Police Executive Career Mobility: A Study of Alaska Chiefs

Abstract

Police chiefs do not attain their positions by adherence to the classical tenets of the bureaucratic career system as is commonly assumed by police authorities. This work reflects an effort to identify the career mobility characteristics of people who have attained top executive positions in Alaska police agencies. These organizations have unusually well defined formal career ladders and promotional systems consistent with bureaucratic theory. The data reveal inconsistencies between the formally defined career ladders of Alaska police agencies and the actual career routes of executives who progressed to the top. Three different career path typologies are described. Only 25% of the career progression patterns of the successful executives followed the formal career ladder of the police organization which employed them. Executive mobility factors and patterns identified in Alaska may exist in police agencies elsewhere.