MISSION and GOALS

The Michigan Regional Community Policing Institute is committed to facilitating organizational change to institutionalize the principles of community policing within law enforcement agencies. While much has been written concerning this effort of attempting to change policing on a national level, there is a void of reality-based criteria to assist administrators attempting such endeavors. As a result, RCPI staff have worked continuously to develop the processes and content necessary to assist police administrators in identifying the various obstacles and critical decision points in any such process. RCPI staff have worked directly with chiefs and sheriffs in a variety of police agencies who have undertaken the implementation of community policing.

What currently dominates the concept of community policing within police agencies across the nation, is the over-riding theme of adopting the philosophy. Unfortunately, the majority of the literature focuses on the implementation of a "few" successful programs, or the fallacy of such efforts altogether. What is needed is the identification of the necessary processes that will assist in the actual changing of the delivery of police services to make these services more effective, efficient, and equitable. In a reality-based approach, organizational change is a continuous improvement process, focusing on "getting better". This type of an approach distinguishes a program from a philosophy. A program ends with the implementation of one or more "changes". An adaptation of a philosophical shift is characterized by the choices people must make to institute continuous improvement in a variety of related processes. While plateaus will be reached, they are not an end in themselves, there is always room for improvement.

In particular, a reality-based approach to change recognizes that critical decision points are pivotal events in a change effort such as community policing. The choices of how to prepare, plan, implement, and monitor steps consistent with the move to community policing pose dilemmas to police administrators as there are alternative courses of action (e.g., should we decentralize or maintain centralized control) that have both advantages and disadvantages. For many of the choices relevant to moving towards community policing, there is no clearly superior alternative method. There are trade-offs associated with any alternative; and the choices made can have significant consequences for people within and outside the department. Underlying these choice points, then, are two realities – uncertainty and opportunity. There is uncertainty about what to do and how to make change "happen". There is also opportunity in the choices of opportunities that can truly open up new, innovative strategies and facilitate the move towards becoming a continuous learning organization.

• Organizational Change Model
• Facilitated Self-Assessment
• Organizational Survey
• Process Planning Chart
  
• Executive Summaries