Criminology

The police interact with the community and their major role is to enforce law, maintain order, detect crimes and apprehend criminals. The behavior of the police in this interaction is greatly influenced by their seniors in rank. Police expose different methodologies when it comes to arresting, community policing, citation issuing and use of force. Most of the time, the public has gauged the police behavior as wanting, leading to outcries for police reforms. Nevertheless, police reforms have been taking place from five decades back but there has never been a satisfactory level. In this article, common front styles supervision tactics are going to be discussed.

Supervision and Management Styles
Sergeants, inspectors or lieutenants are required to have management skills to efficiently supervise their subordinates. The factors considered include training, academic qualifications, age and experience in addition to having organizational knowledge. They impact different working strategies to the subordinate officers using supervisory styles such as active, traditional, innovative and supportive.

Active Supervision
Active supervision entails being in the patrol envoy with the junior officers and performing duties together such as attending to crime incidents. The supervisor demonstrates duty performance first hand in addition to immediate decision of matters. This kind of supervision ensures constant check of the officers behavior and way of working and also gives the supervisor a sense of power and control. Proponents of this method believe that it is the best way to manage officers and ensure that they report to duty constantly and maintain good conduct. However, critics maintain that it is more of over supervision than managing. Active supervisors discourage team building and can make the junior officers shy off from contributing ideas that can improve policing. The behavior of officers under this method include using force while arresting suspects and generating too many self initiated activities on community patrolling therefore reducing time for personal business and other administrative activities.  

Traditional Supervision
Patrol officers under a traditional supervisor are more instructed on law enforcement rather than activities that are community oriented and are always given instructions and their mistakes pointed rather than an achievement rewarded. The supervisor believes things have to be done in a particular order and officers will often be required to meet targets in the citations and arrests issued at a particular shift in addition to record keeping and documentation. Such officers are constantly looking for mistakes from the citizens leading to a clash.

Innovative Supervision
It is a hands-off style that encourages the officers to work on their own and come up with new ideas on matters of policing. The supervisor trusts the officers work. Critics of this method argue that it may lead to unwanted behavior like sneaking from duty or responding less quick to emergencies.

Supportive Supervision
The supervisor creates a great relationship with the subordinate and they discuss issue on work and personal life. Such supervisors are always quick to defend their subordinates from administrative punishment that may seem unfair. Critics oppose this method as one that can lead to misconduct among the officers.

Conclusion
It is evidently clear that there is no perfect method of supervision. In my view, a combination of active and innovative supervision can go a great length in making the officers work ethically as well as contributing to important decisions that can improve policing.