NCJ Number
185735
Journal
Policing Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: 2000 Pages: 303-317
Editor(s)
Lawrence F. Travis III
Date Published
2000
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper investigates conceptual and empirical issues in the study of police organizational innovation by describing relevant issues in organizational innovation based on data from the 431 largest municipal police departments in the United States.
Abstract
Two data sources were used for the study, data from the 1993 wave of the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics study and a survey of community police practices in over 1,600 police agencies conducted by the Police Foundation in 1993. A typology of policing innovation was constructed and then tested, with policing innovation defined as something new and state-of-the-art to the field of policing. Policing innovation was categorized according to radical, technical, administrative, and programmatic types. It was apparent police organizational innovation was not a unidimensional construct. Although the innovations were identified as being state-of-the-art, methods in the present study were not. Policing innovation splintered into at least 10 sub-groups. Future studies of policing innovation are recommended to assess the true extent of innovation. 44 references, 7 notes, and 4 tables