Note
Author(s) affiliated with: University of Illinois, Center for Research in Law and Justice and George Mason University, Center for Justice Leadership and Management.
Topical report. The project supported by National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
Summary
"Innovation is widely thought to be the key to success in police departments, yet police
are often conceived as traditional and resistant to the changes that innovation requires. Recent
decades have witnessed much interest among police leaders and policy makers in various
innovations, ranging from new applications of information technology (intelligence-led policing)
to administrative changes (affirmative action) to strategic changes (Compstat and community
policing). Despite a number of studies of the impact of such recent innovations, there have been
very few investigations of the receptivity of police to innovation. Who is most and least receptive
to innovation? What kind of environment for innovation do police departments provide? Which
innovations are most and least welcome? In sum, what is the environment for innovation in
American municipal police organizations?
This Platform Project report describes a preliminary effort to test some popular views about
the orientation of the police to innovation. It compares the responses of police officers in two large
municipal police agencies, considering how the police feel about their organization’s environment
to support innovation and about their department’s orientation to specific innovations."--Page 1.