Law Enforcement Organizational Behavior Organizational Term Paper

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This is known among police as "professional courtesy," and violating it has been known to result in the cited officer's commander's contacting the issuing officer's commander with an (informal) complaint, expected to be addressed by an (informal) lecture on the topic of professional courtesy. Occasionally, a "ticket war" will erupt between neighboring police departments, sparked, initially, by the issuance of summonses by officers from one department to off-duty officers from another that phone calls between their respective commanders fails to resolve. Certain neighboring departments have a long-standing animosity between them, and more generally, state troopers and highway patrol agencies sometimes ignore any notion of professional courtesy toward local police agencies.

Where professional courtesy is observed, it extends even to DUI enforcement, provided no injuries, major property damage, or civilians are involved (either as victims or witnesses). An officer who pulls over an intoxicated driver with police

ID is much more likely to lock up the intoxicated officer's vehicle and transport him home (or call a car service for him) than to treat the incident as a police matter requiring a summons and an arrest for DUI or DWI. In jurisdictions where professional courtesy is usually extended, officers who ignore "PC" run the risk of being called a "rat" and ostracized by fellow officers from their own agencies.

Generally, where "PC" is observed, it extends to all "brother officers" from any branch of law enforcement, including Corrections, Parole, and Court Officers.

As a rule, police officers assigned to traffic detail allow the greatest degree of "PC" to other officers from the same department (or geographic area), and somewhat less at least in more serious matters) involving officers from remote jurisdictions. In jurisdictions where Corrections departments are not considered law enforcement officers, little or no "PC" may be extended, at the working officer's discretion.

Off-duty officers are expected to identify themselves immediately upon being stopped, and to conduct themselves in a manner that can not appear to challenge or show disrespect to "the uniform.

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" In most cases, even where this element of "PC" is violated, the working officer will only issue a verbal reprimand (more likely on the matter of mutual respect than on the actual traffic infraction originally at issue), but still without issuing a summons. Occasionally, a disrespectful or rude response on the part of the "off-duty" will earn a written summons, but this is relatively rare.

On the other side of the coin, the organizational behavior of professional courtesy also imposes an expected etiquette on the part of the off-duty, which, is encompassed by the unwritten rule known as "the uniform is always right."

Finally, on the issue of "PC," regional differences exist, which are sometimes the subject of heated debate amongst officers from different parts of the country. In the northeast, for example, off=duty officers are expected to ID themselves immediately, shield and department ID in hand, so as not to waste the time and effort of the on- duty. By contrast, officers conducting a traffic stop in the south (particularly in rural areas) perceive the immediate display of law enforcement credentials upon their initial approach to the stopped vehicle as disrespectful.

The law enforcement organizational culture generally applies equally to local police and sheriff departments, federal law enforcement, corrections, parole, and court officers. In many respects, this shared organizational culture has the practical effect of providing a sense of perceived "brotherhood" among all law enforcement personnel. Ultimately, all law enforcement officers consider all other officers "brothers," for whom they would lay down their own lives if necessary, even those from agencies with mutually antagonistic relationships, such as over the issue of extension of "PC." This is the most universal and fundamental aspect of organizational behavior in law enforcement......

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