The problem discussed in this project is: How can the organizational structure and behavior of a police organization be changed to increase its effectiveness, to fully utilize its resources, to satisfy and motivate its members, and to provide a humanistically oriented service to the community? The premise is: Organization development is an effective tool to design and implement change in order to improve the organizational effectiveness of a municipal police agency. The objective of the study is to develop a better understanding of the effects of an organization development process in order to assist in the development of role models which will be meaningful and useful to managers who are seeking ways to improve the effectiveness of their organizations. It is an experiential analysis based primarily upon observation, utilizing a, " ... process oriented, qualitative, and historical approach ..." It is an attempt to respond to the call for, " ... improved paradigms and models of the change process ..." The study discusses theoretical considerations on organization change and organization development as a change process. It analyses the application of an OD process in the Walnut Creek Police Department over a period of fifteen months. It concludes that the premise is correct in this instance, that organization development is an effective tool to improve organizational effectiveness in a municipal police agency, that its emphasis on involvement is the key to its effectiveness, and that it provides the basis for developing system competence and group effectiveness necessary to maintain organizational relevance.

Community policing continues to be of great interest to policy makers, scholars and, of course, local police agencies. Successfully achieving the transformation from a traditional policing model to community policing can be difficult. This book aims to illuminate the path to make that change as easy as possible. Morash and Ford have produced a contributed anthology with original articles from a variety of well-known researchers, police trainers and leaders. They focus on: Recent research for developing data systems to shape police reform Changing the police culture to implement community policing Creating partnership strategies within police organizations and between police and community groups for successful community policing Anticipating future challenges

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.

This textbook will teach students in criminal justice programs the essential skills needed for effective police administration and management. Although it is written in a manner that graduate students would find stimulating and thought- provoking, its target audience is juniors and seniors. The author uses a three-pronged approach. Each topic is explored from a traditional, modern, and futuristic perspective. This approach combines theory and practical application in a manner that helps the students grasp all the ramifications of the issues at hand. To assist in this, commentary solicited from police administrators (from middle-management to police chief) that reflects their experiences and thoughts on the various issues is offered. In addition to the commentary, realistic and pragmatic examples are provided to clarify the concept and to show its practical applications. This text was written to bridge the gap between purely theoretical and strongly practical texts. The use of theory to establish the concept and realistic illustrations and practitioners' perspectives to demonstrate the link between theory and reality gives this text a dimension found in very few texts. Furthermore, by using a three-pronged approach (traditional, reform and community or yesterday, today and tomorrow), readers are offered the basis from which the concepts originate, their transformation and possibly future implications, in a well-rounded manner allowing for a full view of the ideas and concepts. Combines a theoretical and practical approach Explores a variety of police administration issues from three perspectives, political/traditional, reform/modern, and community/futuristic. Realisticillustrations and practitioner's perspectives