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Span of Control for Law Enforcement Agencies. By Troy Lane, Assistant Chief, Kansas State University Police Department, Manhattan, Kansas. Police management studies from the 1950s through the 1980s featured the span of control concept.
Official ratios of officers to sergeant (sometimes called the “span of control”) generally range from 4:1 to 15:1, with an average of approximately seven officers to each sergeant. See, e.g., PERF, Supervision , supra, at 19.
This article presents findings from a survey of law enforcement administrators that analyzed the "span of control" (the number of people with whom a supervisor is responsible for communicating) in their departments.
A typical span of control in police organizations is between 5 to 10 subordinates per supervisor, depending on the complexity of tasks. As organizations grow, they often reassess their span of control to ensure efficient management and communication flow.
Span of Control for Law Enforcement Agencies. Author: Troy Lane. Summary: The responses from the administrators indicate that many agencies prefer lower spans of control (lower number of officers per supervisor), which necessarily leads to multiple layers of management.
29 maj 2009 · Recommended span of control in law enforcement, depending on the source, is 5 to 12 police officers to 1 first-line supervisor. Currently there are 9 [of 22 total] districts which have become the main focus of the department’s strategy to reduce crime.
Wilson's popular textbook on police administration reinforced classic managerial principles: span-of-control (having a limited number of subordinates per supervisor or manager), an unambiguous hierarchy (so everybody knows to whom they must report), and centralization of command (in which decisions are made at the top and flow down).
