Introduction
Appreciation of the history of policing is central to understanding the trends in the development of the modern police force. The article “The evolving strategy of policing” by Kelling and Moore (1988) argues that historically, the police went through two developmental stages, and now it is in the transition phase to the community problem-solving era. The present paper offers an analysis of the article’s theoretical framework, methodology, and conclusions. While the authors of the article seem to apply appropriate concepts, their methods and discussion seem to lack consistency.
Theoretical Framework
The authors utilize the concept of corporate strategy to interpret the results of the historical study, which seems to be appropriate to answer the research question. According to Alford and Greve (2017), using private sector strategies for public organizations may be associated with increased efficiency of the public sector.
For example, Allen, Mueller, and Simmons (2015) believe that the only way to meet the high demands in the public sector and not-for-profit organizations is to utilize corporate strategies prevalent in the private sector. Additionally, according to Moore and Trojanowicz (1988), if police departments choose to follow the standards of corporate strategy, “they will have to become more capacious, flexible, and innovative than they now commonly are” (p. 11). Considering the evidence summarized above, it is safe to say that Kelling and Moore (1988) utilize an appropriate theoretical framework in their study.
Methodology
The methods used in the article seem to be marginally appropriate since they fail to represent the holistic picture of the history of policing in the US. Even though the methodology provides useful insights into the changing roles of the police in the United States, the analysis is incomplete (Williams & Murphy, 1990). In particular, the authors failed to reflect the complexity of the development of policing by ignoring such essential factors as slavery, segregation, discrimination, and racism (Williams & Murphy, 1990). The importance of the minorities in the formation and improvement of policing strategies is demonstrated in the study by Reichel (1988), who states that slave patrols were the predecessors of the modern police force. Therefore, it is evident that the methods employed by Kelling and Moore (1988) lack flexibility.
Discussion and Conclusions
Due to the one-sided methodology, the discussion and conclusion sections of the article also seem to be limited. In particular, a narrow view of history led to identifying only two stages of policing in the past. However, since there are more periods and sub-periods mentioned by Reichel (1988), the discussion and conclusions of the study are limited (Williams & Murphy, 1990). At the same time, the findings of the authors concerning the current stage and goals of policing are consistent with the suggestions provided in the article by Moore and Trojanowicz, (1988) and the study by Williams and Murphy (1990). In short, the conclusions of the article are only partially applicable to further research.
Conclusion
Critical analysis of the article demonstrates that even though the authors utilized an appropriate theoretical framework, their findings are limited due to inadequate methodology. While the corporate strategy can be applied to the analysis of developmental stages of policing, the lack of acknowledgment of the concepts of segregation, racism, discrimination, and slavery makes the view of the authors one-sided. The history of the US police force is a complex subject with an abundance of stakeholders that have varying influences on its strategies, priorities, and practices.
References
Alford, J., & Greve, C. (2017). Strategy in the public and private sectors: Similarities, differences and changes. Administrative Sciences, 7(4), 35. Web.
Allen, B.H., Mueller, K., & Simmons, J. (2015) Corporate and marketing strategy in health care: How do the investor-owned and not-for-profit hospitals differ? In: Rogers III J., Lamb, Jr. C. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 1983 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Kelling, G., & Moore, M. (1988). The evolving strategy of policing. Perspectives on Policing, 4, 1-15.
Moore, M., & Trojanowicz, R. (1988). Corporate strategies for policing. Perspectives on Policing, 6, 1-15.
Reichel, P. L. (1988). Southern slave patrols as a transitional police type. American Journal of Police, 7, 51-65.
Williams, H., & Murphy, P. (1990). The evolving strategy of policing: Minority view. Perspectives on Policing, 13, 1-15.