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Organizational Design Model of the Boston Police Department

Robby Colbert

Saint Leo University

July 14, 2014

Abstract

This paper will be a brief examination of the organizational design model used by the Boston Police Department, the Line and Staff Structure.  This is a popular organizational design model in use by many of the mid to larger police departments in the United States and is second to the line structure whose popularity is guided by the fact that the 49% of the police departments within our country employ 10 officers or less.  

   Boston, Massachusetts is the 21^st largest city in the United States and is served by the Boston Police Department which is the 15th largest municipal/local police department in the United States by the number of sworn officers. (Reaves, 2011)  The Boston Police Department’s 2,181 officers serve a diverse population that is estimated to be at 636,479 people. (Pearson Education, Inc., 2013)

The Boston Police Department can trace its roots back to 1822 when the city hired six police officers who fell under the control of the City Marshall.  Prior to, and during this formative time, the city used a system of watchmen to patrol and combat crime.  In 1854 the city did away with the watchmen system and formed the first Boston Police Department with 250 police officers. (Boston Police Department, 2014)

The organizational model used by the Boston Police Department is on known as the line and staff structure.  This is similar to the line organizational structure used by the majority of smaller law enforcement agencies throughout the country.  “The line structure is the oldest, simplest and clearest form of organizational design.” (Swanson, Territo, and Taylor, 2012, p. 232)  This design is based off of the military system of command and control.  In the military it is referred to it as the Chain of Command.

The main difference between the line structure and the line and staff structure is that the line and staff structure uses support functions to assist the line officers, the ones who are doing the policing and dealing with the public on a daily basis.  These support units bring expertise and judgment that might not normally be available to the line officers due to inexperience and a limited view of the “big picture” involved in decision making and the employment of police services.

The Boston Police Department offers a wide variety of law enforcement services to its citizens.  Uniform patrol officers are assigned to one of 13 districts which fall under the Bureau of Field Services.  Each district is commanded by a police captain who oversees the police activities within the district.  Each district also has a number of services in addition to the uniform patrol officers.  These include:  a drug control unit; precinct detectives who investigate property crimes and misdemeanors; auto investigations for stolen cars; property clerks who are responsible for storing and accounting for evidence and recovered property; youth services office for juvenile crimes and investigations; Anti-Crime which investigates street level crimes involving drugs, gangs, and other rapidly developing situations; a dedicated domestic violence unit; and a Community Service Unit.

There are numerous special assignments within the Boston Police Department.  The Special Operations Division includes the SWAT Team, negotiators, and the Mobile Operations Patrol.  The Environmental Safety  Group consists of the Harbor Patrol Unit which is responsible for conducting patrols by boat in the Boston Harbor; the Hazardous Materials Response Unit;  the Explosive Ordnance Unit which is also known as the Bomb Squad; the Canine Unit utilizing highly trained dogs for explosive and narcotics detection, search and rescue, crowd control, and building searches; and the Commercial Vehicle Unit which investigates and enforces traffic laws on overweight and over-sized commercial vehicles transiting in and through the city.  These specialized divisions and their units also fall under the Field Services Bureau.

In addition the Bureau of Investigative Services is responsible for the Major Investigations Unit which is tasked with investigating homicides, armed robberies, and sexual assault cases.  The Drug Control Division which oversees long term drug investigations targeting major dealers as opposed to the precinct level units which target street dealers and users. 

Demonstrating their commitment to providing the best police services to the citizens the Boston Police Department has three units assigned to the Office of Internal Investigations.  The Office of Internal Affairs reports directly to the Chief of Police.  The units are the Internal Affairs Unit which is tasked with investigating alleged incidents of police malfeasance; the Auditing and Review Unit to ensure that the police department is making the best use of the citizen’s tax dollars and grants used by the police; and the Anti-Corruption Unit to investigate and prevent allegations of corruption within the police department.

 There are numerous other units assigned to the department within Administrative Services and some which fall under the Chief of Staff. 

     The most prevalent and easily recognizable organizational theories at play within the Boston Police Department are the Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) and the political institutional framework (PIF) of the Neo-institutional Theory.  An example of how the RDT plays in can be seen in the elimination of the Boston Police Department’s Mounted Patrol (Horse Patrol).  In July of 2009 the Boston Police Department disbanded their mounted patrol, at that time the oldest police mounted patrol unit in the country, due to ever increasing costs and budgetary constraints arising out of the recession.  The Mounted Patrol’s horses were donated to other police departments or retired to lie out their lives on farms. (Brown, 2009)

The political institution framework of the Neo-institutional Theory comes when you take into considerations all of the political organizations, both internal and external, that the police department has to deal with.  The officers, as in most of the northeastern cities, have a police union which can enter into collective bargaining with the city to obtain the best benefits and salary for the officers.  The Boston Police Department in and of itself is a potent and powerful political organization.  As detailed in the textbook organizations such as the Boston Police Department not only are acted upon by political pressures, they exert a certain amount of pressure themselves.  “Politics are done both to and by organizations.” (Swanson, et al, 2012, p. 204)

Conclusion

            The Boston Police Department is a proud organization that has withstood the test of time.  It has done this by adapting to and thriving within ever changing organizational models and theories.  As most police departments it began with a simple line structure.  As times changed the department adopted a line and staff structure to better accommodate the needs of both the police department and the citizens of Boston.  The department continues to improve and grow and will be a political and social force into the future.

References

 Brown, S. (2009). The end of an era for the Boston police mounted unit. WBUR Boston’s NPR News Station. Retrieved on July 17, 2014 from http://www.wbur.org

Boston Police Department (2014). BPDnews.com The official website of the Boston Police Department. Retrieved on July 17, 2014 from http://bpdnews.com

Pearson Education, Inc. (2013). Top 50 cities in the U.S. by population and rank. Information Please Database. Retrieved on July 17, 2014 from http://www.infoplease.com

Reaves, B. (2011). Census of state and local law enforcement agencies, 2008.  Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved on July 17, 2014 from http://www.bjs.gov

Swanson, C. R., Territo, L., and Taylor, R. W. (2012). Police administration: structures, processes and behaviors (8^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson