Book Review: Wilson, J. (2006). Community Policing in America. New York: Routledge

• Author: Matthew Jones
• DOI: 10.1177/1098611106296748
• Date: 01 September 2007
• Published date: 01 September 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

342

Police Quarterly

Volume 10 Number 3

September 2007 342-343

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Book Review

Wilson, J. (2006). Community Policing in America.

New York: Routledge.

DOI: 10.1177/1098611106296748

In Community Policing in America, Jeremy Wilson tackles some of the questions

about how the larger field of general organization theory relates to police organizations

and whether the structure of police organizations has any subsequent determination

of community policing implementation for American police agencies. Particularly,

the author attempts to answer whether changes in organizational structure precede

community-oriented policing, if community-oriented policing leads organizations to

alter their structures, or whether the implementation of community policing and the

structure of police organizations are mutually reinforcing. Although there have been

some notable studies published on the topic of police organizational structures, the

investigation of a possible causal relationship between community-oriented policing

and organizational structure has not been explored.

For organizational researchers, the early chapters discussing police organizations as

open systems (chapter 3), organizational context and community policing (chapter 4),

organizational structure and community policing (chapter 5), and organizational con-

text and organizational structure (chapter 6) will be of particular interest. Wilson pro-

vides a fascinating and indepth literature review of the scholarship within this field. Of

specific appeal is the review of the few, yet very thorough, works of previous police

organizational researchers such as Robert Langworthy,Ed Maguire, and William King.

Within these chapters, the author provides a superlative brief, yet hefty, review of both

contingency theory and institutional theory, which routinely appear at the forefront of

organization theories when referring to police organizations and community policing.

However, the author is succinct in pointing out that theories of organizations need not

be mutually exclusive. As such, the book seeks to reconcile this lack of integration by

exploring an amalgamation of the two theories in relation to police organizations.

This book will have some appeal to both those in the academic as well as the prac-

titioner community. Academics will appreciate the methodological rigor that Wilson

employs. The study draws from several data sources including Law Enforcement

Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), which is an administrative sur-

vey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, as well as the U.S. Census. In

addition, Wilson has been able to employ the data utilized by Maguire and King in

their earlier research on police organizations, as well as data from the Community

Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office on community policing funds granted to

agencies. From these data sources, Wilson is able to construct varying measures of

organizational context, structural complexity,structural control, and community polic-

ing implementation. Subsequently, Wilson presents the reader with a structural model

that utilizes confirmatory factor and path analysis.