Introduction

This lesson tracks the history of police administration and management from its early conception to the present day. The chief architects of police administration and management derive from both practitioners and academics, and presented here are the leading schools of thought, including public administration, business management, and police management. At present, police management tends to be a blend of the historical schools of management. Students should be familiar with the various schools as well as their historical roots and major ideas.

Additionally, this lesson discusses the complexity of police organizations.  Structural complexity is more common in larger departments.  Larger departments have more officers to supervise, so there may be a longer rank structure than in smaller departments (called vertical complexity).  For example, an officer in the Baltimore Police Department reports to her sergeant, who reports to the lieutenant, who reports to the captain, who relays information to higher ranks, whereas an officer in a smaller police agency might report directly to the chief.  Another example of the longer rank structure is the Los Angeles Police Department.  Here is a graphic of their police ranks from the commissioner to the captains; keep in mind there still are other supervisory ranks between the captains and the officers on the street: http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/org%20chart.pdf

Larger departments have more employees who can specialize (called horizontal complexity) into specific task areas, such as gang units, gun crimes units and child trauma units.  On the contrary, smaller police departments often require officers to be generalists, having a wide range of skills and abilities.

Organizational complexity can vary by geography, too (spatial complexity).  We will discuss each of these and more in this lesson.

Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• review Peel’s Nine Principles;
• define police organization;
• distinguish between organizational theory and organizational behavior; 
• analyze the concept and characteristics of the police subculture;
• describe ways in which organizational complexity varies among departments;
• detail organizational control; and
• identify police organizational tasks.

Please complete readings and assignments as listed on the course schedule.