Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department

Innovating to Reform

Brenda J. Bond-Fortier

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781138190207
• eBook ISBN: 9781317279365
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

This in-depth case study of a mid-sized police department captures the dynamics, struggles, and successes of police change, revealing the positive organizational and community outcomes that resulted from a persistent drive to reinvent public safety and community relationships. The police profession in the United States faces a legitimacy problem. It is critical that police are prepared to change constantly, be adaptive, and adopt openness to self-reflection and external comparison, moving beyond their comfort zone to overcome the inevitable cultural, structural, and political obstacles. Using previously unpublished longitudinal data examining a 25-year period, Bond-Fortier offers a rich account of the complexity of police management and change within one particular mid-sized city: Lowell, Massachusetts.

The multidisciplinary lens applied provides crucial insights into how and why police organizations respond to a changing environment, set certain goals, and make decisions about how to achieve those goals. The book analyzes the community and organizational forces that stimulated change in the Lowell Police Department, describes the changes that enabled the department to achieve national model status, and builds a nexus between influencing forces, interdisciplinary theory, and the creation of an adaptive 21st-century police organization.

Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department: Innovating to Reform is essential reading for academics and students in criminal justice, criminology, organizational studies, public administration, sociology, political science, and public policy programs, as well as government executives, crime policy analysts, and public- and private-sector managers and leaders engaged in professional development and leadership courses.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Contemporary Policing

It could be said that the police in the United States (US) face a legitimacy problem in the early 21st century, due in part to incidents and tragedies of officer-involved shootings and biased justice practices. The general public has become accustomed to questioning the police, pressing the police to be more transparent and accountable for their actions. Consent decrees and reform are part of the modern vernacular when talking about police and police-community relationships. On the other hand, there remain many of the public that believe in and trust the police, and see their work as fostering safe and just communities. Recognizing this paradox in modern policing provides an opportunity to reflect on the challenges facing the police and communities, and how police agencies might embrace a new reality in which they are able to confront complex crime and public safety issues, while also remaining adaptive to changing community and environmental needs. Beyond recent tragedies in Ferguson, New York, and elsewhere, today’s police face constant and increasing demands to be more proactive, to hold themselves responsible for their work and behaviors, and to become more connected to the communities they serve (Skogan & Frydl, 2004). Certainly, we must fix the problems in individual policing agencies, and with individual officers, but we also need to move beyond crisis-driven quick fixes, and spend our energies and discussions focused on how policing can become and remain an adaptive and malleable 21st-century policing institution.

Contemporary police organizations face a variety of challenges that in some ways mirrored those seen before—new technologies, police-community conflict, pressures from interest groups to build relationships and engage with the community, and economic downturns are all matters on the forefront of modern policing. They are so because they affect the availability and use of organizational resources. Many of these same issues arose in the 1960s and early 1970s as community and government scholars, and many in the policing profession, called upon the police to reform and place the community and positive relationships at the center of their work. On the other hand, today’s police face new pressures to perform at higher standards, to be more transparent in operations and management, and to integrate research and data into the tactical and strategic management of the organization (Skogan & Frydl, 2004). Ultimately, there is a push to hold police accountable in systematic ways, with the community at the heart of accountability systems (Bond & Kelling, 2018). Many police agencies are pushed to change through reform, reacting to pressures from local, state, or federal policymakers. Others chose to change to adapt to the needs of the community, and the profession. As such, the policing profession has begun the move toward a more sophisticated enterprise, whereby police organizations adapt to the needs and dynamics of their constituents and their environment (Stone & Travis, 2011; Weisburd & Braga, 2006), as well as research and best practices. This is good news, yet so many other police agencies remain stuck in tradition and longstanding practices that rest heavily on a closed-door, us-versus-them, style of law enforcement.

Police actions today remain primarily directed by citizen calls for service that direct their work 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The police must prioritize these calls based on threats to caller and public safety. A harsh reality is that the police still spend most of their time and efforts reacting to these 911 emergency calls for service. Of course, emergency calls for service remains one of their primary functions. These calls come from citizens who look to the police for help or to deal with a long list of public problems, including traffic safety, truancy, stolen property, landlord-tenant disputes, suspicious persons, prostitution, and sex offenders, as well as myriad other community complaints. The community also looks to the police as social service providers—providing medical assistance, responding appropriately to persons with mental health issues, assisting individuals who are drug-dependent, or saving those who are abused by partners or family members. Because emergency calls remain a priority, as they should, police managers and officers continue to struggle with allocating time and resources to do the proactive work that the community also desires. Attending community meetings, engaging with young people in positive and proactive ways, and participating in a range of community safety nights and events are also of interest to the community, but resources of police agencies remain limited and sometimes conflict with diverse community interests. How does a modern police agency adapt to the dynamic and changing needs of the community, while simultaneously remaining creative and innovative in tackling crime and public safety problems? This is arguably the most pressing challenge facing contemporary police leaders.

Adding to the challenges of emergency response and community needs, police are pressured to create and deliver cutting-edge and effective crime responses to familiar and emerging public safety problems. Those with limited knowledge of the nature and effectiveness of policing may believe that the police are ill-prepared to change to address disconnects between changing community dynamics and the police. Yet, research shows us that over the past several decades, the nature and expectations of American police institutions have changed in many ways—many of them positive (Mastrofski & Willis, 2010). A variety of economic, political, technological, and social forces have significantly influenced what police do on the street, how they interact with the public, and how they account for their performance (Herbert, 2014; Worrall, 2014), and many police agencies have adapted quite well. Research on what works in policing has informed new ways of understanding and tackling crime and disorder priorities. New technologies are being used to collect and analyze data for operational and administrative decision-making, as well as to capture data on what officers are doing in the field, and police organizations have become more transparent and open in communicating their strategies and accomplishments (Skogan & Frydl, 2004). It is now less acceptable for police to address crime using the “trial and error” approach (Weisburd, Mastrofski, McNally, Greenspan, & Willis, 2003).

More recently, police managers are adopting management tools such as strategic management and performance management systems for decision-making and “value-added management” (Coleman, 2008, p. 308), evidence-based practices (Lum & Koper, 2017; Sherman, 1998), and “scorecards” (Kelling & Coles, 2011; Moore, Thacher, Dodge, & Moore, 2002). Compstat, a performance management system adopted by police agencies beginning in the 1990’s, has become a staple in police organizations and there are calls to integrate community priorities into Compstat as a way to measure community priorities and police impact (Bond & Kelling, 2018). Multiple innovations have been introduced to policing in the past three decades, changing the way most police agencies operate (Weisburd & Braga, 2006). The truth is that local US police have been the most adaptive and responsive arm of the criminal justice system as compared to the judicial system and corrections (Skogan & Frydl, 2004).

While we know that many police organizations have successfully adapted over the years, it is not clear what circumstances make this successful adaptation by police agencies possible. Furthermore, it remains unclear what challenges arise when strong and often enigmatic institutions like the police adapt and change. In fact, most police agencies are constantly changing; yet, we do not know or adequately understand these changes or the change experience from the participants’ perspective. Reframing the inquiry to examine and understand how police agencies change to accommodate community needs, alongside the challenges and benefits that come from change, is a valuable and long-overdue investigation.

One way in which we can understand and tackle modern challenges facing the police is to learn from police agencies that have invested in and built strong relationships with the communities they serve, and that have made substantive changes in the organization to do so. What forces from within and outside these police organizations foster positive change, and how have these agencies adapted in response to these forces? What organizational and community changes help the police meet their public safety goals? What do community members say about police agency change, and what role can the community and public officials play in changing a police agency? Why and in what ways does community voice matter to the function and effectiveness of these police agencies? These are questions that should drive our conversations about what can be achieved by the 21st-century police organization.

Rather than centering all of our attention on the problems that exist between communities and the police in isolation, we should expand, or reframe our inquiries to learn from agencies that have done it well, and then contemplate how to move American policing in positive directions by increasing their capacity to constantly and successfully adapt. There are lessons to be learned from reactive change and reports of agencies changing by force (e.g., consent decrees). Yet, we should focus as much attention to policing practice and research on what the police have done to proactively shift the culture and practices of the organization to create the capacity to adapt and change. There are many examples of success available, but they are mostly strategy-specific efforts, centered on specific strategies to address specific crime problems, and often within larger police agencies that are not representative of the policing profession as a whole. Beyond adopting narrowly focused operational and/or programmatic strategies, there is not enough depth to reveal how the police can systematically innovate and adapt to community and public safety challenges and priorities as part of comprehensive change. Reframing the conversation to focus on comprehensive change, using in-depth examples of what has worked and how comprehensive change through innovation can make a difference, is a valuable and important contribution to the future of policing.

Innovating to Reform

It is useful to think about changing police policy and practice as both a reaction to external pressures and as a way to proactively address shifting needs. Indeed, many police agencies face pressure to reform to correct their problems. If we seek a new, adaptive, 21st-century police organization, we must make sense of and learn from the shifts, innovations, and changes that have already occurred within the policing institution. There are many ways to think about and understand various sorts of change, much of which has come to light by studying change in other sectors. Organizations, including police organizations, experience changes in mission, structure, activities, services, and staffing, among other features. Organizational theory is an insightful and useful source to make sense of police change, as the ideas and concepts from within the organizational discipline offer a variety of views on how and why organizations change and adapt over time (Poole & Van de Ven, 2004; Demers, 2007).

This study consults theories of organizational change to offer interpretations and explanations for change in policing. The study of organizations in other sectors became an area of interest in the mid-1900s, and is quite relevant to what happens in policing. Within the discipline of organizational studies, a collection of research has focused on organizational change, seeking to understand how and why change comes about, the nature of change, and whether change emerges in increments, or is undertaken as major reform. All are possible (Demers, 2007; Poole & Van de Ven, 2004). We have come to learn that different internal and external challenges; at different points in time; influenced by structural, cultural, social, and political forces; influence how organizations change, and how we come to understand the implementation and impact of change. These are thought-provoking ideas to apply to modern police change.

Some organizational change research focuses on organizational adaptation, and how changes in organizational structure can influence organizational outcomes (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1969; Thompson, 1967), whether it is service outcomes or achieving specific organizational performance goals. As I present and explore the changes in the Lowell, Massachusetts Police Department (LPD), the primary case investigated in this research, I will use organizational theory to contemplate changes in structure, process, and engagement with external communities. I will introduce insights from institutional theory, which suggests that organizations change over time, adopting recognized policies and practices for the purposes of achieving organizational legitimacy. This collection of work seeks to understand change in relation to an organization’s interest in fulfilling a role of social importance (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Meyer & Rowan, 1977), and can serve as a suitable way of understanding change in Lowell, and in policing more generally.

Beyond adaptation and the new institutionalism, I examine the cognitive, cultural, social, and political foundations of change (Demers, 2007). Exploring the role of individuals in change enables us to make sense of what is known about participation in change, and the interplay between micro and macro changes that occur in and can shape complex, adaptive systems. The current study delves into several relevant theories from the field of organizational science as a way to explore and explain the interplay between organizational change in the police department and the impact of this change on community perceptions of safety and the LPD.

The Value of a Case Study

This study uses the case study approach to explore different activities, motivations, and impacts of organizational change in a police organization. We often learn from success stories that impart important lessons about the experiences and efforts of an individual or group of interest. These stories are often told through case studies (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2014). In-depth examination and analysis offers a rich description (Yin, 2014) of the circumstances, activities, interpretations, and perceptions found within a specific experience. Good case studies are more than just “war stories” narrowly proliferated through the eyes of one individual. They are created through in-depth investigations of a specific individual, group, organization, or community that has stood out in some way, perhaps accomplishing something spectacular, often under difficult circumstances. Case studies are created through the integration of multiple views, perspectives, and existing knowledge, with the goal of describing and accurately explaining how and why something happened the way it did (Yin, 2014). This can only be done by understanding the contextual circumstances and forces that influenced the dynamics of the case.

Case studies such as those examining the details of police involvement in Hurricane Katrina, the Waco, Texas siege, and the Rampart corruption scandal in Los Angeles have provided valuable lessons to police, practitioners, community leaders, and scholars. The take-aways from these cases are primarily tactical—e.g., what training and equipment police need to deal with crises such as these. Of course, these lessons are necessary and should help police know what to do—and what not to do—under similar circumstances. But, these case studies come from stories of crises or poor or faulty decisions and actions—learning from what went wrong. Case studies of positive change are rare, but can be as valuable, if not more valuable than crisis-grounded cases, as they reveal how and why organizations undertook change, and with what impact. What works under what circumstances, in what context, is the kind of information that practitioners need to affect change.

It is also worth noting the additional challenges that come from relying on a limited number of “crisis” cases from big cities. A glaring problem with these “crisis” case studies for many police and community leaders is that most communities will never face such enormous public safety challenges, but rather are in need of cases that explore constant adaptation to social, political, and economic priorities facing their communities. Case studies that explore how and why police agencies and their communities have faced and adapted to current and emerging crime and community challenges seem more practically valuable for the majority of those interested in improving what police do every day. What’s more, an in-depth examination of a police agency’s use of innovation to rectify what was not right reveals how a proactive approach to change can reframe reform as a positive and strategic approach to policing.

In-depth case studies are needed that examine “everyday” challenges facing smaller and mid-sized communities, and how they have positively adapted and responded in improving the organization and their work. What seems particularly critical in the current reformation of American policing is that the police must have capacity to constantly change, to adopt an openness to self-reflection, external comparison, and moving beyond their comfort zone to face their cultural hesitations, structural barriers, political obstacles, and the human resource traditions of the institution for the better. Disappointingly, this conversation—about organizational change and change processes—is not on the forefront of most leaders and policymakers (or police researchers), mostly because focusing on change and how organizations bring about change is too nebulous for most of those in policing who are more comfortable with the tactical, operational, and frankly, reactive and immediate con...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The State of American Policing and Crime as the 21st Century Approached
• 3 Organizational Change
• 4 The Study and Its Setting: Lowell, Massachusetts
• 5 Political Will and Leadership
• 6 Establishing Meaningful Partnerships
• 7 Aligning the Organization to Achieve Community Safety Goals
• 8 The Connection Between Policy and Vision in Lowell
• 9 On Becoming a Model Community Policing Agency: Lessons Learned
• References
• Index