Law enforcement organizations have a special role to play in any given society. They are responsible for maintaining law and order in public to ensure all citizens conduct their activities without any unnecessary disturbances. Many law enforcement organizations rely on the discipline of their officers to perform various tasks as mandated by the law.
They rely on a chain of command similar to the one used by military agencies to enhance discipline, diligence, and efficiency. Organizational management, administration, and operational aspects of policing are influenced by existing legal policies which outline specific roles to be performed by different departments. This essay discusses these three important aspects of policing and their relevance in law enforcement.
Police organizations are normally divided into different units with a clear chain of command. This organizational structure assigns roles and responsibilities to all officers and ensures they have the skills required to perform responsibilities they have been assigned. Some of the units that are found in a police organization include drug dealing, traffic operations, violent crime, disaster management, and highly sensitive tactical operations.
All units in a police organization are allocated law enforcement officers who have the skills needed to make them operational.
Therefore, one of the crucial roles of organizational management is to ensure that all units are allocated adequate resources they need to execute their functions effectively. Senior police chiefs also collaborate with other members of the organization to set targets and goals that have to be accomplished within specific timelines (Kania, 2008, p. 110).
Administrative aspects of policing have undergone systematic changes in the last three decades. Modern police administration focuses on training, skills development, leading and strengthening institutional capabilities. As a result, the administrative function ensures that law enforcement officers are well prepared to deal with different responsibilities assigned to them in their workstations.
Administrative functions also involve supervisory and performance review processes which enable police chiefs to assess the capabilities of all officers. Also, administrative aspects of policing allow police chiefs to liaise with other stakeholders to find out specific improvements that need to be made to boost performance ((Kania, 2008, p. 114).
Therefore, this makes police organizations well prepared to adapt and perform new tasks to attain good results. More importantly, administrative functions of police organizations require police chiefs to show good leadership to inspire their subordinates to improve their performance.
Operational aspects of policing involve effective planning, tactical awareness, and the utilization of modern technologies to deal with changing criminal patterns. Modern police organizations have instituted problem-solving systems that allow them to understand complex crimes and how they are likely to impact their operations.
The SARA model is one of the most commonly relied upon problem-solving strategies which law enforcement officers use to resolve crime (Kania, 2008, p. 118). It involves scanning of a problem; analysis of a problem to understand its nature; effective response and an assessment of results obtained from the response measures used.
In effect, this has allowed more police organizations to use community-oriented crime prevention strategies to identify crime patterns and their causes. As a result, they have been able to improve people’s perceptions in different communities they operate in.
In conclusion, the organizational, administrative, and operational aspects of policing enable law enforcement organizations to perform their functions more effectively. As a result, this makes them well prepared to deal with the various challenges they face in their operations.
Reference
Kania, R.R. E. (2008). Managing criminal justice organizations: An introduction to theory and practice. Newark, NJ: Lexis Nexis Group.