NCJ Number
88945
Date Published
1983
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The Netherlands Project Group on Organizations Structure (POS), created to make recommendations on police organization and manpower use, has recommended the democratization and integration of police into society as the means for tailoring social control to rapid social change.
Abstract
The POS perceived that inflexible and authoritarian law enforcement is not an appropriate police response to behavior and human relations conflicts associated with rapid social change. Greater human relations skills, closer contact with the public, and the development of policy relevant to the needs of particular neighborhoods are viewed by the POS as the primary requirements of policing likely to be effective in the midst of the fluctuating conditions of contemporary society. The POS favors a police organizational structure based on territorial decentralization, teamwork, decentralization of responsibility, minimization of specialization, a reduction in the number of levels in the organization, and policy sharing involving all members of the police organization participating in a policy-advisory system. Such changes are recommended because the traditional bureaucratic structure of the police has been geared to policymaking that generally has an incremental character. Routine events often occupy the organization, especially at the level of top management. This has led to an inflexibility that is inappropriate for dealing with a society whose perceptions and behaviors are changing. Input from officers in close contact with the needs and social problems of specific neighborhoods is essential to the development of relevant policymaking. Decentralization and team policing make such input and flexible policymaking possible.