The largest municipal police task force in the country, the New York City Police Department is not only an important element of the national law enforcement system, but also it is a unique depository of academic knowledge for the professional organizational, human resources and organizational culture explorers. The purpose of this work is to identify the key leaders of the organization, who affect its communication. In addition, this research provides a description of organizational performance, its mission, vision and culture. The final section of this report explains the pertinent internal and external audiences, who receive the communication.
First of all, Chief of Department and inspectors of the organization are the key members of the organization, whose influence on all communication emanating from the department are of critical significance. The Chief of Department is responsible for developing the communication policies and principles, mainly outlying the doctrine and the style of communication. The inspectors, in their turn, are those, who decide how to put his guidelines and recommendations in practice. However perfect the policies developed by the Chief of Department may be, the key factor is how effectively they are implemented. Thus, cooperation and synergy between these actors is required to ensure effective communication framework.
Secondly, in accordance with the systems theory, the New York City Police Department should be viewed as a system of semi-autonomous departments, which synergy produces the expected outcomes. However, this theoretical framework purports that these units should be self-regulating. Yet, in this case, the units of the departments are subject to strict hierarchy. Although the practice shows that laissez-faire approach to organizational management is becoming more and more popular nowadays, this method is hardly applicable in law enforcement (Archbold, 2013).
Thirdly, the mission statement of the organization is to “enforce the law and to preserve peace in the city of New York by working in close partnership with the community and other governmental institution” (NYC, 2016). Among the key values and cultural principles, which underlie all performance aspects of this organization, are high professional integrity, value for human life and respect for human dignity and supremacy of the law. The department aspires to becoming the most effective law enforcement institution in the United States of America, ensuring the highest level of protection to the community and setting a good example to the police departments of other states.
Finally, the New York Police Department regularly issues many messages both to the external and external recipients. Internal communication includes instructions, directives, mails and reports exchanged by the employees of the organization. The communication policies mandate that such type of communication should always be unambiguous, clear, informative and comprehensive. Otherwise, confusion between the different members of the police department becomes inevitable (Neocleous, 2000). Furthermore, the staff should ensure that all forms of such communication remain entirely confidential. Inadvertent disclosure of such data may result in crime facilitation, as well as it can serious discredit the image of the organization.
External recipients of information include other government agencies and the general public (Archbold, 2013). The police department should actively work that its image is ‘as white as possible’ in order to retain and solidify the trust of the community. At the same time, the organization should be open to all forms of criticism and public scrutiny. Accountability before the public is the best method of increasing the efficiency standards, yet, the scrutiny should not be excessive to interfere with the police operations.
References
Archbold, C. (2013). Policing: a text/reader. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.
Neocleous, M. (2000). The fabrication of social order : a critical theory of police power. Sterling, VA: Pluto Press.
NYC. (2016). Mission. Web. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/administration/mission.shtml
