Police Organization and
Administration
CJ 3600
Professor James J. Drylie
Week 1
Class Overview
Introduction
Syllabus
Expectations
Writing Requirements
– Writing Lab
Grades
London – 1829
Sir Robert Peel
The London Metropolitan Police Act
– September 29, 1829
– Peel was the British Home Secretary
– 1828 he proposed a plan for a disciplined
quasi-military police force in London
895
constables
88 sergeants
20 inspectors
8 superintendents
The force would rely on uniformed
officers to fill senior officer ranks
The use of persons of a higher social
class would not occur
The first constable killed in the line of
duty was in 1830
Source: Metropolitan Police (2008): http://www.met.police.uk/history
The Nine Principles
Basic mission is to prevent crime and
disorder
The ability to perform police duties is
dependent upon public approval
Must secure the willing cooperation of
the public in voluntary observance of
the law
Public cooperation diminishes
proportionate with the need to use
force
Police do not cater to public opinion
but demonstrate an impartial service
to the law
Physical force is used to the extent
necessary
The police are the public and the
public are the police
Police should not usurp judicial
authority
Test of police efficiency is the absence
of crime and disorder
Source: http://www.newwestpolice.org/peel.html
The Evolution of American
Policing
The Political era
– 1850 – 1900
The Reform era
– 1900 – 1920
The Professional era
– 1920 – 1960s
The Community Policing era
– 1970s – Present
Intelligence-led policing
Politics and Policing
Politics – the exercise of power.
– Politics in the pure sense is value free
– The application of politics determines if it is
“good” or “bad”
– Personal politics is present in all organizations –
the police are not unique in this sense
– The “political” relationship between the police
and partisan politics in the US has been long and
not entirely healthy
Police Professionalization
The term “profession” is derived from
the Latin pro (forth) and fateri
(confess)
– This means to “announce a belief”
There is no single definition for
profession, rather a collection of
definitions that result in an
approximation
An organized body
of theoretically
grounded
knowledge
Advanced study
A code of ethics
Prestige
Standards of
admission
Professional
association
Service ideal
The Father of American
Policing
August Vollmer
– Chief of police
Berkeley,
CA: 1905 – 1932
Career paralleled the reformation movement
during 1900-1926
Advocate of technology and higher statndards
Efficiency, honesty, and scientific knowledge
Formalized police training
Introduced psychological and intelligence
testing
The Pendleton Act 0f
1883
Federal legislation that sought to
eliminate the problems associated with
the political spoils system
– The birth of the “civil service system”
States and local governments followed
by passing parallel legislation over the
next 30 years.
Civil service or
professionalism?
Vollmer’s professional police officer
was:
– Trained
– Educated
The new civil service officer
– Operated in a system that was grounded
more in service than ability
The Military Model
Former military officers were often
recruited in the early Twentieth
Century as chiefs of commissioners
– New Jersey State Police – 1921
Colonel
Swartzkopf (USA)
– Philadelphia – 1923
General
Smedley Butler (USMC)
How it worked
A bureaucratic structure
An emphasis on discipline
Inspections
Improved records keeping
Supervision
Close-order drill
Improved accountability
The 20th Century
Prohibition
– The National Prohibition Act (1919)
The
Volstead Act
Considered
the worse piece of federal
legislation that impacted the police in many
negative ways
– Corruption
– Organized criminal activities
The Depression
The Ku Klux Klan
The 1930s
– The National Commission on Law
Observance and Enforcement – The
Wickersham Commission
Report
#14 – Police
– Recommended provisions for civil service
classifications for police and enhanced support for
education and training
“Take politics out of the police.”
A new slogan for an age-old problem
– An emphasis on law enforcement
Crime
was perceived to be increasing
dramatically
– Residency requirements became popular
WW II and the 1950s
The war stripped many departments of
physically capable officers and left agencies
understaffed for the duration of the war
years.
Women were hired to fill vacancies
Auxiliary units were formed and staffed by
older men who could not serve in the
military or were rejected for being physically
unfit for duty
The 1960s
Racial, social, and economic tensions
erupted
– Major US cities experienced riots
Detroit
Newark
Los
Angeles
– Civil Rights Movement
– Vietnam War
– Assassinations
Police at the Forefront
The era of police professionalism
fostered a “We-they” mentality
– Evident on both sides
Police
saw elements of the public as the
enemy
Citizens viewed the police as oppressive
Renewed Professionalism
Commission on Law Enforcement and
Criminal Justice – 1967
– Improved standards of admission
Background
investigations
Psychological screening
– Training
Academies
– Education
College
degrees at entry-level
– Although not universal
Research on policing –
The Trilogy
Three major experiments that rocked
the foundation of policing:
– The Kansas City Preventive Patrol
Experiment
– The RAND Criminal Investigation Study
– Team Policing
The Kansas City Study
A large-scale test of one of policing’s
most cherished doctrines:
– Conspicuous & aggressive patrol in all
areas of the community at all times
prevents crime and reduces the public
fear of crime
How the study worked
12-month period
Divided 15 geographic areas covering
32 square miles into three types of
beats
– Reactive – no preventive patrol
– Proactive – received 2-3 times the
amount of normal patrol
– Control – maintained normal operations
The RAND Study
Attempted to determine what factors
contribute to the success of
investigations, and
What is it that investigators do
National survey
– Interviews in 25 departments
TEAM Policing
A team commander
20-30 officers
24-hour responsibility for a geographic
area
The TEAM makes all decisions as to
the delivery of police services
The Results
Kansas City Experiment
– No significant deviations in reported
crimes across the three types of beats
– No significant differences in security
measures
– No correlation between level of patrol,
number of MVAs, fear of crime, and
attitudes toward the police
The RAND Study concluded that the
majority of clearances of cases were
achieved by the
– Investigating officer
– Information volunteered by citizens
– Routine police procedures
– Detectives were doing more paperwork
than investigations
TEAM Policing did not achieve success
measured in longevity
– Did leave important legacies
Set
the stage for COP
Resulted in renewed appreciation for the
capabilities of patrol officers
Today and Beyond
By the 1980s we saw
– The advent of COP
– The growth of the private security
industry
– Substantial advances in technology
– Terrorism