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Given the central role of supervision in shaping police agency outcomes and the impact of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, the purpose of this paper is to understand subordinates’ ratings of supervisor performance overall and on several distinct dimensions.

Descriptive and explanatory analyses are conducted on subordinate views of supervision based on a survey of officers and detectives (n=7,085) in 89-agencies.

Reporting high ratings of supervisor performance overall, subordinates also view supervisors as fair, supportive and engaged in practices that set expectations. These dimensions are highly correlated with overall satisfaction; other variables, such as age, race and gender demonstrate weak relationships to overall satisfaction and perceptions of fairness, support and direction.

The study is based on subordinates’ perceptions of supervisors and does not address the supervisors’ own perceptions or actual behavior. Future studies should collect identical information from supervisors as well as examine agency-level variation in both subordinate and supervisor outlooks and styles.

The results support modern approaches to police supervision that emphasize not just direction and control but also fair and supportive relationships with subordinates.

The study examines the views of thousands of line-level police across a large number of representative US agencies and explores relationships using a comprehensive set of variables.

Since the early 1980s, with the implementation of the policy of economic modernization, China has experienced a significant increase in crime. In order to meet the challenge of the rising crime rate under the new social and economic conditions, China has implemented a series of police reforms. Based on the newly promulgated Police Law and other relevant laws and regulations, discusses the organization, functions, powers and accountability issues of the contemporary Chinese police system.

The purpose of this study is to develop a broader understanding of police organizational culture in South Korea. More specifically, given its history and culture, the aim is to examine various elements of organizational culture as perceived by line officers and supervisors.

The data for the present study came from a survey of police officers in South Korea who attended training courses at the Korea National Police University (KNPU), and at the Police Comprehensive Academy (PCA), from June through August of 2008. A total of 406 police officers completed the questionnaires representing an overall return rate of 62 percent.

The results suggest that, overall, police officers across rank and job assignment were dissatisfied, and at best ambivalent, on all dimensions of organizational culture. Lower ranked police officers, relative to other ranks, appear more dissatisfied with managerial support, open lines of communication, and organizational support. Officers who are part of the police administration (e.g. general affairs, public security, intelligence) are less disenchanted with management support, communication, and innovation than are patrol officers and criminal investigators. This study suggests that both rank and job assignment influences South Korean officers' perceptions of their organizational culture.

This research does not attempt to compare officers' perceptions before and after the Grand Reform, as data are not available for study. In a limited way, it can be interpreted that after over a decade since the implementation of the Grand Reform more work is needed in improving officers' attitudes regarding their organizational climate.

Unlike studies done in the USA, which have de‐centralized police forces, this study offers a unique opportunity to examine the organizational culture of a centralized police force. Additionally, this paper examines the extent to which officers' perceptions of police culture are similar along rank, experience, and job assignment variables.

The purpose of this study is to re‐examine the nature of the sergeant‐officer attitudinal relationship. Using person‐environment fit as a framework, the current study tests the influence that sergeant‐officer attitudinal congruence concerning role orientations has on officer role ambiguity.

The study uses survey data from 765 patrol officers and 146 sergeants across five police departments. Polynomial regression, calculated values, and response surface plots were used to examine the effect of sergeant‐officer attitudinal congruence on role ambiguity.

First, there was modest empirical evidence that the relationship between sergeant and officer views toward order maintenance and role ambiguity was nonlinear. Second, role ambiguity was lowest for officers supervised by sergeants who highly accepted order maintenance activities. Finally, role ambiguity was higher when both officers and sergeants failed to view order maintenance and law enforcement as important functions of the police role.

The findings highlight the need to incorporate additional research approaches that capture differences in officer and sergeant views toward police work. Such differences might impact other attitudinal outcomes or officer discretionary behaviors.

When looking at attitudinal congruence, the results show that sergeants have the capacity to attenuate or amplify officer role ambiguity. This emphasizes the need for police administrators to ensure that sergeants communicate job expectations to their subordinate officers that are in line with the department's values.

The study adds to the limited body of research on frontline supervision by examining the nature of the sergeant‐officer attitudinal relationship from an alternative theoretical approach.

The purpose of this paper is to examine supervisor perceptions of police integrity situations using the measurement of police integrity instrument. Additional survey questions focused on aspects of integrity of particular relevance within the study agency. The latter concerned that agency's on‐going legal arrangement with the federal government to address alleged sub‐standard patterns and practices of officer/agency performance.

In total, 478 sergeants and lieutenants from the study agency completed the survey instrument. This represented 97 percent of those asked to complete the instrument and approximately 60 percent of first‐line supervisors.

The results paralleled some aspects found in prior research, in particular that respondents cast themselves as having stronger integrity than their peers. Findings also illustrated potential weaknesses in efforts to enhance police integrity in light of federal intervention in the study agency.

The findings represented the first focused effort to replicate the measurement of police integrity instrument among first‐line supervisors. Such personnel were key figures in efforts to modify deficient patterns and practices, making them a prime focus for research consideration.

The skepticisms expressed by some supervisors illustrated issues worthy of consideration in future efforts to enhance integrity in police organizations. First‐line supervisors play key roles in shaping officer conduct, particularly in larger agencies. As such, more consideration needs to be given to the role they play in organizational change efforts.

In addition to informing scholarly understanding through the measurement of police integrity instrument, the findings are of importance in applied efforts to enhance integrity or otherwise modify police organizations.

To present qualitative data illustrating how some of the largest law enforcement agencies in the USA use risk management in their efforts to control police liability.

To explore this topic, two main data sources were utilized: telephone interviews with 354 law enforcement agencies identified the prevalence of the use of risk management by police agencies; and survey data from police agencies provided descriptive information about the roles, duties, and placement of risk managers within each police organization.

Telephone interviews revealed that 14 of the 354 (0.039 percent) law enforcement agencies identified risk management as one of several tools they use to control police‐related liability within their organizations. This finding is surprising, given the increase in costs associated with settlements/payouts for police‐involved litigation and liability claims over the past few decades.

Future research should identify the reasons why police agencies choose not to use risk management in their police liability management efforts. In addition, future research should explore how the characteristics of city government and/or political culture are associated with the use of risk management by law enforcement agencies.

This paper can serve as a basic resource for police scholars and practitioners, city/county attorneys, risk managers, and various other city/county agents that are interested in learning about risk management as a way to manage police liability.

This paper presents the first national study of risk management in police agencies in the USA.

Determining the impact of civilian review board on the police is a challenging process. The task is complicated due to the absence of baseline data that will account for observed changes in citizen complaints, especially if the concept is a novelty in a particular jurisdiction. Likewise, using traditional measures of impact such as the number of complaints or conviction rates is problematic due to a variety of confounding factors. This study examines the perceptions of complainants and officers concerning the impact of civilian review boards. Using data collected through surveys of police officers and complainants in a metropolitan area in the Philippines, the study focuses on “learning” as a viable construct to measure the impact of civilian review boards and the perceived deterrent effects of these boards. The research found that civilian review boards have a significant impact on police officer perceptions as well as on the police department. The study also shows that learning may be a viable measure for studying the impact of civilian review boards.

Leadership plays a key role ensuring the achievement of desired outcomes in both formal and informal groups. Insufficient leadership in policing can result in significant negative consequences for agencies and their personnel. Despite the importance of effective leadership within police organizations little is known about the process of developing effective leaders and leadership behaviors. The paper contributes to the limited available empirical knowledge using data collected from police supervisors. The intent is to assess supervisors' perceptions of how leadership abilities might best be developed and to identify the barriers inhibiting such efforts.

Open‐ended surveys are administered to students attending the FBI's National Academy, a career development program for mid‐career police supervisors. Respondents report their experiences with and perceptions of leadership development. The purposive sample of respondents provides insights from supervisors representing police agencies of various sizes and types from around the world.

Respondents indicate leadership skills are best developed through a combination of education, experience, and mentorship. Developing more effective leadership is dependent on the ability to overcome barriers, both within the profession and within individual officers. Finite resources, macro and local aspects of police culture, and failures of leadership by current executives are all viewed as working against the growth of effective leadership practices.

Given the dearth of empirical research considering dimensions of police leadership, myriad implications for future research are identified and discussed.

The findings provide important preliminary insights into the experiences and beliefs of police supervisors.

The purpose of this paper is to critique contemporary tools for assessing and managing the risk of police misconduct and suggest directions for their improvement.

The paper draws on extant literature, synthesizing several lines of inquiry to summarize what the authors know about patterns of police misconduct, and what the authors know about assessing and managing police misconduct. Then the paper draws from the literature on offender risk assessment in criminal justice to draw lessons for assessing and managing the risk of police misconduct.

The authors found that there is good reason to believe that the tools used to assess the risk of misconduct make suboptimal predictions about officer performance because they rely on limited information of dubious value, but also that the predictive models on which the tools are based could be improved by better emulating procedures for assessing offenders’ risk of recidivism.

Future research should examine cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns of misconduct and associations between risk-related outputs and enforcement activity, develop better measures of criterion variables, and evaluate the predictive accuracy of risk assessment tools.

Police managers should make better use of the information available to them, improve the quantity and quality of information if feasible, and cooperate in the necessary research.

This paper offers a new synthesis of extant research to demonstrate the limitations of contemporary provisions for assessing the risk of police misconduct, and potential avenues for useful research and improved practice.

During the last decade Croatia and Poland underwent a period of major political transformation from communist regimes to democratic forms of government. Although their police forces function within similar political frameworks, their operational agendas are somewhat different. Due to the differences in social and economic environments, as well as the recent war in Croatia, the challenges the two police forces faced in the transition period varied substantially. This paper analyzes and compares the processes of change encountered by the two law enforcement agencies.