Chapter 4: Policing Functions and Units

Introduction

• Crisis Investigative Teams: This team is used when dealing with the mentally ill. They are called in to calm them down as much as possible.

Goals of Policing

• Policing Goals: These are a set of ideals that a department wants to meet they also help give officers a purpose.

Translating Goals into Mission Statements and Policy

• Mission Statement: It is usually short so that officers will remember it and it is used to describe the overall purpose of a department. This statement should be not only motivating to the officers but the public as well.
• Values: Set of core beliefs and concerns of the department
• Policy: Specific statements that are used to regulate and guide individual behavior
• Interim Order: This is an example of a police policy. A written directive that tells officers what to do or not do.

Organizational Structure and Accountability

• Organizational Chart: Reflects the formal structure of a police department.
• Hierarchy: The ranking of law enforcement department officers that is usually used to create an organizational chart.
• Generalists: These are officers who carry out all operations functions
• Quasi-military: This is a strict model of power and control going from top to bottom and it is made from chains of command and clear division of rank.
• Command: Refers to the chief and deputy chiefs
• Middle Management: Refers to the captains and lieutenants
• Line Personnel: Refers to patrol officers

Flat Organizations--Decentralized Policing

• Vertical Differentiation: The nature of the hierarchy, including the number of command layers and the social distance between layers.
• Tall Organizations: Organizations with many layers
• Span of Control: The number of people a person with a higher rank (supervisor) can handle while working efficiently.
• Horizontal Differentiation: The spread of the organization within its jurisdiction
• Flattening: Eliminating rank to reduce excessive beauracracy
• Decentralizing:
• Functional Structures: Units have multiple responsibilities and purposes.
• Matrix Structures: Officers have a specific role inside a unit.

Divisions and Units

• Division: This is a group of people who share similar responsibilities for a specific function
• Unit: These are groups that are made within a division
  • Ex: A unit in a division may focus on things relating specifically to gang violence

Administrative Services

• Operational: Primary enforcement activities (ex: traffic enforcement or police patrol)
• Administrative: Provide support for the police department itself (ex: hiring officers, training them, maintaining records, etc.)
• Personnel/Human Resource Division
  • Officer recruitment
  • Setting up examinations for officers
  • Monitoring and setting a stand of performance for all employees
  • Administrating health, safety, and benefits programs
  • Records Unit: Maintain all records such as arrest reports, incident reports, accident reports, interrogation transcripts, witness statements, etc.
• Research and Planning Division: Provide officers with information on the social, economical, and political conditions of the community. They use this information to help plan new programs or strategies for future operations.
• Public Information Unit: Communicate with the media about updates on news or anything they want the public to know about.

Internal Affairs

• This division handles all complaints from the public against the police department. They will investigate the complaint and the officer to see if there have violated any department rules or standards.

• Phases in an Investigation of Complaints against the Police

  1. Intentional review and establishing grounds for complaint
  2. Witness statements and evidence
  3. Collection of other evidence such as medical or police reports
  4. Background check of the complainant to establish the reliability
  5. Background check of the accused officer
  6. Interviews of other involved people

Special Units and Divisions

• Undercover/Intelligence
  • Covert/Undercover Operations: When an officer takes on a false identity to obtain evidence of criminal activity
  • Sting Operations: Undercover officers pose as buyers of illegal items to find the source
  • Reverse sting operation: Officers pose as the drug dealer or the seller to find people who are purchasing illegal items
  • Decoy Operations: When an officer poses as a victim of a crime to catch the suspect
  • Blending: When officers have to blend in with their environment/people around them
• Entrapment or Agent Provocateur: When an officer encourages a person to commit a crime that they would not have originally committed

Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT Units)

• SWAT: Units that are equipped to handle high-risk situations that normal officers would not be able to handle
• Hostage Negotiation Techniques: These techniques help in situations where a hostage is taken and they are used to help law enforcement communicate with the criminal without there being a high risk of something going wrong.

Juvenile Units

• School liaison Officers: These officers are signed to high schools to investigate any crime that takes place. They help make it easier for students and teachers to communicate with the police.
• DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education): These are officer lead lessons that are used to bring awareness to drug abuse and its effects.
• GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training): This is a community lead approach that is used to teach kids about gangs to reduce gang involvement and behavior.

Canine (K9) Units

• Canine Units (k9): This is the use of dogs to help with drug investigations or track someone down through their sense of smell

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