Police Management Research Articles

Functioning in the hot seat: exploring the competencies of police incident commanders

PurposeIncident commanders (ICs) are senior police officials tasked with being the key operational decision-makers and leading a command team during major, critical and public order incidents (e.g. bomb threats, hostage situations and protests). Such events are often characterized by heavy time pressures and little information, requiring a highly skilled, integrated emergency response across multiple agencies and significant police planning, organizing and management. ICs must possess the necessary skills, traits and behaviors to deal with such incidents and their challenges. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the competencies of ICs.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted a thematic analysis of thirty-eight (n = 38) in-depth interviews with police personnel who have professional experience as ICs.FindingsResults provided information on the competencies important for effective incident command, including a range of skills, traits and behaviors these police personnel should exhibit, such as command presence, decision-making, confidence, risk assessment, teamwork, task management, stress management, humility and others.Originality/valueWe provide a novel literature contribution by proposing a framework of police IC competencies and their interrelatedness based on first-hand interviews with experts in the field. Practitioners and policymakers need to know actionable strategies for developing standardized training and assessment curricula for ICs. The next steps are to delineate what skills, traits and behaviors are trainable and need to be selected for at the time of recruitment (e.g. occupational aptitude, personality). We provide the foundation upon which researchers and practitioners can make actionable decisions on moving forward to attain these important goals.

Registered sex offenders’ experiences of home visits in England & Wales: are the police expected to integrate “risk” with “desistance”

Purpose In England and Wales, adult male registered sex offenders (RSOs) are risk assessed and managed using a tool known as the Active Risk Management System; a risk assessment designed specifically for police management of RSOs and carried out by a specialist group of police officers known as Management of Violent or Sexual Offenders (MOSOVO) at the RSO’s home, known as “the home visit”. The purpose of this paper is to explore RSOs views of the home visit and risk assessment and to make recommendations to MOSOVO to improve future home visit & risk assessment practice. Design/methodology/approach This study aimed to examine a sample of adult male RSOs’ views of the risk assessment and home visit process. Three police forces in England and Wales agreed to facilitate the sampling of 10 RSOs who varied in their level of risk, namely, low, medium, high and very high. Findings Three themes were developed from the analysis: anxiety and shame; perceptions of the first home visit; and the property search and observations. This paper discusses these experiences in light of the growing call for MOSOVOs to both manage risk and assist desistance and present recommendations for improving both the home visit and risk assessment practice. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to understand and explore RSOs views of the home visit and risk assessment process.

Exploring the role of cultural diversity as a mediator in tactical leadership and inventiveness

The goal is to determine how cultural diversity, acting as a mediator between different cultures, influences creativity in the Indian police management sector. The Indian police administration's information from staff members was gathered using a quantitative research technique and survey methodologies. To ensure that the workers' responses were accurate, the self-administrative surveys were sent out. As a result, 380 surveys were dispersed among the 80 branches mentioned, and 300 valid responses were gathered. In this study, the anticipated characteristics and the identifiable characteristics were projected to an unfamiliar environment to analyze the regression approach and verify the hypothesis. The results of this research have demonstrated the variables' dependability and validity to support this investigation. According to this study, values support innovative leadership and innovation strategies, tactical inventiveness and leadership. The framework has made an essential contribution to the Indian police administration's subsequent growth.

Participant accounts of police violence during black lives matter protests in Chicago

ABSTRACT Black protest events in the United States have been characterised by police use of violence against protestors during periods, such as the widespread riots of the 1960s, when many white people and police see black people as posing a special danger to the status quo. It appears that the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, which triggered widespread Black Lives Matter protests, is another such time. However, social scientific evidence that addresses the question of whether police responded with unnecessary violence to these black-led protests remains in short supply. In this study, we conducted a content analysis of protest participants’ federal court statements about their lived experience with police violence during Chicago, IL, protests. Their accounts suggest that police, rather than protestors, initiated violence and relied on it to control protestors in ways that violated Chicago Police Department policies and constitutional protections afforded citizens. Despite efforts to reform police management of protests over the last half century, our findings suggest that the historical pattern of police use of militaristic tactics and gratuitous violence to control black protest events persists today. We consider the implications of the findings for relations between the police and black communities.

Strategies for Coping with Occupational Trauma: A Scoping Review of the Police Officer Context.

Occupational trauma is heightened among police officers due to their exposure to physical, biological, chemical, and psychological hazards. Sustained occupational trauma results in mental illness among members of the police, which is a public health issue of concern. This study aimed to report a scoping review of the literature on strategies employed by police officers for coping with occupational trauma around the globe. A search string, formulated from the review question of what is known about the strategies of police officers for coping with occupational trauma, was used to search for articles from databases. A total of 588 hits were screened against inclusion criteria, resulting in 36 full-text studies between 1983 and 2022 being included in this review. Data were extracted using a standardised data extraction tool. The multi-step process was used to analyse the extracted data, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches. From this review, 'adaptive coping mechanisms', involving confrontation; 'maladaptive coping mechanisms', such as self-isolation, distancing and substance use; 'resilience', relating to mental preparation, and 'seeking support systems' from family, colleagues and professionals reflected the strategies used by police officers to cope with occupational trauma. Social stigma related to mental health disorders impacts the strategies used by police officers to cope with occupational trauma. the police management and healthcare practitioners must collaborate towards providing constructive environments that support and strengthen police officers' strategies for coping with occupational trauma.

Community Policing: The Successful Implementation of Organizational Change

The goal of community policing is to improve interaction and collaboration between local law enforcement agencies and the people and neighborhoods they serve. Its primary objectives are to reduce and prevent crime and increase residents' sense of security. Community policing starts from the top of the management and flows down to the very lowest level of the police department. Thus, police managers play an important role in the change process. The goal of this study is to analyze the successful implementation of organizational change in police agencies. This article first lays out the definition of community policing, its key components, advantages, and its differences from traditional policing. Then it discusses the process of change, the sources, and strategies of resistance to change. In the conclusion section, this study makes recommendations for a successful implementation of the organizational change process.

Traffic Police Management to support Security, Safety, Order and Smoothness (Kamseltibcar Lantas) in DKI Jakarta Province, Indonesia

The work of police as an institution is clear, to ensure safety, balance, order, and justice in a society. This paper will dive into the role of traffic police management and community policing to ensure order in DKI Jakarta. Policemen in Jakarta have different roles and different targets to achieve, some work to ensure justice is served to criminals and perpetrators by conducting investigations on reports. Some oversee daily lives of civilians in the province by ensuring traffic laws are being obeyed, and other activities that involve the lives of civilians. This concept is more recognized as community policing. In this study, qualitative methods through data collection and interviews are used in the research methods. Public and community transportation will also be taken into consideration as one of the concepts in the study as it is used as the theoretical lens.

Attempts to teach ethics to police leaders and managers at the Police College: a lesson from history

ABSTRACT This practitioner and experience-based insider account outlines the reasons for the introduction in the late 1970s of a named ‘ethics package’ to the content of courses of study at the Police College, Bramshill. The context of the College, and the modal characteristics of its client groups of middle and senior ranking police officers are highlighted. In 1978 an ‘ethics package’ began to be constructed in order to make a significant contribution to the ‘professional’ knowledge and practices commensurate with the role-requirements of police leadership. An outline of the intellectual basis guiding and informing the content of the ‘ethics package’ is provided. The paper then identifies some of the persistent and often disappointing responses to the continuing attempts to include something called ‘ethics’ on the various programmes of study at Bramshill. From 1992 onwards ‘ethics’ was to make various appearances on the leadership and management courses but its status was always fragile partly because of the various regime changes that befell the institution. In 1994 a formal educational action-research process, was begun which sought to position ‘ethics’ on the ‘Police Management Programme’ such that the subject would not be set aside. However, after six years of commitment and endeavour, the feedback from course participants never achieved the level of positive response needed to achieve the fundamental aim of the research project. The paper concludes with a very brief summary of some of the reasons why presenting something called ‘ethics’ to experienced police officers was – and perhaps remains – intrinsically difficult.

The Effect of Big Data Analytics on Predictive Policing: The Mediation Role of Crisis Management

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of big data analytics (BDA) on predictive policing, particularly examining the mediating role of crisis management in this relationship. Theoretical Framework: The research is anchored in the domain of big data analytics, focusing on its application within law enforcement for enhancing predictive policing capabilities. The study explores how crisis management serves as a linkage between data analytics and predictive policing practices. Method: The study gathered data from 450 individuals working across various police departments in Dubai, utilizing a questionnaire to collect responses. The analytical approach was based on Structural Equation Modeling, conducted using AMOS software. Results and Discussion: Findings from the research indicate that big data analytics significantly boosts predictive policing and crisis management. Importantly, crisis management was identified as a mediating factor between big data analytics and its efficacy in predictive policing. These results suggest that big data analytics not only directly enhances predictive policing but also improves it indirectly through effective crisis management. Research Implications: This study underscores the importance of integrating big data analytics into police operations to advance predictive policing capabilities. It highlights the dual benefits of big data analytics in both direct application and enhancement through crisis management processes. Originality/Value: This research contributes to the limited but growing body of literature on the application of big data analytics in predictive policing. It offers practical guidelines for police forces, especially within the UAE, to better harness big data for improving their operational effectiveness and crisis management strategies. The study also discusses broader implications for both practice and ongoing research in this evolving field.

Humour, sexual harassment, and police managers´ discretionary practices

ABSTRACT In this article, we describe and analyse police managers’ response to incidents of gender and sexual harassment as they play out in a police workplace context. The aim is to examine managers’ supervisory discretion in safeguarding employees’ legal rights, through three research questions: 1) What implicit understandings of sexual harassment, in the organisation, are made visible by managers´ approach to harassment; 2) what do these implicit problem understandings mean for which incidents become legitimate and illegitimate experiences of harassment in the organisation; and 3) which types of harassment incidents are employees protected against? Based on two cases of harassment, observed during 6 months of fieldwork, we explore and analyse humour and managers’ power of definition, applying socio-legal perspectives on implementation of laws and rights in a work context. Through this, small incidents of everyday harassment become visible and highlight the role of police managers in transforming policy to action.

The hostile side of the state: Siracusa Principles, human rights and the precarity of COVID-19 policing in Nigeria

In line with global advisories, the Nigerian authorities explored what could be termed a ‘stringent’ lockdown measure to contain the transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent a public health catastrophe. In this study, I examine the appositeness of the measure and its manner of implementation within the purview of the 1984 Siracusa Principles and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on the derogation of human rights. The principles and ICCPR guarantee equitable access to basic healthcare for all citizens and obligate state parties to take actions to prevent potential harm to public health if such actions are necessary, lawful, evidence-based, non-discriminatory, unarbitrary, proportional, respectful of human dignity, and brief in timeframe. I argue that although the measure aligns with the principles, ICCPR and Nigeria’s COVID-19 Regulations, 2020 - its manner of implementation typified gross human rights breaches, extrajudicial practices, and repressive state behaviours. However, this study offers a novel understanding of statecraft and citizens–government relations during the pandemic – pandemic policing and public health management – while emphasising that upholding human rights and strengthening democratic ideals are central to containing future pandemics successfully.

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) Advantage for Police Chiefs: A Case for Studying Business for Law Enforcement Leadership

Historically, two advanced degrees — the Master of Criminal Justice (MCJ) and the Master of Public Administration (MPA) — have been considered the preferred choices for those seeking the highest ranks of law enforcement leadership. However, in recent years, characterized by rapid social change, technological progress, and growing public attention, the role of the police chief has evolved into a multifaceted leadership position that goes far beyond the traditional responsibilities of law enforcement. It covers a broader set of duties related to leadership and management communications in police units, organizational effectiveness, strategic management, administration, and control, effective financial resources and budgeting management, communications and accountability in local communities, and ethical decision-making to overcome the multifaceted challenges of modern police activity. The article argues that the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA), known for its adaptability and versatility, can become a powerful alternative to MCJ and MPA today, as it provides police leaders with a more universal educational base, a comprehensive set of business skills and specialized knowledge, becomes more extensive, practical and an actual form of education of capable and adaptive police management personnel, allows to best prepare them for dynamic changes and transformation of job roles. The article critically examines to what extent and when solving which tasks the heads of police departments need knowledge and skills according to the traditional attributes of an MBA: in the field of financial management, strategic planning, leadership, and human resources management, effective and crisis communication, negotiation, interaction with the public, business ethics. The specifics of the application of the main attributes of those theories that are traditionally studied within the MBA program for the role of heads of police departments are analyzed: the theory of servant leadership, the theory of situational leadership, the theory of managerial economics, PESTEL analysis, and the theory of human relations. As a conceptual inquiry, this article lays the groundwork for continued research in this area to explore the MBA and its content courses as a useful tool for developing the skills and abilities of law enforcement leaders.

Resistance to platformization: Palantir in the Norwegian police

ABSTRACT In 2016, the Norwegian police signed a contract with Palantir Technology for the provision of the surveillance platform Gotham, a platform that enables agencies to integrate data stored in different databases from internal and external sources. The project was to be ready for operation in 2018. In February 2020, the Norwegian Police Directorate announced the project had ended. When they signed off the contract, they had spent around NOK 100 million for nothing. Drawing on documents and interviews with police managers and officers involved in the Gotham project, we explore how platformization represented a conflicting institutional logic which collided with the dominant one and threatened established power structures. Platformization, understood as an organizational process, competes with professionalism and bureaucracy as established institutional logics in the police to control and coordinate work. The analysis of conflicting institutional logics stemming from socio-technical and material objects, reveals how police staff experiences of the symbolic, material and cognitive aspects of logics are of importance in domestication processes. The struggle for market dominance also fueled the conflict between established and new suppliers. The totalizing tendencies of platform policing may explain why the project went on for so long before it was terminated. To a certain degree, our findings show data becoming a major currency, and there is a calculative logic in this type of policing. Platform policing has user activity as its source, and non-use stops the business.

Trauma and Percieved Internal Support of Police Officers in Kenya

Purpose: This paper explores how Police officers in Kenya and elsewhere in the globe play an irreplaceable role of ensuring security, law and order but are exposed to a wide range of potentially psychologically traumatizing events in the course of duty without adequate internal trauma informed support. This trauma potentiates them to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which is associated with many dysfunctional behaviors like assault, homicide and suicide. 
 Materials and Methods: Hermeneutic phenomenology approach is used to collect information from scholarly articles and media reports on the subject of police trauma and internal support. This data is then assessed to generate findings presented in this paper. Thirty case studies of Kenya police perpetrated assault, homicide or suicide are also selected randomly from the media to support the scholarly findings about work related police trauma and internal support.
 Findings: Kenyan police officers are exposed to traumatic events but police training and culture encourages hardiness, masculinity and repression instead of trauma informed coping. The case studies reveal that traumatized police officers in Kenya develop severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which then presents in various psychological disorders and deviance like assault (14%), murder (30%), suicide (90%) and homicide (17%).
 Implications to Theory Practice and Policy: Police management should put in place trauma informed curriculum in police training and practice. Psychological and situational mediators should also be established as a priority for trauma prevention, mitigation and stress management. Researchers should go beyond highlighting police psychological morbidity to investigate models and interventions that work to prevent and speedily resolve police trauma.

The Using of the Metaverse in the Field of Education and Training in Police Colleges

Objectives: The study addresses the possibility of using Metaverse technology in the fields of education and training in police colleges. The Metaverse has been highlighted as the future of education and training. Methods: The study adopted a dual approach that entailed reviewing 13 studies and conducting a survey to collect qualitative data on metaverse use. Results: The results and analysis of the study showed that there is a high desire to use the metaverse, and that the current education and training programs in police institutions need to be developed to keep pace with the current technological reality. The metaverse can also be applied in police institutions in a way that enhances police education, sports training, military training, professional applications, and management. Data and records. Conclusions: The study recommends adopting the metaverse in police institutions, conducting a comprehensive assessment of metaverse risks, and rigorous training for teachers in police institutions.

Psychological Well-Being and Job Satisfaction of Kenyan Police Officers

Purpose: Police work is a high risk job in terms of stress and low psychological wellbeing. In Kenya, police officers have presented high levels of suicide, homicide, assault and intimate partner abuse and this has become a matter of concern. 
 Methodology: This theoretical paper applies the hermeneutic phenomenological approach to study psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction of police officers as a phenomenon and how it affects police work. Extensive and systematic literature review is done using search engines like google scholar, web of science and Scopus. The search includes historical and contemporary scholarly data which reveals how police work is understood by scholars and the media. This data is then assessed and interpreted to discern the emerging patterns, findings and conclusions.
 Findings: Statistics on the Kenya police service indicate that 20,000 police officers are either depressed or they present with various psychological disorders. Between 2016 and 2020 police have recorded within their ranks across the country 13 murders and 11 suicides per year without a break. Systematic literature view has revealed that high psychological wellbeing of police officers is imperative in order to remove or reduce psychological morbidity in police work. This not only decreases turnover, but also retains talent, and increases productivity. High psychological wellbeing also spills over to work teams and families in terms of happiness and wellbeing. Analysis of literature has also revealed that job satisfaction is one of the facets of psychological wellbeing at the work place.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This paper proposes that police managers, and stakeholders should proactively put in place strategies that enhance job satisfaction and therefore improve the psychological wellbeing of police officers. Researchers in partnership with police management should also address the knowledge gap in explaining how police stressors finally precipitate the high rates of murders and suicide and implement solutions.

Physiological Responses to Organizational Stressors Among Police Managers

Police officers demonstrate increased risk of physical and mental health conditions due to repeated and prolonged exposure to stressful occupational conditions. Occupational stress is broken into two types: operational stress, related to the content of field duties (e.g., physical demands); and organizational stress, related to cultural and structural contexts (e.g., interpersonal relationships). Applied police research focuses on physiological activation in operational tasks as a mechanism explaining health risk and non-optimal performance outcomes. However, recent survey-based studies indicate numerous organizational stressors associated with self-reported mental health symptoms. The question of whether organizational stressors elicit significant physiological activity remains unknown. The current proof-of-concept field study tests the hypothesis that police managers will display significant physiological reactivity before, during, and after engaging in reality-based scenarios representative of stressful police management tasks developed from evidence-based pedagogical approaches. A sample of 25 training police managers (7 female, M = 16 +/- 5.3 years of experience) completed 5 reality-based scenarios, including resolving a heated conflict between colleagues, delivering negative feedback to a subordinate, and critical incident command. Significant increases in heart rate relative to rest were observed during all tasks, and in anticipation of several tasks. Greater increases in reactive heart rate were associated with longer recovery times. Sex differences and relationships between objective biological and subjective psychological measures of stress are discussed. The current findings demonstrate significant physiological responses to organizational stressors similar to levels observed during operational tasks, despite the absence of physical or aerobic exertion. Implications for police health and training are discussed.

The Effect of Political Preference in the Management of Police and Teacher Pension Plans

The Effect of Political Preference in the Management of Police and Teacher Pension Plans

Balancing act: Assessing police efficiency amidst staffing shortages through inverse data envelopment analysis

Abstract Police agencies are amid a significant staffing shortage. Scholars and police managers warn about the effects of understaffing on public safety and security. Studies have examined the impacts of events like the Floyd protests had on police resignations. This study uses a linear programming method, Inverse data envelopment analysis (InvDEA), to estimate the efficient allocation of police resources using a simulated agency with 150 sectors. The first decision-making scenario simulated the challenge many agencies currently face with staffing shortages. Reallocating officers and civilians from inefficient to efficient units improved performance by 4.7% without additional officers. Results of the second and third decision-making scenarios indicate a need to reallocate resources by 23% and 19%, respectively. These findings contribute to the scarce literature on police staff allocation. In addition, the methodology employed in this study is helpful for police managers to make accurate operational decisions when combined with changes to the efficiency frontier that reflect the environment in which they operate.

Barriers and enablers to implementing police mental health co-responder programs: A qualitative study using the consolidated framework for implementation research.

Police and mental health co-responder programs operate internationally and can be effective in providing timely and appropriate assessment, brief intervention, and referral services for people experiencing mental health crises. However, these models vary greatly, and little is known about how the design and implementation of these programs impacts their effectiveness. This study was a qualitative, post hoc implementation determinant evaluation of mental health co-responder units in Brisbane, Australia, comprising of verbal or written interviews with police and mental health staff with an on-road role in the co-responder units, and their managers. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research was used to identify barriers and enablers to the program's implementation and effectiveness. Participants (n = 30) from all groups felt strongly that the co-responder units are a substantial improvement over the usual police management of mental health crisis cases, and lead to better outcomes for consumers and the service. Enablers included an information-sharing agreement; the Mental Health Co-Responder (MHCORE) program's compatibility with existing police and mental health services; and the learning opportunity for both organizations. Barriers included cultural differences between the organizations, particularly risk-aversion to suicidality for police and a focus on least-restrictive practices for health; extensive documentation requirements for health; and a lack of specific mental health training for police. Using an evidence-based implementation science framework enabled identification of a broad range of contextual barriers and enablers to implementation of police mental health co-responder programs. Adapting the program to address these barriers and enablers during the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation phases increases the likelihood of the service's effectiveness. These findings will inform the spread and scale of the co-responder program across Queensland, and will be relevant to police districts internationally considering implementing a co-responder program.