William F. Walsh

Compstat: an analysis of an emerging police managerial paradigm

Compstat is a goal‐oriented strategic management process that uses technology, operational strategy and managerial accountability to structure the delivery of police services and provide safety to communities. This process originated with the New York City Police Department and is now being adapted by many law enforcement agencies throughout the USA. It thus represents an emerging police organizational management paradigm. This paper analyses the evolution of police management techniques and the emergence of this new paradigm. It concludes with an assessment of the organizational changes required for the adaptation of this process.

Trafficking in Human Beings: Training and Services among US Law Enforcement Agencies

Public awareness of and concern over the trafficking of women and children has never been greater among governments, international agencies, and global NGOs. Most recently the USA has joined the global initiative to fight trafficking by creating federal victim assistance and trafficking prevention legislation. While trafficking involves transnational crime, it is the local law enforcement officer, rather than the federal agent, who is most likely to encounter crimes such as prostitution that may be related to trafficking in human beings. This research is an exploratory assessment of the nature and extent of the local law enforcement response to trafficking in human beings within the USA. Though only an exploratory study of a limited number of local police agencies, the findings reflect little local law enforcement preparation to deal with trafficking and general attitudes that would not promote a proactive and informed response to this crime.

Community Policing: The Middle Manager's Perspective

Community policing has evolved as the new organizational orthodoxy of policing. Volumes have been written on the subject by academics and research scholars. However, the voices of those who are charged with the reorganization of their departments and the implementation of community policing have been relatively silent. This article presents data drawn from the content analysis of the written views of community policing held by a select sample of middle managers from across the country. The respondents were attending the administrative officers course at the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville. During the course of their studies, they read current anthologies on community policing research. These findings identify and discuss a number of problems that they have encountered in the implementation of community policing. As such, they represent a practitioner’s assessment of community policing.

The Meaning of Compstat Analysis and Response

Policing is presently undergoing a paradigm shift. One of the new models of police operations, Compstat, has been widely touted as an effective and efficient method of delivering police services. It also has been critiqued and criticized by police scholars. The authors consider these criticisms and offer their interpretations of the meaning of Compstat.

Searches: An Understudied Area of Racial Profiling

ABSTRACT Racial profiling is an important issue in contemporary policing. Racial profiling research has primarily involved two things: (1) examining traffic stop data, and (2) using a benchmark or baseline in the discovery of racial profiling. A smaller literature has examined the searches to uncover racial profiling. The purpose of the present study is to examine traffic stop data-in particular searches-in understanding racial profiling. Using data more than 40,000 traffic stops from Louisville, Kentucky, the present study found that race is one of many factors that are used in the determination of a search. The policy implications of this finding are discussed.

Police Integrity: Rankings of Scenarios on the Klockars Scale by ‘‘Management Cops’’

Policing is recognized as a morally dangerous profession. This study extends analyses of police corruption via a scale developed by Carl Klockars by surveying police managers attending the Administrative Officers’ Course at the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville. The findings indicate that these police managers acknowledge the existence of a questionable moral climate in police agencies and a tolerance for official misconduct that is troubling to consider.

Suspicion and Traffic Stops: Crime Control or Racial Profiling

Suspicion is an understudied factor in police discretionary decision-making. This study presents an analysis of traffic stop data from Louisville, KY that focuses upon factors that led police officers to note that they had ‘pre-existing knowledge’ about certain persons who were stopped. Factors related to this designation with specific emphasis upon race are considered.

Compstat: The Manager's Perspective

Originally established by Commissioner William Bratton and his colleagues in the New York City Police Department, Compstat has emerged as a new organisational paradigm in policing. This paper presents data drawn from the written views of police managers from across the USA. The respondents were attending the Administrative Officers Course at the Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville, Kentucky. During the course of their studies, they read several works on Compstat, including Silvermans (1999) work, NYPD Battles Crime. Content analysis of their written comments reveals the strengths and weaknesses that they associate with the Compstat model.

Fighting back in bright leaf: Community policing and drug trafficking in public housing

Drug trafficking and related disorders are common in public housing properties. This research draws from a sitespecific, multidimensional study of an urban public housing authority plagued with drug distribution and related crime. Focus group interviews and face-to-face surveys yield a vivid description of the residents’ perceptions of crime, disorder, and the impact on their lives. An analysis of the community-policing response reveals implementation problems which call into question some of the underlying assumptions community-policing advocates often take for granted.

Policing at the Crossroads: Changing Directions for the New Millennium

Now is a period of reflection and transition as the last decade of this century draws to an end. Scholars argue that substantial forces are challenging current methods of working and organising and that restructuring is needed to prepare for the future. How then should police administrators prepare their organisations to respond to the challenges of the 21st century? This discussion employs historical and organisational evidence to analyse the critical milestones in the development of policing. It posits that policing has reached an important crossroads with organisational managers dividing their support between traditional or community/problem-solving operational models. It faces the challenge of selecting a pathway for the future. The demands of providing security and order in the emerging information age, with its global, economic order, far exceed present day policing methods. This discussion concludes with suggestions on how to prepare for the future. This paper was originally presented at the 1997 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.