Disorganization Ruining Organizations?

After listening to the presentations in class this way that applied to the O'Hara book about why law enforcement agencies fail, it occurred to me that the biggest Achilles heal of law enforcement agencies over the years. Although each law enforcement agencies debacle that we read about had different components separating them from each other, they all had one thing in common, disorganization. I think that disorganization in any work place will eventually lead to disaster, but in high intensity situations and interactions with law enforcement the outcome and therefore what led to the outcome is highlighted by public interest and media exposure.

Disorganization seems to be a more general term to sum up a few different problems that continue to plague law enforcement organizations. One of the biggest themes I recognized amongst all of the failures we talked about in class was bad or lack of communication. It seemed to be that a lot of the supervisors or high ranking officials who were calling the shots during these disasters either had a huge ego or they failed to communicate with the officers acting under them. When people in charge of raids and operations aimed at stopping a high intensity situation don't communicate and pass information along to all levels of their agency, something is bound to go wrong.

As stated in the lectures we heard about the O'Hara chapters, there is always going to be a paper trail or something that leads back to where communication or planning broke off. Its a shame that people who are running law enforcement agencies can let their egos get in the way. Another problem that stems from leadership is the fact that these organizations and their disorganized ways reach the point where it interferes with the quality of their performance. Other factors will always play into organizations becoming disorganized but in my opinion the problem always stems from leadership. There always has to be a blame put on those who accept the responsibility to run these organizations and every facet of law enforcement that resides underneath them. Their decisions affect everything that happen in the community and within their agency.

In order for an agency to always be successful, they need to be organized. As long as they can keep their egos out of it and keep communications open to all levels, the organization will always be on the same page, therefore eliminating a lot of the problems that can happen when disorganization reigns. Using the machine metaphor, law enforcement organizations need to be able to all function together towards one common goal. As soon as it begins to go down a disorganized path, it starts to break as different parts all go their separate ways. Having a leader with poor communication skills to his subordinates or with a big ego is like throwing a wrench in the machine.