Dennis C. Smith

On the Fate of "Lilliputs" In Metropolitan Policing

An extravagant number of miniscule local governments hurts in many ways. Lilliputian governments essentially lack the territory and population to solve areawide problems, or to render effective services.... Fragmented local government also means splintered law enforcement, with overlapping jurisdictions, petty jealousies and rivalries, poor or nonexistent communications networks, inadequate training ....2

Dangers of police professionalization: An empirical analysis

Abstract This study examines relationships between professionalization (measured by the amount of college education and police training) and police officer attitudes. Using data from a survey of 712 police officers in twenty-nine departments in the St. Louis area, the analysis focuses on propositions derived from scholars who have identified harmful effects they expect to flow from the reform. Although the limited operational definition of the key variables and other factors noted in the study require caution in interpreting the findings, little evidence in support of the expected “dangers” is found. This result, in combination with other studies that have failed to find support for the case made for raising the educational level of police, suggests the need to reassess expectations about the impact of college education in policing.

Practice, Practice, Practice

In the early 1990s the NYU/Wagner School undertook an effort to reform the curriculum of one of the oldest and largest public administration programs in the nation to make its graduates more job ready and better prepared to be “reflective practitioners.” While the reform applied to all parts of the School, the design of the public policy analysis specialization at Wagner School embraces all the elements of the “Clinical Initiative.” The curriculum was revised to provide the three “Es”: Exploration, Exercise and Experience.

Police Attitudes and Performance The Impact of Residency

Residency laws are a recurrent controversy in local government. While many of the argu ments are economic, proponents of residency requirements also expect resident employees to have more positive attitudes and greater dedication toward the jurisdiction. In this study of residency, police performance, and officer attitudes, which uses data from a com parative study of departments in the St. Louis metropolitan area, some evidence of a re lationship between residency and performance (measured with citizen survey and official crime and clearance data) is found. But the findings show little support for the expected attitudinal link between residency and performance. The proportion of an officers col leagues who live in the jurisdiction is more closely related to positive attitudes than is the officers own residency status. Policy implications are considered.