NCJ Number
85422
Date Published
1981
Length
279 pages
Annotation
This series of papers considers areas where police management can be improved, including cutback management, measuring patrol workload, managing changes, and improving communication.
Abstract
A discussion of cutback management explores alternative management strategies for dealing with a cutback in resources and suggests areas for future research. Another paper provides advice for managing strategic change, which includes suggestions for overcoming the personal and political pressures resisting even the most rational plans for change. A patrol workload measurement manual updates processes for solving patrol deployment problems which have been successfully tested in California law enforcement agencies, and suggestions are included for measuring response capability and evaluating the numerical adequacy of a patrol force. An essay on managing criminal investigations grant programs considers historical background, conceptual goals and objectives, assignment of responsibilities, and procedures. Another presentation presents results of a survey of 182 randomly selected patrol officers and detectives in a police agency to determine perceptions of significant communication problems between these classes of officers; suggestions for improving communication between these two groups are offered. Other studies deal with the effects of organizational design on communications between patrol and investigative functions, a test design for differential police response to service calls, improving police services through telephone operations, and a perspective on the state-of-the-art in the communications process. Footnotes accompany each presentation. For individual entries, see NCJ 85423-24.