. , ... ..
l.S. Depa r tme nt of J u stice
Office of Justice Programs
National lnstirute of Justice - . .
.
Novem ber 1988 No. 4
A publicatio n of the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Ju stice, and the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management ,
John F. Kennedy School of Government. Harvard University
The Evolving Strategy of Policing
By George L. Kelling and Mark H. Moore
Policing, li ke all professions, learns from experience.
It follows, the n, that as modem police executi ves search
for more effective strategies of policing, they will be guided
by the lessons of police history. The difficulty is that police
history is incoherent, its lessons hard to read. After all,
that history was produced by thousands of local depanments
pursuing their own visions and responding to local condi­tions.
Although that varied experience is potentially a rich
source of lessons. depanments have left few records that
reveal the trends shaping modem policing. Interpretation
is necessary.
Methodology
This essay presents an interpretation of police history that
may help police executives considering alternative future
s trategies of policing. Our reading of police history has
led us to adopt a particular point of view. We find that a
dominant trend guiding today 's poli ce executives-a trend
that encourages the pursuit of independent, professional
autonomy for police departments-is carrying the police
away from achievin g their maxim um potential, especially
in effective crime fighting. We are also convinced that this
trend in policing is weakening public policing relative to
private security as the primary institution providing security
to society. We beli eve that this has dangerous long-term
implications not only for police departme nts but also for
society. We think that this trend is shrinking rather than
enlarging police capacity to help create civil communities.
Our judgment is that thi s trend can be reversed only by
refocusing police attention from the pursuit of professional
autonomy to the establishment of effecti ve problem-solving
partne rships with the communities they police.
Th is is one in a series of repons originally developed with
some of the leading figures in American policing during their
periodic meetings at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy
School of Government. The repons arc published so that
Americans interested in the improvement and the future of
po licing can share in the information and perspectives that
were part of extensive debates at the School's Executive
Session on Policing.
The pol ice chiefs, mayors, scholars, and others invited to the
meetings have focused on the use and promise of s uch
strategies as community-based and problem-oriented policing.
The testing and adoption of these strategies by some police
agencies signal important changes in the way American
policing now does business. What these changes mean for the
welfare of citizens and the fulfil lment of the police mission in
the neitt decades has been at the heart of the Kennedy School
meetings and this series of papers .
We hope that through these publications police officials and
other policymakers who affect the course of policing will
debate and challenge their beliefs just as those of us in the
Executive Session have done.
The Executive Session on Policing has been developed and
administered by the Kennedy School 's Program in Cri minal
Justice Policy and Manage ment and fun ded by the National
Institute of Justice and private sources that include the Charles
Stewart Mon and Guggenheim Foundations.
James K. Stewart
Director
National Institute of Justi ce
U.S. Department of Justice
Mark H. Moore
Faculty Chairman
Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard Univers ity
Delving into police history made it apparent that some
assumptions that now operate as axioms in the field of
policing (for example that effectiveness in policing depends
on distancing police departments from politics; or that the
highest priority of poli ce departments is to deal with serious
s treet crime; or that the best way to deal with street crime
is through directed patrol. rapid re s ponse to caJls for service,
and skilled retrospective investigations) are not timeless
truths. but rather choices made by former police leaders
and strategists. To be sure, the choices were often wise
and far-seeing as well as appropriate to their times. But the
his torical perspective shows them to be choices nonetheless,
and therefore open to reconsideration in the light of later
professional experience and changing environmental
ci rcumstances.
We are interpreting th e results of our hi s torical study through
a framework based on the concept of "corporate strategy. " 1
Using this framework. we can describe police organizations
in term s of seven interrelated categories:
• The sources from whi ch the police construct the
legitimacy and continuing power to act on sociecy.
• The definition of the police function or r-0le in
society .
• The organizational design of police departments.
• The relationships the police create with the external
environment.
• The nature of police effons to market or manage the
demand for their services.
• The principal activitie s, programs. and tactics on
which police agencies rely to fulfill their mission
or achieve operational success.
• The concrete measures the police use to define
operational success or failure.
Editor's note: This paper, among the many papers
discussed at the Kennedy School's Executive Session
on Policing. evoked some of the most spirited
exchanges among Session participants. The range
and substance of those exchanges are captured in
a co mpanion Perspectives on Policing, "Debating
the Evolution of American Policing ."
2
Using this analytic framework, we have found it useful
to divide the history of policing into three different eras.
These eras are distinguished from one another by the
apparent dominance of a particular strategy of policing.
The political er~ so named because of the close ties
between police and politics, dated from the introduction
..
of police into municipalities during the 1840's, continu ed
through the Progressive period. and ended during the early
1900's. The reform era developed in reaction to the political.
It took hold during the I 930's. thrived during the 1950's and
1960's, began to erode during the late 1970's. The reform
era now seems to be giving way to an era emphasizing
community problem solving.
''The reform era now seems to be giving
way to an era emphasizing community
problem solving. ''
By dividing policing into these three eras dominated by a
panicular strategy of policing, we do not mean to imply that
there were clear boundaries between the eras. Nor do we
mean that in those e ras everyone policed in the same way.
Obviously, the real history is far more complex than that.
Nonetheless, we believe that there is a certain professional
ethos that defines standards of competence, professionalism,
and excellence in policing: that at any given time, one set
of concepts is more powerful. more widely shared, and better
understood than others; and that this ethos changes over
time. Sometimes, this professional ethos has been explicitly
articulated, and those who have articulated the concepts
have been recognized as the leaders of their profession.
0. W. Wilson, for example, was a brilliant expositor of the
central elements of the reform strategy of policing. Other
times, the ethos is implicit-accepted by all as the tacit
assumptions that define the business of poli cing and the
proper form for a police department to take. Our task is to
help the profession look to the future by representing its
past in these terms and trying to understand what the past
ponends for the future.
The political era
Historians have described the characteristics of early
policing in the Uni ted States, especially the struggles
between various interest groups to govern the police.2
Elsewhere , the authors of this paper analyzed a ponion
of American police history in terms of its organizational
strategy. 3 The following discussion of elements of the
police organizational strategy during the political era
expands on that effon.
..
Legitimacy and authorization
Early American police were authorized by local municipali ­ties
. Unlike their English counterparts. American police
departments lacked the powerful, central authority of the
c rown to establish a legitimate, unifying mandate for their
enterprise. Instead, American police derived both their
authorization and resources from local political leaders,
often ward politicians. They were, of course, guided by the
law as to what tasks to undertake and what powers to utilize.
But their link to neighborhoods and local politicians was so
tight that both Jordan4 and Fogelson' refer to the early police
as adjuncts to local political machines. The relationship was
often reciprocal: political machine s recruited and maintained
police in office and on the beat, while police helped ward
political leaders maintain their political offices by encourag­ing
citizens to vote for certain candidates. discouraging
them from voting for others, and, at times, by assisting in
rigging elections.
The police function
Partly because of their close connection to politicians, police
during the political era provided a wide array of services to
citizens. Inev itably police departments were inv"lved in
cri me prevention and control and order maintenance, but
they also provided a wide variety of social services. In the
late 19th century, municipal police departments ran soup
lines; provided temporary lodging for newly arrived immi­grant
workers in station houses;6 and assisted ward leaders
in finding work for immigrants, both in police and other
forms of work .
Organizational design
Although ostensibly organized as a centralized, quasi ­military
organization with a un ified chain of command,
police departments of the political era were nevertheless
decentralized. Cities were divided into precincts, and
precinct-level managers often, in concert with the ward
leaders, ran precincts as small-scale departments-hiring,
firing , managing, and assigning personnel as they deemed
appropriate. In addition, decentralization combined with
' primitive communications and transportation to give police
officers substantial discretion i n handling their individual
beats. At best, officer contact with ce ntral command was
maintained through the call box.
External relaJionships
During the political era, police departments were intimately
connected to the social and political world of the ward .
Police officers often were recruited from the same ethnic
stock as the dominant political groups in the localities.
and continued to live in the neighborhoods they patrolled.
3
Precinct commanders consulted often with local political
representatives about police priorities and progress.
Demand management
Demand for police services came primarily from two
sources: ward politicians making demands on the organiza­tion
and c itizens making demands directly on beat officers.
Decentralization and political authorization encouraged the
first; foot patrol, lack of other means of transportation. and
poor communications produced the latter. Basicall y, the
demand for police services was received. interpreted, and
responded to at the precinct and street levels.
Principal programs and technologies
The primary tactic of police during the political era was
foot patrol. Most police officers walked beats and dealt
with crime. disorder, and other problems as they arose. or
as they were guided by citizens and precinct superiors.
The technological tools available to police were limi ted.
However, when call boxes became available, police adminis­trators
used them for supervisory and managerial purposes;
and, when early automobiles became available, police used
them to transport officers from one beat to another.7 The new
technology thereby increased the range. but did not c hange
the mode, of patrol officers.
Detective divisions existed but without their current prestige.
Operating from a caseload of"persons" rather than offenses,
detectives relied on their caseload to in form on other
criminals.1 The "third degree" was a common means of
interviewing criminals to solve crimes. Detectives were
often especially valuable to local politicians for gathering
information on individuals for political or personal, rather
than offense-related, purposes.
''Most police officers walked beats
and dealt with crime, disorder, and
other problems as they arose ... ''
Measured outcomes
The expected outcomes of police work included crime and
riot control. maintenance of o rder, and relief from many of
the other problems of an industrializing society (hunger and
temporary homelessness, for example). Consis tent with their
political mandate, police emphasized maintaining citizen and
political satisfacrion with police serv ices as an important
goal of police departments.
In sum, the organizational strategy of the political era of
policing included the following elements:
• Authorization-primarily political.
• Function-crime control. order maintenance,
broad social services.
• Organizational design-<lecentraJized and
geographical.
• Relationship to environment-close and personal.
• Demand-managed through links between politicians
and precinct commanders, and face-to-face contacts
between citizens and foot patrol officers.
• Tactics and technology-foot patrol and rudimentary
investigations.
• Outcome-political and citizen satisfaction with
soci al order. .
The political strategy of early American policing had
strengths. First. police were integrated into neighborhoods
and enjoyed the support of citizens-at le ast the support of
the dominant and political interests of an area. Second, and
probably as a result of the first, the strategy provided useful
services to communities. There is evidence that it helped
contain riots. Many citizens believed that police prevented
crimes o r solved crimes when they occurred.9 And the
police assisted immigrants in establishing themselves in
communities and finding jobs.
''Officers were often required to
enforce unpopular laws foisted on
immigrant ethnic neighborhoods by
- crusading reformers . . . ''
The political strategy also had weaknesses. First, intimacy
with community, closeness to political leaders. and a
decentralized organizational structure, with its inability
to provide supervision of officers, gave rise to police
corruption. Officers were often required to enforce unpopu-
4
Jar laws foisted on immigrant ethnic neighborhoods by
c rusading reformers (primarily of English and Dutch
background) who objected to ethnic values. 10 Because
of their intimacy with the community. the officers were
vulnerable to being bribed in return for nonenforcement
or lax enforcement of laws. Moreover, police closeness to
politicians created such forms of political corruption as
patronage and police interference in elections.11 Even those
few departments that managed to avoid serious financial or
political corruption during the late 19th and early 20th
ce nturies, Boston for example, s uccumbed to large-scale
corruption during and after Prohibition. 12
Second, close identification of police with neighborhoods
and neighborhood norms often resulted in discrimination
against strangers and others who violated those norms,
especially minority ethnic and racial groups. Often ruling
their beats with the "ends of their nightsticks," police
regularly targeted outsiders and strangers for rousting
and "curbstone justice. "13
Finall y, the lack of organizational control over officers
resulting from both decentralization and the political
nature of many appointments to police positions caused
inefficiencies and disorganization. The image of Keystone
Cops-police as clumsy bunglers-was widespread and
often descriptive of realities in American policing.
The reform era
Control over police by local politicians. conflict between
urban reformers and local ward leaders over the enforcement
of laws regulating the morality of urban migrants, and abuses
(corruption, for example) that resulted from the intimacy
between police and political leaders and citizens produced
a continuous struggle for control over police during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.•• Nineteenth-century
attempts by civilians to reform police organizations by
applying external pressures largely failed; 20th-century
attempts at reform , originating from both internal and
external forces, shaped contemporary policing as we knew
it through the 1970's.1s
Berkeley 's police chief, August Vollmer, first rallied police
executives around the idea of reform during the l 920's
and early 1930 's. Vollmer's vision of policing was the
trumpet cal l: police in the post-flapper generation were
to remind American citizens and institutions of the moral
vision that had made America great and of their responsibili ­ties
to maintain that vision . 16 It was Vollmer's protege,
O .W. Wilson, however, who taking guidance from
J. Edgar Hoover's shrewd transformation of the corrupt
and discredited Bureau of Investigation into the honest
and prestigious Federal Bureau of Invesrigation (FBO.
became the principal administrarive architect of the police
refonn organizational strategy .17
Hoover wanted the FBI to represent a new force for law
and order. and saw t hat such an organization coul d caprure
a pennanent constituency that wanted an agency to take
a stand against lawlessness. immorality, and crime. By
raising eligibiliry standards and changing patterns of recruit­ment
and training. Hoover gave the FB I agents stature as
upstanding moral crusaders. By committing the organization
to attacks on crimes such as kidnapping. bank robbery,
and espionage-crimes that attracted wide publicity and
required technical sophistication, doggedness. and a national
jurisdiction to solve-Hoover established the organization's
reputation for professional competence and power. By
establi shing tight central control over his agen ts, limiting
their use of controversial investigation p rocedures (such as
undercover operations). and keeping them out of n arcotics
enforcement, Hoover was a lso ab le to maintain an unparal ­leled
record of integrity. That, too. fitted the image of a
dogged. incorruptible crime-fighting organization. Finally.
lest anyone fail to notice the important developments within
the Bureau. Hoover developed impressive publi c relations
programs that presented the FB I and its agents ih the most
favorable light. (For those of us who remember the l 940's ,
for exampl e. one of the most popular radio phrases was,
"The FBI in peace and war"-the introductory line in a radio
program that portrayed a vigilant FBI protecting us from
foreign enemies as well as vi llains on the "10 Most Wanted"
li st. another Hoover/FBI invention .)
'' 20th-century attempts at reform,
originating from both inte rnal and
external force s, shaped . . . policing as
we kn e w it through th e 1970' s. ''
Struggling as they were with reputations for corruption.
. brutality, unfairness, and downright incompetence, munici­pal
police reformers found Hoover's path a compelling one.
In structed by O.W. Wilson 's texts on police administration.
they began to shape an organizational strategy for urban
police analogous to the one p ursued b y the FBI.
Legitim acy and authori.t.ation
Reformers rejected politics as the basis of police legitimacy.
In their view. politics and political involvem ent was the
problem in American policing. Police reformers therefore
allied themselves with Progressives. They moved to e nd the
5
close ties between local political leaders and police. In some
states. control over police was usurped by state government.
Civi l service eliminated patronage and ward influences in
hiring and firing police officers. ln some c i ties (Los Angeles
and Cincinnati, for example). even the position of chief of
police became a civil service position to be attained through
examination. In others (such as Milwaukee). c hiefs were
given life time tenure by a police commission, to be removed
from office only for cause. In yet others (Boston, for
example). contracts for chiefs were staggered so as not
to coincide with the mayor' s tenure . Concern for separation
of police from politics did not focus only on chiefs, however.
In some cities. such as Philadelphia. it became illegal for
patrol officers to live in the beats they patrolled. The purpose
of all these changes was to isolate police as completely as
possible from political in fl uences.
Law. especiall y criminal law , and police professionalism
were established as the principal bases of police legitimacy .
When police were asked why they performed as they did,
the most common answer was that they enforced the law .
When they chose not to enforce the law-for instance,
in a riot when police isolated an area rather than arrested
looters-police justification for s uch action was found in
their claim to professional knowledge. skills, and values
which uniquely qualified them to make such tactical deci ­sions.
Even in riot si tuations, police rej ected the idea that
political leaders should make tactical decisio ns; that was a
police responsibility .18
So persuasive was the argumen t of reformers to remove
political influences from pol icing. that police departments
became one of the most autonomous public o rganizations in
urban government. 19 Under suc h circumstances. policing a
city became a legal and technical matte r left to the discretion
of professional police executives unde r the gui dance of law.
Poli tical infl uence of any ki n d on a police d epartmen t came
to be seen as not mere ly a failure of police leadership but as
corruption in policing.
The police function
Using the focus on criminal law as a basic source of police
legitimacy, police in the reform era moved to narrow their
functioning to crime control and criminal apprehension.
Police agencies became law enforcement agencies. Their
goal was to control crime. Their principal means was the use
of crimi nal law to appre he nd and deter offen ders. Activi t ie s
that drew the police into solvi ng other kinds of community
problems and relied on other kinds of responses were
identified as ''social work," and became the object of
derision. A common line in police circles during the l 950's
and l 960's was. " If only we didn't have to do social work,
we could really do something about crime." Police retreated
from providing emergency medical services as well­ambulance
and emergency medical services were transferred
to medical. private. or firefighting organizations. 20 The 1967
President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Admini­stration
of Justice ratified this orientation: heretofore, police
had been conceptualized as an agency of urban government;
the President's Commission reconceptualized them as part
of the criminal justice system.
OrganiI.ational design
The organization form adopted by police reformers generally
reflected the scientific or classical theory of administration
advocated by Frederick W. Taylor during the early 20th
century. At least two assumptions attended classical theory.
First, workers are inherently uninterested in work and. if
left to their own devices. are prone to avoid it. Second,
since workers have little or no interest in the substance of
their work, the sole common interest between workers
and managem~nt is found in economic incentivj:s for
workers. Thus. both workers and management benefit
economically when management arranges work in ways
that increase workers' productivity and link productivity to
economic rewards.
Two central principles followed from these assumptions:
division of labor and unity of control. The former posited
that if tasks can be broken into components, workers can
become highly skilled in particular components and thus
more efficient in carrying out their tasks. The latter posited
that the workers' activities are best managed by a pyramid of
control, with all authority finally resting in one central office.
'' ... a generation of police officers
was· raised with the idea that they merely
enforced the law ... ''
Using this classical theory. police leaders moved to routinize
and standardize police work, especially patrol work. Police
work became a form of crimefighting in which police
enforced the law and arrested criminals if the opportunity
presented itself. Attempts were made to limit discretion in
patrol work: a generation of police officers was raised with
the idea that they merely enforced the law.
6
, .
If special problems arose. the typical response was to create
special units (e.g .• vice. juvenile, drugs. tactical) rather
than to assign them to patrol. The creation of these special
units, under central rather than precinct command. served
to further centralize command and control and weaken
precinct commanders.21
Moreover, police organizations emphasized control over
workers through bureaucratic means of control: supervision,
limited span of control, flow of instructions downward and
information upward in the organization. establishment of
elaborate record-keeping systems requiring additional layers
of middle managers, and coordination of activities between
various production units (e.g., patrol and detectives). which
also required additional middle managers.
External relationships
Police leaders in the reform era redefined the nature of
a proper relationship between police officers and citizens.
Heretofore. police had been intimately linked to citizens.
During the era of reform policing, the new model demanded
an impartial law enforcer who related to citizens in profes­sionally
neutral and distant terms. No better characterization
of this model can be found than television's Sergeant Friday.
whose response. "Just the facts, ma'am," typified the idea:
impersonal and oriented toward crime solving rather than
responsive to the emotional crisis of a victim.
The professional model also shaped the police view of the
role of citizens in crime control. Police redefined the citizen
role during an era when there was heady confidence about
the ability of professionals to manage physical and social
problems. Physicians would care for health problems,
dentists for dental problems, teachers for educational
problems, social workers for social adjustment problems,
and police for crime problems. The proper role of citizens
in crime control was to be relatively passive recipients of
professional crime control services. Citizens· actions on
their own behalf to defend themselves or their communities
came to be seen as inappropriate, smacking of vigilantism.
Citizens met their responsibilities when a crime occurred
by calling police, deferring to police actions, and being good
witnesses if called upon to give evidence. The metaphor that
expressed this orientation to the community was that of the
police as the "thin blue line." It connotes the existence of
dangerous external threats to communities, portrays police
as standing between that danger and good citizens. and
implies both police heroism and loneliness.
Demand management
Leaming from Hoover, police reformers vigorously set out
to sell their brand of urban policing.12 They, too, performed
on radio talk shows. consulted with media representatives
'i
about how to present police, engaged in public relations
campaigns, and in other ways presented this image of police
as crime fighters. In a sense, they began with an organiza­tional
capacity-anticrime police tactics-and intensively
promoted it. This approach was more like selling than
marketing. Marketing refers to the process of carefully
identifying consumer needs and then developing goods
and services that meet those needs. Selling refers to having
a stock of products or goods on hand irrespective of need and
selling them. The reform strategy had as its starting point a
se t of police tactics (services ) that police promulgated as
much for the purpose of establishing internal control of
poli ce officers and enhancing the status of urban police as
for responding to community needs or market demands.23
The community " need" for rapid response to calls for
service, for instance, was largely the consequence of
police selling the service as efficacious in crime c ontrol
rather than a direct demand from c itizens.
''Foot patrol, when demanded by
citi.zens, was rejected as an outmoded,
expensiv~ frill. ''
Consistent with this attempt to sell particular tactics, police
worked to shape and control demand for police services.
Foot patrol, when demanded by citizens, was rejected as an
ou tmoded, expensive frill. Social and emergency services
were terminated or given to other agencies. Receipt of
demand for police services was centralized. No longer were
citi ze ns encouraged to go to "t.heir" neighborhood police
officers or districts; all call s went to a central communica­tions
facility. When 911 systems were installed, police
aggressively sold 911 and rapid response to calls for service
as effective police service. If citizens continued to use
distric1, or precinct, telephone numbers, some police
depanments d isconnec1ed those telephones or got new
telepAone numbers. 2•
- Principal programs and technologies
The principal programs and tactics of the reform strategy
were preventive patrol by automobile and rapid response to
call s for service. Foot patrol, c haracterized as outmoded and
inefficient, was abandoned as rapidly as police administra­tors
could obtain cars. 25 The initial tactical reasons for
putting police in cars had been to increase the size of the
areas police officers could patrol and to take the advantage
away from criminal s who began to use automobiles. Under
reform policing, a new theory about h ow to make the best
tactical use of automobiles appeared.
7
0. W. Wilson developed the theory of preventive patrol by
au1omobile as an anticrime tactic. 26 He theorized tha1 if
police drove conspicuousl y marked cars randomly through
city streets and gave special attention to certain "hazards"
(bars and schools. for example), a feeling of police
omnipresence would be developed. In tum. thal sense of
omnipresence would both deter c riminals and reassure good
citizens. Moreover, it was hypothesized that vigilant patrol
officers moving rapidly through city streets would happen
upon criminals in action and be able to apprehend them .
As telephones and radios became ubiquitous. the availability
of cruising police came to be seen as even more valuable :
if citizens could be encouraged to call the police via
telephone as soon as problems developed, police could
re spond rapidly to calls and establish control over situations.
identify wrong-doers, and make arrests. To !his end. 911
system s and computer-aided dispatch were developed
throughout the country. Detective units continued, although
with some modifications. The "person" approach ended and
was replaced by the case approach. In addition, forensic
techniques were upgraded and began to replace the old
"third degree" or reliance on informants for the solution
of crimes. Like other special units, most investigative units
were controlled by central headquarte rs.
Measured outcomes
The primary desired outcomes of the reform strategy were
crime control and criminal apprehension.27 To measure
achievement of these outcomes. August Vollmer. working
t.hrough the newly vitalized International Association of
Chiefs of Police, developed and implemented a uniform
system of crime classifica1ion and reporting. Later, the
system was taken over and administered by the FBI and the
Uniform Crime Reports became the primary standard by
which police organizations measured their effectiveness.
Additionally, individual officers' effectiveness in dealing
with crime was judged by the number of arrests the y made;
other measures of police effectiveness included response
time (the time it takes for a police car to arrive at the location
of a call for service) and "number of passings" (the number
of times a police car passes a given point on a city street).
Regardless of all other indicators, however, the primary
measure of police effectiveness was the crime rate as
measured by the Uniform Crime Reports.
In sum, the reform organizational strategy contained the
following elements:
• Authorization-law and professionalism.
• Function-<rime control.
• Organizational de sign~ntralized , classical.
• Relationship to en vironment-professionall y remote.
• Demand-<:hanneled through central dispatching
activities.
• Tactics and tec hnology-preventive patrol and rapid
response to calls fo r service.
• Outcome-<:rime con trol.
'' ... officers' effectiveness in dealing
with crime was judged by the number
of a"ests they made ... ''
In retrospect, the refonn strategy was impressive. It success­fully
integrated its strategic elements into a coherent para­digm
that was internal ly consistent and logically appealing.
Narrowing police functions to crime fighting made sense. If
police could concentrate their efforts on prevention of crime
and apprehension of criminals, it follo wed that they could be
more effective than if they dissipated their efforts on other
problems. The model of police as impartial, professional law
enforcers was anraccive because it minimized the discretion­ary
excesses which developed during the political era.
Preventive patrol and rapid response to calls for service
were intuitively appealing tactics, as well as means to control
officers and shape and control c itizen demands for service.
Further, the strategy provided a comprehensive, yet simple,
vision of policing around which police leaders could rally.
The metaphor of the th in blue line reinforced their need to
create isolated independence and autonomy in terms that
_ were acceptable to the public. The patrol car became the
symbol of policing during the I 930 's and I 940's; when
equipped with a radio, it was at the limits of technology.
It represented mobility, power. conspicuous presence,
control of officers, and professional distance from citizens.
During the late 1960's and 1970's, however, the reform
strategy ran into difficulty. First, regardless of how police
effec tiveness in dealing with crime was measured, police
failed to substantially improve their record. During the
8
1960's, crime began to rise . Despite large inc reases in the
size of police departments and in expenditures for new
fonns of equipment (911 systems, computer-aided dispa1ch ,
etc.). police failed to meet their ow n or public expectations
about their capacity to control crime or prevent its increase.
Moreover, research conducted during the 1970's on
preventive patrol and rapid response to calls for service
suggested that neither was an effective crime control or
appre hension tactic . 21
Second. fear rose rapidly during this era. The consequences
of thi s fear were dramatic for cities. C itizen s abandoned
parks, public transportation, neig hborhood shopping cen ters.
churches, as well as e ntire nei ghborhoods. What puzzled
police and researchers was that levels of fear and c rime d id
not always correspond : crime levels were low in some areas
but fear high . Con versely, in other areas levels of crime wer~
high, but fear low. Not until the early 1980's did researchers
discover that fear is more closely correlated with disorder
than with crirne.29 Ironically, order maintenance was one of
those functions that police had been downplaying over the
years. They collected no data on it, provided no training to
officers in order maintenance activities, and did not reward
officers for s uccessfully conducting order maintenance tasks.
Third. despite attempts by police departments to create
equitable police allocation systems and to provide impartial
policing to all citizens. many minority citizens, especially
blacks during the l 960's and l 970's, did not perceive their
trcalment as equitable o r adequate. They protested not only
police mistrealment, but lack of trealment-inadequate or
insufficient services--as well .
''Not until the early 1980's did
researchers discover that fear is more
closely co"elated with disorder than
with crime. ''
Fourth , the civil rights and antiwar movements challenged
police. This challenge took several forms . The legitimacy
of police was questioned: students resisted police, minorities
rioted against them, and the public, observing police via live
te levision for the first time, questioned their tactics. More­over
, despite police attempts to upgrade personnel through
improved recrui1ment, training, and supervision, minorities
and then women insisted that they had to be adequately
represented in policing if police were to be legitimate.
Fifth, some of the myth s that unde rgirded the refonn
strategy-poli ce officers use little or no discretion and
....
the primary activity of police is law enforcement-simply
proved to be too far from reality to be sustained. Over
and over again research showed that use of discretion
characterized policing at all levels and that law enforcement
comprised but a small portion of police officers' activities.30
Sixth, although the reform ideology could rally police chiefs
and executives, it failed to rally line police officers. During
the reform era, police executives had moved to professional­ize
their ranks. Line officers, however, were managed in
ways that were antithetical to professionalization. Despite
pious testimony from police executives that "patrol is the
backbone of policing," police executives behaved in ways
that were consistent with classical organizational theory­patrol
officers continued to have low status; their work was
treated as if it were routinized and standardized; and petty
rules governed issues such as hair length and off-duty
behavior. Meanwhile, line officers received little guidance
in use of discretion and were given few, if any, opportunities
to make suggestions about their work. Under such circum­stances,
the increasing "grumpiness" of officers in many
cities is not surprising, nor is the rise of militant unionism.
Seventh, police lost a significant portion of the1r financial
support, which had been increasing or at least constant over
the years, as cities found themselves in fiscal difficulties.
In city after city, police departments were reduced in size.
In some cities, New York for example, financial cutbacks
resulted in losses of up to one-third of departmental person­nel.
Some, noting that crime did not increase more rapidly
or arrests decrease during the cutbacks, suggested that
New York City had been overpoliced when at maximum
strength. For those concerned about levels of disorder and
fear in New York City, not to mention other problems,
that came as a dismaying conclusion. Yet it emphasizes
the erosion of confidence that citizens, politicians, and
academicians had in urban police-an erosion that was
translated into lack of political and financial support.
Finally, urban police departments began to acquire competi­tion:
private security and the community crime control
-· movement. Despite the inherent value of these develop­ments,
the fact that businesses, industries, and private
citizens began to search for alternative means of protecting
their property and persons suggests a decreasing confidence
in either the capability or the intent of the police to provide
the services that citizens want.
In retrospect, the police reform strategy has characteristics
similar to those that Miles and Snow31 ascribe to a defensive
strategy in the private sector. Some of the characteristics of
an organization with a defensive strategy are (with specific
characteristics of reform policing added in parentheses):
• Its market is stable and narrow (crime victims).
9
• Its success is dependent on maintaining dominance
in a narrow, chosen market (crime control).
• It tends to ignore developments outside its domain
(isolation).
• It tends to establish a single core technology (patrol).
• New technology is used to improve its current
product or service rather than to expand its product
or service line (use of computers to enhance patrol).
• Its management is centralized (command and
control).
• Promotions generally are from within (with the
exception of chiefs, virtually all promotions are
from within).
• There is a tendency toward a functional structure with
high degrees of specialization and formalization.
A defensive strategy is successful for an organization when
market conditions remain stable and few competitors enter
the field. Such strategies are vulnerable, however, in unstable
market conditions and when competitors are aggressive.
'' ... the reform strategy was unable
to adjust to the changing social
circumstances of the 1960's and 1970's.,'
The reform strategy was a successful strategy for police
during the relatively stable period of the 1940's and 1950's.
Police were able to sell a relatively narrow service line and
maintain dominance in the crime control market. The social
changes of the 1960' s and 1970' s, however, created unstable
conditions. Some of the more significant changes included:
the civil rights movement; migration of minorities into
cities; the changing age of the population (more youths and
teenagers); increases in crime and fear; increased oversight
of police actions by courts; and the decriminalization and
deinstitutionalization movements. Whether or not the private
sector defensive strategy properly applies to police, it is clear
that the reform strategy was unable to adjust to the changing
social circumstances of the 1960's and 1970's.
The community problem-solving era
All was not negative for police during the late 1970's and
early 1980's, however. Police began to score victories which
they barely noticed. Foot patrol remained popular, and in
many cities citizen and political demands for it intensified.
In New Jersey, the state funded the Safe and Clean Neigh­borhoods
Program. which funded foot patrol in cities, often
over the opposition of local chiefs of police.32 In Boston,
foot patrol was so popular with citizens that when neighbor­hoods
were selected for foot patrol. politicians often made
the announcements, especially during election years.
Flint, Michigan. became the first city in memory to return
to foot patrol on a citywide basis. It proved so popular
there that citizens twice voted to increase their taxes to
fund foot patrol-most recently by a two-thirds majority.
Political and citizen demands for foot patrol continued to
expand in cities throughout the United States. Research
into foot patrol suggested it was more than just politically
popular. it contributed to city life: it reduced fear, increased
citizen satisfaction with police, improved police attitudes
toward citizens, and increased the morale and job satisfaction
of police.33
Additionally, research conducted during the 1970' s
suggested that one factor could help police improve their
record in dealing with crime: information. If information
about crimes and criminals could be obtained from citizens
by police, primarily patrol officers, and could be properly
managed by police departments, investigative and other
units could significantly increase their effect on crime.34
Moreover. research into foot patrol suggested that at least
part of the fear reduction potential was linked to the order
maintenance activities of foot patrol officers.35 Subsequent
work in Houston and Newark indicated that tactics other
than foot patrol that, like foot patrol, emphasized increasing
the quantity and improving the quality of police-citizen
interactions had outcomes similar to those of foot patrol
(fear reduction, etc.). 36 Meanwhile, many other cities were
developing programs, though not evaluated, similar to those
~ in the foot patrol, Flint, and fear reduction experiments.37
The findings of foot patrol and fear reduction experiments,
when coupled with the research on the relationship between
fear and disorder, created new opportunities for police to
understand the increasing concerns of citizens' groups about
disorder (gangs, prostitutes, etc.) and to work with citizens
to do something about it. Police discovered that when they
asked citizens about their priorities, citizens appreciated the
inquiry and also provided useful information--0ften about
10
problems that beat officers might have been aware of, but
about which departments had little or no official data (e.g.,
disorder). Moreover, given the ambiguities that surround
both the definitions of disorder and the authority of police
to do something about it, police learned that they had to
seek authorization from local citizens to intervene in
disorderly situations. 38
'' ... foot patrol and fear reduction·
experiments [helped] police to understand
the increasing concerns of citizens ... ''
Simultaneously. Goldstein's problem-oriented approach
to policing39 was being tested in several communities:
Madison. Wisconsin; Baltimore County, Maryland; and
Newport News, Virginia. Problem-oriented policing rejects
the fragmented approach in which police deal with each
incident, whether citizen- or police-initiated, as an isolated
event with neither history nor future. Pierce's findings about
calls for service illustrate Goldstein's point: 60 percent of the
calls for service in any given year in Boston originated from
10 percent of the households calling the police.40 Further­more,
Goldstein and his colleagues in Madison, Newport
News, and Baltimore County discovered the following:
police officers enjoy operating with a holistic approach to
their work: they have the capacity to do it successfully; they
can work with citizens and other agencies to solve problems;
and citizens seem to appreciate working with police­findings
similar to those of the foot patrol experiments
(Newark and Flint)" and the fear reduction experiments
(Houston and Newark).42
The problem confronting police, policymakers, and academi­cians
is that these trends and findings seem to contradict
many of the tenets that dominated police thinking for a
generation. Foot patrol creates new intimacy between
citizens and police. Problem solving is hardly the routinized
and standardized patrol modality that reformers thought was
necessary to maintain control of police and limit their
discretion. Indeed, use of discretion is the sine qua non of
problem-solving policing. Relying on citizen endorsement
of order maintenance activities to justify police action
acknowledges a continued or new reliance on political
authorization for police work in general. And, accepting the
quality of urban life as an outcome of good police service
emphasizes a wider definition of the police function and the
desired effects of police work.
These changes in policing are not merely new police tactics,
however. Rather, they represent a new organizational
':
. :
approach. properly called a community strategy. The
elements of that strategy are:
Legitimacy and authorization
There is renewed emphasis on community, or political,
authorization for many police tasks. along with law and
professionalism. Law continues to be the major legitimating
basis of the police function. It defines basic police powers,
but it does not fully direct police activities in efforts to
maintain order, negotiate conflicts. or solve communi ty
problems. It becomes one tool among many others.
Neighborhood, or community, support and involvement
are required to accomplish those rasks. Professional and
bureaucratic authority, especially that which tends to isolate
police and insulate them from neighborhood influences,
is lessened as citizens contribute more to definitions of
problems and identification of solutions. Although in some
respects s imilar to the authorization of policing's political
era, community authorization exists in a different political
context. The civil service movement, the political central iza­tion
that grew out of the Progressive era, and the bureaucrati­zation,
professionalization, and unionization of police
stand as counterbalances to the possible recurrence of the
corrup1ing influences of ward politics that existed prior to
the reform movement.
The police function
As indicated above, the definition of police function
broadens in the commu nity strategy. It includes order
maintenance. conflict resolution, problem solving through
the organization, and provision of services, as well as other
activities. Crime control remains an important function,
with an important difference. however. The reform straiegy
attempts to control crime directly through preventive patrol
and rapid response to ca ll s for service. The community
strategy emphasizes c rime control and prevention as an
indirect result of, or an equal partner to, the other activities.
·· '' ... police function ... includes order
maintenance, conflict resolunon,
problem solving ... , and provision
of services .. . ''
Organizational design
Community policing operates from organizational assump­tions
different from those of reform policing. The idea that
workers have no legitimate , substantive interest in their work
11
is untenable when programs such as those in Flin!, Houston ,
Los Angeles, New York City, Baltimore County , Newpon
News. and others are examined . Consulting with community
groups, problem solving, maintaining order, and 01her such
activi1ies are antithe1ical 10 the reform ideal of eliminating
officer discretion through routinization and standardizaiion
of police activities. Moreover, organizational decentraliza­tion
is inherent in community policing: the involvement of
police officers in diagnosing and responding to neighbor­hood
and community problems necessarily pushes opera­tional
and tactical decisionmaking to the lower levels of the
organization. The creation of neighborhood police stations
(storefronts. for example), reopening of precinct stations.
and establishment of beat offices (in schools. churc hes. etc.)
are concrete examples of suc h decentralization.
Decentralization of tactical decisionmaking to precinct or
beal level does not imply abdication of executive obligations
and functions, however. Developing, articulating, and
monitoring organizational strategy remain the re sponsibility
of management. Within this strategy, operational and tactical
decisionmaking is decentralized. This implies what may at
first appear to be a paradox: while the number of managerial
levels may decrease. the number of managers may increase.
Sergeants in a decentralized regime. for example, have
managerial responsibilities that exceed those they would
have in a centralized organization.
At leas! two other elements attend this decentralizaiion:
increased participa1ive management and increased
involvement of top police executives in planning and
implementati on. Chiefs have discovered that programs are
easier to conceive and implement if officers themselves
are involved in their development through task forces,
temporary matrix-like organizational units. and other
organizational innovations that tap the wisdom and experi­ence
of sergeants and patrol officers. Additionally, police
executives have learned that good ideas do not translate
themselves into successful programs without extensive
involvement of the chief executive and his close agents
in every stage of planning and implementation, a lesson
learned in the private sector as well .'3
One consequence of decentralized decisionmaking.
participative planning and management, and executive
involvement in planning is that fewer levels of authority
are required to administer police o rganizations. Some
police organizations , including the London Metropolitan
Police (Scotland Yard), have begun to reduce the number of
middle-management layers, while others are contemplating
doing so. Moreover, as in the private sector, as computerized
infonnation gathering systems reach their potential in police
departments, the need for middle managers whose primary
function is data collection will be further reduced.
External relationships
Community policing relies on an intimate relationship
between police and citizens. This is accomplished in a
variety of ways: relatively long-term assignment of officers
to beats, programs that emphasize familiarity between
citizens and police (police knocking on doors, consultations,
crime control meetings for police and citizens, assignment
to officers of "caseloads" of households with ongoing
problems, problem solving, etc.), revitalization or develop­ment
of Police Athletic League programs, educational
programs in grade and high schools, and other programs.
Moreover, police are encouraged to respond to the feelings
and fears of citizens that result from a variety of social
problems or from victimization.
''Community policing relies on an
intimate relationship between police
and citizens. ''
Further, the police are restructuring their relationship with
neighborhood groups and institutions. Earlier, during the
reform era, police had claimed a monopolistic responsibility
for crime control in cities, communities, and neighborhoods;
now they recognize serious competitors in the "industry" of
crime control, especially private security and the community
crime control movement. Whereas in the past police had
dismissed these sources of competition or, as in the case
of community crime control, had attempted to coopt the
movement for their own purposes,44 now police in many
cities (Boston, New York, Houston, and Los Angeles, to
name a few) are moving to structure working relationships
or strategic alliances with neighborhood and community
- crime control groups. Although there is less evidence of
attempts to develop alliances with the private security
industry, a recent proposal to the National Institute of Justice
envisioned an experimental alliance between the Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, Police Department and the Wackenhut
· Corporation in which the two organizations would share
responses to calls for service.
12
Demand management
In the community problem-solving strategy, a major portion
of demand is decentralized, with citizens encouraged to
bring problems directly to beat officers or precinct offices.
Use of 911 is discouraged, except for dire emergencies.
Whether tactics include aggressive foot patrol as in Flint
or problem solving as in Newport News, the emphasis is
on police officers' interacting with citizens to determine
the types of problems they are confronting and to devise
solutions to those problems. In contrast to refonn policing
with its selling orientation, this approach is more like
marketing: customer preferences are sought, and satisfying
customer needs and wants, rather than selling a previously
packaged product or service, is emphasized. In the case of
police, they gather information about citizens· wants,
diagnose the nature of the problem, devise possible solu­tions,
and then determine which segments of the community
they can best serve and which can be best served by other
agencies and institutions that provide services, including
crime control.
Additionally, many cities are involved in the development
of demarketing programs.45 The most noteworthy example
of demarketing is in the area of rapid response to calls for
service. Whether through the development of alternatives to
calls for service, educational programs designed to discour­age
citizens from using the 911 system, or, as in a few cities,
simply not responding to many calls for service, police
actively attempt to demarket a program that had been
actively sold earlier. Often demarketing 911 is thought of
as a negative process. It need not be so, however. It is an
attempt by police to change social, political, and fiscal
circumstances to bring consumers' wants in line with police
resources and to accumulate evidence about the value of
particular police tactics.
'' ... demarketing 911 ... is an attempt
by police to ... bring consumers' wants
in line with police resources .. . ''
Tactics and technology
Community policing tactics include foot patrol, problem
solving, infonnation gathering, victim counseling and
services, community organizing and consultation, education,
walk-and-ride and knock-on-door programs, as well as
regular patrol, specialized fonns of patrol, and rapid response
to emergency calls for service. Emphasis is placed on
infonnation sharing between patrol and detectives to
increase the possibility of crime solution and clearance .
Measured outcomes
The measures of success in the community strategy are
broad: quality of life in neighborhoods, problem so lution,
reduction of fear, increased order, citizen satisfaction with
police services, as well as crime control. In sum. the
e lements of the community strategy include:
• Authorization-<:ommunity su ppon (political), law ,
professionalism.
• Function-<:rime control , crime prevention, problem
solving.
• Organizationa l design-<iecentralized, tas k forces,
matrices.
• Relati onship to environment-<:onsultative, police
defend values of law and professionalism, but listen
to community concern s.
• Demand-<:hannelled through analysis of underlying
problems.
• Tactics and technology-foot pattol, problem
solving, etc.
• Outcomes-quality of life and citizen satisfactio n.
Conclusion
We hav e argued that there were two stages of po licing in
the pas t, political and reform, and that we are now moving
in to a third, the communi ty era. To care full y examine the
d ime nsio ns of policing during each of these e ras, we have
used the concept of organizational strategy. We believe
that this concept can be used not only to describe the
different styles of poli cing in the past and the presen t, but
also to sharpen the understanding of police policymakers
- of the future.
For example, the concept helps explain policing's perplexing
experience with team policing during the l 960's and l 970's.
Despite the popularity of team policing with officers
involved in it and with citizens, it generally did not remain
in police depa.itments for very long. It was usually planned
and implemented with enthusiasm and maintained for
several years. Then, with little fanfare, it would vanish­with
everyone associated with it saying regretfully that for
so me reason it just did not work as a police tactic. However,
a close examination of team policing reveals that it was a
13
strategy that innovators mi stakenly approached as a tactic.
It had implications for authorization ( police turned to
neighborhoods for suppon). organizational design (tactical
decisions were made at lower levels of the organization).
defmirion of function (police broadened their service role ),
relationship to environment (permanent team members
responded to the needs of sm all geographical areas), demand
(wants and needs came to team members directly from
citizens), tactics (consultation with citizens, etc.), and
outcomes (c itizen satisfaction, etc.). What becomes clear,
though , is that team po licing was a competing strategy
with different assumptions about every element of police
business. It was n o wonder that it expired under such
circumstances. Team and reform polic ing were strategically
incompatible-~me did not fit into the other. A police
depanment could have a small team policing unit or
conduct a team policing expe riment, but business as
usual was reform policing.
Likewise, although foot pattol sy mbolizes the new strategy
for many citizens, it is a mistake to equate the two. Foot
patrol is a tactic, a way of delivering police services. In Flint,
its inauguration has been accompanied by implementation of
most of the elemen ts of a community strategy, which has
become business as usual . In most places, foot patrol is not
accompanied by the other elemen ts. It is outs ide the main­stream
of "real" policing and often provided onl y as a sop to
citizens and politicians who are demandi ng the development
of different policing styles. This certainly was the case in
New Jersey when foot patrol was evaluated by the Police
Foundation. 46 Another example is in Milwaukee, where two
police budgets are passed : the firs t is the police budget; the
second, a supplementary budget fo r modest level s of foot
patrol. In both cases, foot patrol is outside the mainstream
of police activities and conducted primarily as a result of
external pressure s placed on depanments.
'' ... team policing ... was usually
planned and implemented with enthu­siasm
. ... Then, with little fanfare, it
would vanish . .. ''
It is also a mistake to equate problem solving or increased
o rd e r maintenance activities with the new strategy. Both
are tactics. They can be implemented either as pan of a new
organizational strategy. as foot patrol was in Flint, or as an
"add-on," as foot patrol was in most of the cities in New
Jersey. Drawing a distinction between organizational add­ons
and a change in strategy is not an academic quibble;
it gets to the heart of the current s ituation in policing.
We are arguing that policing is in a period of transition
from a reform strategy to what we call a community strategy.
The change involves more than making tactical or organiza­tional
adjustments and accommodations. Just as policing
went through a basic change when it moved from the
political to the reform strategy, it is going through a similar
change now. If elements of the emerging organizational
strategy are identified and the policing institution is guided
through the change rather than left blindly thrashing about,
we expect that the public will be better served. policymakers
and police administrators more effective. and the profession
of policing revitalized.
''If ... policing . . is guided through
the change rather than left blindly
thrashing (lbout, ... the public will be
better served .. . ''
A final point: the classical theory of organization that
continues to dominate police administration in most
American cities is alien to most of the elements of the new
strategy. The new strategy will not accommodate to the
classical theory: the latter denies too much of the real nature
of police work, promulgates unsustainable myths about the
nature and quality of police supervision, and creates too
much cynicism in officers attempting to do creative problem
solving. Its assumptions about workers are simply wrong.
George l . Kelling is a Professor of Criminal Justice at
- Northeastern University. Boston, and a Research Fellow in the
Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management , John F.
Kennedy School of Government. Harvard University. where Mark
H. Moore is Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy and
Management and Faculty Chair of the Program.
Points of view or opinions expressed in this publication are those of
the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or
policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or of Harvard University.
The Assistant Attorney General. Office of Justice Programs. coordi­nates
the activities of the following program Offices and Bureaus:
National Institute of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Bureau of
Justice Assistance. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention. and Office/or Victims of Crime.
14
Organizational theory has developed well beyond the stage
it was at during the early 1900's. and policing does have
organizational options that are consistent with the newly
developing organizational strategy. Arguably, policing,
which was moribund during the 1970's, is beginning a
resurgence. It is overthrowing a strategy that was remarkable
in its time, but which could not adjust to the changes of
recent decades. Risks attend the new strategy and its imple­mentation.
The risks, however, for the community and the
profession of policing. are not as great as attempting to
maintain a strategy that faltered on its own tenns during
the 1960's and l 970's.
Notes
I. Kenneth R. Andrews, The Concept of Corporate Strategy.
Homewood. Illinois. Richard D. Irwin, Inc .. 1980.
2. Robert M. Fogelson. Big-City Police. Cambridge. Harvard
University Press, 1977: Samuel Walker, A Critical History of
Police Reform: The Emergence of Professionalism, Lexington,
Massachusetts. Lexington Books. 1977.
3. Mark H. Moore and George L. Kelling. "To Serve and
Protect: Leaming From Police History," The Public Interest,
7, Winter 1983.
4. K.E. Jordan, Ideology and the Coming of Professionalism:
American Urban Police in the 1920' sand 1930' s. Dissertation.
Rutgers University, 1972.
5, Fogelson, Big-City Police.
6. Eric H. Monkkonen, Police in Urban America, 1860-1920.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981.
7. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment, Washington, D.C .•
Police Foundation, 1981 .
8. John Eck, Solving Crimes: The Investigation of Burglary
and Robbery. Washington, D.C., Police Executive Research
Forum, 1984.
9. Thomas A. Reppeno, The Blue Parade, New York. The Free
Press, 1978.
10. Fogelson. Big-City Police.
I I.Ibid.
12. George L. Kelling, "Reforming the Reforms: The Boston Police
Department," Occasional Paper, Joint Center for Urban Studies of
M.l.T. and Harvard, Cambridge. 1983.
13. George L. Kelling. "Juveniles and Police: The End of the
Nightstick," in From Children to Citizens, Vol. II: The Role
of the Juvenile Court, ed. Francis X. Hartmann, New York,
Springer-Verlag, 1987.
14. Walker, A Critical History of Police Reform: The Emergence of
Professionalism.
15. Fogelson, Big-City Police.
16. Kelling, "Juveniles and Police: The End of the Nightstick."
17. Orlando W. Wilson, Police Administration. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1950.
18. "Police Guidelines," John F. Kennedy School of Government
Case Program #Cl4-75-24, 1975.
19. Hennan Goldstein. Policing a Free Society. Cambridge.
Massachusetts, Ballinger. 1977.
20. Kelling, "Refonning The Refonns: The Boston Police
Department."
21. Fogelson, Big-Cit)• Police.
22. William H. Parker, "The Police Challenge in Our Grear Cities,"
The Annals29 (January 1954): 5-13.
23.For a detailed discussion of the differences between selling
and marketing, see John L. Crompton and Charles W. Lamb.
Marketing Government and Social Services, New York, John
Wiley and Sons, 1986.
24. Commissioner Francis "Mickey" Roache of Boston has said
that when the 911 system was instituted there, citizens persisted
in calling "theif' police- the district station. To circumvent this
preference, district telephone numbers were changed so that citizens
would be inconvenienced if they dialed the old number.
25. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment.
26. 0. W. Wilson, Police Administration.
27. A.E. Leonard, "Crime Reporting as a Police Management
Tool," The Annals 29 (January 1954).
28. George L. Kelling et al .• The Kansas City Preventive Patrol
Experiment: A Summary Reporr. Washington. D,C .. Police
Foundation, 1974; William Spelman and Dale K. Brown,
Calling the Police. Washington, D.C .. Police Executive Research
Forum, 1982.
29. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment, Wesley G. Skogan
and Michael G. Maxfield, Coping With Crime, Beverly Hills,
California. Sage. 1981; Robert Trojanowicz, An Evaluation of the
Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program in Flint, Michigan, East
Lansing, Michigan State University, 1982.
30. Mary Ann Wycoff. The Role of Municipal Police Research
as a Prelude to Changing It, Washington, D.C .. Police Foundation,
1982; Goldstein. Policing a Free Society.
31. Raymond E. Miles and Charles C. Snow, Organizational
Strategy. Structure and Process, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1978.
32. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment.
33. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment; Trojanowicz., An
Evaluation of the Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program in Flint,
Michigan.
34. Tony Pate et al., Three Approaches to Criminal Apprehension
in Kansas City: An Evaluation Report, Washington, D.C., Police
15
Foundation. 1976; Eck. Solving Crimes: The Investigation of
Burglary and Robbery.
35. James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, "Police and
Neighborhood Safety: Broken Windows." Atlantic Monthly,
March 1982: 29-38.
36. Tony Pate et al., Reducing Fear of Crime in Houston and
Newark: A Summary Report, Washington, D.C.. Police
Foundation, 1986.
37. Jerome·H. Skolnick and David H. Bayley. The New Blue Line:
Police Innovation in Six American Cities, New York, The Free
Press, 1986; Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Policing a City's Central District:
The Oakland Story, Washington. D.C., National Institute of Justice.
March 1985.
38. Wilson and Kelling, "Police and Neighborhood Safety: Broken
Windows."
39. Hennan Goldstein, "Improving Policing: A Problem-Oriented
Approach." Crime and Delinquency, April 1979, 236-258.
40. Glenn Pierce et al.. "Evaluation of an Experiment in Proactive
Police Intervention in the Field of Domestic Violence Using Repeat
Call Analysis," Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Fen way
Project. Inc., May 13, 1987.
41. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment: Trojanowicz, An
Evaluation of the Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program in Flint ,
Michigan.
42. Pate et al .• Reducing Fear of Crime in Houston and Newark:
A Summary Report.
43. James R. Gardner, Robert Rachlin. and H.W. Allen Sweeny,
eds., Handbook of Strategic Planning, New York, John Wiley and
Sons, 1986.
44. Kelling, "Juveniles and Police: The End of the Nightstick."
45. Crompton and Lamb, Marketing Government and Social
Services.
46. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment.
The Executive Session on Policing, like other Executive
Sessions at Harvard· s Kennedy School of Government,
is designed to encourage a new fonn of dialog between
high-level practitioners and scholars, with a view to
redefining and proposing solutions for substantive policy
issues. Practitioners rather than academicians are given
majority representation in the group. The meetings of the
Session are conducted as loosely structured seminars or
policy debates.
Since it began in 1985, the Executive Session on Policing
has met seven times. During the 3-day meetings, the 31
members have energetically discussed the facts and values
that have guided, and those that should guide, policing.
NCJ 114213
The Executive Session on Policing
convenes the following distinguished panel of leaders in the field of policing:
Allen Andrews
Superintendent of Police
Peoria, Ill inois
Camille Cates Barnen. Ph.D.
Director o f Finance and Administration
Hou ston. Texas
Cornelius Beh an, Chi ef
Baltimore County Police Depanment
Baltimore County. Maryland
Lawrence Binkley, Chief
Long Beac h Pol ice Department
Long Beac h, C alifornia
Lee P. Brown. Chief
Houston Police Department
Houston, Texas
Susan R. Es trich, Professor
School of Law
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass achusetts
Daryl F. Gates, Chief
Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles, California
Herman Goldstein, Professor
School of Law
University of Wisconsin
Madison , Wisconsin
Francis X . Hanmann, Executive Director
Program in C riminal Justice Pol icy
and Management
John F. Ke Medy School of Government
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massac huscns
Peter Hunt, former Executive Director
Chicago Area Project
Chicago, Illino is
George L. Kelling, Professor
School of Criminal Justice
No rtheastern University
Boston, Massachusens, and
Research Fellow, Program in Criminal
Jus tice Policy and Management
John F. KeMedy School of Government
Harvard University
Cambtjdge, Massachusetts
- U.S. Department of Justice
National Ins titute of Justice
Washington. D.C. 20531
Official Bu siness
Penal ty for Private Use S300
U. S. GPO: 1989-241-714/80023
Ro bcn R. Kile y, Chairman
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
New York, New York
Robcn B. Klies met. Pres ident
International Union of Poli ce Associations
AFL-CIO
Washington, D.C.
Richard C. Larson , Professor and
Co-Director
Operations Research Center
Massachusetts Institute of Tec hnology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
George Latimer, Mayor
St. Paul, Minnesota
Edwin Meese III
Former Attorney General of the
United States
Washington, D.C.
Mark H. Moore
Daniel and Florence Guggenheim
Professor of Criminal Justice Policy
and Management
John F . Kennedy School of Government
Haryard University
Cambridge. Massachusens
Patric k Murphy. Professor of Police Science
John Jay Colle ge of Criminal Justice
New York. New York
Sir Kenneth Newman
Former Commissioner
Scotland Yard
London. England
Oliver B. Revell
Executive Assistant Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
Francis Roache, Commissioner
Boston Police Department
Bos ton. Massachusetts
Michael E . Smith, Director
Vera Institute of Justice
New York, New York
Darrel Stephens. Executive Director
Police Executi ve Research Forum
Washington, D.C.
James K. Stewart, Director
National Institute of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
Roben Trojanowicz, Professor and Director
School of Criminal Justice
Mi chigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
Kevin Tucker, Commissioner
Philadelphia Police Department
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Benjamin Ward. Commissioner
New York City Police Department
New York, New York
Roben Wassennan. Research Fellow
Program in Criminal Justice Policy
and Management
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
Cambridge. Massachusetts
Dan.iel Whitehurst, President & CEO
Whitehurst California
Former Mayor of Fresno
Fres no, California
Hubcn Williams, President
Police Foundation
Washington, D. C.
James Q. Wilson , Collins Professor
of Management
Graduate School of Management
University of California
Los Angeles, California
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