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The process of institutionalizing police reform has been relatively ignored in the policing literature. Owing to this, there is no established framework for institutionalizing police reform. This article seeks to add to the knowledge regarding the institutionalization of police reform by presenting the results from a study that examined the institutionalization of problem‐oriented policing (POP) in the CMPD.

The research was guided by the limited amount of organizational change in policing research and the limited amount of organizational development literature pertaining to institutionalization. The research utilized captain interviews and rank‐and‐file surveys to determine officer knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes towards POP in the CMPD. The CMPD's policies, procedures, and practices pertaining to POP were also outlined.

It was found that POP has become institutionalized in the CMPD. POP principles are evident in the captain's culture, rank‐and‐file's culture, and the policy and procedure of the CMPD.

The study puts forth a framework for assessing and institutionalizing police reform that other departments can test and utilize in their efforts to institutionalize police reform.

The paper is one of the first to examine the institutionalization process of police reform. A framework is put forth to assess and aid in other police departments' efforts to institutionalize police reforms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of new public management (NPM) as a major strategy for democratic police reform in transitioning, developing and post‐conflict nations.

The paper reviews the literature and history of the use of NPM in the public sector and policing in Western nations and considers its use in programs of police reform.

The review identifies that NPM can be used as a strategy in police reform and is able to be used in conjunction with policing approaches such as community‐oriented policing. However, the adoption of NPM must be culturally specific and implemented within local capability constraints.

Police reform, transparency and accountability are an important concern for all post‐conflict and transitioning police agencies; therefore, the findings of this research are useful for implementation or planning of police reform and restructuring programs.

With its focus on police management accountability in post‐conflict or transitioning nations, this article expands research on strategies of democratic police reform and capacity development.

Over the past two decades successive British governments, both Conservative and Labour, have attempted to implement reforms within the English and Welsh police service. The latest Labour government proposals have resulted in new legislation which paves the way for wide‐scale reforms of how the police are managed, financed and judged against specific performance targets. Further, the introduction of the UKs first “national policing plan” has led to the belief that this is a sign of the British government's intention to reduce/remove the historical, political neutrality identified through “constabulary independence”. Past experiences suggest that greater “nationalisation” of policing in the UK is unlikely to meet government expectations owing to the strength of police (sub) culture to adopt and yet resist reform and that the governments failure to pay attention to this may result in the failure of reform.

Since the late 1970s the public sector in Britain has been subject to major reforms, which have been consistent with the prominent international trend of bringing new public management into government. The police service has escaped significant reform, particularly when compared with other policy areas. But in 1993 the Conservative government put forward a series of police reform measures, corresponding largely to the tenets of new public management. However, despite political commitment to reform, the implementation of many of the reform proposals has been successfully resisted by the police. Provides an explanation of the attempt to reform the police service by using a policy networks approach.

The purpose of this paper is to study the institutional reform of policing in Macao.

This study includes both comparative analysis and interviews.

Macao's policing remains a case study demonstrating incomplete reforms, organizational fragmentations, and retains the legacy of colonialism.

This is an original study of Macao's police forces.

Recent events of police misconduct and corruption produced widespread calls for law enforcement reform. Reformers apply one of four models, each of which predicts successful reform, exclusive of other models. Each model requires substantial theoretical elaboration in order to permit rigorous testing of model effectiveness. Offers model elaboration and predicts that the models will be more effective to the extent that they operate interactively.

The aim of this paper is to examine the significance and the implications of efforts to institute workforce modernization within the police service in England and Wales.

The approach taken uses an analysis of the modernization proposals advanced by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary as its starting point.

The development of workforce modernization in the police service would appear to have eroded the hitherto “reform‐resistant” nature of policing, however political factors continue to impede reform.

Although more evidence concerning the scale and the outcomes of the reform process would be desirable, the main implication of this paper is that workforce modernization in the police is viable, but constrained by political factors.

Empirically, the paper focuses on developments in a sector – the police service – that has been neglected by the existing literature on workforce modernization; theoretically, it demonstrates the important influence often exercised by political contingencies over public sector workforce reform.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on distributed sensemaking by studying how the police establish and develop their new position as police contacts during the police reform.

The authors studied how the position of police contact, a cornerstone of the recent Norwegian police reform, was interpreted and practised. The authors interviewed police contacts at two different times during reform implementation to explore how they made sense of and practised their job.

The authors identified three interpretations of the position of police contact and describe them as ideal types: an administrative position, a professional position and a strategic position. The ideal types were reinforced rather than developing towards a shared understanding. Our data demonstrate that the sensemaking processes and experimentation to settle into the new position involved local actors internally in the police and externally in relation to local authorities, and reinforced local interpretations.

This study supports the notion of sensemaking as distributed but extends previous research by suggesting that “ideal types” help us understand the content of interpretations. This study also extends the understanding by showing that distributed sensemaking takes place as individuals make sense of more open-ended problems. This challenges the understanding of the term distributed, because unless challenged, distributed sensemaking in isolated pockets of the organization remain local, and the authors suggest that the term local distributed sensemaking captures this phenomenon.

In deeply divided societies such as Northern Ireland the question of police reform cannot be divorced from broader political issues. This article looks at the connections between police reform and the political process, in the particular context of the recommendations of the Patten Report, which put forward a framework for a fundamental reform of policing in Northern Ireland. The problems encountered during the subsequent reform process – both political and institutional – are discussed. It is argued that the model of a decentralized and democratically accountable police service, based on the core principle of community policing, although not fully realized, offers a model for policing in societies which are becoming increasingly multi‐ethnic.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the background of the proposal contained in the coalition government's Police and Social Responsibility legislation to replace police authorities with directly elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) and to evaluate the potential problems that will arise from this reform.

The research is library‐based, utilising a range of primary and secondary sources. The objectives of the research are addressed by examining a number of key themes: the creation of police authorities; the evolution of police authorities; the target regime; consequences of increased central control over policing; the Community Empowerment agenda; the reform of police authorities; the 2010 coalition government and PCCs; problems posed by PCCs; and the progress of reform.

The research established that the role performed by police authorities in the governance of policing was in need of reform, in particular because of their inability to ensure that local concerns were adequately addressed by their police forces. However, it is argued that replacing an authority with one single person possessing considerable powers over policing poses significant dangers which include the potential of this reform to politicise the police.

The paper presents a detailed analysis of a key aspect of coalition government policing policy and seeks to establish that what is proposed contains serious weaknesses which must be addressed in order to provide for a workable system of police governance. It is of relevance to those engaged in delivering policing, crime prevention and community safety agendas.