ABSTRACT
In his famous work, Police Administration, Chief O.W. Wilson divided police activities into what he termed “line” and “staff” functions. The staff functions pertaining to those administrative functions that are necessary to ensure that the day-to-day functions of the agency would continue uninterrupted. The line functions were those activities directly related to the enforcement responsibility of the agency. Wilson further divided line functions into two subcategories: primary and secondary functions. In Wilson’s view, primary line functions pertained to activities related to officer patrol, and secondary functions included activities like investigations.2
