Law enforcement management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Law enforcement management - Essay Example But in reality it is the law enforcement officer who concentrates on those areas that pose the most immediate danger or threat is the most effective. Since ages ago man has always been governed by regulations within the community in order to believe that he fits in or and also cater to socially desirable patterns of conduct. Even earlier than that crime has been thought of as a local problem and to counter that enforcement has to be community oriented too. Enforcement of the law hence should be strengthened more and more where crime is spawned, i.e. in local communities. Faced with such considerations, much of the burden of crime prevention and crime control must be borne at the community level. But to achieve this objective we need farsighted police administrators and enlightened citizenry to work for the common good. But the surprising fact of life is that, " The police do not prevent crime" Experts know it, the police know it but the common public doesn't. But if the fear of the police in the common man's mind often lets him pause and think at least for a second before he can commit the crime then that is what we credit to the police. The major jobs of the police officer would include patrolling, criminal investigation, and regulating traffic. Administration is an additional function that involves recruitment, training, public relations and all the housekeeping functions of purchasing, paying and supervising and so forth. Traditional police management included an elaborate hierarchy of command. Police are a uniformed service where the authority is solely based on rank. Compliance is insisted upon and detailed rules cover anything and everything a police officer might do and high level of micromanagement occurs. Decisions were generally made at " the top chain of command" by a select few and passed down. The generally accepted theory was "Higher ranks give commands and lower ranks obey". This causes some frustrations. The police personnel at the lower end of the pyramid are often confused because they are forced into real life situations where they are not able to follow the rules to the book and often turn a blind eye to it because they want to avoid confrontations. This officer also feels unprotected and exposed and this also adds to their inefficiencies. It also puts his immediate commanding officer in quandary about exercising his control or watching from the sidelines. This