Formal co-operation among public agencies : a study of Vancouver’s Police and Community Services Project
Creators: name: Ferguson, Thomas F.B.
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: This study in public administration examines an attempt to establish and sustain formal co-operation among police, social service, parole and probation agencies in prevention of crime and related social problems. The setting for this attempt was the Police and Community Services Project in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Project, as it was called, ran from September 1974- to March 31, 1977. It was developed in the south-east quadrant of Vancouver with the participation of the above named agencies, the B.C. Police Commission, and the B.C. Justice Development Commission. Examination of the Project and events which led to its inception is undertaken to test the hypothesis that sustained, formal co-operation among public agencies requires the likelihood of benefits to each participant. The hypothesis is drawn, in part, from Antonio Jorge's "Competition, Co-operation, Efficiency, and Social Organization", and Anthony Downs' "Inside Bureaucracy". Both writers maintain that co-operation is often motivated by the likelihood of rewards such as power, prestige, and additional resources. However, herein the motive is shown to be of greater importance in formal as compared to informal co-operation due, in part, to the longer term commitment and greater degree of involvement required of participants. Formal co-operation is defined as a formally constituted or recognized interaction in which agencies and their officials agree to combine their activities in an organized manner for the promotion of common ends or objectives in such a way that the greater success of one party to the interaction, the greater the success of the other party or parties. Also, the interaction is usually governed by formal rules and is subject to scrutiny by a higher authority. This definition denotes the need for goal consensus which, in turn, may signify that participants perceive a likelihood of benefits. Informal co-operation among police, probation and social service agencies prior to the Project (1963 - 1974) is examined to show development of the belief among all agencies that formal co-operation would improve the effectiveness of agency and police services. On the basis of this shared belief, the Vancouver Police Department developed support for the Project and encouraged participation of social agencies. This was facilitated by the fact that the police and most social agencies were, in 1974&gt; decentralizing services to increase effectiveness in treating crime and social problems and were seeking clearer role definitions. Reorganization of social service agencies was also a response to the social policies of a New Democratic Party provincial government. The Project was fraught with difficulties from its inception. Representatives of agencies who were expected to manage the Project were unable to agree on viable objectives for the Project. As the Project lacked a clear sense of direction, the police proposed experimentation with a team policing system (that is, reorganization of the police in the Project area into six neighbourhood teams with constables assigned on a permanent basis) to facilitate co-ordination of police and social agency services. All Project participants agreed to the experiment as it provided the Project with a concrete goal. However, concentration on team policing fed perceptions of social agencies that the Project was a "police project" rather than an inter-agency endeavour. But this concentration came about, in part, because of lack of strong social agency commitment to the Project. This was due largely to the preoccupation of agencies with changes in their own organizations resulting from a change to a Social Credit Party provincial government (December 1975) with conservative social policies. Also, the dominant role of the police in the Project appeared to lessen the likelihood of benefits to social agencies and, therefore, lessened their commitment. These factors are considered as major influences determining the Project's failure to sustain formal co-operation. In contrast, field teams of police and agency workers in the team policing experiment developed a consensus on how to work together, whenever possible, while respecting each other's functional autonomy. Thus, they reverted to informal co-operation in co-ordination of services. This thesis suggests, then, that informal co-operation may be more effective than formal co-operation, even though likelihood of benefit is present, in improving co-ordination (albeit on a more limited scale) among diverse public agencies.