Compstat and bureaucracy: A case study of challenges and opportunities for change

Abstract

COMPSTAT has been heralded as an innovative and rational crime control program, but our research shows that its implementation presents police departments with a set of opportunities and challenges. Using Weber's theory of bureaucracy, we present a case study demonstrating how COMPSTAT's key elements are shaped by extant organizational arrangements. In renewing an emphasis on the crime-fighting goal and the command hierarchy of the Lowell Police Department, the study site, COMPSTAT presented an opportunity to reinforce certain traditional features of police bureaucracy. However, by strengthening control through its accountability mechanism, COMPSTAT interfered with its own operation. Furthermore, the persistence of other bureaucratic features—functional specialization, formalization, routine, uniformity, and secrecy—limited organizational change. Our case suggests that the most significant challenge for any department is picking the compromise between existing bureaucratic features and COMPSTAT's core elements that most suits its needs and those of its constituencies.

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