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The Police: Organization, Role and Function

Chapter 6. The Police: Organization, Role and Function. The Police Organization. Independent organizations No two exactly alike Hierarchical with a chain of command Problems are not uncommon, nor are they unique to policing agencies Personnel changes Internal reorganization.

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The Police: Organization, Role and Function

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  1. Chapter 6 The Police: Organization, Role and Function

  2. The Police Organization • Independent organizations • No two exactly alike • Hierarchical with a chain of command • Problems are not uncommon, nor are they unique to policing agencies • Personnel changes • Internal reorganization

  3. Organization of a Traditional Metropolitan Police

  4. The Police Organization • The time-in-rank system • Requires that before moving up the administrative ladder, an officer must spend a certain amount of time in the next lowest rank • Prohibits departments from allowing officers to skip ranks • Sometimes prevents them from hiring an officer from another department and award him/her a higher rank

  5. The Police Role • Real police work • Minor disturbances • Service calls • Administrative duties

  6. The Patrol Function • Patrol officers are the most highly visible components of the entire criminal justice system • Patrol activities • Deter crime • Maintain public order • Respond quickly • Identify and apprehend law violators • Provide aid • Facilitate the movement of traffic and people • Create a feeling of security in the community

  7. Police Encounters With Citizens Each Year

  8. Improving Patrol • Proactive policing • An aggressive law enforcement style in which patrol officers take the initiative against crime instead of waiting for criminal acts to occur • Broken windows model • The role of police as maintainers of community order and safety • Rapid response • Improving police response time

  9. The Patrol Function • Procedural justice • Concern with making decisions that are arrived at through procedures viewed as fair • Use of technology • Technologies such as CompStat to help guide patrol efforts

  10. The Investigation Function • Investigative work is less visible than patrol work • Work closely with patrol officers to provide an immediate investigative response to crimes and incidents • Many police departments maintain separate units, squads, or divisions of detectives who investigate crimes ranging from vice to homicides

  11. How Do Detectives Detect? • Specific focus • Interview witnesses, gather evidence, record events, and collect facts • General coverage • Canvass the neighborhood and make observations, conducts interviews with friends/family/associates, contacts others for information regarding victims/suspects, construct victim/suspect time lines to outline their whereabouts

  12. How Do Detectives Detect? • Informative data gathering • Use technology to collect records of cell phones, computer hard drives, notes, and other information

  13. Investigative Functions

  14. The Investigation Function • Sting Operations • Organized groups of detectives who deceive criminals into openly committing illegal acts or conspiring to engage in criminal activity

  15. The Investigative Function • Undercover Work • Pose as criminals or as victims • Considered a necessary element of police work, although it can prove dangerous for the officer • May pose psychological problems for the officer

  16. The Investigation Function • Evaluating Investigations • Creates considerable paperwork and is relatively inefficient in clearing cases • Improving Investigations • Patrol officers should have greater responsibility at the scene • Specialized units can bring expertise • Collection of physical evidence is important

  17. Thinking Point • Watch a show that currently runs on television (can be a show in re-runs) that deals with policing or detective work. • What type of impression of policing or detective work do you get from the television show? • How does this correspond with what you learned in this chapter? • How can you explain the differences?

  18. Community Policing • Community Policing • Consists of a return to an earlier style of policing in which officers on the beat had an intimate contact with the people they served • Can be a specific program or a philosophy • Key components: • Community partnerships • Organizational transformation • Problem solving

  19. Community Policing • Important because it promotes interaction between officers and citizens • Gives officers the time to meet with local residents to talk about crime in the neighborhood and to use personal initiative to solve problems

  20. The Challenges of Community Policing • Defining community • Defining roles • Changing supervisor attitudes • Reorienting police values • Revising training • Reorienting recruitment • Reaching out to every community

  21. Thinking Point • Look at the website of your community police department for evidence of community policing programs, or contact your local police department to inquire. • What types of community policing initiatives do you believe are present in your community? • Have you seen any evidence of such initiatives?

  22. Problem Oriented Policing • A style of police management that stresses proactive problem solving instead of reactive crime fighting • Requires police agencies to identify particular long-term community problems and to develop strategies to eliminate them • Supported by the fact that a great deal of urban crime is concentrated in a few hot spots

  23. Criminal Acts, Criminal Places • Combating auto theft • Use of technology to reduce car thefts • Reducing violence • Operation Ceasefire • Formed to reduce youth homicide and youth firearms violence in Boston

  24. Intelligence-Led Policing • The collection and analysis of information to generate an “intelligence end product” designed to inform police decision making at both the tactical and the strategic level

  25. Intelligence-Led Policing • Relies heavily on: • Confidential informants • Offender interviews • Careful analysis of crime reports and calls for service • Suspect surveillance • Community sources of information

  26. Intelligence and the Intelligence Process • Tactical Intelligence • Gaining or developing information related to threats of terrorism or crime and using this information to apprehend offenders, harden targets, and use strategies that will eliminate or mitigate the threat • Strategic Intelligence • Information about the changing nature of certain problems and threats for the purpose of developing response strategies and reallocating resources

  27. Intelligence-Led Policing • Fusion Centers • Support for a range of law enforcement activities • Help for major incident operations and support for units charged with interdiction and criminal investigations • Provide the means for community input, often through “tip lines” • Assistance to law enforcement executives

  28. Police Support Functions • Personnel Service • Internal Affairs Division • Administration and Control of Budgets • Maintenance and Dissemination of Information • Dispatch • Training • Citizen Police Interactions • Forensics • Planners

  29. Improving Police Productivity • Consolidation • Informal Arrangements • Sharing • Pooling • Contracting • Service Districts • Civilian Employees • Multiple Tasking • Special Assignments • Differential Police Responses

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