Police Organizational Structure Paper

Police organizational structures are entities of two or more people who cooperate to accomplish an objective. This type of structure must be parallel so that it can be effective in achieving the overall goal of protecting and helping the public. For the past several years police agencies have proceeded through a traditional structure but more recently that structure has started to evolve. Traditional structures are based upon principles such as specialization, hierarchy, chain of command, rules and regulations, and official working capacity. Principles such as this allow the structure to work effectively. However with advancement of the 20th century most police organizations follow a bureaucracy structure with an authoritarian management style.

The process of determining what produces the best leadership may be done in terms of implementing organizational structure or process. According to an article by Smriti Chand (2014), Weber’s bureaucracy can reveal several characteristics such as fixed official jurisdiction area where each individual category within an agency would have its own fixed official duties and clear cut written rules governing each status, hierarchy of authority which governs individuals by the principle of super-ordination and subordination, clear-cut division of labor that enforces who should do what work that is decided by the agency, appointment based on eligibility that is a system for selecting employees and giving promotions based on seniority, competence of the employee and knowledge or skill, fixed salary and pension that is paid per written rules within the agency, office and maintenance of files that includes the policy and procedures for the functioning of the agency, appointment of officials on full time and long term service basis is done by appointment, difference between private matter and official issues involves written rules that an official within an agency is expected to deal with, Supervision of work by higher officials are expected to work within the written rules, systemization of official relations with officials

However such standards can have both negative and positive influences. Reliance must be made according to various types of theories to interject a cohesive organization. Although subordinates may always negatively respond to management, and vic-versa, significant cohesive response needs to be made. Suitable enforcement must be constructed to correctly signify a suitable department. Additionally cohesive managerial leadership is crucial for a well incorporated department. The use of communication and unity are the key characteristics for a well- run organization. This reenterates the statement made by O’Toole and _____ involvement from managers enforces subordinates to move forward in a more suitable manner. Consequently organizational structure is necessary for a well implemented