Police executive leadership: An empirical and theoretical exploration of police chief performance
| Author | Ben Brown,Yudu Li |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14613557221132488 |
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
Police executive leadership: An empirical
and theoretical exploration of police chief
performance
Ben Brown
Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA
Yudu Li
Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA
Abstract
To date, most studies of police leadership have focused on lower and mid-level police managers, with few scholars having
studied the leadership performance of police chiefs. This study contributes to the literature with an empirical assessment
and theoretical consideration of leadership at the top executive level of police departments. Police chiefs who attended
professional training programs at the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas evaluated the prior
police chief’s performance of multiple duties such as directing the work of employees, initiating changes in the department
and working with other agencies. Factor analyses of the data indicate the measures load onto three clusters, the com-
position of which are incompatible with any single theory of leadership. These findings indicate the executive leadership
of a police department may be distinct from the leadership of other types of organizations. Incorporating insights from
skill-based and situational leadership theories, it is suggested that police executive leadership may be conceptualized as an
amalgam of conceptual, managerial and political skills that are shaped by and tailored to the audience and situation.
Keywords
law enforcement, leadership, police, police chief, skill
Submitted 25 Apr 2022, Revise received 21 Mar 2022, accepted 9 Sep 2022
Introduction
Although there is an enormous body of scientific literature
on leadership, little is known about police leadership.
Relative to the research on leadership in educational, entre-
preneurial and government/political environments (Bass
and Bass, 2008; Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991; MD
Mumford et al., 2000; Northouse, 2019), few empirical
studies of police leadership have been conducted and
most have focused on mid-level police supervisors and
administrators, with only a small handful of scholars
having assessed the leadership provided by police chiefs
(Pearson-Goff and Herrington, 2014). The paucity of
research on police executive leadership is understandable
as, in comparison with lower- and mid-level police
managers, police chiefs are few and far between. Whereas
a single police department may have dozens (even hun-
dreds) of sworn personnel with some form of supervisory
authority, an agency can have only one chief. Despite the
relative rarity of police chiefs, it is important to try to under-
stand the leadership they provide.
In any police department, the ultimate responsibility for
ensuring that the officers efficiently and effectively attend to
the array of situations they are called upon to handle—
Corresponding author:
Yudu Li, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas Rio Grande
Valley, ELABN 321, Edinburg, TX, 78539, USA.
Email: yudu.li@utrgv.edu
Original Research Article
International Journal of
Police Science & Management
2023, Vol. 25(1) 53–66
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14613557221132488
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