Environment and Organization: Reviving a Perspective on the Police

Abstract

Police researchers have largely ignored the role thatorganizational and environmental factors play indetermining how officers behave during interactions withcitizens. This has resulted in a body of policing knowledgethat contains little information about how and whypolice practices are affected by features of the agenciesofficers work for and forces outside police departments.This article points out the consequences of this dearth ofknowledge for understanding what the police do andwhy they do it, reviews the limited literature onorganizational and environmental determinants of policeactivity, and calls for a research program that views interfacebetween police organizations and their environments asa central question.