Abstract:
After 1981's fierce antipolice riots in Brixton, a heavily black and immigrant London borough, the London Metropolitan Police Force ("Scotland Yard") undertook a comprehensive re-examination of its policing practices. A new commissioner chose "neighborhood policing," intended to increase public influence over the police and to make the police more responsive and effective, as the core of Scotland Yard's pre-Brixton situation and the introduction of neighborhood policing. It focuses on police management practices and the interactions of police managers, patrol officers, and the public.
Learning Objective:
The case illuminates the differences between the traditional professional policing model and the new community-oriented model (of growing interest in policing circles). More generally, it is a vivid example of organizational change, and can support a discussion of how public managers should think about the "product" of their organizations. (Please see the abstract for Neighborhood Policing in Los Angeles, C16-87-717.0.)
