This is an exceptional text for police officers as well as other managers in the public sector who aspire to "leadership" positions. Not only does the book cover practical police management issues, it provides unique perspectives on a series of management and leadership issues. As a budget and finance instructor, I was initially interested in the administrative/budget portions of the book; however, I found that the entire book was exceptional.

This guy is out of his mind. A very frustrating read which makes U.S Army technical manuals seem fascinating. Mr. Whisenand is an obvious scholar, but I fear his "book of lists" does not translate all that well to actual human beings. In addition, I found the section on "community oriented policing" especially overblown. He fails to consider the prosecutorial implications of stating that "long and detailed reports are turnoffs to many people" (page 331, paragraph 1), they're turnoffs to defense attornies too!
Again, an extremely intelligent man and dilligent social scientist, but this book is horrible.

This book is entirly overwritten. It is very listy, for example, It tells you that there is 6 characteristics of a well written report. Then in the very next line he tells of the 6 different types of reports. Then he goes further to break down each type of report and explain what they are and why they are used. The ideas are notable. However the book's content is poorly written and is more for the overall manager not specific to police services. And yes, one needs to do the job before one can write about it.

The ideas are worthwhile, but the book is long winded and wordy. One example is the author takes 5 pages to tell you, "you have to know who you are before you can leed anyone else". What the word "goal" means and how to form one, takes another chapter. In defense of the Author (it's obvious he has never done the job), for a social scientist living in an Ivory Tower, he has a decent handle on the theory behind interaction in a Police Department. The 15 ideas are all common sense (something world seems to be in short supply of today) and would do wonders if a department ever implimented them.