Dilemmas of Police Administration

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Dilemmas of Police Administration

• James Q. Wilson

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Objectives of Police

• Order Maintenance
• Handling Disputes
• Law Enforcement
• Applying legal sanctions

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Order Maintenance

• Lack of agreement about police role
• Ambiguous laws
• Victims are often less than innocent
• Arrest is not the desired outcome

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Law Enforcement

• Prevent crime
• Catch criminals
• How do you measure how much crime the police
  prevent?
• Very few who-dunits are solved by the police
• Reduction or Displacement?
• Suppressing street crime is bad P.R.

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Inherent Dilemmas

• Lack of agreement on what successful order
  maintenance is in a heterogeneous society
• Finding a strategy which permits the realization
  of effective law enforcement without alienating
  segments of the community

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Criticisms

• Bad men
• Police do the wrong things

Solution

• Put the police under the control of the public

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Why This Wont Work

• Police are timid about enforcing laws against
  their bosses
• Involvement in conflict would still have unhappy
  results
• Potential for abuse against outsiders still
  exists
• Conflict due to heterogeneity would still exist
  police would be seen as choosing sides

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The Nature of Policing

• The dilemmas of managing the police arises less
  from the quality of the officers or the level at
  which authority is exercised and more from the
  nature of the police function.
• Like mental health professionals, the police are
  given a task they cannot perform, yet they must
  try to perform it.

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Why Does it Work in Some Places?

• Small communities
• Financially well-off
• High level of cooperation with police
• HOMOGENIETY
• Few incidents of public disorder
• Few crimes against people (murder, rape,
  mugging)
• Police community share a common definition of
  who is suspicious

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Racial Complication

• The fundamental problem of policing is one of
  socioeconomic status complicated by race
• Are cops racist? Is this the problem?
• Will a diverse force solve the problems police
  face in the community?

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Implications

• Substantial improvement in police-community
  relations rely on changes in the structure of
  American society

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What Should the Police Do?

• Recognize order maintenance as their primary
  function

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Benefits of Order Maintenance

• Officers judged by ability to keep the peace, not
  arrests or tickets
• More options for handling disorder
• The need for information will lead to local
  control (decentralization)
• Strengthening of command
• Master patrol officers

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Making the Change

• Police Officers as Craftsmen
• No written body of knowledge
• Learning through apprenticeship
• Respect earned (or not) from coworkers
• Special skills set the police apart from
  civilians
• Organization Leadership, not policies will lead
  to change

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What About Law Enforcement?

• Often exaggerated
• Should be organized differently than order
  maintenance (centralized command)
• Bad for community relations
• Shouldnt expect much crime prevention
• Look to other agencies for solutions (i.e.
  Corrections) . . .