The History of the Application of the Contextual Theme Concepts in Law

Enforcementand

a case study of failure to pay attention to historical lessons

Chapter 5

Eclectic View of Contextual Themes and Law Enforcement

~ Discussion of the early evolution of law enforcement

~ Historical Application of Contextual Themes to Law Enforcement.

* Discuss “trickle down” evolution of the Contextual

Themes in public administration in general and law

enforcement specifically.

Organization Functions

• As with other public agencies, the “end of the spoils system” and the pressure to be “professional” was upon law enforcement at the 20th Century began.

• American police looked to their British counterparts and adopted the “Peel Principles” and other Scotland Yard modifications.

• August Vollmer (as police chief of Berkeley) became know as the “father of professional police administration”.

One of Vollmer’s students (Vollmer later became a professor at University of Berkeley), O.W. Wilson, wrote the first police administration textbook aptly titled Police Administration in 1950. It included many of the Organization Functions “Principles” as described in Chapter 2 – such as:

• Max Weber and Henri Fayol’s administrative principles.

• Fredrick Taylors “Principles of Scientific Management.”

• Gulick’s POSDCoRB

Employee Relations

• This theme did not “trickle down” to law enforcement until the 1950s -1960s.

• O.W. Wilson’s Police Administration textbook introduced police administrators to the concepts of Chris Argris and Rensis Likert with chapters on:

~ Creating a Climate of Participation

~ Leadership and Motivation

Open Systems

• The 1960s & 1970s, federal “War on Crime,” infused law enforcement with millions of dollars in grant funds – stimulating the move to search outside of police systems for answers.

• Katz & Kahn’s Open Systems concepts became well know.

• Figure 5-1 shows the Open System model applied to law enforcement

Social Equity

• The social unrest of the 1960s & 1970s found law enforcement taking the brunt of social unrest resulting from public protests against the Vietnam War, discrimination and a concern for individual rights.

• This unrest resulted in demonstrations and riots that often placed the police into a confrontational role.

• Progressive police administrators began to see their responsibility for the protection of individual rights and promotion of social equity. It even became part of their “oath of office.”

• The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards Goals in 1973 reconditioned the Social Equity responsibilities by setting goals for minority recruiting, hiring and developing methods of better servicing minority communities.

Client-Oriented Service

• The 1970s and1980s found law enforcement suffering from a strained relationship with many factions of society because of confrontations of the prior decade.

• There was a need to regain public trust and again the direction of the business sector- customer-oriented service- became a focus.

• This resulted in an evolution of reorganization strategies – team policing, community-relations, and community-oriented policing and problem-oriented policing.

Eclectic Perspective

• The 1980s & 1990s found law enforcement more willing to not only try new approaches but revisit previous approaches.

• Incidents of misconduct called for a return to the use of stronger controls, adherence to authority/responsibility concept and other Organization Function “principles.”

• Tax cuts and a sagging economy caused a refocus on prior budgeting techniques.

• Using new evaluation approaches brought into question what had previously been consider as “gospel” – random patrolling, two officer cars, and more officer and faster response time means less crime, were all prior strategies that were found not to be sound.

• A realization that most major incidents of police malfeasance results from a failure to adhere to the Contextual Themes and concepts.

A Case Study of the Importance of Applying & Maintaining Contextual Themes &

Concepts in Law Enforcement

• The Rodney King incident, as seen by millions on TV, galvanized pubic demands for police reform.

• A commission was established to investigate the incident and make recommendations for improvement.

• Analysis of the resulting Christopher Commission Report provides a significant case study regarding failures to follow Contextual Theme Concepts

Organization Functions Failures

• The Commission sighted a loss of “inspection” and a need for command level Inspector position (points made in O.W. Wilson’s textbook decades before).

• A need for what Gulick had called “control and accountability” in his 1930s publications.

Employee Relations Failures

• The Commission found: ~ a need for better attention to selection, training and

promoting approaches. ~ a conflict between the COP approach of long-time

assignment of officers to neighborhoods & the corruption that had occurred in the past for doing so.

~ a need for such enhancing in Employee Relations as: * encouraging communication & dialogue, * demonstrating care for people, * ensuring fairness, * providing a supportive structure.

Open System Failures

• Commission indicated that the LAPD had developed a:

~ “us against them” mentality.

~ “law enforcement overshadowing peace keeping and crime prevention

• These are indicators of a “closed system” mentality.

Social Equity Failure

• The Commission noted:

~ the incident itself was evidence of racial discrimination.

~ need to “monitor and root out the manifestations of racism and bias,”

~ a lack of training in cultural awareness.

Client-Oriented Service Failure

• The Commission found:

~ that the LAPD had abandon Team

Policing (although partly because of

budget cut-back reasons).

~ They had superficially implemented COP

without proper training

Key Points • Need to continually apply an Eclectic

Perspective approach to internal and external conditions.

• A review of history reminds us that “history does repeat itself” and administrators must be able to “mix and match” past concepts to current situations.

• Most failure and malfeasance results from failure to apply and maintain Contextual Themes and concepts.

Conclusion

• Review Key Concepts & Terms and ensure that you understand each.

• Become acquainted with how these become part of the textbook’s Compendium of Criminal Justice Themes and Related Key Concepts.

• Review Suggested Review Questions and Activates.

• Review Relevant Publications.

Practice Quiz1. Who wrote the first Police Administrative textbook? a. August Volmer b. Robert Peel c. O. W. Wilson d. Mary Parker Follett e. International Association of Chief of Police

2. Which/ Who of the following had an influence in promoting “professionalism” in law enforcement:

a. adverse reaction to the “spoils systems” b. Sir Robert Peel Principles c. August Volmer d. O.W. Wilson e. all the above

3. As far as the Open Systems model as applied to law enforcement, reducing burglaries by 10% would be a/an:

a. input b. processing/throughput c. output d. feedback e. none of the above

4. The Warren Commission was established to investigate the LAPD Rodney King incident and make recommendations.

a. true b. false

5. LAPD implemented “team policing” as a result of the recommendations of the Rodney King investigation.

a. true b. false

6. The police focused on the Client-Oriented theme in the last part of the 20th Century as a result of:

a. public-police relations during the Social Equity period b. to regain and/or maintain public trust c. as a means of accomplishing their mission d. all of the above e. none of the above

Answers to Practice Quiz #5

• 1. c

• 2. e

• 3. c

• 4. b

• 5. b

• 6. d