Organizational Management - Research Paper Sample

Introduction

The policing function in a country is at the state, local, and federal levels. The law enforcement agencies in these organizational levels depend on the mission, size, type, and jurisdiction (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2018). From small-town police departments to the vast U.S. federal agencies, these organizational levels have leaders with different roles and characteristics. They also have various functions, including operational, administration, organizational, and administration. This research paper will identify policing functions at the local, state, and federal organizational levels and analyze the similarities and differences among the different corporate groups' tasks, including management, operational, organizational, and administration. The leadership characteristics and responsibilities at each executive level will also be identified.

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Analyzing Policing Functions

The organization of policing in many countries is usually done on a national basis. However, in the United States (U.S.), the policing function is split into state, federal, and local organizational levels (Porter, 2013). This fragmentation of the policing function is based on the American belief that regional challenges are best handled at that level. It does not matter whether the issues are educational, policing, waste management, or any other aspects. The intention for fragmenting policing functions is to enforce the law at all levels of the government effectively. However, that has been challenged by various problems experienced at each level and interfering with the law enforcement mission. The management, recruitment, and policing standards at all organizational departments are not uniform (Morey, 2019). The possibility of wasteful efforts duplication across jurisdictions is very high. Furthermore, communication and sharing of information between and among police agencies are tiresome and not useful. Understanding the policing functions at every organizational level is essential in identifying the differences and similarities at the state, local, and federal law enforcement.

Federal Policing Function

Policing functions at the federal organizations are usually full-time. About 100,000 police officers work at the national police function in the U.S. (Porter, 2013). It is a full-time law enforcement personnel working in federal departments such as Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Customs Service, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (2018), there are 65 federal agencies in the U.S. and 27 inspector general offices. These agencies and offices employ full-time police officers with authority to arrest criminals and carry firearms. The national police officers' largest employer includes the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The FBI is a standard unit of police force working at the federal organizational level of policy functioning. It was started in 1908 by Teddy Roosevelt as the Bureau of Investigation and later was named FBI in the year 1935 (Porter, 2013). Since the 1930s and 1940s, the FBI police unit in America has captured bank robbers recognized in the nation. The agency works together with the Hollywood police to improve their effectiveness in capturing bank robbers. The FBI also performs intelligence collection and counter-intelligence activities (Morey, 2019). That began during the Second World War, and the FBI continues to undertake these responsibilities. Intelligence gathering by the FBI was noted to be controversial when they started investigating politicians. Political rebels were anti-American and civil rights leaders, and the FBI investigating them was considered political abuse. The reputation of fighting against crime for the FBI was tarnished.

State Policing Function

The state policing function operates within the given condition. Operations are undertaken by the state police, state investigative departments, and highway patrols, among others. The state protecting tasks in the U.S. were created between 1900 and 1930 (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2018). Their primary purpose is to suppress labor union organizations. It has been recently identified that Hawaii is the only state in America that does not have a state policing function. According to Burke et al. (2019), state and local law enforcement agencies in America are over 17,000. These agencies consist of the size of one police officer to over 30,000. The law enforcement agencies at the state level include state police/highway patrol, special jurisdiction police, and Deputy Sheriffs. All perform different responsibilities at the state level.

Local Policing Function

The local policing function operates at the lowest level of organization whereby the local police and sheriff department work in the police departments in America. In local policing functioning, the municipal police services in the departments operated by the local government (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2018). In the U.S., 90% of the policing functions include the local police and sheriff departments. The regional policing role is designated to large towns with a population of 250,000 citizens or more. The local police departments are complex organizations, highly structured, and subdivided into several divisions.

Currently, only five cities in the U.S. have police departments comprising sworn police officers numbering 5,000 or more. Three out of four police departments have 25 officers or fewer. Besides, around 60% of the local police agencies consist of full-time officers numbering less than ten (Porter, 2013). At the local organizational level, police officers are also employed by special police forces operating in public housing, airports, colleges, and transportation systems, among other sectors. The local police include the county, regional, tribal, and municipal law. They derive their authority from the governing body at the local policing organizational level.

Similarities and Differences

The three levels of policing functions at the state, federal and local organizations have similarities and differences depending on the leadership, the type of police officers, and their responsibilities at each level.

Types of Police Officers

At the organization's operational level, the three policing functions are different from the type of policy and ranks. At the federal policing role, the FBI, and military (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2018). However, police officers are working in the different federal agencies that can be posted to the state and local levels. These police units perform the traditional roles of making arrests and carrying firearms, just like those at the state and local organizational levels (Porter, 2013). Therefore, the state, federal, and local policing functions have similarities and differences in police officers' type and responsibilities that are to be executed.

The law enforcement agencies are different at the state, federal, and local policing organizational levels. At the national executive level, the police officers' responsibilities are patrol and response, criminal inspections, enforcement, investigation, court operations, corrections, security, and protection. The duties of security and safety, court operations, corrections, patrol and response police, are also shared at the local and state policing functions. Only the FBI department is highly specialized to investigate crimes at the federal level. At the national level, police workers are full-time and work at federal organizations. However, at the state and local level, police officers can be full-time or part-time employees and work at the various designated police stations or posts. All police officers, irrespective of the policing function, can make arrests and carry firearms.

The state policing function has the responsibility of traffic and criminal investigation (Porter, 2013). However, the state police's criminal investigation role is highly focused on crimes at the state level. Some states tend to have highway patrol with the investigation powers undertaken by a different entity like the state bureau of investigation. The state police help the local authority conduct studies and emergencies that go beyond the resources and local agency jurisdictional boundaries. The responsibilities of the local police are at the operational level or organization. They sustain the jurisdiction laws, give patrol, and investigate local crimes (Burke et al., 2019). The local police derive their authority from the governing body at the local policing organizational level.

At the state and local levels, there are special jurisdiction police to provide services for definite entities or regions in another jurisdiction, including schools, hospitals, transportation assets such as subways and airports, housing authorities, hospitals, and government buildings (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2018). The unique jurisdiction police are full-service departments and offer similar services as the state and local police officers. Sherriff's are police officers at the state and local organizational levels (Porter, 2013). They obtain power from the state government to enforce state law at the local county level. The Deputy Sheriffs serve the duties of running the local jails, warrants, and court summons. They also answer calls for service within the region outside the police jurisdictions at the local level.

The Leadership Characteristics

At all the three organizational levels, the leadership style is bureaucratic. That is essential to ensure competence and clarity of police responsibilities (Al Khajeh, 2018). At the operational level, the police officers' tasks and duties at the state, local, and federal policing functions are specialized. In all policing parts, authority is clearly and carefully defined in a hierarchy. That ensures improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of their services to the state, federal and local governments. However, this type of leadership characteristics is faced with a lack of flexibility and ignoring the human component of serving the community (Porter, 2013).

Geller and Morris (1992) stated that law enforcement jurisdiction at the federal, state, and local organizational levels overlaps, especially in criminal law enforcement. The influence of politics in the respective jurisdictions prevents police officers' ability to plan strategically and in a coherent, efficient, and effective manner (Flom, 2019). The effectiveness of police organizations using the bureaucratic approach of leadership is highly inhibited. Bureaucracy has been associated with retarding personal growth and development among police officers at all organizational levels (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2018).

Conclusion

Authoritarian leadership has also fostered –group-think mentality. That has restricted innovation and creativity among the police workforce in the U.S. Bureaucracy in the policing function has failed to recognize the power of informal organization and provision of a due process functional system. As a result, effective communication has been challenging to achieve from one policing function to another (Ouziel, 2020). Due to authoritarian leadership, more and more police departments are becoming militarized, especially those with over 50,000 police officers. They form paramilitary units within the police departments.