Supervisory Styles Influence Patrol Officer Behavior

The composition by recruiting officers is to manufacture loyalty and conformity by implying the craving to seek approval during training and later by experienced officers during their career. Leading officers frequently influence new recruits by their unethical behavior and poor decisions making. Many officers are aware of the wrong behaviors, while others justify their actions by the principles “us versus evil” that “justifies all that police do to control their turf, including righteous abuse of suspects and malcontents” (Crank, 1998). Most officers will follow their footsteps out of fear, rejection, and becoming cut off from the organization.

Moreover Enter stress we must hold ineffective personnel and managers accountable for their behavior and actions or lack thereof. Far too often most supervisors and managers seem to take the “path of least resistance” when dealing with problem employees or in communicating with employees. This “wide road of mediocrity” is believed to be the primary path of most managers and these leadership failures have become a significant form of stress and frustration for the law enforcement culture.

The New Jersey State Police does not experience much turnover. However, within a twenty-five year career, a trooper’s attitude, and how that attitude relates to job satisfaction and output can be measured. While a trooper with 10-15 years experience may be distrustful of command staff, junior troopers (those with 1-5 years) are viewed as zealots. Junior troopers are productive and engaged in their field. A trooper’s job satisfaction can be measured by his/her’s perceived organizational support. Job satisfaction has a direct correlation to employee engagement and perceived organizational support.

Police behavior plays a gigantic role in whether or not an officer will be willing to use excessive force against a suspect such as their background, training, morals, and composer in stressful situations. In Worden’s article he explains three theories about police behavior that comprise of existing research on police behavior and they’re training. These are sociological, psychological, and organizational theory. He explains sociological theory as the premise that police behavior is

Are the people placed in these roles fit as being a leader? Are they capable of leading in a large quality in the future? There has been research on the varied of different leadership styles with in law enforcement agencies. Other views on the research focus on leadership and how it effects organizational commitment. There is a need to push out research and create different models in order to redesign of law enforcement agencies. According to Patrick J. Hughes “Increasing Organizational Leadership Through the Police Promotional Process”, he explains the current process used in promoting ranks and the available leadership education for law enforcement agents. There are clear connections between leadership styles and how to proper assess a true

To begin, I shall summarize the major issue regarding the case study shown on page 103, in the 7th edition book Titled, Effective Police Supervision, written by Harry More and Larry Miller in 2015. Sergeant Lou Maynard recently got promoted to the evening supervisor for the Craigview Police Department. Six months had then passed. While leading his team, Maynard came to the realization that two of his officers did not seem motivated as the rest of them were. The other officers, that were doing their jobs, started to complain about the two non-motivated officers. They began stating that the two officers did not their carry their weight when it came to the team. The two officers are noticed working as if they do not wish to be there and are just waiting to retire in the next year. They have even distanced themselves when it comes to socializing with fellow officers on duty and off.

|Supervisors all have personal habits which lean towards some of the roles or focus's must choose the interaction required for the supervisees learning|

There are many theories about different aspects of leadership and the effectiveness of each in a criminal justice setting. Contemporary research brings into focus the behavioral approach and the contingency approach. The behavioral approach emphasizes the behavior of leaders while the contingency approach emphasizes situational variables that affect leadership.

Special units in police forces are essential to the function of any organization, however some of these special units might evolve into feeling superior to the rest of the agency. The mentality of doing it their own way sets in and more likely than not this behavior is not cohesive with the policies and procedures in place by the agency. Unfortunately, this attitude develops from not being checked, and leads to the unit feeling as though they are untouchable. When not having checks and balances

Police leadership uses standardization and procedure as a way to create consistency and predict¬ability in law enforcement operations (Batts, Smoot, & Scrivner, 2012). The San Diego Police Department, like nearly all law enforcement agencies uses leadership models mimicking the United States military. Paramilitary organizations use highly structured framing to conduct business operations. The structural frame creates compartmentalized specialization, and predictable, uniform task performance desired by police executives. The tightly designed rank-and-file structure delineates locus power and control based on position (Bolman & Deal, 1991). Power rests at the top. Contained with this structure is top-down control of personnel,

In today’s society there are three types of policing styles and it tends to vary based on the community. According to Kuykendall (1974), states that the style used in a community by law enforcement is based on different expectations regarding role performance (Kuykendall, 1974). Each style is used to maintain and enforce law and order in the community. The three policing styles that are used in the community are legalistic, watchman, and service style. The legalistic style of policing is focused on enforcing the law and resolving disputes by the book. It is also considered a reactive form of policing. The watchman style policing focuses on maintaining order and preventing crime (Kuykendall, 1974). The service style policing is focused on helping those in the community, instead of enforcing the laws. The policing style that I believe is used in my community is the watchman and legalistic style. Both policing style is used to enforce the law and maintain order in a culturally and ethnically diverse community, by making arrest, keeping the peace and issuing citations.

When discussing leadership within the law enforcement profession is it vital to take the human factors into consideration. There are multiple human factors that the law enforcement leaders must take note of, such as, family issues, financial issues, stress, health, and morale. These human factors that play an important role for law enforcement in general can impact morale, officer safety and the public perception. When addressing the human factors, “Law enforcement leaders should challenge themselves and their employees to increase safety margins by focusing on human factors. By doing so, they will improve proactive communication at their level of influence and develop an organizational culture that values safety and wellness” (Bone, D., Normore,

All organizations, especially law enforcement agencies, require leadership. Maintaining a dependable leadership structure is key to the success of any organization. The philosophy of the modern style of police leadership involves a leader who is strong, competitive and unreceptive to change. Police leadership is based from an autocratic style which is founded on integrity and courage, embracing teamwork, involvement and shared leadership (Cordner & Scarborough, 2010). This style of leadership works well in an emergency situation in which rapid decision making and strict control is needed. The negative aspect to this style of leadership is the inability of the organization to function with the absence of leadership.

Approaches of both community policing and traditional policing models differ in a variety of ways. The characteristics of the policing models are quite different from each other, and community based policing was considered laughable when suggested for the new approach in the early 1970s. Due to community policing’s new operating beliefs, new and unfamiliar expected officer behaviors, and that officers were being held legally responsible for their actions and inactions; the idea and implementation wasn’t widely accepted until 1980’s. Traditional policing was primarily dominated by rampant corruption and lawlessness that affected all levels of the police administration; therefore citizens had little trust if any, in the police officers of the time.

In Detroit for instance, 4200 patrol officers weree on the street in 1998, by 2015 the number was down to 1600. There was not, however, a proportional drop in the supervisory ranks. So let’s look at the job from an officers’ perspective,