no community

input. These factors contributed to the decision of

the DPD leadership to sponsor an independent

review of the DPD patrol division.

Setting the foundation: the independent review of the DPD patrol division

In 2016, the DPD issued a request for proposals to

conduct a review of the department’s patrol

division. The project team selected to conduct the

review was led by C.T. G., a university-based police

scholar.

The overall objective of the project was to gather

information that could be used to improve the effect-

iveness and efficiency of service delivery in Delta. The

project utilized a multimethod approach that

included interviews and focus group sessions with

sworn and civilian members of the department, ride

along with patrol officers, focus groups and interviews

with personnel in community groups and organiza-

tions, a community survey, and an analysis of depart-

mental data, including calls for service.

Among the major findings from the study were

the following:

1. The DPD had a high public approval rating and

was well-regarded by all segments of the commu-

nity. The DPD was viewed as responsive to com-

munity needs and as professional and courteous

in their interactions with the public. This view

extended to the South Asian community in

North Delta and to other specific segments of

the community, including seniors.

2. Although the DPD had retained a long-standing,

its ‘no-call-too-small’ policing policy, there were

many areas where there was a disconnect be-

tween the department and the community.

3. The comparatively large amount of time that

DPD patrol officers had for proactive policing

was spent on ‘hunting’, for example, attempting

to detect law violators via enforcement-related

activities such as licence plate checks. Junior

members of the department were generally un-

interested in using proactive time to interact with

the community and to develop networks and

partnerships.

4. There was among many of the patrol officers,

particularly those with less than 5 years’ experi-

ence, a lack of understanding of the basic prin-

ciples of community policing and a general lack

of competencies to effectively engage community

residents in a proactive manner.

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5. There was strong interest in the community in

having more interaction and collaboration with

the DPD and for officers to be more visible in the

community (Griffiths et al., 2016, p. 104).

A major conclusion of the study was that:

The DPD is in an excellent position to

become a best practice, community-

focused police service. There is strong

support from municipal government, a

strong management team, and a high

level of interest in the community to

develop collaborative partnerships.

Further, the members who participated

in this study were supportive of the

project and of management’s attempts

to address what were identified as out-

standing issues (Griffiths et al., 2016, p.

13).

The final report contained 45 recommendations

designed to address the issues that had been identi-

fied in the study and to enhance service delivery.

The department’s response: creating a change culture

With the recommendations of the patrol review in

hand, senior management undertook to secure or-

ganization-wide commitment to a new model of

service delivery. The strategy was centred on facil-

itating dialogue and change from the ‘bottom-up’.

When first hired in 2015, the Chief had spent the

first 6 months on the job speaking with over 100

employees from all levels in the organization.

During these conversations, the Chief heard what

was working, what was not working, and what

needed to change.

One theme that emerged from these discussions

was that more attention needed to be given to

patrol. Although patrol officers were at the core of

providing services to the community, these officers

were not provided with a framework within which

to be effective and efficient in their work. These

findings provided the impetus for the independent

review of the patrol division. Subsequently, both

sworn and civilian employees in the DPD, includ-

ing patrol officers, were provided with the oppor-

tunity to provide extensive input into the patrol

review.

The patrol division review team received the full

cooperation of the sworn and civilian members of

the DPD, who were candid in their observations on

the issues surrounding patrol and in suggestions for

addressing the challenges that were identified. The

support of personnel in the department was

enhanced since the report’s recommendations re-

flected the input that had been provided to the

study team during the review.

The Delta police service enhancement plan: a radical change in the deployment and responsibilities of patrol officers

The way in which patrol officers respond to service

requests from the community ultimately deter-

mines the level of cooperation and confidence the

public has in the police. Each time a patrol officer

successfully responds to a call for service, a small

deposit is made into the ‘Bank of Public Trust’.

These deposits build over time and are invaluable

if, and when, a large ‘withdrawal’ is required. The

intent was to design a deployment strategy to

ensure there are more deposits than withdrawals.

Four organizational goals related to service de-

livery were identified, based on the final recom-

mendations of the patrol review:

1. identifying service standards to ensure consist-

ency of service through the municipality in an

efficient and highly visible manner;

2. the creation of proactive time and assignment of

duties aligned with the Community Safety Plan,

which is the strategic planning philosophy

embedded in the organization. The plan focuses

on three key goals: Building Safe Communities,

Building Relationships, and Building Capacity. It

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was determined that, to be effective, a total 1/3 or

33% of the patrol officers’ time on every shift

should be dedicated to proactive activities that

support increased visibility and community

engagement;

3. the creation of geographic ownership areas to

which patrol officers would be assigned, in

order to ensure that the DPD met service stand-

ards, provided a consistent level of service, facili-

tate officer familiarity with the community, and

to increase the visibility of police; and

4. through the pursuit of Goals 1–3, to increase the

visibility of officers in the community and to

strengthen relationships with the community.

While these recommendations were developed

organically through internal and external inputs,

it was understood that a multipronged approach

would be required to develop, communicate, and

implement change. A five-pillar approach desig-

nated as the Delta Service Enhancement Plan

(DSEP) was developed. Five teams, comprised of

constables, supervisors, and senior officers, and

representatives from the police association, were

assembled to develop each pillar in line with the

relevant recommendations from the patrol review

report.

Senior management ensured that officers in the

department, identified as ‘social influencers’ in the

work units, were included as team members. These

officers, from all ranks, had significant credibility

with other officers and played a key role in facilitat-

ing the participation of personnel, mitigating con-

cerns, and securing a commitment to change.

Throughout the process, the development of the

service delivery model was discussed at the monthly

labor/management meeting and any issues were

immediately resolved.

The five pillars of the DSEP

The DSEP is based on five pillars: 1) peak period

shifting; 2) deployment; 3) a patrol support team

(PST); 4) proactive policing; and 5) community-

focused police services. See Figure 1.

Pillar 1—peak period shifting

The patrol review included a quantitative workload

analysis, which indicated that, while there were

times of the day that saw consistent spikes in calls

for service, staffing levels remained consistent over

a 24-h period. To more closely match staffing levels

with calls for service, the DPD realigned workload

with resources, leading to the development of a

Powershift, which resulted in the deployment of

additional patrol resources from noon until mid-

night, the busiest time of the day. In addition to

peak period shifting, the DPD implemented differ-

ential response to alarm calls, standardized the

computerized-assisted dispatch response, and im-

plemented Tableau business intelligence software

to track accountability. These initiatives ensured

officers had an opportunity during the day shift

to accomplish the mandated metric of 33% pro-

active time. This strategy further assisted the DPD

in its commitment to provide an 8-min response

time to Priority 1 calls 90% of the time.

Pillar 2—deployment

Zone ownership is the basic tenet of Pillar 2. Ten

ownership zones were established within the four

operational districts in the municipality. Assigning

members to zones created a structured deployment

model allowing members the opportunity to con-

nect with the community in a meaningful way. The

deployment model structure allows for a strategic

response to local and neighbourhood issues and is

designed to provide officers with the ability to

engage in problem-solving in their respective

zones. The objective of assigning officers to specific

geographical areas is to facilitate the development

of strong partnerships with residents and businesses

to proactively address community concerns and en-

hance public trust and confidence.

The acronym V.O.I.C.E. was used to capture the

objectives of the new deployment model and the

objective of empowering patrol officers: V

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(visibility across the community), O (create own-

ership responsibility), I (promote innovative prob-

lem-solving), C (conduct enforcement to reduce

crime), and E (enhance engagement with commu-

nity). Although patrol officers are not necessarily

responsible for all dispatched calls for service in

their respective zones, they are responsible for own-

ership objectives and problem-solving.

Pillar 3—patrol support team

A major finding from the patrol review was that

patrol officers often lacked support during peak

times of call demand and inadequately responding

to a variety of demands for service. This often pre-

vented the officers from engaging in more proactive

activities including community engagement.

To address this, a nine-member PST was created

to augment patrol resources during peak periods,

to provide increased investigative support, and to

assist with addressing the priorities in the four dis-

tricts. The PST provides coverage 7 days a week

across all of the districts.

Pillar 4—proactive policing

Within the DSEP, patrol officers are required to

spend one-third of their time on proactive activ-

ities, including crime prevention, problem-solving,

and increasing public confidence and trust in the

police by being visible in the community and build-

ing partnerships and relationships. A directed ac-

tivity response system, a software programme, was

adopted to assist members in accounting for their

proactive duties including within their zone own-

ership areas. A zone officer’s guidebook, the ‘DPD

Playbook’, was created to provide the roles and

responsibilities of members in their ownership

areas, in addition to training in techniques of prob-

lem-solving, crime reduction, and community

engagement.

This pillar proved to be one of the more challen-

ging components of the DSEP to implement. Patrol

officers have traditionally viewed proactive time as

‘their time’ rather than as a directed activity that is

designed to achieve specific objectives as set out in

the DSEP and the Community Service Plan. A sig-

nificant shift in officers’ thinking and activities was

required and would not have been achieved had

patrol officers not had significant input into the

development of the DSEP. Even with that role, of-

ficer acceptance of a more directed approach to

proactive time has occurred slowly and is still

evolving.

Pillar 5—community focused service standards

This pillar is premised on the notion that, for many

organizations, consistent service is not only the

foundation of success but also critical to survival.

Consistency of service is a key component to train-

ing staff, ensuring that ‘customers’ will have the

same experience regardless of what employee they

interact with. If policing is viewed as a service, then

there are lessons to be learned from retail chains

such as Starbucks, where the level of service is con-

sistent regardless of the store location. A question

asked by Pillar 5 team was, ‘If policing is a service

then why should we not train our officers in a

system for how they should interact with the

community?’

Pillar 5 was designed to standardize the service of

the DPD, ensuring that the patrol officers

Figure 1: Delta service enhancement plan.

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responding to calls for service follow a protocol in

their interactions with community residents. The

implementation team for Pillar 5 developing the

community-service system developed the acronym

GLAD, which is to be used by every patrol officer at

every call for service:

G—Greet the customer by their name and iden-

tify yourself to them; L—Listen during your con-

versation with the customer, use active listening

techniques, paraphrase subject matter to clarify,

and confirm understanding of the issue; A—

Action: explain your authority and how you

intend to help resolve the issue; D—Disposition:

provide them your contact information, with a

business card and the police file number.

Document their best contact information for the

report. Follow through with file updates to ensure

closure and reflected action in your report.

The training of patrol officers for GLAD was

done by patrol officers.

A further recommendation of Pillar 5 was stan-

dardizing the voicemail of all patrol officers. By far,

the most frequent customer service complaints that

police departments receive is the inability to con-

tact the officer that investigated their file. This is in

large measure a function of the rotation of parole

officers from days to nights and four-on/four-off

schedule. To mitigate this issue, every patrol officer

was provided with a smartphone to improve their

connectivity. They were instructed to use standard

voicemail scripts for both their department voice-

mail and their mobile phone voicemail, so that

anyone calling them was given directions on what

to do if they could not reach them.

A directive from senior management was issued

and, after 90 days, an audit was conducted to deter-

mine compliance with the voicemail directions. It

was determined that only 40% of the officers had

completed the task and a follow-up message had to

be delivered through the Watch Commanders.

Subsequent audits have revealed a 90%+ rate of

compliance with the standardized voicemail

protocol.

One of the more contentious recommendations

put forth by Pillar 5 team was the use of an an-

onymous customer satisfaction survey asking com-

munity members whether DPD officers followed

the principles of GLAD. On the back of all patrol

officer, business cards are the officer’s name, email,

and cell phone number. The officer puts the police

file number on the business card and the online

survey address is listed so that the residents can

complete the survey.

This initiative created a high level of anxiety for

most officers as they feared it would solicit public

complaints. To mitigate these concerns, the survey

asks four close-ended ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions: 1)

‘Did the officer identify him/herself ?’; 2) ‘Did

the officer listen to the issue of concern being re-

ported?’; 3) ‘Did the officer provide you with a file

number?’; and 4) ‘Did the officer provide you his/

her contact number?’. Once officers were comfort-

able with the methodology and intended use of

the survey, there was general support for the

initiative.

As with most online customer surveys, the re-

sponse rate from community members was low.

To better assess police officer engagement, DPD

employees began making personal contact with

community members who called the police relating

to property crime incidents to which officers re-

sponded. As of mid-2019, the responses to the

four questions were as follows:

1. ‘Did the officer identify him/herself ?’ Officers

(95%) identified themselves by first and last

name;

2. ‘Did the officer listen to the issue of concern

being reported?’ Officers (97%) listened to the

complainant;

3. ‘Did the officer provide you with a file number?’

Officers (82%) provided the complainant with a

file number; and

4. ‘Did the officer provide to you his/her contact

number?’ Officers (73%) provided a contact

number.

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This ongoing survey provides an opportunity to

assess the degree to which the basic tenets of the

GLAD system have been implemented by patrol

officers, increases officer accountability, and is a

feedback mechanism for the officers. Officer sup-

port for this initiative is also an indicator of cultural

change in the department, as officers subscribe to

the reforms that were implemented as part of the

DSEP.

In addition to the customer survey, a plan is

being developed to examine the sustainability of

the change in addition to assessing both qualita-

tively and quantitatively the outcomes of the

DSEP. This will be an evidence-based approach to

determine whether the change initiative provided

value for the community and the DPD.

Implementation of the DSEP model

Figure 2 sets out the timeline for the implementa-

tion of the DSEP.

A key goal with the implementation of DSEP was

to facilitate the evolution of police service delivery

in the community. Constant monitoring and evalu-

ation of the incremental change associated with the

recommendations are designed to ensure the pro-

ject remains on track and that employees do not

suffer change fatigue. During the implementation

of the DSEP, it became clear that the key to any

organization-wide communication is the link be-

tween supervisors and the front line.

To ensure supervisors were actively involved in

effective communication, DSEP and its principles

were embedded into officer promotional competi-

tions and performance evaluation processes to en-

courage those interested in career advancements to

not only become familiar with the messages asso-

ciated with the DSEP but also communicate it to

their teams.

The communication of change has been critical

throughout the review and the development of

DSEP, and even with field guides, playbooks, writ-

ten blogs, video blogs, one-page infographics, NCO

presentations, inclusion of DSEP materials in the

Delta Police NCO school curriculum, and key mes-

sages at shift briefings, there were still informational

voids. This required constant communication be-

tween all levels of the department and open lines of

communication between the leadership and

officers.

One of the findings during implementation that

came as a surprise to management was that junior

constables did not have a thorough understanding

Figure 2: DSEP implementation timeline.

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of community policing and how it is operationa-

lized in a police culture. Many senior police officers

had the benefit of in-depth training in problem-

solving, building partnerships, crime prevention,

and community engagement from their work in

the late 1990s and early 2000s. Constables hired in

recent years, however, have not had the benefit of

this training either at the academy or once in-ser-

vice. To address this, the DPD developed a training

course in community policing that was made avail-

able to all officers. With a strong knowledge base

and understanding of community policing, it is

now possible to hold officers accountable to the

expectations of the DSEP.

Cumulatively, these efforts over the 2 years fol-

lowing the completion of the patrol review study,

contributed to the emergence of a culture of change

in the department. The new way of doing business

is aligned with DSEP including accountability and

defined metrics, an indication that some degree of

success in implementing the new service model has

been accomplished.

Requisites for creating a change culture in police services

The development and implementation of the DSEP

and a shift in focus to a patrol model centred on the

principles of community policing, increased police

visibility, and consistent service did not occur as a

result of a fiscal crisis or political pressure. It began

with the input of both employees and community

stakeholders in an environment created by the lead-

ership of the department. Employees wanted to see

greater attention given to patrol while the commu-

nity wanted to see, interact, and engage with the

police beyond core police duties. The review of

the patrol division crystallized a number of issues

surrounding how patrol resources were being de-

ployed and the activities of patrol officers.

The experience of the DPD in transitioning from

a traditional model of patrol practice to a model

centred on proactive policing, community service

and engagement, and one that aligned the availabil-

ity of patrol resources with calls for service suggest

that police leaders can be instrumental in facilitat-

ing reforms.

There are, however, a number of key elements

that must be present in successful reform efforts.

These include: 1) being amenable to having the op-

erations of the police service subjected to independ-

ent, scholarly review; 2) creating an organizational

environment wherein the results of reviews can be

actioned; 3) providing training to build the compe-

tencies required to implement the proposed

changes; 4) using social influencers in the organiza-

tion to mitigate resistance to changes in practice; 5)

empowering sworn and civilian personnel in the

organization to action the recommendations of re-

views that are completed, thereby giving these per-

sonnel ownership of the initiative; and 6) ensuring

that, at all times, there are clear lines of communi-

cation between the leadership and the various levels

of the organization.

Conclusion

Police services have experienced challenges in

moving from tradition-bound practice to re-

search-informed, evidence-based policies and

models of service delivery. Changes in policing

have most often been driven by external demands

and pressures and police leaders often find them-

selves in a reactive, crisis management mode.

However, police leaders can be catalysts for

reform by creating a change culture in their

organizations.

An examination of the implementation of a new

service deployment model in the DPD provides in-

sights into the role of police leadership in creating a

culture that made significant changes in the deliv-

ery of police service possible. Police leaders can be

only as effective in directing change to the extent

that the personnel in the organization assumes

ownership of the change, sponsor independent re-

views of organizational practice, and have effective

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strategies to implement changes based on the find-

ings of these reviews. The experience of the DPD in

restructuring patrol highlights the integral relation-

ship between police leaders and departmental per-

sonnel in identifying the need for change,

developing a change strategy, and executing

agreed upon objectives. A challenge for both the

leadership and personnel in the DPD will be to sus-

tain the DSEP and to be flexible in making any

required changes to ensure its continuity, based

on the findings of future independent reviews.

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