ABSTRACT
The police officers attending the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy often serve in administrative and policy-making positions. While the organization often responds to the external environment, these officers are not free of professional opinion with respect to how military-style equipment is utilized in policing. This chapter utilizes Institutional Thinking to explore the perspective held by institutional actors when assessing the internal behaviors of an organization. The survey used to measure aspects of policy and military-style equipment also included items asking the respondents about their “professional opinion” in these same areas. Results indicate that police administrators and managers who are not chief executives see several aspects of police militarization differently from some official policies and procedures.
