Brenda J. Bond-Fortier - Böcker

This in-depth case study of a mid-sized police department captures the dynamics, struggles, and successes of police change, revealing the positive organizational and community outcomes that resulted from a persistent drive to reinvent public safety and community relationships. The police profession in the United States faces a legitimacy problem. It is critical that police are prepared to change constantly, be adaptive, and adopt openness to self-reflection and external comparison, moving beyond their comfort zone to overcome the inevitable cultural, structural, and political obstacles. Using previously unpublished longitudinal data examining a 25-year period, Bond-Fortier offers a rich account of the complexity of police management and change within one particular mid-sized city: Lowell, Massachusetts.The multidisciplinary lens applied provides crucial insights into how and why police organizations respond to a changing environment, set certain goals, and make decisions about how to achieve those goals. The book analyzes the community and organizational forces that stimulated change in the Lowell Police Department, describes the changes that enabled the department to achieve national model status, and builds a nexus between influencing forces, interdisciplinary theory, and the creation of an adaptive 21st-century police organization. Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department: Innovating to Reform is essential reading for academics and students in criminal justice, criminology, organizational studies, public administration, sociology, political science, and public policy programs, as well as government executives, crime policy analysts, and public- and private-sector managers and leaders engaged in professional development and leadership courses.

This edited book significantly contributes to the knowledge on how to address gang problems from a broad community perspective, which takes into account criminal justice agencies, social service providers, and community leaders, along with police, who have implemented collaborative anti-gang policies and practices. As community-wide efforts become more common, it is increasingly important to investigate effective strategies to address social problems. Beyond Suppression: Community Strategies to Reduce Gang Violence explores a demonstration project of one state’s efforts to reduce gang and youth violence through use of a comprehensive initiative, the Comprehensive Gang Model (CGM). The relevance of the CGM as a conceptual framework to guide gang policy and practice is illustrated throughout the book, and tailored gang reduction strategies derived from that framework and rooted in the ecological constitution of communities are showcased. The chapters highlight implementation strategies employed by various communities using a case study methodology that assists in garnering an in-depth perspective of implementation issues and key dimensions of the CGM. This book answers important questions about how communities operationalize the CGM. The results of these investigations are important for scholars, learners, and practitioners who seek to address gang violence using a customized response.