Answer

Types of Police Organizational Structures

Police management utilizes four basic types of organizational design.  The four comprise of matrix, functional, line and staff, and line structures. Usually, a police organization can use these designs either independently of each other or in combination.

Line Structure

The line design of police organizations represents the simplest, clearest, and oldest form of police structure.  It is characterized by flow of authority from top to bottom using a clear line that is not broken at any point as shown in figure1.  As such, the relationship that emerges in this design is that of superiors and subordinates based on the position that each personnel occupies within the police organization.  The relationship is often referred to as the chain of command insinuating the source of each directive and the final target. The success of the structure relies on accountability from each personnel involved as they are required to adhere to the chain of command without influencing it. As per Swanson, Territo, and Taylor (2001), ‘line’ is a military term used to refer to units that are expected to face the enemy. Therefore, line units within the police department contribute to the accomplishment of missions of the organization.  Primarily, the fundamental line elements within a police organization are the traffic section, the criminal investigation unit, and the uniformed patrol officers. Within the line police structure, all resources are used to offer services to the public as no unit takes part in any other supporting internal activities.

Figure 1: Police line organizational structure

The Line and Staff Structure

Line and staff organizational design is characteristic of the flow of command from top to bottom. However, unlike in the line structure, the line and staff units have added staff functions as shown in figure 2. Notably, they carry out internal supporting activities, thereby splitting the use of available resources between offering services to the public and carrying out internal activities within the police department. Usually, officers under the line and staff organization carry out various additional internal duties which comprise offering expert and essential advice to line units, relieving line managers off tasks they are not qualified to carry out or those that they are not interested in doing, ensuring organizational conformity to practices that can have an impact on the whole organization, and helping the department eliminate specific issues such as corruption (Swanson, Territo, & Taylor, 2001).   Often, the duties carried out by officers under the line, and staff structure is divided into administrative support staff activities.

Figure 2: Police line and staff organizational structure

The Matrix Structure

The matrix police organizational design also referred to as the matrix design, involves assigning members specific police function areas. For instance, some officers are assigned to patrol the traffic, offer support services, or carry out detective duties in specific projects, as shown in figure three.  Therefore, the matrix structure is used in special cases or projects that are often formed in response to community needs. For instance, increased incidences of robberies could lead to the formation of a task force to respond to the issue. As such, various officers will be assigned specific duties (Swanson, Territo, & Taylor, 2001).  The primary advantage of the matrix design is that it allows the police management to combine various talents and skills of their officers, which helps meet the project objectives with ease.  Based on the use of the structure, it is utilized for short periods and often disbanded after the accomplishment of the taskforce’s goal.

Figure 3: Police matrix organizational structure

The Functional Structure

The functional structure involves modification to the line as well as the line and staff design in which management duties and authorities are delegated to personnel that is outside the normal span of police control. For instance, the intelligence unit can be responsible for two or more police units, as shown in figure four below. The structure is advantageous in that critical information always reaches the line officers in various units (Cordner, 2016).  However, on the low side, the design increases the complexity of a police organizational structure.

Figure 4: Police functional organizational structure