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The Principles of Police Leadership Essay

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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. A …show more content…

This method of crime prevention gave way to the idea that it was better to be proactive than wait until after a crime has been committed. The strategy of using preventative patrol was how law enforcement eventually achieved deterrence. This English method also contributed three features: limited police authority, local control of the police agency, and a fragmented system of law enforcement (Walker, 1983). A fragmented system of law enforcement is very evident today. The United States currently has approximately 15,000 different police agencies. These individual police agencies are subject to little coordination with minimal national regulation (Walker, 1983).
Research / Analysis The style of police leadership has gradually changed over the last several years. The traditional belief that the solitary leader who possessed the wisdom, integrity, and courage to manage a police department, or a shift of officers has been replaced with the concept of teamwork (Wuestewald, 2013). The idea of using a team to manage an organization is nothing new in the private sector, however, replacing the old idea of a solitary leader has taken time and is slow to take hold in some organizations. A 2006 case study of the benefits of shared management in police agencies was conducted on the Broken Arrow Police Department (BAPD). The BAPD is a police department which employs 165 persons in Oklahoma. A focus of the study was to shift the police

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