Interagency cooperation: An examination of cooperation attitudes on federal and local law enforcement drug task forces.
Item
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Title
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Interagency cooperation: An examination of cooperation attitudes on federal and local law enforcement drug task forces.
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Identifier
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AAI9732953
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identifier
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9732953
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Creator
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Newbold, Katherine Mary.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Robert Bonn
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | Sociology, Criminology and Penology
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Abstract
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Cooperation among law enforcement agencies is well known to be problematic. The issues examined and discussed in this case study involve the cooperation attitudes of federal and local law enforcement investigators assigned to interagency drug task forces. The task forces studied are those under the auspices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Division and include both FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives in 1993.;The study included a self-administered survey questionnaire to all investigators assigned to these five squads. The questionnaire was designed to capture attitudes regarding task force work in general and those involving their current task force assignment. Also included in this work are the results of interviews conducted with both FBI and NYPD task force supervisors and selected managers in the hierarchies of each agency. The interviews followed the context of the questionnaires and issues related to managing these interagency units.;The three unifying hypotheses asserted that local law enforcement investigators were less prone than federal law enforcement investigators to perceive the interagency task force as a cooperative work environment; as an environment where information was shared fully; and as an environment where mutual, professional respect was experienced by investigators. The literature review details the juxtaposition of the sacred autonomy and elitism of law enforcement organizations and the new evolving interdependence and team driven work environments. Police agencies were found to use over-bearing tactics in interagency work groups and usually attempt to unilaterally control these endeavors.;The results of this study have borne out the hypothesized assertions. In addition, the quantitative and qualitative data strongly supported the hypotheses regarding the lack of shared investigative information and the sense of disenfranchisement and exclusion experienced by local law enforcement in the decision-making process of investigations; the lead agency designation ascribed to interagency investigations. This study contends that agencies must dictate cooperation as important and integral to their overall operational missions. Too, that task force units are important and unique and that personnel assigned to them must be carefully selected to meet the demands of interagency work. Teams and interdependencies are the evolving organizational relationships and even the parochialism of law enforcement find themselves inextricably tied to this progress.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
