Police Service Delivery Research Articles

Police as international peacekeepers

The proliferation of weak and failing states in recent years has been accompanied by a significant expansion of the role of police as peacekeepers. The cross-cultural delivery of traditional community policing services, in settings that are often less than stable, is a formidable task. This paper introduces a number of essays that discuss the challenges faced by police in a peacekeeping role.

The Flanagan Review and the fight against (police) bureaucracy.

Abstract In a 124 page report on policing that quickly albeit briefly captured media headlines Sir Ronnie Flanagan outlined, in early February 2008, his strategy for improving the future delivery of police services in England and Wales (Home Office 2008). In what is a detailed and potentially challenging assessment of the current malaise which confronts the police service, Sir Ronnie has provided a number of indicators of the new route which he would expect the police service to take for the future. In doing so, however, Sir Ronnie, as Chief HMIC, understandably perhaps, betrays his own professional bias which is reflected in the rather cautious recommendations that come with the Review.

Citizens' Views on Using Alternate Reporting Methods in Policing

Most people agree that local police should continue to place a high priority on responding to violent and other felony crime. At the same time, departments are increasingly asked to assume more service-related responsibilities within the community, creating a situation of thinly spread resources. Some nonemergency problems might be handled in an alternate way to increase efficiency in the delivery of police services. To measure community perceptions of alternate reporting methods, we mailed a survey to 6,000 urban residents in Kansas City. Most citizens embraced phone reporting, but were less willing to use mail-in reporting and the Internet. Policy implications are discussed.

Workforce Modernisation and Future Resilience within the Police Service in England and Wales

This article is based on a presentation given to the National Workforce Modernisation Programme Conference at Leeds in 2008. It argues that the issue of future police resilience should not stand in the way of modernisation and that while it may be used as a defence of the status quo there is growing evidence that reform can be expected to enhance police service delivery. It argues that the nature of police establishment growth has meant that there has been no attempt to match police numbers to police functions and that incremental growth, which has characterised police officer expansion, now means that it is difficult to defend current police numbers. This problem is made worse by the challenge presented by police abstraction rates, which appear to have increased in line with police establishment. It is also suggested that the increasing operational role of police staff is rarely taken into account by HMIC when assessing police performance even though many former police functions are now the responsibility of civilian personnel. As a result the threat to police resilience, used as a defence of current police establishment, may significantly exaggerate the challenge that workforce modernisation represents.

Basic Command Units (BCUs) and Local Authorities: Future Mechanisms of Police Accountability and Service Delivery

This article considers the origin and growth of the police Basic Command Unit (BCU) and its impact on the internal management of police forces. It assesses the changing perception of appropriate manpower levels for BCUs and the impact of this on the size of these police units. It evaluates the absence of any fixed professional criteria in the determination of viability of the BCU and notes the similarity between this and the determination of size of police forces. It notes that the effectiveness of the BCU as measured by HMIC has not included civilian staff even though these now make up a third of BCU personnel and contribute to the overall efficiency of this unit of policing. Finally it reflects on the statutory basis planned for BCUs within the Police and Justice Act 2006 and the Home Secretary's requirement made in 2005 that in future all BCU boundaries should be made coterminous with those of the local authority. It also considers the current debate concerning the determination of viability of BCUs in terms of manpower levels and responsibilities. It presents some current viewpoints relating to factors that influence the overall efficiency and effectiveness of BCUs and potential developments that could serve to encourage local police governance within a local government framework designed to deliver effective community safety and local joint crime reduction strategies.

Building capability throughout a change effort: leading the transformation of a police agency to community policing

This case describes a change effort to move a police agency to become a community policing organization. The community policing effort was seen as a means to make a transformational change to become a learning organization with the goal of improving the delivery of police services. The case describes the steps taken to meet the new vision of community policing as well as the steps taken to deal with the challenges or realities of trying to make change happen. The lens for this case is the leadership role across the stages of change (exploration, planning, implementation, monitoring and institutionalization) in building capacity within the organization to sustain the change effort. The capacity building focused on incorporating systems thinking into the mindset of the members of the organization, breaking down the command and control mindset by building a new norm around high involvement of committed teams, and developing skill sets to support continuous learning and improvement in order to align organizational systems. A key lesson learned is that effective leaders do not just prepare an organization prior to a change effort. They must have the patience to constantly build the capacity for change among organizational members throughout the various stages of the change effort.

Re-Engineering the Police Organisation: Implementing Workforce Modernisation in England and Wales

This article assesses the need for major re-engineering of the police service in England and Wales to project and sustain the workforce modernisation programme in England and Wales. It argues that having avoided the bureaucratic cul-de-sac that police mergers represented, a real opportunity for effective reform has now arisen. This reform would encompass immediate delegation to basic command units of manpower budgets and the determination of policing services at this level. The article draws on the experience of one chief officer who was to confront the problems of bureaucratic inertia within his own police force and some organisational practices that served to undermine police service delivery. It considers the current problems surrounding the centralised control of police budgets and the impact of this on the ability of BCU Commanders to sustain effective reassurance policing. The article also assesses the impact and future implications of workforce modernisation along with recent evaluations of the PCSO and ‘mixed-economy teams' from pilot sites. Finally the article draws on recent experience from one police force Chief Officer Team to evaluate the continuing problem of police organisational culture particularly in relation to workforce modernisation and the future expansion of the role of police staff within police forces in England and Wales.

Police Reform in England and Wales: Producer-Driven or Consumer-Led? An Evaluation of the Current Police Reform Programme

This article considers the current status of police reform and the many problems associated with it. It argues that the current proposals are very largely producer-driven rather than consumer-led and if implemented would serve to undermine the Prime Minister's policy commitment to both public service reform and the encouragement of greater consumer choice. Recent public opinion polls indicate that consumer perceptions of police amalgamations are almost wholly negative. It is also argued that the criteria for determination of ‘stand-alone’ forces set by the Home Office has proven to be highly arbitrary. It argues for the need for more effective collaboration between forces and for much closer local authority involvement in the delivery of local police services. It highlights possible local government reform proposals within the forthcoming White Paper and the need to link reform of local government structures with those of police forces. It concludes with an evaluation of neighbourhood policing strategy and the need for joint responsibility and oversight between police and local authority to both anchor and sustain this important initiative.

The Role of Management and Leadership within the Context of Police Service Delivery

As part of being an effective and efficient organization the police service has attempted to move from their traditional artisan role to one of professional status through effective leadership. This has been achieved in part by enhancing their service delivery by the importation of management strategies previously employed in other service organizations. In the police service the lowest rank often has the most power as it relates to discretion. Management and leadership skills are required, not only to the hierarchical structure of the organization, by individual officers. This article discusses the role of management and leadership in a modern police service.

Neo‐liberalism, community, and police regionalization in Canada

PurposeNeo‐liberal policies have had a profound effect on the organization of policing in Canada by rationalizing provincial and federal initiatives that off‐load policing costs to municipal and regional councils. This paper aims to comparatively analyze the effect of these initiatives on service delivery for regional versus non‐regional police services.Design/methodology/approachFour measures were used to assess efficiency: per capita cost, cost per criminal code offence, number of officers per 100,000 population, and number of support staff per 100,000 population. Three measures were used to assess effectiveness: violent crime clearance rate, property crime clearance rate, and total criminal code clearance rate.FindingsAnalysis of the data reveals that, despite claims surrounding regionalization, regional police services are not demonstrably any more effective or efficient than non‐regional services.Research limitations/implicationsUtilizes official crime data and police expenditure statistics. A national survey of police service delivery and citizen satisfaction is needed. Practical implications – These results can inform municipal and town council decisions about regional (or provincial contract) versus local police service provision. Originality/value – The first comprehensive comparative Canadian study on the efficiency and effectiveness of police regionalization. The article empirically challenges the purported relative effectiveness and efficiency of larger regional police services versus smaller non‐regional services in Canada.

The new public management and the UK Police Service

This article explores the impact of the introduction of the New Public Management (NPM) within the UK Police Service since the mid-1990s. A specific focus upon individual performance management (one of the central features of NPM) is examined from the perspective of the police sergeant who has primary responsibility for managing performance and ultimately the delivery of policing services within one of the UK's ‘essential’ public services. After a discussion of the literature on individual performance management within the context of the NPM, the article identifies four major research questions relating to: the job role demands of performance management; access to valid and reliable performance management information; the capacity to provide follow-up development and support; and the wider integration of performance management with organization strategy and service objectives. After reporting on interview data collected from role sets in which the sergeant is a focal member, the article concludes with a discussion of the constraints upon effective performance management within the NPM.

Strange bedfellows: civil liability and aggressive policing

Shaping and monitoring the behavior of street‐level officers has continued to be a difficult task for police managers, and this task may prove to be more difficult as modern departments increasingly rely on proactive law enforcement for the delivery of police services. A popular method to shape police behavior is holding officers, departments and municipalities civilly liable for street‐level behavior. While it may be assumed fear of civil litigation influences the manner in which the police interact with the public, there is little empirical evidence for this claim; in fact, the frequent use of civil liability claims is poised to have an unanticipated side effect on contemporary policing. Officers may engage in fewer proactive law enforcement activities as a way to insulate them from litigation. This study examines whether experience with and attitudes toward civil liability influence the behavior of police officers, with particular attention on officer propensity to make arrests, use force, conduct searches and initiate encounters with suspects. Multivariate results indicate attitudes toward civil liability are weak and inconsistent predictors of behavior.

Compstat: an analysis of an emerging police managerial paradigm

Compstat is a goal‐oriented strategic management process that uses technology, operational strategy and managerial accountability to structure the delivery of police services and provide safety to communities. This process originated with the New York City Police Department and is now being adapted by many law enforcement agencies throughout the USA. It thus represents an emerging police organizational management paradigm. This paper analyses the evolution of police management techniques and the emergence of this new paradigm. It concludes with an assessment of the organizational changes required for the adaptation of this process.

Language barriers in the delivery of police services: A study of police and Hispanic interactions in a midwestern city

Interactions between police and Hispanic citizens have been neglected in research on American policing. The impact of Spanish language barriers has also been neglected. This exploratory study examined the effect of language barriers on the delivery of police services through direct observation of police patrol and the police 911 communications center in a midwestern city. Language barrier problems were measured in terms of delay, frustration, and conflict in police–citizen interactions. This study found that language barriers were not a major factor in the delivery of police services. Potential language barrier incidents were relatively few in number, and involved mainly officer frustration and few conflict situations.

Plural Policing and Democratic Governance

This article asks how we might best come to terms with - and seek to govern - the multiplicity of institutional forms that are now involved in the delivery of policing and security services and technologies. I begin by documenting briefly the network of providers that constitute the policing field locally, nationally and transnationally, before specifying how the fragmentation and pluralization of policing has called radically into doubt a number of received (liberal) suppositions about the relationship between police and government. I then attempt - drawing constructively yet critically on recent theorizations of governance and ‘governmentality’ - to make sense of some contemporary reconfigurations of policing within and beyond the state, and tease out their implications for questions of democratic legitimacy. Finally, I outline the contours of an institutional politics for the regulation of policing that is both normatively adequate to the task of connecting policing to processes of public will-formation and sociologically plausible under the altered conditions of plural, networked policing.

‘Professionalizing’ the role of the police informant: The British experience

This paper examines recent trends in the use of informants by the police in crime investigation work. The rise of the ‘new managerial state’ and the demand for an increased degree of efficiency in the delivery of policing services is identified as an important influence upon the apparent increased willingness of police policy makers to countenance the use of informants. Data is presented which suggests that informants are a cost‐effective resource for the police, but it is argued that in the long‐term, an over‐reliance upon informants by the police, may prove detrimental to the legitimacy of the police organisation.

Police and Mental Health Professionals: Collaborative Responses to the Impact of Violence on Children and Families

Coordinating responses through the Child Development-Community Policing Program has led to multiple changes in the delivery of clinical and police services. Mental health clinicians and police officers have developed a common language for assessing and responding to the needs of children and families who have been exposed to or involved in violence. Learning from each other, these unlikely partners have established close working relationships that improve and expand the range of interventions they are able to provide while preserving the areas of expertise and responsibilities of each professional group. The immediate access to witnesses, victims, and perpetrators of violent crimes through the consultation service provides a unique opportunity to expand the understanding of clinical phenomena from the acute traumatic moment to longer-term adaptation, symptom formation, and recovery. In turn, the initiative introduces the systematic study of basic psychological and neurobiologic functions involved in traumatization as well as the investigation of psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic therapies. Similarly, program involvement with juvenile offenders has led to a coordinated response from the police, mental health, and juvenile justice systems. This project provides an opportunity to develop detailed psychological profiles and typologies of children engaged in different levels of antisocial behavior as well as to determine the characteristics that might predict with whom community-based interventions might be most successful. A recent survey of New Haven public school students has yielded promising evidence that community policing and the program are having a positive impact on the quality of life. In a survey of sixth-, eighth-, and tenth-grade students there were substantial improvements in students' sense of safety and experience of violence between 1992 and 1996. When asked if they felt safe in their neighborhood, there was an increase in the percentage of positive responses from 57% to 62% for sixth-grade students, 48% to 66% for eighth-grade students, and 53% to 73% for tenth-grade students, and when asked if they had seen someone shot or stabbed there was a decrease in positive responses from 43% to 28% for sixth-grade students, 46% to 31% for eighth-grade students, and 34% to 28% for tenth-grade students. Today, we are all too familiar with the developmental trajectory that leads children into violent crime. Newspaper articles and clinical case reports have taken on a dreary repetitiveness. These young criminals are often poor, minority, inner-city children who are known to many agencies to be at risk because of family disorganization, neglect, and abuse. They are failing in school or are already on the streets. One day they are victims and the very next they are assailants. We are all familiar with the inadequacies in the social response to these children, from their preschool years through the point at which they become assailants themselves. What is shocking is that the age at which children make the transition from being abused to being abusive seems to be getting earlier, and the number appears to be increasing. On the positive side, there is an increased awareness of the need and the ability of the various sectors of society to respond in concert. The institutions that function in the inner city--schools, police, mental health and child welfare agencies, churches--are all concerned about the same children and families. By working together, with a shared orientation to the best interests of the children, they can intervene earlier and more effectively: first, to disrupt the trajectory leading to violence; and, second, to help those children who are already caught in the web of exposure to violent crime and inner-city trauma. The experience with community-based policing and mental health in New Haven, now being replicated throughout the United States, can thus stand as a model of an active social response to an overwhel

Policing the provinces: A budgetary analysis

This article examines the impact of the Financial and Fiscal Commission's (FFC) new provincial financing dispensation on the allocation of police resources and on the deliv ery of police services at provincial level. Trends in the police budget since the late 1989s are examined, and the existing provincial allocation of police resources is analysed, as well as the relationship between crime rates, socio‐economic variables and the provincial allocation of police resources. A new framework for the provincial allocation of police resources is subsequently proposed. This framework is based on the FFC's proposed provincial grants formula and the establishment of a Crime Equalisation Fund (CEF) which allocates additional police resources based on each province's per capita crime rates and specific priority crimes. The article argues that the phased reallocation of po lice resources to provinces via this new framework will contribute to a more equitable and effective utilisation of existing police resources, which in turn should have a positive impact on the delivery of police services and the levels of crime. It also suggests that the further devolution of the police budget to provinces is likely to be inhibited by the ANC's commitment to retaining a national, centralised police service. Thus, any further devolu tion of budgetary powers with respect to policing will be determined by the outcome of centre‐province political dynamics rather than by the need to combat crime more effec tively at provincial levels.

Transforming Police Leadership in the '90s

As society changes at a rapid pace it becomes apparent that government must respond and change as well. In light of the Rodney King “Incident” in Los Angeles in March, 1991, and its aftermath a year later, the need for change in law enforcement is very evident. Police organizations can no longer carry on with their traditional approaches to the delivery of police services. Before exterior changes can be made, however, police leaders need to closely examine how they manage their organizations. This paper examines where police leadership is today and suggests where it should be headed in the future. Called for is a “Transformation” away from a traditional authoritarian management style to a leadership model that builds an organizational culture based on values, ethics, and a partnership with employees.

Work stress and job dissatisfaction in the public sector: An examination of public safety directors

Increasingly, communities are implementing consolidated organizations, typically called Public Safety departments, for the joint delivery of police and fire services. However, directors of Public Safety departments have had to contend with internal and external sources of resistance to the public safety concept, and have experienced difficulty coordinating and managing the distribution of personnel and resources for police and fire activity. The present research examines the impact of these problems on work stress and job dissatisfaction. Using a three-wave mailing design, questionnaires were sent to a national survey of Public Safety directors. Problems associated with managerial ambiguity and uncertainty over public perceptions of long-term organizational viability affected both work stress and job dissatisfaction, while consolidation status and organizational size affected only one of these outcomes. The city of Heartland operates the office of Public Safety, which is responsible for Police, Fire, Emergency Services and Disaster Agency and 911 Emergency Communications. The department is not integrated and will never be integrated as long as I have breath in my body.