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10 Police Q. 3 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/policqurt10 and id is 1 raw text is: Ma 2007 3-22 0 2007 Sag Pblications 10177/081 1106288916 Police Chiefs, Anomia, Iho sted at and Leadership http://oiline.sagepub.com Kraig L. Hays University ofAlaska at Fairbanks Robert M. Regoli University of Colorado John D. Hewitt Grand Valley State University This research assesses a potentially harmful condition among police chiefs: anomia. The article analyzes a large (N = 1,120) stratified sample survey of American police chiefs. Nine hypotheses are tested using multiple regressions. Results show relatively little anomia (as defined by Srole's 5-point Likert-type scale) among the respondents. Data analysis reveals little relationship between anomia and the following four vari- ables: age, being a chief in a previous jurisdiction, race/ethnicity, and internal hire. However, the analysis also reveals significant negative relationships between anomia and education, merit selection, and years in law enforcement and between anomia and size of department and tenure as chief. Regression analysis reveals that the posited model explains only a small amount of variance in anomia. Suggestions for future research in the area of upper level policing executives are discussed. Keywords: anomia; anomie; leadership; police chiefs; supervisory styles S trong leadership is essential for effective policing. Line officers are given broad powers of discretion that have important effects on citizens, and these officers must be held accountable for the exercise of those powers. Traditionally, line officers were issued a badge, a gun, and a department manual and then left to their own devices on the streets (Walker, 1977). This lack of accountability and leadership led to a myriad of abuses of power, including corruption and misuse of force. As polic- ing became professionalized in the early 1900s, midlevel managers were tasked with providing guidance and supervision to line officers in an attempt to curb perceived abuses. Before the reform era, police chiefs were often political appointees who were unable to maintain more than an informal level of influence over the depart- ment (Westley, 1970). The first wave of reformers concentrated on controlling patrol officers through bureaucratic rules and regulations, and by the 1960s most large departments had reached a certain level of control over abuses and corruption. By the 1960s, however, the direction of leadership changed when a new generation of Authors' Note: We thank our colleagues at the University of Colorado for their support of our work. 3

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