Police and police superiors' views about negative factors which effect team work in crime prevention

A team is formed with a small number of people, who complete one another's abilities, who act for the same aim and goals, and who feel responsible for each other. Team work is based on trust, effective communication among members of team. The security need of the people in the country is undertaken by security units, but by the Security Office in particular. Thus, the Security Office becomes as one of the most important government organizations. In modern societies, the preventive policing is an acceptable concept. Preventive policing requires more labor force and effort and it is quite effective in providing to secure a guilt-free environment. The purpose of this study is to investigate opinions of police officers and their chiefs who work in the field of preventive services about the factors which affect their works negatively and to make people realize the importance of team work. The research was carried out by utilizing quantitative research methods with data collected from the police officers and their chiefs who work for the preventive services in Gaziantep Security Department. The data was obtained by semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that staff members working in the preventive security services see themselves as members of their team; however, because of some issues they experience challenges in their team building process. These issues, in general, are opposition of opinions in the team and personal problems among the team members. Additionally, such issues cause difficulties while police officers are dealing with the incidents. Since these problems are not solved effectively at unit meetings and staff members' failures are highlighted at the meetings, the personnel is demotivated.