Decision Making in Policing: Operations and Management [Hardcover]

Decision making in the police environment must take advantage of the latest advances in business and military management, but at the same time remain aware of the challenges associated with maintaining and restoring order on a day-to-day basis. The framework proposed here has been elaborated from the diverse experiences of the authors as managers, police officers and crime analysts, and from some formalized models and methods taken from the literature. It concerns questions such as how to process and interpret information, how to effectively use intelligence for making decisions, which rules to respect when deploying resources, and how to assess and monitor the impact of measures taken. The global context is generic, but its adaptation when dealing with specific recurrent types of problems will be proposed and illustrated through a series of examples. Although addressed mainly to managers and trainers in police environments, every police officer will discover a methodology that will help him or her to deal with the complex situations faced daily. In addition, those in academia who study the police or develop methods and technologies for law enforcement will use this book to frame current and future topics of research.

Fundamentals / Structure  The systemic approach  A coherent system of decision-making  The role of information in the decision-making process  The role of information in proactive and reactive styles of policing  Traps in the decision-making process  Summary and key points : The Operational Chain / Introduction  Structure of the section  The flow of information and intelligence culture  Role of information  Information processing  Sustained analysis  Dissemination  The information technology fallacy  Intelligence cannot always make the boss (decision- maker) happy  Evidence-based practice and intelligence  Summary and key points  The rational model  The military decision-making model  The police decision-making model lƒ!