The Importance Of The Organization Of A Police Department

Decent Essays
The organization of police departments have a major influence over the officer and their safety. The organization of police departments have an effect on the assault against officers. Research was done on organizational control, context, and complexity. These three points are the most important factors that influence the correlation of organization of a police departments, and the assault on its officers. Additionally the way a department is organized has a major influence on its officer. Disorganized departments are more likely to have problems, especially with the community it serves. When a departments is well organized and follows the protocols and laws it makes everything go smooth and less issues occur. The key to a great police department is how it is organized and run. …show more content…
There are different ways that a police department can space out their duties. Some departments have a more spaced out ranking, where there are more ranks and each of the ranks have certain duties. Another style of organization is a more compressed approach where the power is more decentralized. By flattening and decentralizing the ranks of a police department is believed to improve the safety of the officers in the department (Willits, 2014). When a police department has a flattened structure it allows the lower officers to put in their opinions. Lower ranked officers are the patrol officers and they are the ones who interact with the public. They get to see what goes on and what might be best for the people in their community. By having the flattened ranks it gives these patrols officers more of a voice in what goes on and how the department deals with situations. When the community’s needs are met then they are less likely to be violent or assault officers. Therefore this will increase the safety of the officers just by how the department is

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    A police officer’s job is to protect and serve, control the public order, and help prevent and detect a crime. The duties of police officers, also known as cops, have changed over time yet have always been to protect and serve the community. The cops in today’s society have a mission which is to enforce the rules of conduct and the law. Of course, this mission can also be very dangerous for the officer and their families. These thoughts are all a part of the stress and complications that come with the job as a cop and most cops are trained to deal with this stress.…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chain of command is an important aspect of the law enforcement division. Transmitting information through organizational structure ensures that all personnel in a department will be adequately informed. A chain of command establishes department’s hierarchy in which the authority members may conduct appropriate action before transferring the information/directive/order down the line of command. Failure to transmit the matter through the chain of command creates internal disorder and confusion. Such violation of the chain of command can discredit the authority of the supervisors.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction Secrecy is a common factor in the government, they will always hide something from society. It could be to protect us or just to avoid something even bigger. A police officer role is to “serve and protect the community” by enforcing the law in a safe way to those that break it. Every citizen have the right to be treated fairly in this country. Police officers are supposed to help the community follow the law, by making sure that everything is in order and no one is acting illegal.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Police officers must understand that the chain of command is used to keep order and structure in a police department for its day to day operations to run in an organized manner. If officers do what they please and do not follow a chain of command there will be no way to keep structure and order within the ranks. A veteran officer through his time and experience on the jobwould understand this more and would know that the chain of command is a vital component of any functioning and well organized police department. Whether the deviation of following orders was accidental or intentional, there are still serious repercussions that follow. Some consequences for insubordination can be a simple reprimand, suspension or it can ultimately lead to job termination.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rank Structure Unlike nonsworn or civilian members in the police department, sworn officers have a rank structure. Police officers are the lowest rank in the police organization and chief of police or police commissioner being the highest. Police officers are considered the backbone of the department because they perform duties such as patrolling, responding to calls, and enforcing the law. The second rank is detectives, who investigates past crimes and do not supervise police officers, except in a crime scene because they are in charge of handling the crime scene and creating major decisions. The third rank is the sergeant, who supervises over a number of police officers and are responsible for the activities and conduct of their squad.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In organizational structure you have an informal structure which varies in the criminal justice system. Informal structure is the unofficial goals, activities, communication networks, beliefs, and leadership that emerge within a formal organization (Stojkovic 2015). With the criminal justice system you need an organizational structure to keep the process in a organize manner. When developing an organizational structure in criminal justice it can be very complex. They develop a structure for the distribution of authority, and responsibility among officer of the law to establish a mission, policy, and procedures to better the system.…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Police Profiling

    • 1480 Words
    • 6 Pages

    How and why police officers use excessive force against American civilians has been, and will continue to be, a controversial topic of much debate. Our nation’s history of racial conflict and inequality, both personal and systemic, has left our country more divided than ever after the recent shootings of young unarmed black youth by police officer’s. These events are rich with sociological issues such as inequality and class issues, racial profiling, the militarization of the police, law enforcement interaction with protesters, social media networks, and the “criminalization of black male youth”. The purpose of this paper is to research profiling by law enforcement officers and how it correlates with their use of excessive force.…

    • 1480 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethical Dilemmas Scenarios

    • 1456 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Lieutenant A will represent the newly promoted narcotics detective assigned to the precinct with the widespread drug problem. Sergeant B will represent the partner of Lieutenant A, Captain C will represent the squad commander, and Major D will represent the precinct commander. In the scenario provided, Lieutenant A attended his first briefing along with Sergeant B. Squad Commander C informed his subordinates that the tactics that they are using have proven to be effective and as a result the street crimes and homicides rates are down. After the briefing was over Lieutenant A asked Sergeant B to clarify what tactics the unit used since Captain C did not go into details. Sergeant B informs Lieutenant A that the unit sometimes plant evidence…

    • 1456 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Community oriented policing is used by police stations to both improve relations with neighboring communities and improve crime prevention. An example of this would be a neighborhood watch, which officers and community members would walk the town to prevent crime and disorder. Between weaponry and rank structure our police do seem to look a lot like a military. The rank structure of the military allows for easy disimination of information and helps leadership incharge of large numbers, manage those persons easier, so its not hard to see why the rank structures are similar. Though local police use smaller arms such as pistols, larger cities have a much higher potential for riots and higher level crime.…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    There are a lot of things going on today about how police use force. People are steady dying or getting hurt. For example, in August of 2014, a teenage boy was shot and killed by a police officer in St. Louis, Mo. Since then, police have killed more than 1,083 Americans, according to Vice News. There have been riots and chaos for justice for some of these people.…

    • 1642 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Police Core Values

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As a Chief of Police, one would have to determine what does the department they head up stand for? Who does it represent and what are the essential purposes for the agency. With that information, the values and missions adopted will guide the action of all the officers that comprise the department (Cordner, 2016). This is a tremendous responsibility put on the Chief because it’s critical the values and missions remain the main focus and not be overcome by other unofficial purposes (Cordner, 2016). I believe the most important missions include the protection of life and property, enforcing the laws, developing and maintaining a positive relationship with the local community, and to create an atmosphere of safety.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The two major roles for officers is the crime-fighting role and the order maintenance role. The difference is how crime is handled. For the crime-fighting role, their approach is more upright by battling and eliminating crime hands on. Another way to describe it can be “kicking ass and tacking names.” For the order maintenance role, they handle crime by tying to prevent before it happens.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Issues In Policing

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Police officers are faced with many challenges when it comes to enforcing the laws and the way they choose to enforce the laws. The problems that police officers face can range from various different levels. Some are not as serious as others but they all play a role involving the issues in policing. However, the problems…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Police Compliance

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Even during this period, the officers are governed by the department’s policies, which are developed to reinforce the required ethics and standards associated with the position. As very well put by the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), “Police integrity and ethics are fundamental to effective policing and help build trust within communities. Sound conduct by police improves community interactions, enhances communication, and promotes shared responsibility for addressing crime and disorder (COPS, n.d.). As they look at the issue from an organizational strategy standpoint, they have to include all aspects of the organization.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Order maintenance in neighborhoods that have foot patrols have been known to make residents feel safer than those that don’t have them. The Broken Windows article stated that foot patrol officers presence didn’t reduce crime in the areas they patrolled, but made the residents feel safer and they looked up to the officers more than those that lived in areas without foot patrol officers. The majority of police officers hired are assigned to the patrol section because it is responsible for maintaining order. Patrol officers functions are to respond to service calls and patrol areas of assignment. All patrol officers are the first to implement order maintenance when they respond to a service call.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays