Our Previous Samples

1. How (and why) does a minority police subculture develop in a police organization?

2. How can two such different cliques (the dominant culture and the minority subculture) coexist within one small police organization?

3. In your opinion, why has Rixton been so fortunate in developing a fairly positive dominant police culture?

4. If you were an officer in this police department and got assigned to the same patrol shift as Pasternak, Fishbaum, and Mickehaus, what would you do?

5. If you were a sergeant in charge of the patrol shift to which Pasternak, Fishbaum, and Mickehaus were assigned, what would you do to direct and control their behavior?

6. If Chief Eager retired and you were appointed police chief in Rixton, what would you do to reduce the size and influence of the minority police subculture?"

5. Explain how the six management functions are distributed across levels of the organization. Here’s a very short video about the importance of first-line supervisors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7ue3XwGMAw. What are its implications for police departments? Identify the five basic steps in the planning process. Identify the main components of the police staffing function.

1.If you were the sergeant in this situation, what would you have done?

2. If you were the chief of police of this police department and this situation came to your attention, what would you do?

3. In your opinion, what caused the Cod Bay Police Department to get into this situation of having a dominant police subculture that supports such actions by officers and supervisors?

4. How widespread do you think this kind of behavior and police subculture are today?

Explain the four key organizational principles presented in the text. Two of the case studies in the back of this text (Case 1, Cod Bay and Case 2, Rixton) describe situations in which some officers perform improperly. You might consider how their behavior might be improved by using the basic principles of police organization as well as policies, procedures, rules, regula¬tions, and discipline. Then answer two question in each case from the discussion questions.

Explain what distinguishes auxiliary services tasks, and give a few examples. One of the auxiliary services tasks is telecommunications. Visit a police department communication center or regional 9-1-1 center. If possible, stay for a couple of hours to get an appreciation for the level and complexity of the activity that goes on there. Explain what distinguishes administration tasks, and give a few examples. One of the administration tasks is internal affairs. Visit a few police department websites and see what their procedures are for filing a complaint against an officer. Are they all the same?

Explain the purpose of organizational values and identify four that might apply to a police organization. Read Case Study 3 (Strategic Planning in Spokane, Washington) in the text. Compare the vision and values adopted by that agency with the discussion in this chapter. Identify several characteristics of systems. Make a list of entities in the environment of a police organization. Then rank them in what you think is their order of significance, i.e., which ones have the most impact on the police organization?

Explain why force and authority are at the core of the police role. Identify the behaviors that police most commonly exhibit in their encounters with the public. See what you can learn about police use of force from the most recent national study, available here and summarize it: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpp08.pdf