Abstract
The Dutch police system is neither centralized nor fully decentralized, as it consists of “regions” bigger than the municipalities, but smaller than most provinces. These regions are to a large degree autonomous. Such autonomy implies that regional police forces could not communicate with each other in the recent past, as their communication systems differed. They were also unable to look into each other’s files, as national police registries were extremely rare. Fragmentation of this kind has seriously hindered cooperation in the recent past.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Police: Police forces are government organizations charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order, and to ensure first assistance in emergencies or crises.
Information Networks: A network that comprises people, computers, and/or methods organized to collect, process, transmit, and disseminate data.
Organizational Change: A planned effort, organization-wide to increase organizational effectiveness through interventions in the organization’s “processes”, using expert knowledge, usually based on intended improvement of processes and services.
Information Policy: The support of policy goals with information systems and methods.
System Implementation: The practical application of a methodology or computer system in an organization to carry out management strategies.