UNDERSTAND YOUR DEPARTMENT
How to understand your local police department
Understanding how your local police department works, and who works in it, is a critical step in effectively advocating for change. As communities seek to reimagine public safety, it is essential to understand the historical origins of police departments, how they operate today, and which roles in a department may have relevant information or influence to solve public safety problems. While local police departments nationwide are organized in a variety of ways, the following questions can help you better understand your department as you prepare to engage with them. You should usually be able to find information about your department’s structure through the department website.
How has racism impacted the development and evolution of policing in the United States?
The first policing organizations in the United States originated in the early 1700s as slave patrols, or vigilante-style groups of White men who enforced the practice of slavery. Selected by and compensated by local governments, they used systemic surveillance, terror, and violence to capture and return people who had fled slavery and to deter organized uprising. In the following century, formal municipal police departments began in major cities such as New York and Chicago. These early departments lacked training or standards, were frequently corrupt, and focused on controlling disorder along with crime. In the early 1900s, police departments were restructured and their goals redefined to more closely resemble the police departments we see today. At this time, technology such as phones made it easier for members of the public to contact the police directly, which had the effect of distancing officers from the communities they worked in.
Though policing evolved significantly, the roots of racism in policing were not eradicated by the 20th century. After the Civil War, police departments throughout the South enforced oppressive Reconstruction-era Black Codes dictating how and where newly freed people could work, travel, and even live. In the 20th century, predominantly White, male police officers in the South enforced Jim Crow laws, ignored lynchings, and used violence in response to Civil Rights-era protests. In the 1980s and 1990s, an increased focus on targeting minor crimes through foot patrol and the War on Drugs resulted in an increased number of officers on the streets, especially in non-White communities. And after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there was an increase in local police budgets, militarization tactics, and surveillance authority in Black, Brown, and Muslim communities. Because of these policing tactics as well as other changes to the criminal justice system, there was a four-fold increase in the number of people incarcerated in prison between 1980 and 2009.
What is the scope and purpose of policing today?
Police today serve a variety of different roles. There are more than 1.1 million people employed as police across approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. Federal law enforcement includes national agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which enforces federal crimes and tracks national crime and some policing data submitted by local agencies. State police, meanwhile, typically focus on highway patrol and accident investigations.
Local police agencies have officers patrolling streets and are tasked with maintaining order and enforcing the law. In practice, this means that police not only spend time working to respond to and detect crime, but also perform a range of other functions that may not require an armed response or may be better addressed by community centered response models. Serious crime is typically not a significant driver of community calls for service or of officer-initiated activity: one analysis of police departments’ work found that 4% of officer time was spent on serious crime. Depending on what resources exist in communities, police are often tasked with a wide range of other duties—from addressing mental health crises to responding to weather emergencies.
Which law enforcement agency or agencies work in your community?
Your community will usually have one or both types of local police: a city police department and/or a county sheriff’s department. If your community has both a city police department and county sheriff’s department, it can be useful to identify the different responsibilities each agency has (usually, an important difference is that the sheriff oversees the county jail). Some communities also have separate agencies dedicated to local school districts, colleges and universities, parks, metropolitan transportation, public housing, and/or other public spaces. An internet search with the name of the jurisdiction of interest (city, school district, transportation agency, etc.) and “police” or “sheriff” can help identify which local police agencies exist in your community.
Who is in charge of your local law enforcement agency?
For police departments, this will usually be the Police Commissioner or the Chief of Police. Police Commissioners or Chiefs of Police are responsible for overseeing the agency’s operations, including budget, officers, and policies. They are usually appointed by a local government, such as by the Mayor. For Sheriff’s Departments, this will typically be the Sheriff. Sheriffs are usually directly elected officials.
Who works in your local law enforcement agency?
Law enforcement agencies are made up of some sworn officers who have undergone police training and taken an oath to support the Constitution, local laws, and the safety and quality of life of the people they serve. Agencies also have civilian employees, or people who are not sworn police officers and who perform roles such as managing evidence, communicating with the media, or providing victim services. Civilian employees are hired through the local municipality’s hiring system. The leadership team of an agency can include both sworn officers and civilian employees.
Finding an organizational chart, or a map of the chain of command within an organization, can be a very helpful way to determine which officials have influence over the problems you’ve identified. It usually identifies the job titles and responsibilities of important employees and their supervisors. Many law enforcement agencies publish organizational charts on their department website. Look for a tab that indicates “Department Leadership,” “Meet the Chief,” or “Bureaus” (or do an internet search with the department’s name and “organizational structure”).
Key roles to look out for within an org chart include:
- Police Commissioner or Chief of Police: Police departments are generally overseen by one individual, who is responsible for the agency’s operations, including budget, officers, and policies.
- Public Safety Director: Larger police departments will have these civilian positions which are responsible for overseeing the vision of the department, including policy (in comparison to the police chief, who oversees day-to-day operations).
- Captains and Commanders: Police departments that are large enough to have multiple police stations typically have geographic precincts or districts which are overseen by a Captain or a Commander (occasionally, an Inspector). The Commander or Captain of a precinct or district is in charge of understanding and responding to public safety issues in that area. Similarly, Commanders and Captains can also oversee specialty units, or divisions which have specific assignments (such as Narcotics, Gangs, or Traffic) rather than patrolling neighborhoods.
- Deputy Chiefs or Assistant Chiefs: Some police departments have a supervisor who oversees, for example, all Captains and Commanders for precincts or specialty units. If you are concerned with disparate policing in certain geographic areas, you might want to identify either the Captain/Commander of that area or their Deputy/Assistant Chief.
- Community engagement, community outreach, or community policing: Some law enforcement agencies have employees or even divisions devoted to community engagement or community policing. Some may also have an official spokesperson (sometimes called a Public Information Officer) who is in charge of interfacing with the community.
- Internal Affairs or the Professional Standards Bureau: These departments (and others with similar names) handle investigations into officer misconduct. Some cities also have governmental bodies outside of the police department which are responsible for documenting and investigating complaints from members of the public (these might be called civilian oversight boards).
- Data or Records Management: The department responsible for data collection practices typically exists under a division called Support Services.
