Organization of the Police Department Essay Example

responsibility lies in their duty to enforce laws, provide assistance to the populace, and maintain order (Dempsey, 2005). So, without function or purpose, the police department would not be able to provide these services or perform their duties effectively. Area The importance of area in the police department is the role they play for being responsible for a particular area.

The geographic areas can be divided as precincts, posts or beats and zones or sectors.

The size of these areas depends on the size of the police department (Dempsey, 2005). The larger they are the more divisions they have and the same is true for smaller departments. In fact, patrol officers are given particular areas to cover when on assignment so as not to cross other patrol officers areas or patrol out of their jurisdiction.

‘These boundaries act as organizational borders that, by their nature, create distinct and relatively independent communities within the infrastructure of the police organization’ (Hassell, 2007).

However, some areas can be covered by other neighboring precincts in joint efforts. In addition, area is also important to the organization of the police department by maintaining control of that area and keeping it crime free and manageable. For example, we have six patrol officers that need to cover the City of St. Mary's, Georgia. In order to do this the officers can be divided into three teams of two to cover the entire city or each officer could be assigned their own area to patrol.

The size of the city decides on how many beats or zones are needed.

So, since this city is rather small, the patrol officers can work a beat

as three teams of two and still effectively cover their area, and perform their duties and assignments without having to cross into another patrol area. Time Time is greatly important to the police department not only financially but it also impacts the officers well being, productivity, alertness and behavior (Pierce, ; Dunham, 1992). In fact, most departments use the three-tour system also known as; shifts, watches, and platoons.

The three-tour system covers a 24-hour service seven days a week and the tour is usually divided up equally among the officers. However, over time it was discovered that crime does not happen according to the three-tour system.

So, departments began to place more officers during the tour when crimes where happening more often during those hours. In fact, the night shift has the highest rate of crime during this tour. The day shift has the second highest rate of crime and the mid-night tour has the lowest rate of crime.

Therefore, every time there is a shift in the time crime is most likely to occur, more officers are placed on that tour in greater numbers than that of the other two tours. In addition, the police union has set policies that determine the amount of hours the officers are allowed to work each day.

In conclusion, why are purpose, area and time important to the effectiveness of the police department? First, without a purpose, the police department could not function in an orderly fashion. Second, communication would be lost and chaos would follow.

Third, without distinct areas to perform tasks, officers would have a hard time distinguishing the boundaries of their patrol and problems with

jurisdiction would be out of hand. Lastly, time is most important concerning the health and well being of the officers.

Over worked officers develop problems on the job, at home and on the streets. Sometimes their job becomes too stressful leading to depression, suicide, homicide, abuse, drug use, loss of appetite and fatigue (Pierce, 1992). So, allotting the time officers spend on the job will help them to be better officers.