Policing Through the Looking Glass: Police Organizational Communication as a Reflection of Society

• In Event: Contemporary Issues in Police Organizations

Abstract

This paper reports on an ethnographic study of police organizational communication. This study has examined police organizational communication with a focus on how information comes into the policing agency and how that information is filtered by call takers and dispatchers and relayed to the police officer on the street. The focus of the paper is on how the various filters on information relate to police action and on how police action reflects the requests made by and information provided by members of society. A critical lens is applied to examine how policing reflects the dominant components of society.
Implications for research, theory, and policy are discussed.

Author

• Meghan Elizabeth Hollis, Texas State University