NCJ Number
169567
Date Published
1992
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This analysis of changing police functions emphasizes the need for police managers to change their own roles as officers' functional responsibilities expand, to integrate functions within the organization appropriately, and to reconfigure organizational structures to match objectives.
Abstract
The analysis uses the experience of the Houston police patrol function to illustrate the concepts discussed. It notes that police managers must understand how traditional functions within policing are evolving. The traditional management perspective considers patrol functions to be reactive and to include random preventive patrol and responses to calls for service. Police research during the 1970's led to the adoption of the concept of community policing. Houston initiated Neighborhood-Oriented Policing (NOP) through an operational continuum with three components: a reactive function that focuses on immediate responses, a proactive function that focuses on tactical responses, and a coactive function that focuses on strategic responses. These changes in the patrol function require changes in management as well. Management needs to facilitate the integration of these functions to ensure that the efficient delivery of services is consistent with neighborhood concerns and expectations. Management also needs to reconfigure organizational structures to enhance their management style and facilitate the integration of the officers' functional responsibilities. If this task is not addressed, bureaucratic structures will continue to hinder management's effort to help police officers attain their stated objectives. Figures and 26 references