The Importance of Organization in a Police Department free essay sample

The organization of a police department plays a vital role in the effectiveness of the police department. There are three major concepts you should consider when organizing a police department. They are as follows: area, time, and purpose. I will briefly discuss each concept as it relates to the organization and effectiveness of the police department. The area that any given police department is responsible for plays a huge part in it organization. For example, if a police department is responsible for patrolling twenty four square miles, then you might only have one precinct or division. A precinct, as stated in the text, is simply the entire collection of beats and sectors in a given geographic area (Dempsey Forst, 2005). One precinct may work for a police department that is responsible for twenty four square miles, but it would not be effective it if had to cover a bigger city, such as New York or Los Angeles. It would be ineffective and cause strain on the police force if they were to have one precinct responsible for a huge city. It would mean that officers would possibly take longer respond to emergency calls and there would be a lack of organization. This is why it is vital to split up the police department into different precincts, divided up by geographical areas. It allows the police officers to become familiar with the area it is patrolling. They would also have a better chance of becoming acquainted with the business owners and residents of the area, which will allow for better communication between society and the police department. Another major concept that one must think about when organizing a police department is time. This entails the scheduling of the officers, their days off, tour conditions, steady or fixed tours, and the common three tour system. The three tour system allows a police department to break up the twenty four hour day into three separate eight hour watches. It is the most common because the officers will only work eight hours, just like the rest of the society, and will not cause fatigue or ineffectiveness (Dempsey Forst, 2005). This is important because if you have officers working twelve hour shifts for five or six days of the week, they will become tired, thus losing their effectiveness. They may not have a willingness to go out there and stop crime if they do not have proper rest. Police department schedules and shifts may very depending on each police department’s responsibilities and personnel. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department employs officers on a twelve hour shift for 3 days a week. That give the officers four consecutive days off to keep morale high and an effective police force at it’s best. Today, more and more police departments are experimenting with a twelve hour for three days or a ten hour for four days shifts. Tour conditions also play a key part in how shifts are made up and assigned. If the majority of crimes occur during the evening or night watch, then a police department will probably have more officers assigned to the night watch. This will allow for officers to respond to emergency cars in a much quicker manner. The manpower in the days and swing shifts will take a hit, but fewer crimes occur during those hours so it will offset itself. Another factor or concept that plays an important role in the organization of a police department is the purpose or function of the police. What this means is that all members of a police department that are assigned to a patrol unit will be placed in the same division or bureau (Dempsey Forst, 2005). This also applies for detectives, special operation services, support services, administration services, and so on. Organizing a police department by function or purpose is important because you want to clearly define a police officer’s responsibilities within the police force. You do not want the same officer that responded to a domestic violence call to also lead the investigation on a homicide case. You want your police officer’s to focus on their respective tasks and responsibilities so that they will become more effective and comfortable doing their job as time passes. You make sure that the detectives do detective work and the patrol officers do patrol work. Also, when you place all the administrative and support personnel in separate divisions, you allow officers to perform their jobs without having to worry about training, budgets, finance issues, legal issues, clerical duties, internal affairs, or maintenance.