The Police Business Unit

12 Comments

Police departments, with very few exceptions, are operated with incredible finesse.  Given the complex and dynamic nature of the services they provide, coupled with the social, political and economic influences that shape the strategies that they develop, they out-perform many other service industries. A challenge that most agencies will continue to face is related to financial management and those operational and strategic functions that are tied directly and indirectly to money.

It is not for lack of desire or effort, but police officers take the job of policing to police. Getting an assignment to work in or command a business-related administrative function can be a jump into a pretty cold lake, followed immediately by a baptism by fire. Some officers have business backgrounds or business educations and own businesses themselves, but whether or not they ever work in related assignments in the police department is random.

The cycle in an agency is pretty standard: one is transferred or promoted (willingly or unwillingly) to the assignment, slowly learns the ropes (maybe with the help of the predecessor, maybe not) and acclimates to what is expected (or at least it sure feels like it). Just when that person feels like they have it (see ‘or at least sure feels like it’, above); they are transferred or promoted (willingly or unwillingly) away from the assignment (maybe helping their successor, maybe not).

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Despite the difficulty that we find getting that square peg into that round hole over and over again, we keep picking it up for another try. And every time we run the cycle, more apples roll off the cart. After time, it is amazing the function survives. If we scanned successful corporate organizational structures and strategies, it’s not likely we would find much movement of personnel through specialized positions inside those organizations.

Most police departments have defined administrative functions (units, sections, divisions, bureaus, etc.) but how many of those functions have the full business responsibility of the agency within their control? I would say that is the $64,000 question today and a hint of where the policing industry should head.

It might be time to take that next step and integrate full-fledged Business Units into the policing organizational structure. The units would be staffed by experienced business professionals positioned for a long-term career and every decision in the agency that was tied to money would be researched and evaluated through the Business Unit.

Some of the most beneficial functions that a professionally operated Business Unit will provide for a police department will revolve around these financial management issues. The stability created by employing and empowering business professionals who gain tenure in the agency, will add a great deal of credibility to the agency when budget discussions roll around.

Business professionals will be better at making the case for when to invest and divest in equipment and technology, increasing budgets by demonstrating the return on the investment the local government will be making and when it is time to expand the workforce instead of using more money for overtime. The impact the Business Unit can have on Operations is unlimited and from what I can tell in some cursory research, it is largely unrecognized.

© 2014 David A. Lyons

12 thoughts on “The Police Business Unit”

  1. EKU ’73 Please pass on this topic for Master/PhD topics: Regionalization of Police Depts in the NE to save money. PA has 926 give or take law enforcement agencies. Why?

    Fiefdoms…everybody wants there’s….there should be one large police department from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton areas.

  2. With twenty seven years of policing behind me and having come to academia late I appreciate you comments and can see that there is a core element to what you prepose that I agree with. As we move forward how long will it be before the whole issue of policing is privatised and then the accountability and quality of service is irrevocably lost to those select groups of society that who can pay?

  3. Dave Harris
    Chair at Bristol & South Gloucestershire Union of Disability Sports

    David,
    Having served 33 years as a UK police officer I am not sure that the term business is correct. We do not produce sales or sell, in general, our services. Nor do we have to answer to shareholders or a board of directors. I have witnessed many attempts to introduce business type models, most of which are generated in the USA, and they have been generally ineffective. The Police Service seems to constantly strive to change whereas their core business, serving the public, doesn’t need to change because their customer, the public, doesn’t change. If you speak to young, older and retired officers who serve(d) in the same districts then you will find that they have dealt and are still dealing with the same families and the same jobs. Why change for changes sake?

    6 days ago

  4. David Lyons, MBA
    Author of PoliceBusinessAdvisor.com

    Sorry for the delay. The business aspect I speak of is reserved for the internal functions of the PD; I agree that the operations of a PD do not represent the business environment.

  5. Martin Palmer
    Experienced Manager & Trainer: Looking for new opportunities

    This is an interesting read. One question I would raise is “What training is provided to officers in order to recognise Policing as a business” ? I would suggest that this is restricted to very few in comparison to the number of serving Police Officer, although I do recognise that this number is getting less and less by the day. I remember when I first joined I was told “You are there to solve crime and lock up the bad guys”. The word “Business” was not mentioned. I appreciate times have moved on however have the Police moved with the times, for the majority of officers/staff I am not so sure.

    3 days ago

  6. David Lyons, MBA
    Author of PoliceBusinessAdvisor.com

    The business concept is reserved for a core group that actually handle the business functions in the PD. The idea of forming business units is that those functions are better served by people who are trained and experienced in the business realm. Police become the police to police, and usually do not like the idea of becoming business men and women in a PD, and training them up might be a waste of time because they are likely to move on. A small number of civilians would be more productive; the biggest challenge would be for them to learn the police culture.

    3 days ago

  7. Martin Palmer
    Experienced Manager & Trainer: Looking for new opportunities

    David, agree that these roles would certainly be better staffed by trained police staff rather than police officers, like you say, getting those individuals to understand the police culture would be a challenge which I do not think is un-achieveable with the right induction package, support and guidance.3 days ago

  8. Kjell Elefalk
    Senior Advisor, Chairman of The Board at Trygghet och Management AB

    Hi,
    I work especially with Police/Community policing including Local Government efficiency when it comes to public safety and order. I have developed a lot of ideas around these problematic areas together with a lot of other interested academics and practicing policemen/LG officers. The Concept, we believe has the most potential is developing Local Safety Measurement System (I.e. Surveys with residentials) and connecting the results immediately to Police and Local Government operational actions both with proactive prevention and immediate reactive work due to the problems. The results, when properly implemented have been great. I am also introducing this concept in Albania 2013/2014.
    Customer-oriented policing and concepts like that has globally increased heavily last decades. Although, as well-known, there exists still only a limited number of examples of systematic consultation (surveys etc.) that has been used to set immediate operational objectives such as reducing disorder in public places or whatever tracked by the surveys. There are even fewer examples of this being done over years in a sustainable way, at least to my knowledge.
    Therefore, I am interested to know if you have any examples in this field or nearby areas. My idea is organizing a conference later on in the topics, due to my experience of this successful paradigm.
    Feel free to ask for clarifications!

    Regards Kjell

    6 days ago

  9. I also believe that rhe business concept is good BUT the adaptation of the Business experts to the Policing Culture might be the stumbling block.
    May providing an example of how this will be implemented successfully will trigger others to think of it. Otherwise build this concept with the top brass of the police through rigorous training and Coaching, perhaps this could be a stimulus towards the fine idea.

    Our consulting team in Liberia is also interested in seeing how this concept works and try to Introduce same here.
    Thanks

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