Management and Consultation

Unit 8

Agenda

• In this seminar we will discuss the following:

• Paramilitarism in Police Departments

• Issues that may result from the interface between the ranks and the psychologists

• How psychology can be better accepted by departments.

http://www.edrawsoft.com/Organizational-chart-examples.php

Police Departments• Sacramento Police Department– http://www.sacpd.org/pdf/inside/ooo.pdf

• Atlanta Police Department– http://www.atlantapolicefoundation.org/download/a

tlantapolicefoundationorg/277-APD_review_-_Final.pdf

• New York Police Department– http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/orgchart/org_cha

rt.html

Time-In-Rank

• Siegel & Senna (2007, p. 455), “For police officers to advance in rank they must spend an appropriate amount of time, usually years, in the preceding rank – that is, to become a captain, an officer must first spend time as a lieutenant.”

Directory Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau 1996

• 18,769 publicly funded state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States.

• Police and detectives held about 883,600 jobs in 2008

• About 79% were employed by local governments.

• State police agencies employed about 11 percent.

Directory Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau 1996

• From 1992 – 1996 the number of full-time State and local law enforcement officers whose regularly assigned duties included responding to calls for service grew by more than 68,000 men and women

• From 354,000 in 1992 to 423,000 in 1996.

• As of June 1996 the total number of full-time State and local officers with arrest powers was 663,535, an increase of 59,000 officers since 1992.

• Civilian support staff employment increased during the 4-year period by 21,000 to reach 258,443.

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics

• Police and detectives employed by local governments worked primarily in cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants.

• Some cities have very large police forces, while thousands of small communities employ fewer than 25 officers each.

Organizational Structure

• Under the American federal system of government, thousands of local governments created their own police forces.

• Each of these forces is separate, distinct, and

under autonomous command.

Organizational Structure• Most police agencies have informal or formal

mutual aid agreements (in case of emergency) with neighboring communities,

• Each are independent entities with their own unique structures, cultures, policies, and procedures.

Organizational Structure

• The result of the fragmented and localized evolution of American policing is that:

• (1) there is a huge number of police agencies,

• (2) these agencies exhibit tremendous variety in organizational form.

Organizational Structure• While small police agencies exhibit less

variation in formal organizational structure than larger agencies, there is still some structural variation among smaller agencies.

• Larger agencies have more people, more resources, and more tasks.

• One method for improving coordination and control as organizations grow is to institute formal structures.

Organizational Structure

• The largest municipal police agencies in the country exhibit staggering variety in the way they are organized:

• in terms of the complexity of their structural arrangements

• the modes of structural coordination and control that they employ.

Limited Research

• There have been at least 150 empirical studies of police behavior in the past four decades

• Only 10 studies of police organizational structures.

• Based on the limited research, police organizational structures appear to be relatively unimportant areas.

Why So Little Research?

• Organizational-level phenomena are often abstract, boring, and intangible.

• They are not the most entertaining, or fascinating aspects of policing, and they do not garner the respect and attention by scholars that other aspects of policing receive.

Interesting!

• Although organizational structures are not treated as fundamentally important in empirical research on the police, they earn a great deal of attention among reformers

• Before one can adequately change policy (reform a departmental structure) one must first do research! Otherwise it is likely shooting in the dark.

Elements of the Environment

• Political Environment

• Inter-Organizational Environment

• Institutional Environment

Political Environment

• Two elements of the environment are important to the organization are the

• Security of the police chief’s tenure • The degree of accountability that the

government executive demands from the chief

Political Environment

• Environmental variables important to the organization include:

– civil service requirements

– type of local government

– police employee organizations

Political Environment

• Three distinct ideal-type models of the proper role for local officials’ relationship to their police:

• Professional Autonomy• Team• Political Activist - ranging from low to high in

the extent to which the involvement of outside officials in police affairs is appropriate.”

Professional Autonomy

• The professional autonomy approach grew out of the good government movement to separate politics from the police

• The police chief is viewed as an autonomous professional who dictates policy and runs the police department as s/he sees fit.

Team

• The team approach suggests that police chiefs and local government executives should work together as active partners.

Political Activist

• Minimal power granted to the police chief for setting and guiding department policy

• Police chief is merely “a minion of the politician”—the politician makes all major policy decisions in the police department.

Inter-Organizational Environment

• Police agencies seen as existing within a “network” of organizations that includes, at a minimum, the other elements of the criminal justice system.

• What are some of these outside organizations?

Inter-Organizational Environment

• Other Organizations Include:

– Schools – Mental health clinics– Welfare department – Court system

Inter-Organizational Environment

• Research has explicitly examined the link between network relationships and structural attributes of the organization.

Institutional Environment

• 3 competing models of the relationship between the formal police administrative apparatus and police officer arrest behavior:

• Rational• Constrained rational• Loosely coupled (institutional)

Institutional Environment

• The rational model holds that police organizational structures are designed rationally to accomplish the goals of the agency.

• The institutional model holds that police agencies are structured according to organizational myths which are largely unrelated to the work of the agency

Stress

How Stressed Are YOU?

• This will take you about 5 minutes to complete. Be sure to make a note of those areas causing you most stress.

• http://stress.about.com/library/lifestylequiz/bl_lifestyle_quiz.htm

Reflection

• What did you learn about yourself and your stress levels?

(Only share things you are comfortable sharing)

• Why is important to KNOW your stress levels?

Stress In Law Enforcement

Web Field Trip

• When Trauma Bleeds:

• http://www.catchafallingstar.net/pages/trauma.html

Stress In The Police Working Environment

• What are some stress factors for the police officer?

Stress in The Police Working Environment

• Environmental Stress Factors• Physical Condition Stress Factors• Psychological Stress Factors

Environmental Stress Factors

• What are some examples of environmental stress factors?

Environmental Stress Factors

• Noise• Thermal Stress• Physical Work Overload

Physical Stress Factors

• What are some examples of physical stress factors?

Physical Stress Factors

• Health problems• Physical Fitness deficits• Age-induced performance issues• Pregnancy

Psychological Stress Factors

• What are some examples of psychological stress factors?

Psychological Stress Factors

• Monotony and boredom• Social and Family degradation• Genuine Danger• Job and Task Anomalies:– Job/management induced anxiety:• Frustration• Fear• Equipment or operational procedural demands

Police Work Stressors

• Four Categories– Intragroup – Organizational– Interpersonal– Individual

Intragroup Stressors

• Discrepancy between police conception of justice and the workings of the court system

• Conflicts between the officer’s role of social controller and community helper

• Strains on family relations – need to keep lives separate

Organizational Stressors

• Paperwork/Red Tape• Conflicting demands imposed by different

supervisors• Lack of Feedback/Support from supervisors• Dead-End Positions• Feelings of Distrust from Supervisors• Punishment-Centered Management• Poor Communications within Organizations

Interpersonal Stressors

• Breakdowns of relations with supervisors

Individual Stressors

• Shift Work• Boredom• Low Self-Esteem– All above lead to burnout

Mental Illness Stigma• Tipper Gore was very outspoken about mental illness and was very

powerful in her speeches. She made national news when she openly discussed her depression. Her goal was to remove the negative stigma associated with mental disease.

• For more on her campaign read:

• http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/37/5/10.full

• For a list of famous people who suffer from depression visit:

• http://www.depression-help-resource.com/articles/famous-depressed-people.htm

Stress As A Mediator Of Value Systems & Organizational Effectiveness

Management Needs• Responsiveness to

Operational Needs• Responsiveness to

Administrative Needs• Reputation for performance• Cost Containment• Responsiveness to Political

Pressures• Interagency Cooperation

Employees’ Needs• Self-Esteem• Performance Record• Remuneration• Job Security &

Advancement• Personal Time and Space for

Family/Significant Others• Intangible benefits of

memberships in a police organization

Costs of Psychological Help• Expensive when employee income multiplies as a result of stress-

related early retirement or long-term disability. • Necessary to establish stress management programs to help

officers cope with their traumatic experiences to ensure their health and job performance

• More financial prudent to help officers cope instead of hiring new personnel.

• Assistant Sheriff of the San Bernardino, CA Sheriff ’s Department stated, “We have a tremendous investment in cops,” he said, “and if they leave after one traumatic incident, we have lost a tremendous amount. A dollar in psychological services now can save us hundreds of thousands down the road.”

• Not only is it the moral choice to help fallen police officers, but it is also a beneficial choice to the force.

• “Police officers are often reluctant to talk to outsiders or to show ‘weakness’ in front of their peers

• As a result of restraining their emotions and being reluctant to ask for help, it is easy to overlook the warning signs of PTSD within officers since emotional trauma does not bleed as they tend to battle with their demons alone.

• When stress builds up each person has their individual breaking point, which may lead to other psychological disorders, substance abuse and even the extreme of suicide.

• Making it important for law enforcement management to recognize and provide help for their officers before stress from the job affects their health and personal relationships.

Training Exercises

• Frequent training exercises provide law enforcement officials with the skills needed to cope if they experience a traumatic incident in the line of duty.

Training Exercises: Cop 2 Cop• Based in New Jersey• Serves law enforcement officers and family members in the

area, by employing an integrated, multi-component emergency mental health continuum-of-care approach, including telephone hotlines, one-on-one crisis intervention, telephone assessments, group crisis intervention, and referrals to mental health resources.

• Staffed by retired members of the law enforcement community as well as trained mental health professionals the program has received over 9,000 telephone calls and has conducted more than 450 critical incident stress management interventions.

In Summary• As an occupational hazard, law enforcement professionals are

exposed to traumatic events more often than the average citizen; therefore, they are more likely to develop stress and other related disorders.

• When stress affects an individual physically and emotionally, his or her job performance begins to suffer. Thus, it is necessary that law enforcement management and government officials ensure that proper training and critical stress management programs, especially ones that can be easily nationalized, for officers to normalize their emotions and reactions to traumatic events.

• If this does not occur and the stress builds up without release, the officer has a greater chance of developing PTSD. It is important that law enforcement stress reactions are identified early to promote the best recovery, proper training needs are understood for these officers, and mental health professionals who understand these officers are provided to ensure effective treatment.