Police in America. Steven G. Brandl
Crow laws 23
means over ends syndrome 32
police matrons 24
political era 24
reform era 27
rogues gallery 26
sheriff 22
slave patrols 21
third degree 27
watch 21
Questions for Discussion and Review
Take a practice quiz at edge.sagepub.com/brandl2e.
1 What is the value of studying the history of the police?
2 Before there were police departments, policing duties were performed by constables, watches, slave patrols, and sheriffs. What was the role of each?
3 What was the political era of policing? What did policing look like in this era? What were the problems with policing during this era?
4 What were the primary crime detection and criminal identification strategies used during the political era?
5 What was the reform era of policing? What did policing look like during this era? What were the problems with policing during this era?
6 How did the police car, two-way radio, and the telephone change policing?
7 What is the community problem-solving era of policing? How is it different from the reform era?
8 Upon what factors does the definition and identification of “good policing” depend?
9 What is the means over ends syndrome and what does it have to do with the community problem-solving era of policing?
10 How are the political era and the community problem-solving era similar? How are they different?
Fact or Fiction Answers
1 Fiction
2 Fact
3 Fiction
4 Fiction
5 Fact
6 Fact
7 Fact
8 Fiction
9 Fiction
10 Fiction
Media Library
View these videos and more in the interactive eBook version of this text!
SAGE News Clip
2.1: Ferguson City Council
2.2: New NYPD Chief
2.3: California—Rodney King’s Daughter
Descriptions of Images and Figures
Back to Figure
Data from the graph, in percent, presented in the format, city: 1965 minority population, 1967 minority officers, are as follows. Washington, DC: 63, 21. Baltimore, MD: 41, 7. New Orleans, LA: 41, 4. Detroit, MI: 39, 5. Memphis, TN: 38, 5. Atlanta, GA: 38, 10. Chicago, IL: 27, 17.
Back to Figure
1600s to 1800s: Pre-police department era. The four primary policing entities were constables, watches, slave patrols, and sheriffs. Mid 1800s to early 1900s: The political era. Police and politicians were very closely related. Early 1900s to 1970s: The reform era. Attempts were made to remake police as professionals. 1970s to present: The Community Problem-Solving Era. Police pay attention to and work with citizens to try to prevent crime.
3 The Characteristics and Structure of Police Organizations
©iStockphoto.com/adventtr
Objectives
After reading this chapter you will be able to:
3.1 Describe the characteristics of police organizations
3.2 Discuss the challenges of managing police organizations
3.3 Compare and contrast the structure of larger and smaller police departments
3.4 Identify the major operating units within police departments
3.5 Identify and describe the law enforcement agencies that operate at each level of government as well as those agencies with special jurisdiction
Fact or Fiction
To assess your knowledge about the characteristics and structure of police departments prior to reading the chapter, identify each of the following statements as fact or fiction. (See page 61 at the end of this chapter for answers.)
1 Police departments can be accurately described as monopolies.
2 There is sometimes conflict between street cops and management cops. Street cops have very little power over management cops.
3 Much of the task of police management can be accurately thought of as the management of police discretion.
4 One of the biggest differences between small and large police departments is the amount of specialization present in the structure of the organization.
5 Of all sworn officers who work in law enforcement, the largest proportion work at the federal level.
6 While most local police departments in the country are quite small, most police officers work in larger departments.
7 State police agencies focus exclusively on highway and interstate highway traffic enforcement.
8 The Clery Act relates to local police departments and the reporting of crime to the FBI.
9 The Department of Homeland Security was created by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
10 There are three agencies at the federal level that have law enforcement responsibilities.
Police Spotlight: Police Salaries and the Possible Consequences
Police officer salaries vary considerably across states. The most recent statistics available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show western states tend to provide the highest police officer salaries, southern states the lowest. For example, at the extremes are California with an average salary for officers of $96,660 and Mississippi with an average salary of $34,550. Much of the salary differences across states is a result of cost of living differences, tax base differences, as well as police labor union representation. Even within states and within counties, however, there is typically much variation in police officer salaries. For example, within St. Louis County, Missouri, police officers who work in the City of Town and County have an average annual salary of three times that provided to officers in Hillsdale.1 In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, there are 109 police departments. Some residents of the county are served by officers whose starting salary is $40 an hour (Castle Shannon), while others are served by part-time officers who earn $10 an hour.2 In Wayne County, Michigan, Detroit Police Department (DPD) officers have a starting base salary of $39,545 while the City of Warren, just 15 miles away, provides a starting salary of nearly $80,000. The general pattern is that police officers who work in communities with the highest crime rates are also the lowest paid, and these officers are more likely to leave when other opportunities arise. In 2018, Warren hired 12 new officers, six were previously employed by the DPD and the other six were previously