This report provides an examination of team policing approaches in seven cities, analyzing problems experienced in planning, implementation, and evaluation. The concept of team policing is generally intended to strike a new balance between the needs for police centralization for efficiency and community needs for police decentralization in order to increase responsiveness to the problems of citizens. In theory, team policing calls for reorganization of the patrol force to include one or more quasi-autonomous teams, with a joint purpose of improving total police services to a particular neighborhood and increasing job satisfaction of the patrol officers. This study examines team policing as it was experienced in seven cities -- Holyoke, Massachusetts, Richmond, California, Dayton, Syracuse, Detroit, los angels, and New York City. Some preliminary indications are given of why team policing has worked better in some cities than in others. The reports, which are subjective accounts by eye-witness researchers, contain a brief background of the city and the department and a description of that particular team program, pinpointing individual successes and shortcomings.

Prescriptive package detailing theoretical guidelines and practical methods for designing, implementing, and administering a neighborhood team policing program. The concept of decentralizing police decisionmaking authority to meet increasing demands on law enforcement services is featured in this NILECJ prescriptive package. A practical guide for police administrators and planners, this manual provides a method of organizing operations to improve police-community relations, increase crime control effectiveness, and enhance police job satisfaction. Chapter 1 is a summary of current knowledge about neighborhood team policing and a description of what the authors believe would be an ideal neighborhood team policing system. Chapter 2 describes the neighborhood team policing programs of several police departments. Subsequent chapters suggest procedures for planning and implementing neighborhood team policing, administering an ongoing program, providing training and education, and establishing lines of authority and methods of supervision of neighborhood teams. A practical approach for constructing a project budget is presented. Appendices include suggested operational guidelines, a format for team commander reports, a model proposal to obtain LEAA action funds, a case study of one team in New York City, a way of organizing a referral guide for use by police officers and a description of a training program implemented in St. Petersburg, Florida.