|
<br />~."
<br />..J
<br />:~......l
<br />),1
<br />'lit!
<br />:i~
<br />
<br />,...;':,.i
<br />
<br />"
<br />!~ i
<br />
<br />..'...........1
<br />J:l
<br />
<br />I
<br />
<br />I
<br />
<br />chief of polic~ in Savannah, G<.:orgia, has a doctorate
<br />from Michig.Hl State University; P..ltrick Fitzsimons,
<br />police chief of Seattle, Hubert Williams, police di-
<br />rector of Nl~wark, New Jersey, and Willialll LUl'..IS,
<br />sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan, are lawyers.
<br />
<br />It is common in a growing number of police depart-
<br />ments to find middh: managers cumpleting their
<br />masters' and doctorateS. This trend is symptomatic
<br />of progress, in lits and starts, towi.\l'd the eventual
<br />professionalization of policl' administration. Assist-
<br />ing this progress are the execut ive t raining programs
<br />of the Police Executive lnstitull:, funded by the
<br />Police foundation and LEAA. and the National
<br />Executive lnstitutl.', which the FBI sponsors at its
<br />National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Too much
<br />should not be made of th~ IllOVl~ toward prolcssion-
<br />alization in policc administratioll. "hen: is still a long
<br />way to go before police chiefs are as trained ,lI1d
<br />prepared for their jobs as are many city managers
<br />today. But a start has been made, symbolizl~d by the
<br />rapid growth to prominence of the Police Executive
<br />Research Forum.
<br />
<br />The Forum, which grew out of a study group of ten
<br />police chids brought together for inforlnal discussion
<br />hy the Police Foundation, has grown in HIITe years
<br />frol11 an organization of a handful 01' chids to an
<br />organization of 60 (:hicfs with scll'-lirniting criteria
<br />for membership that keep the pool of pote'ntial mem-
<br />bers to about 300. To be a member of the Forwll, a
<br />police chid must have four Yl'ars uf colleg<.: educa-
<br />tion; be from a police agency which serves at least
<br />100,000 persons; and, most important. be dedicated
<br />to the professionalization of police adrninistl"ation
<br />through deb,rte and research. Until very rl'cently,
<br />open debate of issues has been rarL' in polie'ing, a
<br />retlectiun of the tongue-tied insularity by which
<br />pulice ollicials and ullicers alike were reluctant to
<br />discuss openly COIlUllon problems ,uld sllggestions
<br />for i mprovelllen t.
<br />
<br />Until the past ten years 01' so, policing was not rccep"
<br />tive to research, and researchers, often viewed as
<br />alien intruders froln academe, generally w\.'re not
<br />welcoul<': ill the L'lllnpany of suspkious. hard.bitl('n
<br />cops. One of the must encouraging aSlweb 01 prog-
<br />ress in policing in recent years is thaI policing quickly
<br />opened its doors [0 research and is beginning to
<br />accept the results of th..lt reseanh. With the co-
<br />operaliun 01 rnany pulice dcpartll1ents, then: l\<Ive
<br />been larldnwrks in rescardl in It'U'llt years.
<br />
<br />I am proud that the Police Foundation \Vas able to
<br />funde/forts sllch as tlrc Kansas Cily Prevcntive
<br />Patrol Experiment, which l'(lllCludcd th..lt increasing
<br />oj' decn~asillg till' levd of routine pn'vl'l1tin' patrol
<br />has no signiticant dkct 01\ lTillle Lites or litizel1 h'ar
<br />
<br />Public Managcrnen t jDn;t'lll hCI. 1979
<br />
<br />of erilne. LEAA's National Institute of Law Enforce-
<br />1nellt and Criminal Justice (NILECJ) funded a sig-
<br />nificant study of police criminal investigative proc-
<br />esses which called into serioLls question the time-
<br />honored but untested means by which detectives use
<br />their resources in attempting to solve crimes.
<br />
<br />Tlw NILECJ-sponsored project, the work of the Rand
<br />Corpomtion, concluded, fur example, that "in rela-
<br />tively few departments do investigators consistently
<br />and thoroughly doclllllent the key evidGntiary facts
<br />that re..lsonably assure that the prosecutor can obtain
<br />a conviction on the most serious applicable charges."
<br />NILECJ also sponsored important research in Kansas
<br />City on police response time. The conclusions of that
<br />ITse..I1Th indicate that no matter how quickly the
<br />police respond to a call for service involving a crime,
<br />citizens typically delay before calling the police to
<br />the point that the value of rapid police response is
<br />very often lost.
<br />
<br />There has been some useful research coming from
<br />the nation's colleges and universities. For example,
<br />a New York City police lieutenant, James Fyfe, in
<br />obtaining his doctorate from the State University
<br />of New York at Albany, examined the circumstances
<br />of every shot fired by New York City police officers
<br />over a five-year period. He concluded that tough
<br />rnanagclIlent at the highest levels of a police agency
<br />can institute strict rules about when police can shoot
<br />at citizens and make those rules stick so that police-
<br />initiated shootings drop markedly.
<br />
<br />The Police Executive Research Forum recently con-
<br />eluded an important research project. The Forum
<br />Icplieakd in 26 member departments a burglary
<br />investigation decision model developed by SRI Inter-
<br />national. The replication shows that the model, if
<br />properly designed, can work in any police depart-
<br />lllelll. lhis conclusion is important because police
<br />(kpartrm~nts Gill now, with a degree 01' certainty,
<br />ddennine and pursue those burglary cases which
<br />have the best chance of being solved. More significant
<br />than this conclusion for the history of U,S. policing
<br />is that 26 police departnlents opened themselves up
<br />to the proc:ess of replicating the results 01 earlier
<br />n~search. Fifteen years ago, in almost all police de-
<br />partments. not only were researchers not welcome,
<br />bUllew personnel had any idea of what the word
<br />replication meant. So, in it decade, at least some
<br />police dcp..lrtments have joined other areas of public
<br />service and rnunicipal government in welcoming and
<br />illcreasingly accepting research as an important tool
<br />ul 111..ulagt.ment and progress.
<br />
<br />On the street level, tou, policing has made signilicant
<br />progress. Sometirnes using the results of research,
<br />SOnll'tinll~S through an inlorlllallocal process of trial
<br />
<br />3
<br />
|