The Police Service

Abstract

‘Policing’ and ‘management’ are not terms which sit easily together. The developments in managerial strategies which have occurred within police organisations in recent years have arisen against the backcloth of the difficulties, some would say insurmountable, of reconciling the activity of policing with the process of management. Arguably more than in any other area of the public services, the policing function presents specific dilemmas as far as attempts to introduce coherent managerial approaches is concerned. Whether these are the reflection of the inherent nature of the policing task, or of the ways in which policing, at least in its British form, has been traditionally organised, is an issue which this chapter considers as it progresses. At the very least, they involve features of policing which constitute a starting point for an evaluation and analysis of police management.