Values-based discipline: The key to organizational transformation within law enforcement agencies

The intellectual foundation of community policing began with James Q. Wilson and George Kelling's seminal article Broken Windows in 1982 and later found an operational focus through the work of the Harvard Executive Session in the late 1980's. Community Policing has never been fully integrated into American policing for two reasons; too often it is seen as a program rather than an operating philosophy and the administrative processes of the department, particularly the disciplinary processes, often do not reflect the principles of community policing.;The law enforcement disciplinary process is intended to serve two purposes; assuring that the law enforcement officer's conduct reflects the stated values of the organization as well as demonstrating accountability to the public. The current disciplinary process grew directly from the professional model of policing and directly mirrors the criminal investigative process. As a consequence, the professional disciplinary model has some significant flaws which result in neither objective being fully realized.;The traditional disciplinary model is legalistically based. As a result, there are inherent contradictions between the demands of the legalistic system and the expectations of both the internal (departmental) and external (public) audiences. The legalistic model places significant emphasis on process and adherence to legal procedure. The result is a process that satisfies none of the involved stakeholders; the public, the officer or the departmental management.;The traditional model does not amplify organizational congruence, which is the degree of alignment between the stated values of the organization and the actions of its employees in living out those values. The disciplinary process is one of the few occasions in which the line officer will experience an imbalance power that does not favor him or her. It is in this circumstance, which I refer to as transactional inequality, where the level of expected values adherence, under such circumstances, is modeled for that officer. The traditional model provides poor modeling of expected values adherence.;This work provides of history of the law enforcement disciplinary process and describes the experiences of the Pasadena Police Department during its implementation of values-based discipline. It also proposes a values-based disciplinary model that evaluates officer conduct as a function of values adherence rather that rules adherence.;Properly done, this should result in the integration of community policing principles with the administrative processes of the department. In congruent organizations the disciplinary process should model the stated organizational values for the department's employees, thus providing a template for officer conduct when dealing with the public.