Final answer:
Horizontal cliques in police organizations generally are informal groups formed at similar levels of the hierarchy to protect members from supervisory oversight and can exist even in bureaucratic structures, influencing police culture and operations.
Step-by-step explanation:
An accurate statement about horizontal cliques in police organizations is that they are mostly created to protect line officers from supervisory oversight and accountability. In the context of a bureaucracy, a horizontal clique cuts across the established hierarchical lines of authority, allowing members who are usually at similar levels of the organizational structure to create in-groups. These in-groups, while operating informally, can nonetheless impact the overall culture and operations of a police organization. Notably, while horizontal cliques are characterized by shared interests or social bonds, they sometimes emerge as a defensive mechanism against perceived or real pressures from higher ranks, ultimately influencing the way work gets done and how officers interact with each other and the community.
It is important to note that bureaucracies, such as police organizations, typically exhibit hierarchy of authority, clear division of labor, explicit rules, and impersonality. The nature of a bureaucracy might suggest that horizontal cliques would be absent, but they can indeed exist despite the bureaucratic structure, indicating an overlay of informal social structures on the formal organization.