NCJ Number
142894
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 41 Issue: 5 Dated: (May 1993) Pages: 26-29
Date Published
1993
Length
4 pages
Annotation
A recent poll of police executives showed that only 16 percent held employment contracts. The survey explored a number of issues related to police executives' perceptions of the value of contracts and their potential impact on departmental management.
Abstract
In general, police executives believed that they would be more effective working under a contract. While some experts believe that police executives, particularly those working in smaller communities, would benefit from having written contracts in terms of job security, not everyone agrees that such contracts would protect police chiefs from the pressures that are part of the job. According to the poll, two-thirds of the respondents believed that politics unduly influence the way police executives must manage their departments. A contract would also save the jobs of politically appointed executives whose survival depends on the reelection of their political bosses. Many of the surveyed police executives drew a parallel between contracts and length of service; 83 percent felt their tenure was often influenced by issues unrelated to performance and beyond their control. Some alternatives to contracts include public pressure, civil service jobs, State labor laws, and letters of agreement. About 86 percent of respondents, however, would not favor belonging to a union.