1. The Police: Role and Function

2. Police Organization Most municipal police departments are independent agencies within the executive branch of government. Most departments follow para-military model adhering to semi-rigid chain of command. But, substantial discretion rests at the lowest rank level Personnel decisions often based on time-in-rank considerations.

3. The Multiple Goals of Police Work Basic goals: social control: how? control crime maintain order provide services gather information (intelligence, investigation) special tasks (crowd control, SWAT) be a symbol of justice

4. The Multiple Goals of Police Work (cont.) Issues: What if goals conflict? (e.g., crime control and justice –”due process”); what goal receives priority? How to divide and organize all this work within one agency: look at organization charts How to control power and discretion (e.g., use of force, corruption, discrimination)

5. The Formal Roles of Police Formal roles: sworn officers and civilians Street work: patrol officers Investigations: detectives Undercover: vice, corruption Traffic control Special: K9, SWAT, community relations, juvies, internal investigations Training: academy, FTOs, in-service, special skills workshops Support: planning, budgets, records, equipment – often civilians

6. The Organization of Police Departments

7. Doing Policing: the dirty, impossible job Doing policing: “Dirty” job? call the cops Discretion, power, external, and internal judgments The nature of street, patrol work: Deal with the dismal side of life – makes one cynical, disillusioned, few decent folk Need to use force Visibility – everyone can see you, and tape you Potential for danger Uneven work rhythms – boredom and adrenaline Authoritarian work environment – And competing goals – order, services, law enforcement, intelligence And higher ups will always “betray” you

8. Doing Policing: the dirty, impossible job (cont.) Discretion - unavoidable normative, legal and policy judgments – situational decision-making Someone will always complain – the nature of law, criminal justice and policies Plus, now COP work: be nice, other skills, performance evaluations unclear

9. The Patrol Function Account for 2/3 of most departments’ personnel Deter crime through visible presence Maintain public order Respond to law violations or emergencies Identify and apprehend criminals Aid citizens in distress Facilitate movement of people and traffic Create a sense of safety and security

10. What Do Patrol Officers Do When They Work Workload studies: how do patrol officers spend their time? How is this measured? Participant observation: ride around with cops Analysis of 911 calls for policing: why do people call the police Crime, order maintenance, services, paperwork, time off What percentage of time is spend doing each role Are the police proactive or reactive in their work?

11. What Do Patrol Officers Do When They Work Findings of workload studies Crime fighting efforts are only a small part of the police officer’s overall activities. On average a police officer makes less than 2 arrests per month and less than 1 felony arrest every 4 months. Majority of time spent handling minor disturbances, service calls, and administrative duties

12. Impacts of Patrol Work Deterrent effect of patrol: Patrol methods seem to have little impact on public’s attitude toward police.

13. Patrol Work Patrol Activities Majority of efforts devoted to order maintenance or peacekeeping Requires officers to use discretion and resolve situations without making an arrest Use of selective enforcement

14. Patrol Work (cont.) Proactive patrol Department emphasizes stopping crimes before they occur rather than traditional reactive approach. Aggressive enforcement is used to create belief that criminals stand a significant risk of being caught. Special programs may target specific crimes. Zero tolerance policies New York experience

15. Patrol Work (cont.) Adding patrol officers Research indicates adding police officers may in fact reduce crime and improve overall effectiveness of the justice system. Agencies with more officers per capita than the norm experience lower levels of violent crimes. A costly policy (costs about 80,000/year to hire and keep one officer)

16. Patrol Work (cont.) Compstat program Computer program provides real-time crime data and improves analysis capabilities for local commanders. Commanders are required by HQ justify police deployments and strategies based on crime trends. Both a use of data and a management tool

17. The Investigation Function Detective investigate the causes of crime and attempt to identify the individuals or groups responsible for committing particular offenses. Undercover/sting operations Police deceive criminals into openly committing illegal acts. Common in investigation of prostitution, gambling, and narcotics Critics argue constitutes entrapment or may be encouraging commission of additional offenses

18. The Investigation Function (cont.) Evaluating investigations Most arrests are made by patrol officers. One study indicates half of all detectives could be replaced without negatively influencing crime clearance rates. Police have only a 5 percent chance to solve a crime if more than 15 minutes elapse from the time of occurrence to reporting. Detectives generally lack sufficient resources to carry out lengthy probes of any but the most serious crimes. Most crimes are solved by leads from the public

19. The Investigation Function (cont.) Improving investigations Use of patrol officers for preliminary investigations to free up time for detectives Increased use of specialization Greater reliance on technology Better relations with community members, who provide most of the leads that help solve a crime

20. Community Oriented Policing COP: Core elements Partnership and co-production Problem solving and crime prevention Decentralization of control and authority Flexibility: no one style fits all From incident driven policing to analysis of underlying problems; E.g. hot spots, repeat responses Requires new skills and attitudes for police

21. Community Policing Police-community relations programs were developed to improve relations with the community and develop cooperation with citizens with the goals of Explaining police activities Teaching self-protection methods Improving general attitudes toward policing Original programs developed at station-house and departmental levels.

22. Community Policing (cont.) Broken windows model Primary function of police should be community preservation, public safety, and order maintenance. Neighborhood disorder creates fear. Neighborhoods give out crime-promoting signals. To be effective police need citizen cooperation. If small crimes/offenses are not taken care of, the community will deteriorate

23. Community Policing (cont.) Implementing community policing New Jersey and Michigan foot patrol experiments Creation of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Neighborhood-oriented policing

24. Community Policing (cont.) Problem-oriented policing Form of proactive policing Identifies long-term community problems and develop strategies to eliminate them Relies on assistance of local residents to identify and resolve problems Specialized units may concentrate on “hot spots” where significant portion of calls originate

25. Doing Problem Solving Problem solving in practice: the SARA model S canning A nalysis R esponse A ssessment

26. Community Policing (cont.) Challenges of community policing Must define community Define roles Change command structure Re-orient police values Revise training Reorient recruitment Sustain community participation It has to work – it is still policing

27. The Changing Concepts of Policing (cont.) Support functions Personnel services Internal affairs Budgeting Data management Dispatch Forensic laboratories Planning and research Equipment: police buy a lot of cars - supply and maintenance

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