| The Los Angeles Police Department is renown throughout the law enforcement field for creating both the SWAT unit (Special Weapons and Tactics) and DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). A primary focus of this study was to understand how programs like these were developed in this paramilitary bureaucracy, that would otherwise seem an unlikely location for innovation.; Forty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with officers who created innovative programs, along with their subordinates, peers and supervisors. Six case studies of LAPD innovations serve as examples of differences in developmental process, and outcomes. Two of those innovations are still in operation today, two dissolved after solving the originating problems, and two were never instituted.; The findings from this study suggest that three interrelated variables affected the development of new programs in the LAPD: organizational characteristics, personality traits of the innovators, and the strategies used by innovators to create new programs. Successful innovations were developed by persistent and resourceful officers who worked well with others to develop solutions to organizational problems. When these innovators worked long hours, communicated well with others, used personal networks, obtained support from their supervisors, and avoided the perception of being self-serving they were more likely to be successful. Finally, innovative programs were more successful when they were compatible with long-standing department values and philosophical approaches.; Innovative officers also possessed similar traits that led many of them to say that they had an “entrepreneurial spirit.” The possession of these traits did not determine an individual's success as an innovator however, because they had to work within the organizational boundaries of the LAPD. These findings suggest that successful innovation is a function of the people involved in creating organizational change, the strategies they used, the organization in which they worked, and the alignment between these three variables.; Based on the findings, recommendations are made to the LAPD to implement organizational changes that could reduce the impediments to innovative change and increase support for these changes. Recommendations are also made for future research, to further assess the process and products of public sector innovation. |
