Power Hierarchy Of Police Department And The Problems Arising From It

Just like any institution, police divisions are managed in an organized manner. Police department management involves administrative activities as well as everyday activities within the organization. Police divisions are managed in a hierarchic a manner. Police hierarchy also the chain of command is a principle used by police divisions to imply that every officer at a higher rank have more authority than other officers working under them. This system is headed by police chief; under chiefs are lieutenants who are answerable to police chiefs. Answerable to lieutenants are sergeants. Officers occupy the lower rank in the hierarchy. Top administrators are chiefs, assistant chiefs and majors.

All decisions come from administrators and are required to be adhered to. Top administrators perform managerial obligations such as planning for activities, motivate subordinates, communicate information to various units and provide the division with leadership. They also decide upon department’s mission, devising programs by which to achieve goals, procuring fiscal and other resources from the ministry and generally ensuring that department meets the needs of community. Communication in police division follows a designed pattern from top to officers in lower levels. In hierarchy, any of levels of authority is not optional. If an officer skips one level of authority, then hierarchy of command is not adhered to. Due to centralization of power in the system, police divisions are often mismanaged regarding to classic administrative process. Chiefs and majors decides on simple day today activities that is best left in the hands of offices to extent that they forget bigger issues of planning and providing leadership.

Middle section of police hierarchy is occupied by middle managers who have captains or lieutenants ranks of depending on size of the division. They are second in authority after chief administrators in the division. Lieutenants are tasked with obligation of commanding or administering definite units; for instance, a captain in charge of a patrol shift or a lieutenant commanding a family violence unit would be considered a middle manager. They formulate strategies to accomplish roles as assigned to units they oversee by the division’s administrators.

Sergeants are supervisors in a police division. They report to lieutenants. Orders issued by lieutenants are carried by sergeants who then give directions to officers. Sergeants can also be said to be administrators since they are obligated to manage officers and ensuring that work is completed correctly and in a timely manner. Sergeants generally are assigned to manage sub units in a police division and have responsibilities such as of supervising a squad of patrolling officers. Apart from supervising officers, sergeants coordinate with the local community to ensure smooth running of their operations.

Although hierarchical structure of police agencies provides clear and well defined authorities, it creates loop holes for problems. Large police agencies experience breakdown in communication. Hierarchy slows decision making, communication and implementation of strategies. Actions that require quick responses may not be handled on time because requests must travel up and then the decision travels back the chain of command. The larger the hierarchy, the slower the communication.

Reference

1. Crank, J. (2003). Institutional theory of police: a review of the state of the art. Policing: An Interna-tional Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 28, 186–207
2. Peak, K. J., Gaines, L. K., & Glensor, R. W. (2010). Police supervision and management: In an era of community policing (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall
3. Gaines, L., & Worrall, J. (2011). Police administration. Belmont, CA: Delmar