Politics, Professionalism, and Urban Services - The Police

• NCJ Number: 79783
• Author(s): P F Nardulli; J M Stonecash
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 220 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Illinois Law Enforcement Cmssn (see Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority); East Central Illinois Criminal Justice Cmssn; University of Illinois; University of Illinois
• Sale Source: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain Publishers, Inc
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study of the delivery of police services in Champaign, Ill., uses the perspective of police operations to address key issues of urban service delivery in general. Empirical aspects of the study are restricted to citizen-initiated police patrol activities, termed citizen-assistance services.

Abstract

Analysis was made of records on both the demand for such services and the police response. The introductory discussion of basic issues in the literature on urban services delivery contains both a critique of the existing approach and a general outline for future research that reexamines the role of bureaucratic and political influences on the service-delivery process. The setting for this study is then drawn in an overview of the political and social dimensions of Champaign and in an outline of its neighborhoods and their distinguishing features. A historical account describes the organizational growth of the city's police department into a professional force. The demand for police services is then analyzed theoretically, and methodology and results from the assessment of the demand model are given. This chapter presents both aggregated and disaggregated analyses and is primarily concerned with the relative impact of locational, or need-related, and sociopolitical factors. The next section, devoted to the police response, explains the theoretical concept of response as well as the approach and data sources used in studying it. Successive chapters deal with three dimensions of the notion of police response in three different areas. Here, police handling of assault, common crime, and traffic accident causes is examined in terms of factors affecting speed, effort, and outcomes. The dominant concern is with the impact of resource constraints, professional-rational considerations, and sociopolitical factors on the different response indicators. The book concludes with a summary of the study findings and their implications. Tabular data, notes, and references are included with individual chapters. Appendixes contain data collection forms. An index is also provided.