CRJ 303 LE Administration

1. CRJ 303LE Administration Police Culture The Administrative Perspective

2. Part I - Police Culture: Traditionally Speaking • A culture is: • A system of beliefs and actions that characterize a particular group. • Culture is the unique whole-the shared ideas, customs, assumptions, expectations, philosophy, traditions, mores, and values-that determines how a group of people will behave

3. Police Cultural Values • Police Solidarity • Foremost among all values, attitudes, and practices of the police culture is the bond of solidarity between officers • In an environment perceived as hostile and unpredictable

4. The Police Culture offers its members Reassurance • That the other officers will 'pull their weight' in police work that they will defend, back up and assist their colleagues when confronted with external threats • And that they will maintain secrecy in the face of external investigations.

5. In return for loyalty and solidarity, members of the police culture enjoy considerable individual autonomy to 'get on with the job' • Indeed, it is true; all occupational groups share a measure of inclusiveness and identification. • People are brought together simply by doing the same work and having similar career and salary problems. • However, as researchers have noted, police show an unusually high degree of occupational solidarity

6. It is true that the police have a common employer and wear a uniform to work • But so do doctors, mail carriers, and bus drivers. • Yet it is doubtful that these workers have so close-knit an occupation or so similar an outlook on the world as do the police.

7. Set apart from the conventional world, • The police officer experiences an exceptionally strong tendency to find a social identity within the social milieu • Police behavioral research is filled with findings related to the notion of solidarity among police officers.

8. Some have found that the solidarity starts early in an officer's career • As he/she is faced with an informal rite of acceptance. • Officers are generally not fully accepted until they have demonstrated the willingness and the ability to "back up" a fellow officer in the face of perceived danger.

9. For instance, it is common for training officers to wait until a new recruit has faced a dangerous situation • Before recommending the recruit be given full status in the organization. • Peer acceptance usually does not come until new officers have proven themselves in a dangerous situation.

10. More than anything else, training officers and others in the police subculture want to know • How probationary officers will react to danger - will they show bravery • Strong feelings of empathy and cooperation among officers may be observed in the daily behaviors of police. • Analytically, these feelings can be traced to elements of danger and shared experiences of hostility in the police officer's role

11. When combined with the tendency for police to become isolated the solidarity among officers begins to breed the "we-they" attitude. • Additionally, many officers feel they are "living in a fish bowl". • They believe that any indiscretions on their part, such as drinking too much alcohol at a party, would be viewed by non-police as hypocritical • Thus, they tend to socialize together and begin to count on each other for support.

12. Police deviance literature discusses a phenomenon referred to as the "Code of Silence" or the "Code of Secrecy" • This is the notion that police officers will never inform on other officers even if that officer is involved in illegal activity • The concept of a "code of silence" has been depicted so often in movies and television programs that it would not be surprising to find that most Americans believe it to be reality.

13. During the ensuing debate several people in the criminal justice system suggested that this practice was part of the police subculture and deeply ingrained. • In some cases the loyalty to other officers becomes such a strong cultural value that it appears, and is sometimes referred to, as "clannish" • Some assumptions that help our understanding the notion of police solidarity • Don't give up on another cop • Watch out for your partner first • If you get caught off base, don't implicate anyone else

14. The organizational implications of police solidarity are truly paradoxical. • The same characteristic (employee solidarity) that is cited as the breeding ground for police deviance is also referred to as camaraderie or esprit de corps • Police do not appear to cooperate with one another merely because such is the policy of the chief but because they sincerely attach a high value to teamwork

15. How Is Police Culture Perpetuated? • Police culture is sustained through the way new members are selected, trained, and accepted into the police ranks. • Most police agencies require applicants to go through a rigorous series of steps prior to being hired.

16. These steps are designed to insure that various criteria that have been deemed important to the organization are met. • The outcome of the process is intended to ensure that only the most fit will ultimately be hired. • It is left to other studies to debate the job relatedness and the necessity for each of the entry level requirements.

17. For our purposes, it becomes clear that the selection process is the beginning of the police cultural assimilation. • Persons who can demonstrate characteristics and traits like those possessed by the officers already on the force stand a greater chance of being hired. • We are not sure if authoritarian people are drawn to police work, or if police work makes people authoritarian. • Likewise, the formal training at the police academy helps to further the cultural assimilation into the way things are done here.

18. Most instructors at police academies are other police officers. • They tend to use police examples and "war stories" in their training • Additionally, most of the courses tend to support the cultural notion of the dangerousness of police work. • Skills such as firearms and defensive tactics are introduced to help the officer protect herself/himself.

19. There are many classes on interrogation and report writing, • They all stress the need to be suspicious of people. • They include profiles of what a criminal looks like tend to perpetuate stereotypes based on race or ethnic origin. • Practice courtroom testimony stresses the need to be wary of attorneys as they will attempt to trick you and make you look foolish on the stand. • The paramilitary nature of organizational management is stressed as classroom order, uniform dress, and behavior is required.

20. Assimilation to the police culture moves into high gear once the rookie officer is assigned to the street. • Most departments assign the officer to a training officer for some period of time. • The field assignment now has the officer working as part of a group. • Additionally, the officer is aware that he/she is on probation and the report of their training officer could make a difference to keeping the job or not

21. Some new officers are told "in order to become a real policeman • S/he will have to forget everything he has learned in the class room and conduct himself in the proper way-their way:

22. The Positive effects of Police Culture • Would be the envy of many organizations that spend a great deal of time and energy in the attempt to build teamwork. • Police leadership can tap this cultural characteristic as they begin to develop various collaborative arrangements with people in the community both residents and business • Additionally, inter-agency task forces to combat crime tend to be successful due to the willingness of the officer to work in these situations.

23. The Negative Effect of Police Culture …may be the “working personality”

24. The “Working Personality” of the police. • According to Skolnick (1966), there are three elements that create the policeman’s “working personality;” they are danger, authority, and efficiency (Skolnick, 1966). • Skolnick explains there are "distinct cognitive tendencies" in police as an occupational grouping. • Distinct cognitive groupings can be defined as a preferred perspective which obscures common sense or sound reliable knowledge, or both.

25. For instance, it is a necessary distinction that we continually trip over some branch in our way when we stumble, • Thus distracting ourselves from recognizing that we need to adopt a whole new spectrum of viewing problems and other solution sets. • This analysis can be found similar among departments across the country and across the world (Skolnick, 1966).

26. The “Working Personality” of the Police • Instructs all officers that while fellow police (i.e. "insiders") are trustworthy, they should be skeptical and ever vigilant of non-police (i.e. "outsiders"). • Police training reinforces the insider/outsider distinction by constantly emphasizing the potential for danger in police work.

27. Learning the “working personality.” • According to Skolnick (1966) the police regularly encounter “signs” that suggest or indicate to the police that those people are dangerous. • Their dress, for instance gang affiliations, the way they walk, as if to conceal a weapon, the way they talk, suggests a trouble maker to police officers. • Symbolically speaking, these people represent potential assailants…or “symbolic assailants” to police officers.

28. Because the police tend to be homogenous in values and attitudes: • Also, the “symbolic assailant” takes on characteristics of “economically or ethnically marginalized groups within their jurisdictions.” • Because police officers as a class of people are middle class, Black people who often are not, are automatically viewed symbolically by the police as dangerous and threatening and treated as a potential assailant.

29. What does the “Working Personality” look like…if I were to see it?

30. At its best the “working personality” of police officers is viewed to encompass: • Needs to Altruistically Help others as a vocation • Dedication to the ideals put forth in the US Constitution • Love of Service to our Community • An intense Drive to Protect the Weak from the social predators

31. At its worst the “working personality” is one that: • Utterly Unwilling to Accept Criticism from any quarter • Underlying and Dominating Belief in the Traditions of the Past • To develop tight Knittedness Amongst Officers • To Resist Change • To Be Arrogant • To acquire Premature Cynicism

32. The “working personality” process (emanates from two sources) • First : “Occupational Psychosis” • Members adapt to policing subculture by abandoning their values • Accept new values of the police subculture • New members are placed under pressure to accept subculture's values • In policing, this is done with the intensity of elite military units • Invocation of the "Blue Wall or the Blue Curtain"

33. “Tunnel Vision” Occurs • The Organization is portrayed as Right and Good • People or Groups who offering criticism of organization is considered Wrong and Bad • They adopt “the Dirty Harry Syndrome" • They loose their Sense of Humor • They become Hostile • The believe they need to strike out before you are stricken • They become Insecure • They think everyone is out to get the police • Ultraconservative • The think coddling criminals only leads to more crime • They become cynical

34. Cops acquire a belief that Others are All Good or All Bad • No Middle Ground • Feelings of Over-importance • Feelings of Isolation from those not associated with the Job

35. New Officer loses Naiveté • They learn to cope with awesome authority • Brotherhood of the Badge is given birth • Inability of Outsiders or even Administrators to Penetrate the Secrecy and Protectionism of the Officers • All Persons entering Organizational Life go through similar experiences • Law Enforcement though this Socialization Process is greatly intensified

36. Second: Team Behavior (We vs. They) • A Form of Self Protection • Attention made to Image Management • How to present the organization so that its Image is most advantageous to the members • The Public must believe in the competence of the Police Organization

37. Bad Officers are often Protected by Good Officers • Corruption, Brutality and Blatant Incompetence can only exist when cooperation between Officers occurs when Officers who would never engage in these matters do nothing to stop those

38. These are the Rules or the "Blue Barriers” that underscore the “working personality” • A Firm Barrier against Administrative Knowledge • Police Subculture is characterized by • clannishness • secrecy • insulation from others in society "the blue Curtain" • Police tend to socialize together they believe that their occupation cuts them off from relationships with civilians

39. Six Core beliefs of the police subculture • They believe they are the only real "crime fighters“ • They also believe they can't win war against crime without bending rules, the courts have awarded criminals too many civil rights • No one else understands them or what they do • Non police do not understand what police work is all about • Loyalty to each other is essential • Police officers believe they have to stick together because everyone is out to get the police and make the job of the police more difficult

40. Six beliefs continued… • The public is unsupportive and too demanding • People are quick to criticize the police unless they need help • Patrol work is the pits • Detective work is glamorous and exciting "real police work“

41. The Police Personality is then: • Dogmatic • They see things in black and white • Authoritarian • You have to show civilians who's the boss • Suspicious • Everyone is regarded as a possible trouble maker • Racist • In the Institutional Sense of the word • Cops tend to believe that minorities are more likely to get into trouble

42. Incidentally, why police are likely to be racist • 80 percent of police are White males • General Population is 38% WM • In their interactions outside of work, they are likely to be only with other White males • The only minorities these officers will see are those that are in trouble with the law • Most minorities are not trouble makers, but the police don't have contact with those people • The only minorities that the police have contact with are trouble makers, so they begin to see all minorities as trouble makers.

43. Causes of the police personality and the police subculture: • Nothing you do is going to solve the crime problem • We make police deal with our dirty work, place them in the worst situations • Response to the potential danger the police face every day • Emotional turmoil and conflict is a day to day • Police are placed in impossible situations with no real solution

44. Part II: Police CultureNontraditionally Speaking…Police Isolation Factors • A considerable amount of police research over the past thirty years has chronicled the tendency for police to become isolated. • Isolated from previous friends, isolated from the community, isolated from the legal system, and even isolated from their spouses and families

45. With an emphasis on their Power and Authority, these two things naturally isolate police from others in society • As does the paramilitary model used in policing. • Police isolation is also fostered when police are indoctrinated with the idea that they are the "thin blue line" that separates anarchy from order.

46. Indeed, the Police become isolated due to their awesome authority • They are required to enforce many laws representing puritanical morality, such as those prohibiting drunkenness. • Many police officers have been drunk themselves and become sensitive to the charge of hypocrisy. • In order to protect themselves they tend to socialize with other police or spend time alone, again leading to social isolation.

47. However, the Police also impose social isolation upon themselves • As a means of protection against real and perceived dangers, loss of personal and professional autonomy, and social rejection

48. They do it with notions of “Danger” • The element of danger is generally credited with causing officers to be suspicious. • In an attempt to be attentive to any possible violence the officer becomes generally suspicious of everyone. • Likewise, many officers begin to distance themselves from previous friends as they do not seem to understand and appreciate the rigors of being a "cop".

49. Administrative Factors will also Isolate Cops: • Likewise, administrative factors such as shift work, days off during the week, and court time tend to isolate the officer from persons other than other police.

50. These things will lead to the creation of the “We-They” Worldview of the Police. • A Dichotomy, or Binary • These assumptions tend to be a means of creating, and maintaining, a culture in which the members believe that non-police simply do not understand the true nature of police work.