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When it comes to law enforcement, officers have discretion for about almost every scenario, leaving out mandated arrest like domestic violence calls. But from department to department, state to state, everyone runs there program a little differently. These departmental policing styles are all influenced by the mission statement and goals of the department , views of the community and needs of the town. They also influence every are of work of jurisdiction, from hiring and promotion decisions, everyday police-community interactions, and budget decisions.
To add on , each individual officers style is unique based on the fact that everyone has their own beliefs , morals and outlook on their work. Although these officers have their own way of dealing with situations . Departments hire them based on their beliefs and character . Departments try to hire the best match possible parallel to their mission statement and goals. Although most experts agree that there is no best way to manage a police department. In 1968 James Q Wilson, identified three styles of policing in law enforcement.
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
The policing styles are watchman style , legalistic style and service style. Policing styles are set to describe how a agency sees their purpose and they use one of the three styles to fulfill that purpose. Generally speaking there are two types of management styles, military and then there's community policing.
The watchmen style focuses mainly on maintaining order they like to keep the peace instead of hectic drama. Watchman act like members of the community except they have more power then every else.
This department focuses on resolving disputes, but not trying to prevent it by being proactive about the situation. They tend not to arrest people and leave that for a last resort. They let go of small crimes like gambling and are more concerned about serious crime like murder. They act like a guardian rather than police officer. You can run into these departments in more rural, blue collared, small areas. Being that the watchmen department isn't as proactive as others , officers are allowed a bigger range of discretion. But there's a downside to this wide range of discretion. Citizens tend to mistaken this discretion with discrimination. So officers practicing the watchmen style must be very careful and treat everyone equally as best as possible .
On the other hand legalistic style is totally opposite of the watchmen style. They are more like soldiers rather then guardians. They focus more on actual arrest and violations of law. These officers are about the book and will most likely always arrest someone if they obeyed the law. Departments that follow this style are very strict. You can see this type of style in larger cities , that are very diverse and have a strong government. For example : Los Angeles , CA police department. The legalistic department like the watchman,focuses on resolving disputes. But unlike the watchman they are proactive.legalistic officers empathize professionalism. An example for the legalistic style would be a officer giving a ticket to a driver who went over the speed limit by 1. Therefore, going 26 in a 25 mph zone.
Lastly we have the service style of policing . Think of it more as a customer service style of policing. These officers tend to keep order in the community and making arrest if necessary. Because this is the service style and they tend to their “customers “ community . They will only crack down on petty crimes if the community wants them too. It's called the service style because it wants the officers to act as if they were store personnel.
Police Management Styles Essay. (2021, Aug 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/police-management-styles-essay
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