Organizational Management and Operations

Organizational Management and Operations
Name
Institution
Introduction
In the United States, the role of the police is popularly inferred as that of protecting and serving. However, this is a phrase that has oversimplified the role of police since the roles are broadly categorized as being that of law enforcement and maintenance of order. Generally, police play various roles such as intervening whenever there is a problem encountered by citizens. They also play the role of controlling traffic. This means that they interact with the citizens in a frequent manner in non-criminal matters than in criminal matters. Despite the fact that police are involved to a large extent in serving the citizens, the major function of the police is law enforcement. It is through law enforcement that law breakers are apprehended, evidence gathered, criminals prosecuted, order upheld, and the citizens are served (Castberg, 2003). This paper concentrates on identifying, comparing and contrasting the policing functions at the local, state and federal organizational level.
In the contemporary world, the executives of every police agency in conjunction with the society, community and elected political leaders are involved in deciding the policing principles as well as strategies that must be incorporated into their mission. Various agencies across the country embrace both traditional policing with community and some statistical policing, problem oriented policing, and strategic policing in their preparation for the future. The administrative activities in the police agency are classified into three categories namely; administrative support, line operations and auxiliary services (Dempsey & Forst, 2010).
Administrative support activities are those that serve the needs of the agency and have very little or no direct impact on the citizens or its residents. Such activities include recruiting and training, budgeting as well as internal affairs. Although in most cases such activities are not outsourced, smaller agencies find it cost effective to outsource some support for training through collaborating with other jurisdictions and at times they do engage outside consultants to offer such activities. However, outsourcing other services such as storage of case files that are unclosed, evidence and property may be glared upon (Carter, 2004; Dempsey & Forst, 2010).
Auxiliary services are activities that give support to the line operations. Such activities include management of property and evidence, maintenance of records, forensic laboratory services, alcohol testing, detention, equipment and facilities maintenance as well as coordination of volunteers. Some auxiliary services are outsourced. For example, prisoners can be apprehended at a central county facility. Similarly, an agency can hire a private institution to give facilities maintenance services or laboratory services (Dempsey & Forst, 2010). Line operations activities refer to such activities such as those that serve the organizational goals and the public. They may include traffic management, patrolling, criminal investigation, organized crime control, communicating with the public, community and juvenile services, controlled drug/substance law enforcement as well as school services (like programs of drug- abuse prevention) (Hart, 1996).
A study by the National Research Council has estimated the number of local police departments as 13,500 across the country. A different source has estimated the number of local and state police agencies as close to 19,000 (Waxman, 2010). While another source approximates the number of state and local agencies in United State at 20,000, and in other English speaking democratic states such as Canada at 461, England at 43, India at 22 and Australia at 8 (Edward & carol, 2002). The sub-federal police agencies comprise of state, county, town or city, and tribal organizations. The sub-federal agencies are accountable for the immense bulk of community protection and crime fighting within the country and are as geographically dispersed and heterogeneous as the local population served by them (Waxman, 2010).
In 1990s, several states enacted criminal laws against terrorism that reflect federal criminal laws. However, before the September 11 incidence terrorism was not considered as a priority issue within any level of government. Terrorism was largely within the FBI jurisdiction and even there, the issue was considered as being of secondary significance to the fight against federal crimes like narcotic offences and white collar offences. After the World Trade Center attack in 1993, the FBI director made efforts to reorient the bureau’s priorities in regard to counterterrorism by creating a counterterrorism division. However, no significant alterations were made on the agency’s main focus on solving and investigating other federal crimes (Waxman, 2010).
Most police agencies in US have only loose connections with each other. Many of them possess overlapping jurisdictions at various levels of government that include; federal, state, county, township and city or town agencies. Most are general purpose agencies mandated to patrol specific areas, respond to calls from the society, and also investigate certain offenses. Most general-purpose local departments of police are small in size and rely on few sworn officers and other part-time officers. Some local agencies are special purpose being responsible for specific territory like an airport or a park and others serve other functions such as wildlife regulations and implementing alcoholic beverage laws. Some agencies however cannot be categorized in the above levels. For example, in some states, the sheriff’s agencies do not engage in police control but do offer other related services such as guarding courtrooms, running jails, undercover deputies and canine services (Edward & Carol, 2002).
The metropolitan areas in the US are policed by several agencies which have deve...