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Effective Police Supervision, Fourth Edition

NCJ Number
213132
Author(s)
Harry W. More; W. Fred Wegener; Larry S. Miller
Date Published
2003
Length
580 pages
Annotation
This textbook focuses on the personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills a modern police supervisor must have to implement community policing, and it provides instruction in the tasks involved in effective planning and operations.
Abstract
Chapter 1 discusses the skills and knowledge required of a supervisor involved in community policing. This is followed by a chapter that explains the mission of community policing, i.e., "serving the neighborhoods." A police supervisor's role in this mission is explained under the topics of empowerment, quality supervision, process facilitation, building partnerships within the department, collaboration, problem solving, and supervising community police officers. As the textbook moves into a more detailed discussion of specific supervisory tasks, the third chapter discusses interpersonal communication, including the importance of communication skills, the communication process, communication patterns, and barriers to communication and how to overcome them. The fourth chapter focuses on motivation as a prerequisite for success. It examines various theories of and factors in motivation and concludes with some guidelines on how to motivate others. Leadership is the subject of chapter 5. It addresses the nature and mechanisms of power, theories of leadership, the leadership continuum, and leadership mistakes. Chapter 6 addresses discipline as an essential element of police supervision. Features of negative and positive discipline are described, and the keys to effective discipline are identified. Performance appraisal is discussed in chapter 7 as the key to personnel development. Topics discussed include the personnel evaluation process, the frequency of evaluations, and performance evaluation for the tasks of community policing. Remaining chapters address team building, coping with and managing change, supervision of the difficult employee, internal discipline, labor relations, the supervision of minority personnel, and police training. Chapter case studies, discussion questions, key concepts, summary, and references