Operational management of National Police requires attention for learning together

The Dutch Police Act of 2012 has resulted in a national police force. The goal was to make the police more efficient and more effective. The expectation was that especially in operational management, there would be much to gain from the change in scales. But in 2017, the Kuijken Commission concluded that working towards a centralised operational management turned out to be tricky, and advised to work towards a flexible and learning organisation. The police translated this into a so-called change movement for the operational management. The goal of this was to work towards a self-learning operational-management organisation which can address the challenges of the future in a flexible and manoeuvrable way. Utrecht University has investigated how this change is getting along.

The researchers conclude that a good start has been made, but also that various important steps are still required before the operational management of the police can be called a self-learning organisation. Based on the experiences gained from five concrete cases, the researchers make recommendations. For instance, it is important to prioritise which tasks have to be picked up by operational management, to provide structures which make learning easier, and to properly embed the gained knowledge and experience into the organisation.

Further learning together: prioritising, facilitating and institutionalising

At the request of the police, the Research and Documentation Centre (Dutch name: Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Datacentrum, WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security has commissioned research to find out how the change movement towards a self-learning organisation is going. This research has been carried out by researchers of USG Consultancy, part of the Utrecht University School of Governance (USG). Their findings can be found in the full report Samen verder leren: een zaak van prioriteren, faciliteren en institutionaliseren. Lerende evaluatie voor de doorontwikkeling bedrijfsvoering politie.

Learning in practice

In order to determine what the change movement was supposed to do, to which extent it has had an effect on learning and which factors can enhance this movement, the researchers of USG Consultancy looked at the operational management on five concrete cases: Robotic Process Automation, the National Police Orientation Programme, Blue Portaal, the implementation of the taser, and the structure of the decentral activities of Guarding and Securing.

Including knowledge and experience in new initiatives

What are we actually talking about, when it comes to learning in the organisation? The point is that people don't have to reinvent the wheel every time, and that knowledge and experience from earlier projects are included in new initiatives, says Marie-Jeanne Schiffelers, the Project Coordinator of the research project.

For instance, let's take a look at the introduction of the taser. That was a complicated process that had to be handled very precisely and well-supported in order to take all involved societal, safety and operational matters into account. This process has resulted in a lot of knowledge and experience on working on this kind of complicated tasks. However, the concern is that this knowledge and experience will not travel much beyond the group of staff members who were involved in the implementation of the taser because there's often no time and capacity for a proper knowledge transfer, and because the next urgent tasks are already there. So the organisation learns within specific projects, but the broader learning with and from each other doesn't happen then, Schiffelers says.

Cultural change which requires time and attention

Within the police organisation, there has been much attention for working towards a more learning organisation in the past years. Just like every cultural change, this change too requires much time, attention, space and capacity. And exactly these elements are scarce within the police organisation. So we currently cannot speak of a learning organisation which has structural attention for ‘learning to learn’ yet.

The demanding outside world results in new assignments for the police all the time. Responding to that in order to solve problems is part of the DNA of the police force. Learning especially succeeds with specific projects in which sharing experiences and knowledge on individual and group levels are set up well. However, that does not guarantee the securing of what is learned in the broader organisation.

Without embedding, knowledge and experience are lost

This is because learning on an organisational level requires it to be embedded in systems, structures, strategies and routines. Learning has to be a fixed part of the way in which people in the organisation interact with each other. Such institutionalisation of learning is currently insufficiently present.

Because of this lack of structural embedding of knowledge and experience, the police organisation is at risk of losing this gained knowledge. That risk is enhanced by the fact that many police staff members will be retiring relatively soon, which can result in the loss of their knowledge and experience. The facilitating and institutionalisation of learning together on an organisational level has to ensure that the knowledge is embedded and retained within the police organisation.

Continuing to learn

The movement of change for the operational management within the police is currently ongoing. As they look at the upcoming challenges, the researchers state that three aspects are needed in order to enhance the movement of change towards a self-learning organisation:
 

1. Prioritising operational-management assignments. The further enhancing of the operational management requires clear choices by the police top brass. This requires vision on how many changes the organisation can handle in the upcoming years and which changes have priority.
    
2. Facilitating learning behaviour. The desired movement of change eventually has to result in a change of behaviour among police staff about learning, within operational management and the Politie Diensten Centrum (PDC, Police Services Centre) as well as policy teams. Learning behaviour can be facilitated by structures which ease and secure learning, and which give people rest and space and reward them for good initiatives.
    
3. Institutionalising methods. The police is well capable of carrying out temporary pilots, projects, and programmes with clear boundaries and learning in the process, but a continuous improvement of operational management requires temporary initiatives to be embedded in the culture, structure and processes of the organisation.

Research team

The research team consists of: Marie-Jeanne Schiffelers (Project Coordinator), Kim Loyens en Scott Douglas. With assistance from: Joly-Eline Himpers, Mirko Noordegraaf, Sjors Overman and Tom Overmans.

More information

Would you like to know more about this research project? Please read the full report Samen verder leren: een zaak van prioriteren, faciliteren en institutionaliseren. Lerende evaluatie voor de doorontwikkeling bedrijfsvoering politie.

You can also contact Project Coordinator Marie-Jeanne Schiffelers: (m.j.w.a.schiffelers@uu.nl).