Police Professionalization: Elusive or Illusory?

Abstract

Police professionalization has been an earnest but elusive pursuit of leading police administrators. In large part, the elusiveness is a consequence of ambiguity in the concept itself First, there is a lack of clarity, even in general usage, of the designation "professional. " Second, the initially imprecise definitions have been further clouded when modified for application to the police. Furthermore, the specific environments of given police departments limit the potential for development of generalized concepts of police professionalization. Finally, there has been afailure to distinguish between professionalization as achieving professionalism and as obtaining professionalperquisites. In view of these factors, police professionalism must be seen more as an illusory goal than as a flawed programmatic objective.