Term Paper on "Police Leadership Crime in Britain Went Up"

Term Paper 11 pages (3110 words) Sources: 5 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Police Leadership

Crime in Britain went up from 25 to 40% a decade ago and is now the number-one issue among the population (Brand 2007). Only a third of them rate police performance well. Only 25% or one in five says he or she does not go out alone in their area after dark. Policing was at first mainly a local service before it became a State function. Many police authorities perform reasonably well within their limited powers, but the police, as a whole, have remained largely disconnected from other local services and the local population. This disconnectedness is the major cause of dissatisfaction with the police and skepticism among the people as to police effectiveness. The fear of crime remains a top priority to national policies and targets (Brand).

The commonly perceived solution is to move policing to the local level (Brand 2007). This was a major recommendation in an ongoing police review to improve local involvement and accountability. As it was, local councils exercised limited influence in this service although they funded a large part of the police budget. An independently elected police leadership teems with flaws. It subjects public patience with elections. It inflicts additional bureaucracy. It puts new but incompetent politicians who promote wrong sets of public policy. It creates different, although legitimate, structures, which vie for influence. Recommendations have been made to strengthen the role of current local policing authorities. They are aimed at delivering visible local police accountability, increasing its efficiency, improving service coordination, strengthening community participation, addressing local crime more effectively and creating a police force drawn from and working for its own local community. Reforms have also been recommended to make police units co-terminus with local authorities; abolish police authorities and transfer their functions to local leaders in partnership with the community; fix police budgets and hold police chiefs accountable; and set up police priorities, plans and targets in the area within a Reformed Community Strategy, which should report regularly to the community (Brand).

The model of accountability will have to vary from area to area (Brand 2007). But the concept is to restore the public to the heart of community safety and policing through their locally elected officials and other leaders. By introducing and correctly enforcing these changes, millions worth of investment may now be released in frontline policing. There can be better coordination among community safety-related services, improved community participation mechanisms, and a genuine delivery of visible, democratic accountability long needed to raise public satisfaction and decrease the fear of crime (Brand).

Studies have shown that if the employees providing a given service are content with the way their organization treats them, their customers too tend to be content with the service rendered to them (Dobby et al. 2004). The leadership they experience is among the factors, which affect or shape their work attitudes. In both the public and private sectors in the UK, a link has been observed between positive employee work attitudes and a leadership style called "transformational." A "transformational" leader endeavors to motivate, support and empower subordinates to accept more challenging and basically interesting tasks or responsibilities. This is comparable with the more familiar and traditional "transactional" leader who does the same through extrinsic rewards and punishments. Its advocates contend that transformational leadership is demanded by current rapid and unpredictable organizational changes. Under the circumstances, leaders must make sure that employees are properly trained, supported and empowered. They must be enabled to make correct decisions for themselves in their everyday and individual tasks (Dobby et al.).

Transformational leaders appear to be more effective as leaders than transactional leaders have been (Dobby et al. 2004). This is because transformational leaders seem better able to elicit extra effort and commitment by fostering self-confidence in the employees, enhancing learning experiences, imbuing them with a sense of mission and new ways of thinking. They have also demonstrated capabilities in the effective implementation of change in various settings (Dobby et al.).

Transformational leadership has its place in the National Policing Plan. The plan points to strong police leadership as central to improving police performance and thus reducing crime and the fear of crime (Dobby et al. 2004). Police reform requires improved training, leadership and professionalism in every level of police service towards a modern and more responsive policing. Police performance and leadership in the UK have been criticized in recent years. A number of attempts by various organizations have been made to address the clamor for reform and improvement. The Police Leadership Development Board or PLDB was one such response at the national level. A recent initiative was the establishment of the Police Integrated Competency Framework and National Occupational Standards. It focused on issues, such as selection, assessment, development and promotion on a more rational perspective. The framework lists the tasks of the various roles in police service as well as the knowledge and skilled required by these tasks. It also enumerates 12 basic behavior involved in police work, four of which relate to leadership. Some leadership requirements have been specified. Occupational standards for police work have been set down. Evidence of these developments and achievements has, however, remained perceptible only by professional judgment (Dobby et al.).

Nonetheless, perceivable evidence links officers' morale and performance to the positive or negative impact of supervision on morale. Furthermore, information gathered from police forces suggested that leadership behaviors they considered inappropriate were not uncommon. As a result, individual motivation and performance appeared to be derailed to a considerable degree (Dobby et al.).

Perceived failures in police performance have given police leadership a bad image. The need for genuine change brought attention to the worth and merits of transformational leadership. It has demonstrated an impact in the public sector, but there is a lack of corresponding information of its pertinence to or uniqueness in the police service (Dobby et al. 2004) until this study. There has been no generally accepted leadership theory in the service, which could be tested and suggest the nature and direction of change needed. Another consequence of this lack of evidence was that the forces themselves had no basis for the kind or type of leadership their officers should adopt. This research was conducted to discover what 150 police officers and 1,066 police staff perceived as effective leadership (Dobby et al.).

The study found that these respondents wanted their leaders to inculcate in them a sense of pride in the service and in their contribution to it (Dobby et al. 2004). They enumerated the desirable behaviors of effective leadership as commitment to high-quality service to the community and to supporting the staff in achieving that commitment; high personal and professional standards and correcting poor behavior; enabling, valuing and training its staff; and possessing or acquiring relevant knowledge and appropriate skills. The respondents also identified 53 specific behaviors of an effective leader. Of these 53, 50 were "transformational" Police leaders who displayed these behaviors produced various positive effects on the work attitudes of their subordinates. Examples were raising job satisfaction and deepening their commitment to the organization. The respondents also identified negative behaviors in their leaders. These included laziness, moodiness, unethical attitudes, and unacceptable performance. According to them, these negative behaviors were displayed by the same leader who displayed positive behaviors.

The respondents likewise considered staff morale and motivation key factors in the delivery of police service. These findings link certain police behaviors to police organizational performance (Dobby et al. 2004) and, ultimately, to crime incidence and control.

British leaders have been described as models of poor leadership. They have been accused of mismanagement and failures, incompetence, and a lack of intelligence, sense and integrity (Corkindale 2007). These leaders include the Prime Minister and his government; the Bank, the Chancellor and the Governor; the football managers; and the Police Chief. The Chief of London's Metropolitan Police Force was considered guilty of endangering the public over the death of a Brazilian man in July 2005. The police mistook him for a suicide bomber and shot him. The police chief has been accused of a lack of accountability, organizational failure and a lack of communication. Commissioner Ian Blair of the Metropolitan Police ignored widespread clamor for his resignation. He claimed that no evidence of "systemic failure" on his part. His opponents, however, exposed a series of organizational, communication, leadership, training and tactical mistakes by Blair (Corkindale).

An Independent Police Complaints Commission found 19 unmistakable systemic failings in procedures and communication in the Commissioner's leadership (Cockindale 2007). The failures occurred in every level. Surveillance was deemed inadequate, intelligence work was wrong, armed officers not deployed on time, orders confused and the chain of command not followed. Other reports also said that Sir Ian was so uncommunicative with his staff that he complemented him after the mistaken shooting of the Brazilian man. His own subordinates did not update him as they should (Cockindale).

These circumstances divulge faulty leadership or the lack of it (Cockindale 2007). Otherwise, these underscore an alarming lack of competence, integrity, respect… READ MORE

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