“Les Difficultés de Réformer le Système Policier aux États-Unis,” in
Sebastian Roche (ed.), Réformer la Police et la Securité: Les Nouvelles
Tendances en Europe et aux États-Unis. Paris: Odile Jacob, 39-57, 2004.
This chapter examines the sources of resistance to innovation in American policing. The fact that
there has been widespread discussion of innovations such as community policing and problem-
oriented policing may make it appear that they were adopted easily. However, changing the police
is hard work and the political risks involved are considerable, for attempts to seriously reform the
police often fail. There are good reasons for police chiefs to be nervous about undertaking the
hard and expensive organizational reforms that community policing in particular requires. Efforts
to change the police can fail for many reasons. The wise police administrator will have a
defensive plan to counter them, but the list of problems is a long one.
Some fundamental features of American policing have affected the adoption of community
policing. The United States has thousands of independent police departments, by one count as
many as 17,000. Many of them are small, but a few hundred are relatively large. They are all
controlled by local politicians and voters, and paid for by local taxes. One implication of these
features is that there is enormous variety in American policing. In this case, there are 17,000
different experiments in police innovation going on, some of which succeed and some of which
fail. There is no national victory or loss in the adoption of any policing policy, including community
policing. What the resulting program will look like will closely reflect local conditions. Another
implication is that the struggle to change police organizations has to be carried out 17,000
different times. Why have so many chosen to innovate? Police innovation is closely tied to local
politics. While police departments are relatively autonomous when it comes to daily operations,
visible and expensive decisions like that of adopting community policing will not be made without
the involvement of political leaders. One reason why so many police departments have adopted
some form of community policing is that it popular with the public, and thus with elected officials.
They have not done so without a struggle, however, for the sources of resistance are many and
powerful.
This chapter reviews these sources of resistance, and some of the strategies that police
executives have used to overcome them. It is based entirely on my research in the United States,
but I suspect that police in other nations face many of the same problems.
Sebastian Roche (ed.), Réformer la Police et la Securité: Les Nouvelles
Tendances en Europe et aux États-Unis. Paris: Odile Jacob, 39-57, 2004.
This chapter examines the sources of resistance to innovation in American policing. The fact that
there has been widespread discussion of innovations such as community policing and problem-
oriented policing may make it appear that they were adopted easily. However, changing the police
is hard work and the political risks involved are considerable, for attempts to seriously reform the
police often fail. There are good reasons for police chiefs to be nervous about undertaking the
hard and expensive organizational reforms that community policing in particular requires. Efforts
to change the police can fail for many reasons. The wise police administrator will have a
defensive plan to counter them, but the list of problems is a long one.
Some fundamental features of American policing have affected the adoption of community
policing. The United States has thousands of independent police departments, by one count as
many as 17,000. Many of them are small, but a few hundred are relatively large. They are all
controlled by local politicians and voters, and paid for by local taxes. One implication of these
features is that there is enormous variety in American policing. In this case, there are 17,000
different experiments in police innovation going on, some of which succeed and some of which
fail. There is no national victory or loss in the adoption of any policing policy, including community
policing. What the resulting program will look like will closely reflect local conditions. Another
implication is that the struggle to change police organizations has to be carried out 17,000
different times. Why have so many chosen to innovate? Police innovation is closely tied to local
politics. While police departments are relatively autonomous when it comes to daily operations,
visible and expensive decisions like that of adopting community policing will not be made without
the involvement of political leaders. One reason why so many police departments have adopted
some form of community policing is that it popular with the public, and thus with elected officials.
They have not done so without a struggle, however, for the sources of resistance are many and
powerful.
This chapter reviews these sources of resistance, and some of the strategies that police
executives have used to overcome them. It is based entirely on my research in the United States,
but I suspect that police in other nations face many of the same problems.
Community Policing
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