Roles, First-Line Supervisors’

Police supervisors make up the important link between a police organization’s managerial layers and the layer of the organization that operates on the street and directly enforces the law. Supervisors are often referred to as first-line or field supervisors because they must supervise their subordinates while they are in the field and also conducting police fieldwork themselves. Thus, supervisors operate on a thin line between manager and street-level practitioner and, as discussed in this entry, can lead to shifts in how supervisors approach their role depending on the conflicting interests of managers and street-level officers. After briefly discussing the role of the first-line supervisor in general, this entry more specifically describes how first-line supervisors further the training for and implementation and function of the community ...