The Effects Of Stratified Policing On Key Organizational Change Components

This study examined the effects of stratified policing on four key organizational change components, leadership, communication, transparency, accountability, as well as satisfaction with proactive crime reduction within one large police agency, the Delaware State Police (DSP). Stratified policing is an organizational framework that aids police departments in systematizing the use of evidence-based policing strategies into their daily operations. It accomplishes this through the use of crime analysis, implementation of evidence-based strategies, and clear accountability structure and mechanisms. The same anonymous survey was administered to DSP personnel in 2016 and 2019 after the implementation of stratified policing, obtaining perceptions of leadership, accountability, communication, transparency, and satisfaction with the agency’s proactive crime reduction. The analysis examined changes in each of the four key organizational change components individually as well as which were the best predictors of satisfaction with crime reduction efforts both pre-implementation and post-implementation. Using a one-group pretest-posttest research design, independent t-tests showed that all four key organizational change components, as well as satisfaction with proactive crime reduction, significantly improved following the implementation of stratified policing with some variation by rank. The multiple regression analyses showed that while most of the organizational change components were significant for both waves, there were some notable differences in their importance and the significance of rank and division. The study’s findings suggest that stratified policing may be the necessary bridge for translating “what works” in policing and “making it work” within a police department. It accomplishes this by facilitating successful organizational change through its ability to improve the key organizational change components.