| Stephen J. Harrison |
When looking at the concept of organizational culture among police one quickly finds many paradoxes. The literature is filled with accounts of police deviance caused by the existence of cultural traits. Many organizations expend considerable time and effort to instill these same traits in their members. For example, solidarity among the "rank and file" is often cited as the reason for police deviant conduct. While at the same time, solidarity provides the basis for extraordinary organizational cooperation and teamwork. Likewise, many police ascribe great pride to the mission of policework, extolling its uniqueness and potential to make a difference. At the same time, organizationally, police tend to isolate themselves from their communities, often becoming arrogant and consumed with maintaining the organization for organization sake.
This article will look at organizational culture as it applies to, and affects, police leadership and management practices. Many police leaders have been thwarted in their attempts to engender change in the organization due to existing cultural barriers inside their own departments. Much of the research regarding police culture appears in the literature relating to police deviant behavior, ethics, and misuse of force and discretion (Brown, 1981; Cohen & Feldberg, 1991; Goldsmith, 1990; Reuss-Ianni, 1983). While these are important issues facing the police and their leadership, the discussion of culture tends to be cast in the light of its potential negative effects. Little has been written about the possible beneficial effects of these same cultural characteristics on the organization. Here we will explore the major cultural themes of police isolation, police solidarity and a deep rooted schism between police management and the rank and file police on the street. These themes offer us an opportunity to discuss them in terms of their effect on the organization.
It is important to note that there does not exist one single organizational culture for all police. Most research has been focused on large urban police settings while most police departments are considered small or medium size. Subsequently, cultural generalizations have been made about police and some do not necessarily apply to all police jurisdictions. The style of policing in any community has been found to be affected by a mixture of values and attitudes in the community, the philosophy that the police chief inspires in the police organization, and the relationships with citizens in which individual police officers find themselves engaged (Wilson, 1978, Brown, 1981). Likewise, research has long noted that there are cultural differences reflected between the American police and foreign police. (1)
Another distinction that the reader should bear in mind is that when talking of police culture, we are actually referring to the police sub-culture. Since each member of the police group brings with her/him various attributes from the broader American culture. While White male officers continue to form the majority population, the hiring patterns over the past 15 years have brought many women, Blacks, Hispanics and Orientals onto American police forces. Each of these groups bring with them a variety of cultural traits that weave into the fabric that becomes the police sub-culture.
Leadership plays a key role in defining the organizational culture in law enforcement agencies. Without the foundation of a structure and environment that supports specific values, a departmental philosophy can be confusing and challenged by officers, while followed only when convenient. It can also lead to a department which is driven in multiple directions. Strengthening the values of a police department can, therefore, be an important leadership tool by creating consistency and predictability among all ranks and can help control discretionary decision making (Greene, 1990; Alpert and Dunham, 1988; Brown, 1981). Conventional wisdom informs us that when values are not held and articulated by the command staff, officers on the street are not likely to be influenced by them (Greene, Alpert, and Styles, 1992, p. 189). Leadership provides the "glue" to hold all parts of the organization together. Understanding the existing culture, and having the ability to engender support for a shared vision become major leadership challenges. This article explores the leadership opportunities available when using the ingrained values as the basis for building positive organizational improvements.
Culture, as defined in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, is "the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends on man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations"(Websters New Collegiate Dictionary as quoted in Emerson, 1989: p.3). Culture has long been of interest to anthropologists as they studied groups of animals and people throughout the globe. The anthropologist Clyde Kluchohn defined culture as "the set of habitual and traditional ways of thinking, feeling, and reacting that are characteristic of the ways a particular society meets its problems at a particular time" (Kluckhon, 1949:17).
Organizational theorists began to apply the term culture to corporate situations during the past two decades. Initially they used the term corporate, or organizational culture, as a metaphor to describe the leadership practices at various organizational settings. James O'Toole adds to the discussion by writing:
In the 1980's, the usefulness of the concept of corporate culture was nearly lost when management gurus defined culture in terms of symbols, slogans, heroes, rites, and rituals. These may be manifestations of culture-although any graduate student in anthropology could come up with more sophisticated examples-but they are not culture. A culture is a system of beliefs and actions that characterize a particular group. Culture is the unique whole-the shared ideas, customs, assumptions, expectations, philosophy, traditions, mores, and values-that determines how a group of people will behave.(O'Toole, 1995:71-72).
If defining an organization's culture is achieved by understanding its key values, beliefs and actions, then this becomes useful when attempting to assess the police subculture. Understanding how new officers are assimilated into the culture and how the culture manifests itself outside the organization become major imperatives for the police leader. At the institutional level of policing, values and culture are most often associated with the "corporate strategy" being pursued by the organization as a whole (Kelling and Moore, 1988, and Moore and Trojanowicz, 1988). Jack Greene provides further perspective on the organizational struggles extant within police departments.
Current trends in policing toward the identification and publication of explicit organizational values can be viewed as illustrating the institutional connections between values, culture and corporate strategy. And conflict between internalized management culture of police organizations and the tactical culture of police operations, which has been identified by several researchers (Manning, 1977; Brown, 1981; Reuss Iianni and Iianni, 1983), can be viewed as evidence of an ongoing struggle for value clarification within police departments. Moreover, current efforts to shift police departments from 'traditional' policing toward 'problem oriented' policing (Goldstein, 1990) can also be viewed as explicitly addressing internal values within policing. (Greene, Alpert & Styles, 1992:185).
Current management practices such as Strategic Planning, Total Quality Management, Continuous Improvement, and Community Based Policing all stress the importance of understanding the culture of the organization. Each emphasize that without that understanding it is virtually impossible to attain an organization wide shared vision of where the organization is headed.
Police culture is sustained through the way new members are selected, trained, and accepted into the police ranks. Most police agencies require applicants to go through a rigorous series of steps prior to being hired.(2) These steps are designed to insure that various criteria that have been deemed important to the organization are met. The outcome of the process is intended to ensure that only the most fit will ultimately be hired. It is left to other studies to debate the job relatedness and the necessity for each of the entry level requirements. For our purposes, it becomes clear that the selection process is the beginning of the police cultural assimilation. Persons who can demonstrate characteristics and traits like those possessed by the officers already on the force stand a greater chance of being hired.
Likewise, the formal training at the police academy helps to further the cultural assimilation into the way things are done here. Most instructors at police academies are other police officers. They tend to use police examples and "war stories" in their training (Drummond, 1976:14). Additionally, most of the courses tend to support the cultural notion of the dangerousness of police work. Skills such as firearms and defensive tactics are introduced to help the officer protect herself/himself. Classes on interrogation and report writing stress the need to be suspicious of people. Profiles of what a criminal looks like tend to perpetuate stereotypes based on race or ethnic origin. Practice courtroom testimony stresses the need to be wary of attorneys as they will attempt to trick you and make you look foolish on the stand. The para-military nature of organizational management is stressed as classroom order, uniform dress, and behavior is required.(3)
Assimilation to the police culture moves into high gear once the rookie officer is assigned to the street. Most departments assign the officer to a training officer for some period of time. The field assignment now has the officer working as part of a group. Additionally, the officer is aware that he/she is on probation and the report of their training officer could make a difference to keeping the job or not (Drummond, 1976:16). Some new officers are told "in order to become a real policeman, he will have to forget everything he has learned in the class room and conduct himself in the proper way-their way" (Webb and Westergren, 1973:40). James Q. Wilson suggests:
The patrolman is neither a bureaucrat nor professional, but a member of a craft. As with most crafts his has no body of knowledge nor set of detailed prescriptions as to how to behave-it has in short, neither theory nor rules. Learning in the craft is by apprenticeship, but on the job and not in the academy. The principal group from which the apprentice wins (or fails to win) respect are his colleagues on the job, not fellow members of a discipline or attentive supervisors (Wilson, 1968:283).
This article will examine cultural characteristics which have been attributed to describe the police. It will assess these characteristics as they have been found to affect police and their work. They will also be considered in an organizational context in order to determine the implications for serving as the vehicle to forge meaningful change.
A considerable amount of police research over the past thirty years has chronicled the tendency for police to become isolated. Isolated from previous friends, isolated from the community, isolated from the legal system, and even isolated from their spouses and families (Drummond,1976 and Skolnick, 1966). Police impose social isolation upon themselves as a means of protection against real and perceived dangers, loss of personal and professional autonomy, and social rejection (Skolnick, 1966). Skolnick found:
A recurrent theme of the sociology of occupations is the effect of people's work on their outlook on the world. Doctors, janitors, lawyers, and industrial workers develop distinctive ways of responding to their environment. Here we shall concentrate on analyzing certain outstanding elements in the police milieu-danger, authority, and efficiency-as they combine to generate distinctive cognitive and behavioral responses in police: a 'working personality.' Such an analysis does not suggest that all police are alike in working personality, but that there are distinctive cognitive tendencies in police as an occupational grouping. Some of these tendencies may be found in other occupations sharing similar problems. So far as exposure to danger is concerned, police officers may be likened to soldiers. The police officers' problems with authority bear certain similarity to those of schoolteachers, and the pressure the police feel to prove themselves efficient are not unlike those felt by industrial workers. The combination of these elements, however, is unique to police officers (Skolnick, 1966:42).
The element of danger is generally credited with causing officers to be suspicious. In an attempt to be attentive to any possible violence the officer becomes generally suspicious of everyone. Likewise, many officers begin to distance themselves from previous friends as they do not seem to understand and appreciate the rigors of being a "cop".
Likewise, administrative factors such as shift work, days off during the week, and court time tend to isolate the officer from persons other than other police. Police also become isolated due to their authority. They are required to enforce many laws representing puritanical morality, such as those prohibiting drunkenness. Many police officers have been drunk themselves and become sensitive to the charge of hypocrisy. In order to protect themselves they tend to socialize with other police or spend time alone, again leading to social isolation.
Ruess-Ianni has identified several postulates that are reflective of a "we-they" world view by police. The postulates tend to be a means of creating, and maintaining, a culture in which the members believe that non-police simply do not understand the true nature of police work. Police have a strong view of the uniqueness of their profession and generally believe that non-police could not possibly grasp the problems that exist in policework (Kappeler, Sluder and Alpert, 1994). Eventually, this "us-them" outlook could increase police isolation from the citizens. Some of the postulates are:
"Protect your ass" (Ruess-Ianni, 1983). This postulate carries the implication that the officer should not trust anyone. Be suspicious of everyone. While the threat the officer is guarding against might be physical violence, it could also be viewed as protecting against citizens who might file a complaint, or a supervisor who might discipline.
"Don't trust the new guy until you have him checked out." (Ruess-Ianni, 1983). Rookie officers, and sometimes officers transferred from another district, must "prove" themselves before they are trusted as part of the group. Having gone through the hiring process and the academy training does not assure one of being accepted. Oftentimes, the proof is when the new officer backs up another officer in a physical altercation or shooting. The deviance literature suggests that this postulate is also a means of deviant officers insuring that they can trust the new officer not to report their activities (Kappeler, Sluder and Alpert, 1994).
"Don't trust bosses to look out for your interests." (Ruess-Ianni, 1983). This postulate tells new officers that when supervisors are forced to make a choice, they will always look out for their own best interests rather than the officers. Over time this distrust will undoubtedly lead to a sense of isolation between the officer and management.
Isolation also is a factor in some cases between the police and legal institutions. Many officers believe that legal institutions are uncooperative and non-supportive. They see the courts as "soft" on offenders and out of touch with the reality of the street. Research has found that while some officers resent legal restrictions on police practices and are willing to violate them, other officers are willing to work within such restrictions and do not even feel unduly constrained by them (Brown, 1981).
Organizational Impact of Isolation
When looking at the cultural characteristic of isolation through the lens of the organization, one can see potential problem areas. One impact is the potential that isolation provides for officers to engage in deviant behavior. An area that has been the subject of concern by the courts, legislatures, and citizens is that of the amount of discretion that police officers have in administering the laws. The reason for concern has been that bias on the part of individual officers can result in a wide variance as to how laws are administered. In an attempt to control possible variation in the use of discretion there has been an emphasis placed on administrative rule-making. Goldmith provides insights into how the police sub-culture factors into this issue when he writes:
Thus, the police culture comprises a distinct body of values, attitudes, rules and practices which influences in various ways the manner in which police officers exercise their discretion. Skolnick (1966:219) has stated: ' My observations suggest...that the norms located within police organization are more powerful than court decisions in shaping police behavior, and that actually the process of interaction between the two accounts ultimately for how police behave.' This interpretation does deny that legal rules have an effect, but it suggests that the language of courts is given meaning through a process mediated by the organizational structure and perspectives of the police. (Goldsmith, 1990:94)
This suggests a leadership challenge for the police administrator. By understanding the potential power of the culture to determine the effectiveness of any administrative policy or rule, the police leader would be foolish to ignore cultural implications of every policy. Policy implementation strategies need to include phases that are designed to break through the culture of isolation. Participative decision making and strategic planning exercises that include persons from all ranks will go a long way to open the policy process and reduce the isolation barrier.
Some departments have included collaboration with citizen groups in their attempt to become less isolated. Whether referred to as stakeholders, clients, customers, or citizen advisory groups, police are finding that people will participate in activities as long as they perceive them as being worthwhile . Harrison found
Of utmost importance appears to be the notion that the members perceive the work they are doing as worthwhile. Each of the members interviewed or surveyed stressed that their main motivation for spending the time and effort in this endeavor was that they believed it to be worthwhile. Even the most serious critics of how the process was working stated that they remained involved because of the importance they attached to the effort (Harrison, 1995).
A study of the Los Angeles Police Department's current efforts to re-build citizen confidence in the delivery of police services found that developing meaningful Citizen Police Advisory Boards (CPABs) was a difficult process. Among the findings were:
1. Time and resources need to be devoted inside the department to build the right skill sets among officers to engage in community problem solving. Most police have not been trained in facilitating group meetings, group dynamic issues, or group problem solving methodologies.
2. A great deal of effort needs to be expended to ensure that all participants are clear about the purpose of the collaboration effort. Providing clarity of purpose and expending the effort up-front will go a long way to enhance the success of the collaboration effort. Confusion about the purpose, goals and objectives of the effort will only serve to undermine it.
3. The means to ensure that the group is representative of the community need to be developed. If the effort is viewed as only a police support club it will miss the opportunity to be a vehicle for developing stronger partnerships between the police and the community (Harrison, 1995).
Leadership can begin to change the culture of isolation on the individual level by breaking down the culture of isolation on the organizational level. Police isolation tends to build an arrogance toward dealing with criticisms and complaints. Many police organizations have perfected the "circle the wagons" mentality toward protecting the department when criticized (Drummond, 1976; Greene, 1992). Unfortunately, this mentality often fends off the attackers while, at the same time, allowing the organization to ignore the reality that a problem exists. Usually, the predicament will re-surface later in another, often more severe, form. Developing on-going feedback mechanisms to gauge community satisfaction with police services is a method to ensure that the organization is pro-active about dealing with potential issues of concern to the community. In their early stages, many advisory boards experience barriers in achieving effectiveness caused by misunderstandings that merely require building a better basis for communication (Harrison, 1995). Thus, police leadership can set the tone for openness and inclusion versus one of organizational isolation.
Goldsmith suggests that police solidarity is the most basic police cultural value. He states:
Foremost among all values, attitudes, and practices of the police culture is the bond of solidarity between officers. In an environment perceived as hostile and unpredictable, the police culture offers its members reassurance that the other officers will 'pull their weight' in police work, that they will defend, back up and assist their colleagues when confronted with external threats, and that they will maintain secrecy in the face of external investigations. In return for loyalty and solidarity, members of the police culture enjoy considerable individual autonomy to 'get on with the job' (Goldsmith, 1990:93).
Skolnick adds to the discussion regarding police solidarity by stating:
All occupational groups share a measure of inclusiveness and identification. People are brought together simply by doing the same work and having similar career and salary problems. As several writers have noted, police show an unusually high degree of occupational solidarity. It is true that the police have a common employer and wear a uniform to work, but so do doctors, mail carriers, and bus drivers. Yet it is doubtful that these workers have so close-knit an occupation or so similar an outlook on the world as do the police. Set apart from the conventional world, the police officer experiences an exceptionally strong tendency to find a social identity within the social milieu." (Skolnick, 1996:96).
Police behavioral research is filled with findings related to the notion of solidarity among police officers. Some have found that the solidarity starts early in an officer's career as he/she is faced with an informal rite of acceptance. Officers are generally not fully accepted until they have demonstrated the willingness and the ability to "back up" a fellow officer in the face of perceived danger.
It is common for training officers to wait until a new recruit has faced a dangerous situation before recommending the recruit be given full status in the organization. Peer acceptance usually does not come until new officers have proven themselves in a dangerous situation. More than anything else, training officers and others in the police subculture want to know how probationary officers will react to danger - will they show bravery.(Kappeler, Sluder, and Alpert, 1994:106).
Strong feelings of empathy and cooperation among officers may be observed in the daily behaviors of police. Analytically, these feelings can be traced to elements of danger and shared experiences of hostility in the police officer's role (Skolnick, 1996:102). When combined with the tendency for police to become isolated the solidarity among officers begins to breed the "we-they" attitude. Additionally, many officers feel they are "living in a fish bowl". They believe that any indiscretions on their part, such as drinking too much alcohol at a party, would be viewed by non-police as hypocritical. Thus, they tend to socialize together and begin to count on each other for support.
Police deviance literature discusses a phenomenon referred to as the "Code of Silence" or the "Code of Secrecy" (Ruess-Ianni, 1983:107). The notion is that police officers will never inform on other officers even if that officer is involved in illegal activity. The concept of a "code of silence" has been depicted so often in movies and television programs that it would not be surprising to find that most Americans believe it to be reality. Likewise, a renowned Harvard Law School professor(4) caused quite a controversy during the O.J. Simpson criminal trial when he asserted that the police routinely teach new officers to lie in court in order to obtain convictions. He coined a phrase, "testilying", to describe the practice. During the ensuing debate several people in the criminal justice system suggested that this practice was part of the police subculture and deeply ingrained.
In some cases the loyalty to other officers becomes such a strong cultural value that it appears, and is sometimes referred to, as "clannish". Ruess-Ianni offer postulates that help our understanding the notion of police solidarity.
Don't give up on another cop.
Watch out for your partner first.
If you get caught off base, don't implicate anyone else (Ruess-Ianni, 1994).
The organizational implications of police solidarity are truly paradoxical. The same characteristic (employee solidarity) that is cited as the breeding ground for police deviance, is also referred to as comraderie or esprit de corps. Police do not appear to cooperate with one another merely because such is the policy of the chief, but because they sincerely attach a high value to teamwork (Skolnick, 1996 ).
The positive effect of police solidarity would be the envy of many organizations who spend a great deal of time and energy in the attempt to build teamwork. Police leadership can tap this cultural characteristic as they begin to develop various collaborative arrangements with people in the community (both residents and business) (Harrison, 1995). Additionally, inter-agency task forces to combat crime tend to be successful due to the willingness of the officer to work in these situations.
Management vs. Street Distrust
Another cultural characteristic which has received considerable attention from Hollywood is that street cops don't have much respect for management cops. The caricature has become an almost stereotypical depiction of the police supervisor as being, at best, a nuisance to the street officer, and at worst, an incompetent tool of the politicians. The "Dirty Harry" movies carried this theme as a strong sub-plot. The literature supports that the management vs. street tension does exist. Part of the tension stems from the process by which police promotions occur. Most police organizations require the officer to pass extensive written tests and oral boards to be placed on a list of persons eligible for promotion. Traditionally, there has been a belief among officers that "good test takers" get promoted rather than "good street officers". While this belief may be more based on envy than fact, it nonetheless sets the stage for a separation between management and line officers. Greene provides helpful insights to this tension when he writes:
Current trends in policing toward the identification and publication of explicit organizational values can be viewed as illustrating the institutional connections between values, culture and corporate strategy. And, conflict between the internalized management culture of police organizations and the tactical culture of police operations, which has been identified by several researchers (Manning, 1977; Brown, 1981; Reuss-Ianni and Ianni, 1983) can be viewed as evidence of an ongoing internal struggle for value clarifications within police departments. (Greene, 1992:185).
Another factor in the management vs. street phenomenon is that the police management structure is generally developed along the lines of para-military. Ranks and insignia are in place to remind street officers of the command structure. Drummond suggests: "The resulting structure, in larger police departments, has weaknesses of distance in command and therefore encompasses considerable message distortion (both from the top down and the bottom up)." (Drummond, 1976:19-20).
The tension played out due to the management vs. street cultural characteristic can be significant. It can become the root cause of distrust of new initiatives by the rank and file officers. Current management theories stress the importance of attaining a shared vision for the organization and the necessity for everyone in the organization to strive to satisfy the customer. This requires that all officers understand the "big picture" and their part in it. In policing there has been a shift from focusing on patrol or investigation services to taking on the role of examining community quality of life issues. This focus is causing a shift in cultural values as it requires more holistic and systems thinking. This movement has been referred to as community and problem solving policing. It emphasizes analytic thinking and collaborative decision making, Decentralized accountability is stressed as the organization attempts to be an organizing force for community problem solving.
The move toward community oriented policing has met with substantial cultural resistance from the rank and file. Cries of "we are cops, not social workers" have been voiced frequently. Greene provides insights to the differences of department size in relation to the cultural resistance.
Community policing, therefore, is more likely to meet with internal value and cultural resistance within the larger, more complex police departments, owing in part to the decentralized and despecialized aims of this in the newest of policing corporate strategies. In smaller departments such resistance is more likely associated with value and cultural resistance stemming from beliefs about the fundamental nature of the police role itself, i.e. service orientation versus law enforcement orientation.(Greene, 1992)
The organizational implications for dealing with the management vs. street cultural characteristic lie in the realm of leadership. Many police departments have failed to view management as a new job. They provide little or no management training until the supervisor is serving at a very senior rank. Trust can only be earned by demonstrating leadership competence. New skill sets, such as running meetings, dealing effectively with group dynamics, and leading group problem solving are required if the police are to truly engage the community in meaningful ways. If the police are to succeed at their attempts at community oriented policing they will need to do so within the context of their organizational cultures. Greene found in his research:
We see that individuals look to the immediate surroundings of their functional unit to provide values and identity, and often feel isolated from other members of their respective departments. Although there was a great deal of communication sideways in both organizations, little flowed up or down. The result of this was a loss of cohesion, a fragmentation of philosophy, a hive of industrious bees without common purpose. (Greene, 1992:203).
My own research of an attempt to form Community Advisory Boards at the Los Angeles Police Department surfaced similar results. While considerable activity was occurring at the Headquarters and Area Captain levels to produce documents and organize the Citizen Advisory Boards, little activity occurred to generate understanding or commitment on the part of the line officers to the effort (Harrison, 1995).
Police leadership has many challenges "on its plate". One of the largest challenges is providing the transformational leadership necessary to engender cultural changes in the attitudes and beliefs of the line officers. James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book, The Leadership Challenge, provide five principles for getting extraordinary things done in organizations. They claim that effective leaders:
Challenge the process. They take risks, challenge the system, and challenge the way things are done.
Inspire a shared vision. "They breathe life into what are the hopes and dreams of others and enable them to see the exciting possibilities that the future holds."
Enable others to act. They enlist the support of all those who are necessary to get results, as well as those who will be affected by the results. Their role is to encourage collaboration and teamwork and make it possible for others to do good work.
Model the way. They lead by example.
Encourage the heart. "The climb to the top is arduous and long. People become exhausted, frustrated, and disenchanted. They often are tempted to give up. Leaders must encourage the heart of their followers to carry on." (Kouzes and Posner, 1987)
The organizational implications of the management vs. street distrust is clearly a leadership imperative. Value centered leadership suggests that the responsibility for building trust in the organization clearly lies at the doorstep of top management. Effective change builds on the existing culture instead of imposing a foreign system of values. O'Toole provides useful observations about culture when he states:
Culture is the unique whole-the shared ideas, customs, assumptions, expectations, philosophy, traditions, mores, and values-that determines how a group of people will behave. When we talk of a corporation's culture, we mean the complex, interrelated whole of standardized, institutionalized, habitual behavior that characterizes that firm and that firm only. Thus to talk about culture as "it" is absurd: culture is "us." To talk about top management's role in changing corporate culture is to talk about people changing themselves, not changing some "it" or "them" outside the door of the executive suite.(O'Toole, 1995:72).
Therefore, to build trust and break down barriers between management and street will necessitate police leadership to develop a keen understanding of the existing organizational culture and build on its' positive aspects. Building trust is an evolutionary process that takes time and consistency. People trust the leader who demonstrates continuously that he/she respects the followers. Therefore, the leadership challenge becomes one of gaining respect of the line officers by giving these same officers respect, respect for their ideas, and observations.
Greene states that "it is not clear that creating a system of values and achieving a strong sense of agreement among officers regarding their relationships and those between the officers and the republic will reduce crime or even make a department more efficient (Greene, 1992:203)." However, what is suggested by the research into organizational culture is that the values and rituals of the members of the organization must be taken into account by the leadership in order to function effectively. Within the police sub-cultures there is considerable opportunity for the values, beliefs, and rituals to be played out in negative forms, thus providing more grist for the researchers of police deviance. At the same time, I believe the same sub-cultures provide the breeding ground for positive organizational change. Dynamic leadership will be a variable as to whether this occurs or not.
Some departments are beginning to realize that if they really want to move into community policing they must develop new skill sets among their managers. Skills such as strategic planning, group problem solving and group dynamics become vital when embarking on collaborative efforts. Understanding the interrelatedness of the various parts of the organization and being able to focus their efforts toward common goals
This article has provided a discussion of major cultural themes that provide the context within which police leadership exists. The themes of isolation, solidarity and management/street distrust each carry many sub traits that appear as values in American police agencies. These themes and cultural values have, at times, provided the breeding ground for deviant police behavior. This article attempts to broaden the discussion by identifying and developing the means to build on the positive organizational aspects of these themes. It is this author's belief that competent police leadership, willing to meet the challenge, can transform these ingrained cultural characteristics into allies for improving the organization.
1. Police practices in other nations vary greatly with the American police experience. New immigrants are often surprised to learn of the amount of restraint exercised by American police. Police brutality and corruption are regular practices in many countries. Return to your place in the document.
2. Most police agencies require applicants to pass a written exam; a medical exam; a physical fitness test; a psychological and/or polygraph test; drug screening; and an oral board. Return to your place in the document.
3. Most academies include military marching, inspections, and salutations to senior officers. Some academies still include military stress drills in an attempt to "weed out" those that can not handle the situation. Return to your place in the document.
4. Alan Dershowitz is a Harvard Law School professor and was a consultant to the O.J. Simpson defense team. His statement about the police practice of lying under oath being a regular phenomena provided a great deal of discussion on the talk radio and television circuit. My personal experience has not found this practice to be more than the deviant behavior of a small percentage of police personnel. Return to your place in the document.