Recent Book: And They are Entitled to!: New York Cops Talk Back
| Published date | 01 April 1978 |
| Author | Victor Graham |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7805100219 |
| Date | 01 April 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
writes on
"The
Politics of Atrocity".
Each of the papers, indeed, has useful
and interesting points to make;
another reviewer might well select a
different few of the contributors for
special mention.
Helpful features of the book are its
bibliography and good index.
American readers should note
that
the book is published in the United
States by the
John
Jay Press, New
York.
QUAESTOR
FOR
EXTRA PAY?
JOAN
L.
WOLFLE
AND
JOHN
F.
HEAPHY
(Editors) for the Police
Foundation:
Readings on Productivity in Policing. Lexington. £6·90.
This publication is a collection of
essays devoted to the theme of how
productivity may be improved within
the Police Forces of the United States
of America.
The acknowledged main difficulty
for the authors is to define productivity
in police terms. Where the attempt at
definition is made, there remains the
equally difficult task of identifying and
measuring the improvements. Too
often there is only the call for increased
productivity and the suggestion
that
if
improvements can be made in industry
then it ought to be possible to harness
that
experience to the needs of the
police department. If, in manufacturing
processes more goods can be produced
for each dollar spent, and if, in the
service industries, increased levels of
performance can be achieved with no
increase in manpower, then it ought
to be possible to make significant
advances within the Police Service.
When examples are quoted in police
work terms the proposals for improve-
ment become so complex as to seem
more calculated to complicate the
remedy
than
to isolate the malady. To
measure the number, nature and quality
of arrests; the investigation
and
assessment of crimes reported accor-
ding to their impact upon society, and
the police commitment to incidents not
directly related to criminal behaviour,
are sufficient examples to show the
complexity of the problems which the
authors seek to tackle.
Many of the other improvements
quoted are commonplace within this
country. The employment of civilian
staff, the increased use of technology,
improving response times to incidents,
and the introduction of multi-shift
systems have a familiar ring to them.
There is, too, the equally familiar call
for the greater accountability of the
police to those who provide the money
to maintain the departments. The
American system, so far as can be
gathered from these writings, seems so
dissimilar from our own
that
direct
comparisons should not be made
although the difficulties in administra-
tion remain common.
There are some interesting comments
about
the role of the police union in
the productivity field. There, the
various staff associations seem to have
full union status and have brought
about
confrontations with City Hall
which hopefully will remain firmly on
that
side of the Atlantic.
Much has been done in this country
to make the best possible use of the
resources available to us and
that
endeavour is a continuing process.
These essays throw some light upon a
difficult subject,
but
they contain no
really new grounds upon which to set
foot. In the main they pose the
questions and some suggested answers
but the volume is unlikely to become
a budget priority as a productivity
pound stretcher. W. T. C.
PULLINGER
AND THEY ARE ENTITLED TO!
NICHOLAS
ALEx: New York Cops Talk Back. John Wiley. £9.
One of the most ridiculous folk 42 members of what used to be called
fables, perpetuated by a variety of
"New
York's finest" shows
that
they
wnters (some of whom should have are far from enamoured of their place
known better) is of the policeman as a in society. In fact, they blame the
man apart. But,
that
is only as far as reforming Commissioner Patrick
this country is concerned. Murphy for the destruction of what
For
a great deal of the rest of the they say had been
"the
finest police
world, it is regrettably only too true department in the world"
and
for the
and nowhere is
that
more true than in many attacks on them.
the greater
part
of the United States. They see the politicians as having
This report on taped interviews with reversed the historic roles with them-
213 Apri/1978
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