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Learning Objectives

1-1 :  Discuss the concepts and mandate of the police in American society

1-2 :  Describe the difficulty associated with attempting to make generalizations about law enforcement and the scope of the functions they perform

1-3 :  Identify the various levels and types of policing in the United States

1-4 :  Discuss some of the current concerns of police in the United States

1-5 :  Summarize the additional types of police and the functions they perform

Article 1
Crank, John P., Andrew Giacomazzi (2009). A Sheriff's Office as a Learning Organization. Police Quarterly, 12(4) 351–369. doi: 10.1177/1098611109348468

The purpose of this article is to describe a strategic methodology, which is developed from learning organization theory and used to assess a Western Sheriff’s Office. The authors use learning organization theory to augment four programmatic innovations carried out by the Ada County Sheriff’s Office in Idaho. The learning model is mixed method: Quantitatively, it makes use of a stratified citizen survey and a deputy survey. Qualitatively, citizen and sheriff’s deputy focus groups provide meaning from the point of view of environmental actors. The primary products of this method are presented here as narratives that present a comprehensive perspective on the way in which environmental actors viewed programs carried out by the Sheriff’s Office.

1. How are surveys useful ways to measure the effectiveness of Sheriff programs?
2. What are the key findings of this study?
3. What does this study reveal about the role of the Sheriff’s Department? How does the Sheriff’s Department differ from police agencies?