LAPD & Leadership The Los Angeles Police Department (L

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) gained much notoriety in the department's handling of the Rodney King case, both the arrest and the riots which followed the verdict, brought the department national attention and scrutiny, and led to the departure of its chief. The LAPD is facing a leadership challenge and is confronting a community as diverse and divided as any in the country. This research examines the type of leadership that is likely to help the department repair its internal damage and emerge as a strong and effective community service organization in the next century.

Management and leadership are not the same issue. Most researchers hold that a leader need not be a manager, nor does a manager have to be a leader (Kuhnert & Russell, 1990, p. 599). Some managers, financial managers for example, may not have subordinates to manage. While researchers recognize that there is some overlap between leadership and management, the degree to which the two overlap is disputed. One popular view is that leaders influence commitment, where managers carry out position responsibilities and exercise authority (Price, 1991, p. 351). Others in the field hold that the overlap between managers and leaders is so great that they cannot truly be considered separate disciplines; under this view, effective managers are viewed as strong leaders, and effective leaders are considered strong managers (Schul, 1987, p. 46).

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mphasizes the importance of communicating the department's strategic plan to all levels of the organization. This strategic plan is a five-year strategy that outlines the direction the department needs to take and what behavior must be exhibited by the officers in order to establish and maintain that direction. This use of a strategic plan has been widely used in the private sector, and Beuerlein supports Williams' use of it in the LAPD. Vision, accountability and knowledge are all characteristics that are important to the providing leadership within the LAPD. To provide leadership, the plan must address not only the managers' vision for the department, but it must incorporate and communicate feedback from all levels so that it becomes a plan for the entire department, not merely the managers of the department. Deputy Chief Frankle, chief of the West Bureau, observes that leadership needs a foundation of management and supervisory skills, but leaders in the LAPD also are required to understand situational ethics and courage (personal communication, 1994). This is due to the unique nature of police work in which officers face nonroutine duties and unexpected circumstances on a daily basis where strong decision making skills,

Category: Government - L