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Cowper / THE MYTH OF THE MILITARY MODEL (Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2000) POLICE QUARTERLY
THE MYTH OF THE “MILITARY MODEL” OF LEADERSHIP IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
THOMAS J. COWPER
New York State Police
Law enforcement is generally understood to be a paramilitary pursuit based on a specific “military model” of leadership and organization. This article analyzes the so-called military model in law enforcement and dispels the notion that police officers and their departments are patterned after the real military. It draws on the author’s personal experience as well as on historical works and military doctrinal publications. It illustrates the problems caused within policing by the false assumptions about military leadership, structure, and doctrine and then outlines the potential benefits to policing of a more correct understanding and application of valid military concepts and methodologies.
It is a commonly accepted law enforcement notion that police agencies of the free world today are designed on the “military model” of organization and leadership. Modern analogies either lionize that model or deride it as utterly inappropriate for a civil police force. Neither view is correct: There are two military models, each based on a largely symbolic, limited, and inaccurate understanding of military doctrine and practice. One is a vicious parody, combining absurdist fiction such as Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 with a narrow view based on individual military experiences. The other is an imaginary (and inflated) heroic vision, wrapped in the flag of a different category of fiction, from the cinema accounts of Sergeant York and Audie Murphy to the Rambo and Delta Force genre. Both do a grievous disservice to both the military and the police: Each in its own way makes the military a scapegoat for the ineptitude, structural absurdities, bad management, and outright criminality in police work that are the legacies of the politicization of the American police throughout their
THE MYTH OF THE “MILITARY MODEL” OF LEADERSHIP IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
THOMAS J. COWPER
New York State Police
Law enforcement is generally understood to be a paramilitary pursuit based on a specific “military model” of leadership and organization. This article analyzes the so-called military model in law enforcement and dispels the notion that police officers and their departments are patterned after the real military. It draws on the author’s personal experience as well as on historical works and military doctrinal publications. It illustrates the problems caused within policing by the false assumptions about military leadership, structure, and doctrine and then outlines the potential benefits to policing of a more correct understanding and application of valid military concepts and methodologies.
It is a commonly accepted law enforcement notion that police agencies of the free world today are designed on the “military model” of organization and leadership. Modern analogies either lionize that model or deride it as utterly inappropriate for a civil police force. Neither view is correct: There are two military models, each based on a largely symbolic, limited, and inaccurate understanding of military doctrine and practice. One is a vicious parody, combining absurdist fiction such as Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 with a narrow view based on individual military experiences. The other is an imaginary (and inflated) heroic vision, wrapped in the flag of a different category of fiction, from the cinema accounts of Sergeant York and Audie Murphy to the Rambo and Delta Force genre. Both do a grievous disservice to both the military and the police: Each in its own way makes the military a scapegoat for the ineptitude, structural absurdities, bad management, and outright criminality in police work that are the legacies of the politicization of the American police throughout their
References: Cincinnatus. (1981). Self-destruction. New York: Norton. FMFRP 12-41: Professional knowledge gained from operational experience in Vietnam, 1967. (1989). Washington, DC: Department of the Navy, United States Marine Corps. FM 100-14: Risk management. (1998). Washington, DC: Department of the Army. Heinl, R. D., Jr. (1966). Dictionary of military and naval quotations. Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute. Kappeler, V. E. (Ed.). (1999). Police and society: Touchstone readings (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. (Reprinted from The functions of the police in modern society, by E. Bittner, 1970, Chevy Chase, MD: National Institute of Mental Health) Kopel, D. B., & Blackman, P. M. (1997). Can soldiers be peace officers? The Waco disaster and the militarization of american law enforcement. Akron Law Review, 619-659. Littleton, CO: Fred B Rothman & Company. 246 POLICE QUARTERLY (Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2000) Marine Corps’ Doctrinal Publication (MCDP)-1 Warfighting (1997). Washington, DC: Department of the Navy, Headquarters United States Marine Corps. Marine Corps’ Doctrinal Publication (MCDP)-1 Command and Control (1997). Washington, DC: Department of the Navy, Headquarters United States Marine Corps. Safir, H. (n.d.). The COMPSTAT process. New York: NYC Office of Management Analysis and Planning. Sun Tzu. (1971) The art of war (S. B. Griffith, Trans.). London: Oxford University Press. The task force report on the police of the president’s commission on law enforcement and administration of justice. (1967). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Taylor, R. L., & Rosenbach, W. E. (Ed.). (1996). Military leadership: In pursuit of excellence (3rd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview. Trojanowicz, R., & Bucqueroux, B. (1990). Community policing. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson. Weber, D. C. (1999). Warrior cops: The ominous growth of paramilitarism in American police departments (CATO Institute Briefing Papers No. 50). Washington, DC: CATO Institute. Thomas J. Cowper is a captain with the New York State Police and a graduate student at Marist College. He is a former Marine officer and has served in a variety of law enforcement assignments during his 17-year police career. He was a member of the Urban Institute’s site visit teams as part of the National Evaluation of the COPS program and is pursuing a research agenda on the impact of technology on government and policing.