ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the major features of the romance of police leadership. It discusses an alternative analytic tool that characterizes the chief’s principal function as dramaturgical. A romantic theme pervades the literature on police management— that the chief governs the department and thereby shapes the character of policing that it delivers. This romance is built upon an image of the police chief atop the organization, not only responsible for but directing the operation. The divestiture and investiture of police leadership is fraught with ritualistic actions designed to signify change, stability, or both. The chapter argues that the highly visible processes of selecting and rejecting top police leadership are central to the dramaturgical role of the chief. The romance of leadership is thus an essential building block for a larger edifice of cultural belief in the improvability of American institutions. The romantic view of police chiefs attributes an instrumental purpose to their leadership.
