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Trends in American Policing: Implications for Executives

NCJ Number
128461
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: special issue (1990) Pages: 139-149
Author(s)
H Williams
Date Published
1990
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This response to two papers on policing trends by Mastrofski and Bennett examines the crucial role of police executives' decisions in determining the future of policing.
Abstract
"Trends" in policing, whether they have occurred in the past decade or might occur in the future, stem from policy and planning decisions made by police executives. Trends are not the inevitable result of broad cultural, historical, or technological developments. All of the issues raised by Mastrofski and Bennett are complex issues still being debated and studied by police executives. Some of the trends noted by Mastrofski and Bennett have the potential to conflict with or undermine one another; for example, the trend toward requiring a college degree to become a police officer can undermine the effort to have a racially representative department, since the percentage of minorities attending college has been decreasing. Also, the trend toward community policing may be mitigated by the trend toward the use of more surveillance technology. Mastrofski and Bennett differ in their judgements on the implications for policing of the increasing growth of an underclass in inner cities. Bennett does not view this as a significant public safety problem; whereas, Mastrofski acknowledges that the policing of inner cities in an era of resource scarcity is a significant police problem. Data support the latter conclusion. Overall, trends in American policing will be determined by the strategies police executives select for addressing the problems in their jurisdictions. 8 references