Transforming a police organization: The changes that improved crime and policing in one urban community

• In Event: Police Reforms and Strategies

Abstract

American police organizations operate in a constantly changing environment. Given these community dynamics, it is vital to document how and why police organizations respond to change to accommodate evolving community needs. There are tremendous lessons to be learned from examining the interplay between external pressures and organizational changes that facilitate positive policing.

This study is an account of how one urban police organization reinvented itself and the climate of fear and safety in their city. Organizational change serves as the theoretical framework in which we understand this reinvention. Using a retrospective case study approach, the paper examines the dynamics of change that transformed an urban police organization from a deeply embedded, insular, and non-engaged agency to a facilitator of community change and a national model of community policing. Using primary and secondary data covering a 20 year period, the paper speaks to the influencing community and organizational forces that stimulated change in this organization. The study’s results highlight the valuable nexus between police practice, organizational theory, and change outcomes. This study should be of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in change in policing and in the role of police change in community revitalization.

Author

• Brenda J. Bond, Suffolk University