Police Management. - Review - book review

Police Management by Roy Roberg and Jack Kuykendall, Roxbury Publishing Company, Los Angeles, California, 1997.

Police Management is an outstanding book for the experienced and newly promoted police chiefs, police commissioners, sheriffs, other law enforcement executives and ranking officers who seek to improve their department and meet management challenges ahead. It incorporates the latest contemporary techniques, law enforcement management concepts, and practices.

It is a well designed book that makes effective use of periodic side bars to support each chapter's theme and content. It contains in-depth information on contemporary leadership and management styles with emphasis on the team manager, the latest behavioral theories in police departments, and theories and practices from industry and business that have direct applications to the service and protection role of the law enforcement family.

The authors have assessed the state-of-the-art in management control, accountability, preproblem and problem analysis and dimensional and definitional analyses that are available to the law enforcement manager in their quest of meeting organizational and community goals and objectives. It first reviews traditional management methods and the transitions to proven contemporary police models. The authors identify industry and business management concepts such as the 14-points for the Transformation of Management that reflect how the points can be applied to the "serve and protect" roles of law enforcement to maintain or enhance performance indicators, competence, and department effectiveness.

The book also contains the latest information on planning and research with emphasis on creativity and types of police plans; management's planning responsibilities and perspectives, their contemporary methods and processes, organizational design and contingency response and control. The authors assess outstanding case studies for the reader such as the Knoxville, Tennessee, Community Policing Task Force, which uses local utility members, fire station personnel and equipment, etc. in mission support. Another study is the Santa Ana, California, Police Department's Reorganization Effort to include the Quality Management Improvement experience implemented at Madison, Wisconsin, using the Experimental Police Districting model. The authors highlighted the Houston, Texas experience in the department's successful transformation from the Community Policing concept to the Crime-Specific Policing model, as well as addressing other innovative models and programs.

Police Management is an essential tool for all chiefs of police and law enforcement administrators. The book can be of interest to others in law enforcement as well, such as civil service testing administrators and merit and promotions board members.

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COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group