Chapter 16

(Author’s name)

(Institutional Affiliation)

Introduction

Proactive Police management is a book written by Thibault, Lynch, and McBride. The book is about proactive, as well as, contemporary police management approaches. It has been widely used by several police programs, in addition to, various programs in criminal justice. The book addresses a number of styles practiced by police management departments. Such styles are of a wide range and they vary from behavioral approaches, to traditional, scientific approaches to approaches associated with human relations (Thibault, Lynch & McBride, 2011). The book is divided into a total of sixteen chapters, each of which takes a look that is realistic to operational challenges that might take place within police departments and approaches, and they, as well, look at ways through which proactive management approaches can help the police address these challenges. Chapter 16 is going to be of a particular significance to this paper, as the paper is going to be about the best ways through which police departments can be proactive.

The authors indicate that the current approach to policing is more proactive that reactive. They indicate that police officers nowadays deal or address issues by being able to anticipate events through the kind of planning that can only be exercised with planning, the use of resources and police personnel effectively, and with the deliverance of a wide range of police services to the society. The authors indicate that this approach to policing is not new. In fact, they argue that proactive policing begun in the late 1820s with the metropolitan police commissioners in London. As it follows, proactive police management is treated in the book as a noble and grand tradition of the early age police forces and policing departments (Thibault, Lynch & McBride, 2011).

The authors of the book indicate that the cultural context of the police as well as that of history in is depended or determined by two main entities, that is the sub cultural entity and the historical context. They argue that the modern policing approaches have borrowed a lot from social sciences, public administration, and from traditional policies in policing borrowed throughout England and US. The authors indicate that the modern police force has benefited alt from behavioral sciences such as sociology and psychology (Thibault, Lynch & McBride, 2011).

Another thing that the authors deem has made today’s policing to be proactive is the fact that more modern administrators from police departments have been recognized and promoted through ranks. According to the authors, this has helped immensely in that it has shaped policing policies especially in such areas as training, internal discipline, personnel selection, and management of personnel. They argue that the police force is becoming more proactive by increasing the number of women, as well as, the number of African Americans and Latino Americans in the force, as this usually has a significant effect on the subculture of the force (Thibault, Lynch & McBride, 2011).

Proper and appropriate organization is another thing the authors deem essential in establishing a proactive police force. They point out that a force or a department has to make explicit its informal and formal goals and objectives for it to operate efficiently and effectively. In addition to this, the authors indicate that a department must have several established operating principles or concepts that must be implemented. These include such things as span and range control, work division, and unit of command, which are the basic concepts key to the operational knowledge of all police supervisors and managers. Leadership styles and good communication skills are other things that must be adapted by a police department for its operations to allow for cost- efficiency and consistency (Thibault, Lynch & McBride, 2011).

Conclusion

A police department that is proactive is much more efficient and much easier to run as opposed to a reaction- based department. It would, therefore, be helpful for police department to invest in proactive policing approaches for the purposes of being more effective and efficient.

References

Thibault, E. A., Lynch, L. M. & McBride, R. B. (2011). Proactive Police Management. (8th. ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.,