Abstract
Police legitimacy is being challenged across America. After the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police in 2020, and the deaths of other civilians during encounters with law enforcement, the police are accused by many of excessive militarization and violence. Concurrently, many police officers are victims of violence. There is universal agreement that police require good leadership to address these challenges, but there is limited assessment concerning how police executives understand leadership and the challenges police face.The thesis focuses on the thoughts of New York City Police Department (NYPD) executives regarding their experiences and perspectives concerning police leadership and the challenges policing faces. Particular attention is given to the type of leadership that the executives believe is required to address these challenges. Among the key findings are that participants overwhelmingly recognize the breakdown of trust between the police and the community as the central issue confronting policing. Second, while they understand their
primary role as ensuring public safety, they struggle to identify effective crime reduction strategies that are embraced by the public and others in government. Third, they favor transformational and adaptive leadership approaches to bring about change, and they show great concern for their subordinates’ thoughts and for the need to build consensus around common visions. They reject authoritarian approaches to leadership.
At the same time, many struggle to offer a clear definition of leadership, however, they succinctly identify traits and behaviors they believe are important to good leadership, including trustworthiness, integrity, respect, involvement, listening, and open-mindedness.
The executives distinguish leadership, which they associate with vision, from management, which they associate with accountability. They believe the development of good leaders is more strongly associated with mentoring and experience than with education and training. Executives also discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the civil service process of promotion to leadership positions by examination. They support the process because it helps avoid favouritism but believe it does not always identify the best leadership candidates because of its knowledge-based focus.
Retired police executives, who had a second career, were interviewed to explore what practices that would help policing may be learned from non-policing organizations. They identified a greater focus on promoting the police image (i.e., ‘branding’), the need to be more responsive to community concerns (i.e., ‘supporting the client’), and more nuanced promotional practices to identify not merely qualified leaders but the best leaders.
Additionally, five female police executives were interviewed. They agreed that their leadership approach is more inclusive and collegial than their male colleagues. There was divided opinion concerning whether the work environment in the NYPD is supportive of female officers.
| Date of Award | 12 Jun 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | John Fox (Supervisor) & Sarah Charman (Supervisor) |