Patrol officer supervision in the community policing era

✍ Scribed by Robin Shepard Engel

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 132 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0047-2352
• DOI: 10.1016/s0047-2352(01)00122-2

✦ Synopsis

Scholars have speculated that in an era of community policing, the role of first-line patrol supervisors has changed. Given this change, can patrol supervisors effectively influence their officers' behavior? This question is addressed by examining data collected for the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN), a systematic observational study of patrol officers and first-line supervisors in two metropolitan police departments in 1996 -1997. Using four distinct supervisory styles created through factor analysis of attitudinal constructs identified in the management and policing literatures, the influence of different supervisory styles over the time officers spend per shift conducting particular types of activities and encounters is assessed. Findings from multivariate analyses show that officers with ''active'' supervisors spent significantly more time per shift engaging in self-initiated and community-policing/problem-solving activities, while officers with ''innovative'' supervisors spent significantly more time engaging in administrative tasks. Implications for policy and future research are explored.