Police Chain Of Command Essay

I believe the chain of command is important in a police agency for many reasons. It is a roadmap that shows the route within the organization that order would flow coming down through the organization or that requests flow going up the organization, like a two-way street. The chain of command also establishes formal lines of communication within the department for organizational purposes and it must be used by everyone to communicate formally. This will eliminate crucial departmental problems. For example, if the chief administrative level does not follow the chain of command downward and gives an order directly to the patrol officer, this could cause confusion. For example, the supervisory level might feel that it is alright to do the same thing sending information up the chain. The purpose of the chain of command is to show individuals who their bosses are, from the chief

It is necessary for different ranking levels to resolve issues. For example, the “Chief” of an organization does not always have time to answer all of the little questions or deal with every issue. When there is a chain of command, the lower level employees can utilize the chain of command to help resolve issues in a timely manner. Without this structure, employees would “flood” the “chief” with all of the issues, and the supervisors will be kept out of the loop of what’s going on. Nevertheless, I believe the paramilitary structure will work in policing for the reasons, information flows up the chain of command from the street officer to the police administration and orders and commands flow down the chain to the street officer. The chain of command and the paramilitary structure have been retained, regardless to the complexity of the police bureaucracy. Therefore, no matter how defined the hierarchy is or how flat the structure is, the goal was to be more consistent with community-oriented policing (Travis,