Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Police organisational culture
Organizational culture in police work
Organizational culture in police work
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Police organisational culture
) Why do police officer perceive themselves as true outsiders, especially after many years on the job? There of plenty of reasons why officers perceive themselves as true outsiders. One main factor has to do it the experience and perception of danger in these communities. Senior officers create memories of their experiences after a few years of duty that leaves a psychological scar that stick with them forever. This is the main reason they refer to themselves as true outsiders from the community that they serve (Haberfeld et al.2014, pg.200). 2) What are some of the mechanisms involved in the transmission of police culture and subcultures from one generation to the next, and what are some examples of how these manifest in on the job encounters? As stated in The Pillar of Democracy”, by Haberfeld M.R. (MAKI), Charles Lieberman and Amber Horning (pg.201), the way culture evolves depends on the individual persons. Police cultural is a set behavioral patterns passed on by the members of the teams to the new members and such patterns of behavioral pattern stay long after the retirement or departure of the one who originated the behaviors. Organic and Supra-Organic- the police profession manifest in the way that officers perceive and respond to various …show more content…
In several cases, folks will set aside their personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group. Group-think influences police officer’s rationalizations for some behaviors by preventing members of the group from reconsidering their beliefs while causing them to ignore warning signs. Group-think tends to occur more in situations where group members are very similar to one another and is more likely to take place when a powerful and charismatic leader commands the group. Situations in which the group is placed under extreme stress or where moral dilemmas exist also increase the occurrence of groupthink (Haberfeld et al.2014,
Cop in the hood is a book about Peter Moskos experience as a police officer in the eastern district of Baltimore. First, as a sociologist at Harvard, he was very curious about the job of Policing. There is a lot of misconception and myth about the job so what a better way to learn than become one? His coworkers were at first wary of the Harvard liberal, expecting him to do a poor job due to being primarily concerned with his research. Police culture is naturally untrustworthy of outsiders as most citizens have no idea what the job is actually like.
Police subculture consists of the occupational culture that is shared among the police officers. It is the subculture that shapes the attitude among many police officers, which makes them cynical, isolated, defensive, alienated, distrustful, and authoritarian. Christopher Cooper stated, “Sub-culture, however, conflicts with the culture that the police department seeks to portray to the public. Oftentimes, it is the police subculture that is being blamed for the various transgressions of police officers.”
As a law enforcement officer, it is up to them to change the way that the general public looks at them.
Organizational culture is a set of beliefs, values, and behavioral guides shared by an organization's members (Giblin, 2014). Police culture is a highly bureaucratic, rule bound culture. The job is highly stressful with a varying degree of personalities. According to the video and in my experience, police culture generally haws two parts. The first is how police interact while doing their jobs on the street and the second in the way officers interact on a organizational level. Often, police get more frustrated and outspoken at an organizational level. However, these two parts can have an effect of one another.
Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2012). Police in America: An Introduction (8th Edition ed.). New York:
Police are sometimes stereotyped to be rugged, single minded enforcers who are insensitive to families in their most vulnerable state (Cross, Finkelhor, Ormrod, 2005). This would be an ideal approach to implement; however there seem to be difficult relationships between the two systems as they both hold different values and beliefs.
(Swanson, Territo and Taylor, p. 2). However, in recent years some major changes have occurred in a shorter time period. Innovations in law enforcement During the past two decades, I have observed major changes in the viewpoint of society towards police officer's as the symbol of trust and dignity, the technological advances of communication and information systems in law enforcement, and the revision of selection and hiring practices for police officers. Organizational change occurs both as a result of internal and external agents (Swanson, Territo and Taylor, p. 664).
Police stress is viewed as a structural problem that is amongst the police culture (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). The argument made is that the working environment causes the stress. Even though a police officers job is not as dangerous officers still determine the danger as a source of stress. Police stress can be split up in to three sources: occupation, job-related and external stress (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Just the thought of the job gives officers stress. Job-related circumstances such as responding to calls can also create stress. Finally, external sources such as personal stress can all lead to an officer being highly
"A policeman’s first obligation is to be responsible to the needs of the community he serves…The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which an honest police officer can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around.", -Frank Serpico.
It is both a result and a cause of police isolation from the larger society and of police solidarity. Its influence begins early in the new officer’s career when he is told by more experienced officers that the “training given in police academies is irrelevant to ‘real’ police work”. What is relevant, recruits are told, is the experience of senior officers who know the ropes or know how to get around things. Recruits are often told by officers with considerable experience to forget what they learned in the academy and in college and to start learning real police work as soon as they get to their Field Training Officers. Among the first lessons learned are that police officers share secrets among themselves and that those secrets especially when they deal with activities that are questionable in terms of ethics, legality, and departmental policy, are not to be told to others. They also are told that administrators and Internal Affairs officers cannot often be trusted. This emphasis on the police occupational subculture results in many officers regarding themselves as members of a “blue
In this essay, I will investigate and describe a cultural group in my desired field. I will provide details from an interview with a professional person in my field of interest. Gender inequality is still a big issue in law enforcement. Women make up a small percentage in the world of law enforcement. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, there are only thirteen percent of women working in law enforcement in the United States and only five percent are African American (Criminal Justice School Info, 2014). The New York City Police Department hired the first female officers in 1845 and they were called “matrons” (Felperin, 2004). Over twenty years of extensive research has shown that female officers possess a unique style of policing in which they rely more on their interpersonal skills rather than physical strength or force to talk a person down from a violent situation (National Center for Women & Policing, 2013).
Power conformity is parallel behavior to obtain rewards and avoid punishments from the larger group (Levy, 1). What the individual attempts to obtain are cues from the group to articulate the appropriate response in a situation. Individuals conform to these standards because they wish to achieve solidarity. Therefore, police solidarity effects the socialization process to the subculture and police work because new members are trying to increase their solidarity with the group. Encouraging individuals to conform and obey social norms can be done through formal and informal means. Although individuals begin with different attitudes, they are socialized into the attitudes and behavior of the group. For example, a rookie African American officer
Cordner, G. W., & Scarborough, K. E. (2010). Police administration (7th ed.). Albany, N.Y.: LexisNexis/Anderson Pub.
Bridgman, T. (2011). Treading the thin blue line: Embedding culture change at New Zealand Police (Case Part A) Australia and New Zealand School of Government Case Program, Reference 2011-639.1.
Both Lessing and Asch agree that group mentality strongly influences what one thinks and does. Saul McLeod, author of “The Milgram Experiment”, would be likely to agree with Lessing and Asch. McLeod states in his article “Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being. Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up.”