Enhancing Police Resources in the Twenty-First Century

Citation

Lee, B. (2012), "Enhancing Police Resources in the Twenty-First Century", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 35 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2012.18135caa.007

Enhancing Police Resources in the Twenty-First Century

Enhancing Police Resources in the Twenty-First Century

Article Type: Editorial From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 35, Issue 3.

J. Ayling, P. Grabosky, and C. ShearingCambridge University Press2009318 pp.$80ISBN 978-0-521-49351-2

The book, Enhancing Police Resources in the Twenty-First Century, examines the ways in which a public sector organization, specifically a public police agency, enhances its resources to maximize the production of service and increase the legitimacy of its financial activities to the public. It does this through exchange relationships with a wide range of external institutions and individuals. Resources and funding are increasingly limited. Thus a mutual relationship between the public police agency and outside organizations or individuals in exchange for income and services, becomes increasingly important for police departments' generation of revenue needed to meet expectations of efficiency and effectiveness. In exploring the means and tools of resource enhancement that police agencies utilize, the authors focus on the essential questions of who pays and who benefits in the three relational modes of exchange: coercion, sale, and gift. Throughout the chapters, the risks and consequences that a police agency faces for each of the means used are repeatedly discussed. These means are not always legitimate, for they include police corruption or extortion. The authors aim to limit circumstances in which a private agent and the police benefit at the expense of public interest and legitimacy of law enforcement. The three fundamental values - equity, cost-effectiveness, and legitimacy - underpin the authors' analysis of police agencies with a finite amount of resources.

In the introduction, the authors sketch out the key dimensions of exchange involving law enforcement agencies as well as the three fundamental values directing modern-day police agencies. Chapter 2 illustrates the increasing importance locating resources. Because police organizations are pressured to become financially conscious and business oriented to a certain extent, they utilize commercialization, which involves selling the police brand, which carries a degree of prestige and value. Examples include selling police merchandise, managing use of police resources as intellectual property, and auctioning seized, unclaimed, or stolen goods. The need and circumstances to acquire and allocate resources have been more evident under tighter budgets in recent decades, particularly in Australia and the UK. While introducing the three stages (acquisition, allocation, and expenditure) of how police agencies manage financial resources, the nine chief principles, ranging from effectiveness to management expertise, that underlie the decision making by the police about resource flows are thoroughly covered. The authors argue that by developing a clear understanding of the financial foundations of a public police agency, police administration can better deal with current and future challenges. Considering that police agencies have a multitude of issues to manage during an era of community policing and democratic reform, the book reveals how the police need to be strategic but cautious with their decision making because they must adhere to the fundamental values previously mentioned and effectively managing the resource enhancement.

The subsequent four chapters extensively cover the different types of exchange that allow organizations to enhance their resources and consider the risks, costs, and unintended consequences that the mode of exchange may entail. Chapter 3 discusses the coercive measures taken by the state to ensure citizen assistance in enforcing the law. According to the authors, coercion can be described as the process by which the state directs business organizations to engage in activities that assist law enforcement. A cost-benefit analysis of coercive requirements, particularly mandatory reporting and mandatory action, can help police organizations to determine whether they are cost-effective and legitimate. Finally, the authors propose several principles for leadership to consider when assessing whether coercion is an adequate instrument to enhance law enforcement resources.

Chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with the commercial exchange of goods and services between the police agency and other entities. In Chapter 4, the authors offer an illustration and discussion of police as purchasers of goods and services and the outcomes they involve. There are a variety of ways in which public police agencies acquire resources, including diverse ways to conduct and regulate their shopping and outsourcing. As we witness pluralism in policing in the modern era, there is a growing need to examine the benefits and risks associated with the changing scope of the role of the police. Assessing the risks and benefits of the exchange relationships and making decisions based on the assessment is deemed a major challenge for public police agencies. Chapter 5 sets forth the perspective that police can be viewed as commercial security vendors selling brands. The notion of police as sellers of security is well-illustrated by an example of a pub and other venues licensed for alcohol sale that came together to pay overtime cost to the police for extra patrol during busy hours for their businesses. These user-pays schemes (or fee-for-service arrangements) are made by police agencies in various countries. The authors caution the readers of the potential risks and negative effects of a commodity orientation that are associated with "user-pays" policing, including inequities in the delivery of services. Although selling a police brand as a good or intellectual property may bring extra revenue and promote a crime prevention image of the police, the benefits must be weighed against the various risks that accompany the commercialization of a police brand. More importantly, these risks may tarnish the legitimacy of public policing.

Chapter 6 is concerned with the private sponsorship of public police agencies and reliance of these organizations on voluntary assistance of non-police individuals through means of donation or gift. With regard to the notion of gift or donation, a private organization may act as a sponsor of a police agency and raise funds for education, training, health screening, and other purposes in return for recognition or acknowledgment. A variety of instances of gift giving can be found in countries like the USA, South Africa, and China. Drawing a boundary and creating a balance in gift arrangements is needed to ensure that the arrangements are meeting the needs of both the sponsor and the agency with regard to resource enhancement while maintaining legitimacy by serving the public interest. A discussion on using people as policing resources focusses on different forms of people's involvement in assisting law enforcement such as watchers, reporters, patrollers, or actors.

Chapter 7 briefly explores the ambiguities that are built in the exchange relationships between the police and other entities from previous chapters in further detail. The interaction between the dimensions of exchange is presented in different contexts. For example, the authors examine the aspect of coercion in sales to the police, viewing the police as coercive and coerced consumers. Implications of the ambiguities in fundamental values that guide routine exchanges and linkages of exchange relations are offered to police management. The concluding chapter summarizes the various methods which the authors utilize to "unpack" the current makeover in public policing. One of the implications is that the police agencies, when relying on the exchange relationships, may be putting their status and their fundamental values - equity, cost-effectiveness, and importantly, the legitimacy of the police agency itself - in jeopardy by increasingly engaging in contracting with outside organizations.

In addition, the authors offer theoretical explanations of public/private exchange relationships. Regarding the coexistence of the three modes of exchange mentioned earlier between the police and a private entity, there are two questions that remain to be answered. Is it possible to forecast or to explain how the configuration of relational modes appears at a given time or location? And, do these modes behave systematically or independently? Although the authors pose some interesting questions, the mere summaries of three models - Hydraulic/Zero-Sum, Resource Constraint, and Cultural Salience - could be extended to a discussion of how they contribute to explaining how the modes are configured in relation to each other in temporal and geographical settings.

This book contributes an in-depth analysis of how police agencies manage their exchange relationships with outsiders and balance their fundamental values so that they deliver equity and cost-effectiveness in distribution while maintaining their legitimacy of the police organization in an era of high demand and scrutiny from the public. Moreover, the introduction of a useful and insightful typology by Natalie Zemon Davis concerning the three modes of exchange - coercion, sale, and gift - aids the authors' objective of exploring resource enhancement and allocation as exchanges of knowledge and capacity through various context-specific examples across time and location. Occasionally, the number of examples for the modes of exchange and their outcomes can be overwhelming, which may impede the audience from attending to the authors' main argument. Because the methodology section is included as part of the conclusion chapter, the audience will read the text unsure of the methodology until they near the end of the book. The methodology section also could be more detailed for those who are interested in how the study was designed and conducted. Because there is a lack of research on resource acquisition, allocation, and expenditure in the context of policing, the current work by Ayling et al. opens the door for further contribution to this previously unexplored policing topic. A major portion of the book is devoted to dissecting the transformation of police agencies as multilateral organizations in exchange relationships with the "outside" world by thoroughly exploring and investigating the three modes of exchange and their consequences and implications. However, there is minimal discussion on the theoretical frameworks or models that support how different types of exchange relationships may interact with each other. As a result, it may be difficult to determine how this study fits into the policing literature in a broader sense.

The concepts and themes discussed by the authors are consistent with those in other policing literature. Main concepts and themes discussed throughout the book include multilateralism, public-private boundary and interaction, cost-effectiveness, legitimacy, equity, and the allocation and use of resources through exchange relationships. In light of the multilateral nature of policing described by Bayley and Shearing (2001), police organizations are faced with a substantial demand on traditional police functions and new goals that must abide by the three fundamental values previously mentioned. Under the recent fiscal challenges of the government, managing these objectives becomes a more imperative issue. The governments at different levels are not financially capable of providing for public police agencies in order to meet the demand for policing services. Consequently, this circumstance leads to growth in private security and new efforts to produce creative measures to acquire funding for public police agencies. One example according to Ayling and Shearing (2008) is that police are both vendors and purchasers of security in exchange relationships with non-state entities. Scholars like Grabosky suggest that the police-private interface can serve three main interests: the private actor, the police, and the general public. Although there is a dearth of research on this complex issue, policing scholars aim to develop a theoretical explanation for the interrelationship of different modes of exchange or engagement between the police and external entities. For instance, Gans (2000) explored the legal framework in examining the theme of privately paid public policing.

Overall, the book is appropriate for scholars, faculty members, and graduate students who are interested in how police acquire and enhance their resources and how the dynamics of resource enhancement unfold in the contemporary policing era. Each of the chapters brings valuable insights and examples, especially to those who are studying police organizations. It could also be a practical text for police managers and practitioners.

Byung Lee Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA