Send Free Faxes Via the Internet

April 10, 2012 – 9:20 am

faxzeroI don’t send faxes very often but when I need to send one it is such a hassle. I had to send a couple of faxes to Ameritrade last night so I thought I would give the free internet faxing service faxzero.com a try. You can send faxes to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada for free. It worked great!

Check it out at http://faxzero.com/

Its Not My Fault!

March 21, 2012 – 8:00 am

AccountabilityStories about “accountability”, or a lack thereof, appear regularly in the media, are frequently the topic of congressional hearings and are often the basis for civil lawsuits. We discuss accountability as a component of trustworthiness during our ethics training in the police academy. I forcefully inculcate to the recruits that, as criminal justice officers, they have an obligation to stand accountable for their actions. I even suggest that, as a supervisor, I have a range of options that are available to me when a person under my charge violates a rule. I caution them that the quickest way to see the harsh end of my disciplinary scale is to offer up excuses for their actions or failure to act, or to attempt to shift the blame to someone else. I would prefer that a recruit who violated a rule come before me and simply say, “I screwed up. I am the dumbest ass that God ever breathed breath into. I cannot undo what I have done but I can assure you that I will never do it again.” I would find it very difficult to dole out much of a punishment to a person with this level of accountability. There’s that word again – accountability – but what exactly is it?

One theory is that the word “accountability” originated from the money lending system in Ancient Greece. Basically, a person would borrow money from a lender, usually the local temple or a merchant, and he would then be held responsible to his account with the lender.

However, the concept of accountability has been interjected throughout recorded history. Perhaps you were introduced to the Code of Hammurabi during a review of ancient legal systems as part of your academy training. The Code is considered to be the first written statement of accountability. Basically, Hammurabi described certain undesirable actions that might occur within society and the consequences that would be imposed for those actions. In other words, he was putting the members of society on notice that if they violated certain social standards, they would be held accountable for their actions. Notice that Hammurabi was not interested in the “why” of these social missteps, only the fact that they were committed. Mitigating factors, such as an unhappy childhood, did not render a person less accountable for his actions. That came along a little later with the invention of attorneys which, had Hammurabi been on the ball, should have been punishable by death . . . but I digress.

I bring up this issue of accountability because, over the years, I have observed a gradual reduction in the level of accountability in young adults in general, but more importantly, in our criminal justice recruits. What I find even more troubling is a growing tendency toward an institutional acceptance of this conduct. Whether it is caused by a diminishing level of accountability in our society as whole or by the difficulty in recruiting criminal justice officers, some agencies are hesitant to drop the hammer on those officers and deputies who simply won’t get with the program. One officer told me that the unofficial motto in his agency when faced with an accusation of improper behavior is, “deny, demand proof and make counter-accusations.” Of course, as you might expect, the general ethical climate in his agency consists of a near total lack of accountability and “blame shifting” has been elevated to a new level.

This type of ethical climate is totally predictable since, as I am so fond of saying in my professionalism class, “ethics are caught – not taught.” Accountability begins with the chief or sheriff and reverberates downward throughout the agency. If a sergeant is not accountable for his actions, one can hardly expect accountability from the officers or deputies that work under his supervision. In fact, the paramilitary structure under which most criminal justice agencies function requires everyone to be accountable for their job tasks for the system to work properly.

The academy environment is where we must indoctrinate the new members of our profession and instill in them that they are “accountable” for their actions and inaction. This requires a commitment on the part of the academy staff, the instructors and the agency administrators. We must be cognizant of the fact that we are not just training recruit officers, we are laying the foundation for the leaders of tomorrow. Let’s make it an ethically solid foundation.

Hide Suggested Videos On YouTube

March 18, 2012 – 1:17 am

YouTubeIf you embed YouTube videos on your website, you know that they display a list of recommended videos at the end of your video. Sometimes the videos aren’t appropriate for you audience.

You can turn off recommended videos when you embed a YouTube video on your website. Open your video and click the “Share” button and then the “Embed button”. Below the embed code, deselect “Show Suggested Videos and embed away”.

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part III

March 9, 2012 – 8:10 am

RecruitmentDo you ever ask yourself, “Why the hell would anyone want to work at this place?” If not, you should, especially if your job is to recruit or retain employees. What is it that makes your agency a unique and desirable place to work? In marketing lingo, what is your “brand?”

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

Make no mistake, if you are trying to attract the best recruits to your agency, you need to “sell” your agency and your community. You do not just want your target audience to choose you over the competition, you want them to see you as the only place to apply.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

  • Delivers the message clearly – the “why”
  • Confirms your credibility – trust
  • Connects your target prospects emotionally – the cool factor
  • Motivates the candidate to take action – to apply
  • Fosters employee loyalty – makes everyone a recruiter

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your potential applicants and your co-workers. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your agency at every point of public contact.

Think about the agencies in your area and their reputations within the law enforcement community. You can probably list all the agencies for whom you would not mind working and you can probably name a few for whom you would not even consider working. The bottom line is every department, including yours, has a reputation, be it positive or negative. Some agencies enjoy a reputation for good salaries, professional development programs, having the best equipment or excellent support from the community. Other agencies may suffer from a reputation of having low salaries or poor management. This agency reputation, whether positive or negative, is your employer “brand.”

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of the people with whom your agency interacts, not on a recruiting brochure. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.

Obviously, an agency that enjoys a positive employer brand will also enjoy an advantage in a competitive recruiting market. A strong employer brand is invaluable as the battle to attract and retain the best employees intensifies. Just like in college football, recruiting the best candidate is a lot easier if you work for a successful team. As a result, agencies that enjoy a positive brand, tend to attract more high quality applicants from which to select which significantly reduces the cost of recruiting. So, as you might expect, there are definitely some advantages to having a good employer brand or devoting some effort and resources to improving your existing brand.

The Ancient Greek aphorism “Know yourself” was inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. When it comes to establishing a good employer brand, the critical first step is to determine where you currently stand. It’s important to invest time in researching, defining, and building your employer brand. How does the criminal justice community, your employees and potential new applicants view your agency?

After determining where they stand, agencies can work to develop a strategic plan to move from their current brand to their desired brand. This process is not easy and cannot be accomplished overnight. However, agencies that successfully complete this effort will find they have better relations in the community, successfully recruit top quality candidates, and are in a stronger position to retain quality candidates.

Other articles in this series:

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part I
Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part II

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part II

March 9, 2012 – 8:05 am

RecruitmentIn The Art of War, a Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC, Sun Tzu points out the importance of knowing yourself and your enemy.

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

When it comes to the recruitment of the best qualified young officers and deputies, law enforcement agencies need to be prepared to do battle to recruit the best of the best. In order to do so, police recruiters need to understand the wants and needs of the potential new hires (know your enemies) and whether your law enforcement agency is structured in a manner that can address those wants and needs (know yourself).

Bob Dylan, the American singer-songwriter, author and poet, might have been talking about the employment environment of today when sang, “If your time to you Is worth savin’, then you better start swimmin’, or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin’. Modern police managers need to understand the attitudes of the young people if they hope to attract and retain the best personnel possible.

I will not attempt to explain why the upcoming generation of young people have that attitudes that they do. I will leave that to the psychology professionals. Fortunately, the “why” is not nearly as important to criminal justice managers as the “what.” What is important to the young people that hope to become officers or deputies – the people who are the future of your agency.

Criminal justice executives from the “baby boomer” generation may have difficulty accepting that younger workers feel much less loyalty to institutions. As a demographic, their first question tends to be, “What’s in it for me?” Even the U.S. Army acknowledged this shift in attitude with its “Army of One” advertising campaign. This generation of employees will not hesitate to challenge the wisdom of cumbersome policies and procedures. The operative word here is innovation – doing things the way we do simply because we have always done them that way will not cut it. If your agency has a “love it or leave it” mentality – they will not hesitate to leave it. This is very problematic for the law enforcement recruiter since they have to contend with a very shallow labor pool.

With the exception of top executive positions, criminal justice agencies have shown a reluctance to reach outside of the agency to fill supervisory positions, so a systematic leadership grooming program is a necessity. Fortunately, in most agencies, there are normally a sufficient number of willing and capable people in the pipeline to fill the supervisory positions that are vacated by retirements or career changers. However, executives need to consider what would happen if the people they are counting on to step up in the future are not there when they are needed. What may be even more frustrating is, even if they stick around, they may not even want the roles for which they are being groomed.

So what is a law enforcement executive to do? You can start by taking advantage of your well educated young workforce. If your agency fosters a participative management style, your younger workers will fit right in. Unlike your older workers who expected to have to earn their stripes, this new generation of workers want responsibility, expect to have input right away and they are not afraid to make decisions. Agency administrators should strive to involve younger workers in committees and teams that are charged with meaningful tasks in order get the most out of them. Again, whether you like it or not, there is a good chance that your younger employees may not stay with your agency so you need to get the most out of them while you have them.

Your new employees are tech savvy and they grew up using online social networks and working in groups. If you can create a strong social network at work, you can leverage their network-centric tendencies. The agency needs to capitalize on the “work family” relationship that younger workers develop with their immediate supervisors. Remember, people generally do not quit jobs, they quit people. Employee retention should be one of the primary job tasks and a performance evaluation rating point for sergeants and lieutenants.

Finally, agency administrators may need to rethink their attitudes about re-hiring former employees. Younger workers are much more likely to leave a job to seek out other opportunities including education, travel, or even another job. If the employee was a good worker, it makes good economic and management sense to make it easy for them to return, particularly when we consider the time and expense of training a new employee.

These are just a few of the issues that polices executive must address if they hope to attract and retain the best officers and deputies. There are volumes of demographic data available online under such labels as Generation Y, Nexters or younger workers. Remember, Google is your friend so spend some time learning about the people you will be hiring or promoting.

Unfortunately, knowing both sides does not guarantee that you will win since you may encounter an opponent who knows both sides better than you do?

In the next article in this series, we will examine some recruiting techniques and procedures that can help law enforcement agencies get the best applicants in the door.

Other articles in this series:

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part I
Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part III

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part I

March 9, 2012 – 8:00 am

RecruitmentNEWS FLASH! Law enforcement agencies are experiencing difficulty recruiting qualified applicants. Any experienced law enforcement recruiter knows that the faucet of qualified applicants is not flowing as freely as it once did. Gone are the days when a law enforcement agency could simply place a help wanted ad in the local newspaper and be inundated with three hundred applicants. Unfortunately, many law enforcement agencies have not gotten the word yet so they just keep using the same techniques that they used twenty years ago and they wonder why they are not attracting the best applicants.

The bottom line is the rules of the game have changed. If you are a chief or sheriff and you still view the employment process as just “hiring”, you are probably finding yourself choosing your new employee from the “the best of what is available.” In other words, you need a warm body to occupy a patrol vehicle so you are forced to choose from among the mediocre candidates that happened to wonder through the door of your agency. The real news flash is if you are not taking a proactive approach to the employment process, the top level applicants may never find their way to your door.

The Problem Is Not Just In Our Profession

The one ride at Disney World that still sends shivers down my spine is not a roller coaster. Instead, it is that slow boat ride that constantly played, “It’s A Small World” (For some reason, that song just sticks in my head). The United States is facing an increasingly competitive world marketplace so one has to ask how well our education system has stepped up to meet the demand for graduates skilled enough to keep our country ahead of the pack. According to one survey of more than 400 Fortune 500 companies, we may not be doing too well.

Released last September, “The Workforce Readiness Report Card” from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management found our nation’s latest graduates “woefully ill-prepared for the demands of today’s—and tomorrow’s—workplace.”

The report identified certain skills that are critical to success in today’s workforce including:

  1. a combination of basic knowledge and applied skills, with applied skills surpassing basics;
  2. professionalism/work ethic, teamwork/collaboration, and oral communications, are the three most important applied skills;
  3. knowledge of foreign languages is more important than any other basic skill;
  4. and creativity/innovation, which will become even more important in the future.

Many professions are placing much greater value on the applied skills of leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving than on more traditional basic skills such as reading comprehension or mathematics. This does not suggest employers do not care about the basic skill level of new employees but rather that they seek a balance of the basic and applied skills.

This is the same skill set that the law enforcement community is looking for in new recruits, particularly those agencies that subscribe to community policing philosophies. This means that private industry is competing for the attentions of the same graduates that police departments and sheriff’s offices are trying to attract.

A Little Competition Can Be A Bad Thing

Most supervisors realize that a little competition in the workplace can be a good thing. Competition often serves as a motivator resulting in increased performance at all levels. However, for competition to have a positive impact, all of the players must realize that they are in the game. Unfortunately, too many criminal justice agencies may not realize that the game is on and the other team in playing to win.

In order to attract and retain the best qualified personnel, criminal justice agencies must realize that this game is about actively recruiting – not hiring. Several years ago, law enforcement agencies in our area went through a similar dry spell where they were having difficulty finding qualified applicants. I was present during a meeting of agency administrators where the issue was brought up for discussion. I sat with my pen poised to record all the innovative ideas that these administrators had developed to address this problem. After approximately twenty minutes of discussion, the consensus of the group was that the problem was only temporary and the best strategy would be to just “tough it out.”

Unfortunately, this time around, the problem is not temporary and it is impacting all types of criminal justice agencies. Any agency administrator that decides the solution to his or her employment issues is to just continue doing business as usual, will be relegated to selecting employees from the bottom of the barrel – or maybe even having to look under the barrel.

What Is The Solution?

There is no silver bullet that will solve the problem of attracting the best qualified personnel to the law enforcement profession. However, this series of articles will attempt to identify some strategies that criminal justice agencies may want to consider if they are experiencing problems in the area of recruitment and retention of good people. I will get the ball rolling but if you have a comment or recommendation, click on the “Comments” link below and leave a comment. We will all benefit from the synergy of the group.

Other articles in this series:

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part II
Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part III

Discipline #4 – Deciding When To Discipline

March 8, 2012 – 8:00 am

DisciplineAs we have previously discussed, the purpose of discipline is not to punish – it’s to change unacceptable behavior into acceptable behavior and help get a good performer back on track.

Another critical factor to consider is when to discipline. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to discipline employees when you are angry with them. This may cause you to place the emphasis on emotions instead of the employee behavior that resulted in the discipline.

The best way to ensure that you are not emotional when you discipline an employee is to develop and follow a systematic process for investigating personnel incidents.

First, gather all the fact about the incident. Make sure you check your emotions at the door and consider only the facts.

Next, take the time to write a narrative of your findings in a concise manner. This will later serve as your documentation of the facts as determined through your investigation.

Next, pull out your policy manual and determine if there is written policy or procedure that addressed the situation. Make sure that you include a copy of the policy with your narrative.

This next step will require that you step back from the incident and evaluate whether the rule is both fair and enforceable. Oftentimes, you will find yourself in a situation where, depending upon the interpretation of the policy, a violation may have occurred. However, if you are dealing with a good employee, a fair supervisor should always give the benefit of any doubt to the employee.

However, you should review past experience with similar violations and discuss the situation with your Human Resources personnel. Absent any extenuating circumstances, make sure you are consistent and fair.

Above all remain unemotional and impartial and do not attempt to discipline an employee until you have gotten rid of your anger.

It is a good practice to approach disciplinary situations like a problem-solving process. Identify the problem, develop a list of possible solutions, implement the best solution and follow up to evaluate the effectiveness of the solution.

Keep in mind that an effective agency does not rely on punishment to intimidate employees into compliance with policies. You can get away with ruling by intimidation for a little while but it will eventually have an impact on employee retention. The bottom line is people do not want to work in an intimidating environment. Instead, try to simply hold employees accountable for meeting standards and use discipline to correct unacceptable behavior.

Here is the deal, employees are motivated by personal responsibility and loyalty, rather than fear. As a result, morale will usually be much higher because employees will know what is expected. They can concentrate on doing their jobs and you will not have to spend all you time handing out reprimands and suspensions so you may actually have time to do more productive activities.

This is the final article in this four part series. If you would like to read the other articles in this four part series, just type “discipline” in the search box or click on the “Supervision” category in the right column.

My Essentials of Effective Supervision course includes an extensive discussion of employee discipline and a variety of other topics that will improve your supervisory skills. This four day course is pre-approved for DCJS in-service credit in Virginia so it can be conducted at any location. For more information, send me an e-mail at rich@rlsei.com or give me a call at 540.797.3853.

Discipline #3 – Hitting A Moving Target

March 7, 2012 – 8:00 am

DisciplineWhen an employee violates department rules and regulations or personnel policies, you may need to enforce them by disciplining the employee. In order to get the maximum effectiveness from a disciplinary action, it is important to do so as close to the incident as practicable.

It’s also essential that the action you take be impartial and fair. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Keep in mind that “fairness” is an elusive concept that is largely a perception on the part of others and ourselves. This means that trying to achieve “fairness” can be like trying to hit a moving target since perceptions change depending on circumstances.

I wish I could provide a list of steps that a supervisor could take to insure that they are treating all employees fairly. Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to come up with a generic set of instructions that will work in all circumstances. Although I cannot tell you what you should do in every circumstance, I can tell you what you should “not” do. Always keep in mind that there is nothing as unfair as treating unequal people equally. This is where you pause, back up and re-read that last sentence. In other words, when a star performer makes an error, you do not have to feel compelled to treat her the same as you would the guy who is just a clock puncher. In fact, I would contend that it is fine to let an employee trade in a few “attaboys” for an “oh crap.”

However, generally consequences should be applied evenly, so make sure that you discipline impartially. If employees see that Scott is always late but gets just a verbal warning, whereas Pam is written up the first time she shows up l0 minutes late, you’ve damaged your credibility. In addition, this type of discipline becomes a form of punishment for less favored employees rather than a tool to help maintain agency standards.

In addition, favoritism opens the door to charges of discrimination. Make sure that the rules and consequences are applied equally to all employees. If you decide to make an exception, document the reasons for your decision. If you cannot articulate a good reason for applying the rules inconsistently, you may be treating some employees unfairly due to a personal bias. This can get you into hot water on a variety of levels.

Next, make sure that the rules are consistently enforced. You are not the Pope so don’t give special dispensation to your employees. Your employees need to understand that they are expected to live up to the rules everyday. If a policy or rule is broken, enforce the consequences.

Following these guidelines will eliminate much of the need to discipline. All you need to do is establish a work environment where employees are treated as adults. If your employees are informed of the rules and held accountable for their actions, they will generally respond by adopting professional work habits.

If you would like to read the other articles in this four part series, just type “discipline” in the search box or click on the “Supervision” category in the right column.

My Essentials of Effective Supervision course includes an extensive discussion of employee discipline and a variety of other topics that will improve your supervisory skills. This four day course is pre-approved for DCJS in-service credit in Virginia so it can be conducted at any location. For more information, send me an e-mail at rich@rlsei.com or give me a call at 540.797.3853.

Discipline #2 – Color Me Blue

March 6, 2012 – 8:00 am

DisciplineYears ago, I worked for a very safety conscious outfit that was seeking national accreditation. A coworker of mine was entering his final year of employment before retirement so he was assigned the task of putting together the department’s first comprehensive safety manual. He worked very diligently on the project and about ten months later, he came into my cubical to ceremoniously present me with my copy of the completed manual. He also presented me with document that I had to sign stating that I had received and read the three inch manual. He was quite pleased when I told him how happy I was to receive the voluminous document. However, his smile quickly faded when I immediately placed the three-ring binder on the floor to block open the door to my cubical. To my knowledge, that safety manual was never moved again – and I definitely never read it!  (Note:  Most of the policies pertained to the lab personnel and I worked in training.)

Are your employees using your policy manual for unintended purposes like blocking open a door or window? How do you know that they have read and understand your policies. Many agencies require employees to sign a document certifying that they have read and understand the manual but face it, many employees will never read the your policy manual. Let’s be realistic, reading agency policies is almost as interesting as reading the telephone book. To make matters worse, the size of the policy manual for many accredited agencies has ballooned to over four inches or even multiple volumes.

I fear that we may be fast approaching the point where it is no longer reasonable to expect employees to be familiar with of the nuances of this great American novel that we call a policy manual. I picture a scenario where an employee’s attorney puts the chief or sheriff on the stand during a grievance hearing and quizzes him on the content of the policy manual. Unfortunately, many criminal justice administrators may not familiar enough with their policy manuals to withstand this type of examination. Of course, if the chief or sheriff is unable to answer the attorney’s questions about his policies, the court may question the reasonableness of expecting his subordinates to know the policies. Fortunately, there are some simple adjustments that can be made to the policy manual to help avoid this scenario.

I know this will sound like heresy to the accrediting entities but not all of those standards, and their associated policies, are equal in importance. For instance, if you knew that an officer was only going to read two policies, would you rather he read the use of force and pursuit policies or the policies that discuss vacation time and educational benefits? No brainer, right? Well why not simply identify the “critical” policies and print them on a different color paper – maybe blue. These “blue policies” should include all of the policies that address high liability enforcement issues. So how will you make sure that the officers have read and understand these critical policies? Test them! That’s right, everyone from supervisors on down should be required to take a written quiz on the key points of these “blue policies.”

Now that you have identified a workable process do not stop with just critical policies. Next, identify the “important” policies and print them on tan paper. These “tan policies” may not involve life and death issues but they should address issues that are important to the effective operation of the agency. These policies, along with the “blue policies”, should be used as the basis for daily roll call training.

The balance of the policies should address “reference” issues and they should be printed on white paper. The “white policies” should be comprised of policies that are not important for the day to day operation of the agency. Vacation, sick leave and educational assistance policies might fall into this group.

This color coding system breaks the policy manual “elephant” into manageable sections. More importantly, all employees are put on notice that they will be held accountable for knowing the “blue policies.” Provided that the number of “blue policies” are held to a minimum, a court is more likely to determine that it is reasonable to expect all officers to be thoroughly familiar with these policies. As a result, if an officer violates a “blue policy” and disciplinary action becomes necessary, the agency is more likely to successfully defend against a grievance.

If you would like to read the other articles in this four part series, just type “discipline” in the search box or click on the “Supervision” category in the right column.

My Essentials of Effective Supervision course includes an extensive discussion of employee discipline and a variety of other topics that will improve your supervisory skills. This four day course is pre-approved for DCJS in-service credit in Virginia so it can be conducted at any location. For more information, send me an e-mail at rich@rlsei.com or give me a call at 540.797.3853.

Discipline #1 – Before You Drop The Hammer

March 5, 2012 – 8:00 am

DisciplineOne of the most difficult tasks that a supervisor must perform is the disciplining of employees. Some supervisors are afraid of coming down too hard and coming off as the bad guy. Others try too hard to show that they are “the boss” and wind up alienating employees and causing resentment. Still others prefer to take the path of least resistance and just ignore a situation that requires discipline in the hopes that it will go away. All of these approaches usually prove to be unsuccessful.

Disciplinary action is most effective when it is administered very selectively. If you find yourself handing out reprimands and suspension frequently, then you have a problem. Contrary to popular perception, discipline is not necessarily a punishment – it is a tool to correct unacceptable behavior and get the employee back on the right track.

The first and most basic rule of disciplining is, in order to know when they are breaking the rules, employees first need to know what the rules are. Make sure that your subordinates have a copy of the employee handbook, the policy manual and any other relevant rules or regulations. (We will discuss the nuances of constructing a usable policy manual in a future article) You may even want to invite a representative from the Human Resources Department to roll call to conduct a refresher course so that all of your folks understand the guidelines that govern the workplace.

Next, your subordinates need to understand what you expect from them. Spell out what it takes to be successful in your unit or department. For example, do not expect everyone to know that you are a stickler for clean work spaces or punctuality unless you have said so. If employees are expected to come in early and stay late, it’s important that they are told that. Remember that the “unwritten rules” of the workplace are not worth the paper they are written on – or something like that.

I will explore other disciplinary issues in future articles and I expect you to read them all in a timely manner. See how easy it is to tell people what you expect?

If you would like to read the other articles in this four part series, just type “discipline” in the search box or click on the “Supervision” category in the right column.

My Essentials of Effective Supervision course includes an extensive discussion of employee discipline and a variety of other topics that will improve your supervisory skills. This four day course is pre-approved for DCJS in-service credit in Virginia so it can be conducted at any location. For more information, send me an e-mail at rich@rlsei.com or give me a call at 540.797.3853.

Preparing Better Police Supervisors

February 7, 2012 – 20:10 pm

SupervisionIf you get a group of cops together, sooner or later the conversation will turn to supervisors and quite often the stories usually aren’t pretty. Why is it that there seems to be a disproportionate number of bad supervisors in law enforcement?

Impact of the Police Personality

Is it because of the personalities that are attracted to the job? Certainly, the law enforcement community is not staffed by shrinking violets. In the article “Just a Typical Cop” published on Officer.com, Michael Wasilewski and Althea Olson described a 1975 study by researchers Robert Hogan and William Kurtines. The researcher administered the California Personality Inventory (CPI) to a group of police candidates. Of the nineteen different scales on the CPI, nine were significantly different for the candidates who were eventually hired versus the unsuccessful candidates. The successful candidates:

  1. were more assertive (dominance scale)
  2. had greater potential for social mobility (capacity for status scale)
  3. had greater social poise and self-confidence (social presence scale)
  4. had a greater sense of self-worth (self-acceptance scale)
  5. had more need for autonomous achievement (achievement via independence scale)
  6. had more functional intelligence (intellectual efficiency scale)
  7. were more psychological-minded (psychological-mindedness scale)
  8. were more masculine (femininity scale)
  9. possessed greater social acuity (empathy scale)

One could look at this list of personality traits and conclude that they would also serve as a good profile for first-line supervisor candidates. Unfortunately, other studies suggest that the personality of officers may actually evolve as their experience level increases. They suggest that less desirable traits such as distrust of outsiders, cynicism, resistance to change, suspicion and pessimism are often identified in veteran officers. Interestingly, the researchers suggest that these changes may actually enhance the officers’ ability to perform their job as a street officer.

Unfortunately, they are not the ideal traits that we are looking for in a supervisor. When most agencies begin the screening process for first-line supervision candidates, superior performance as a patrol officer normally is one of the fundamental considerations. It is a bit paradoxical that the traits that make an officer effective on the street and qualify him for consideration as a supervisor may actually inhibit him once he is promoted.

Don’t Fail to Prepare

Today’s work environment is considerably more complicated than it was in the not so distant past. In many organizations, new supervisors receive little or no specific training for their additional responsibilities. Many agencies assume that new supervisors will “pick up” what they need to know as they go along.

However in today’s work environment, few agencies have escaped some kind of restructuring. Whether you call it a hiring freeze, downsizing, or layoffs, the effect is the same – fewer workers to do more work.

As a result of this uncertainty, agency loyalty is an obsolete concept. Highly skilled and certified officers jump ship readily when a better offer comes along and it is increasingly difficult to fill entry level jobs requiring only minimal skills. To make matters even more problematical, a plethora of legislation in recent years has dramatically increased the potential for lawsuits filed by employees or job candidates against organizations or prospective employers.

Given the realities of our current economic environment, to put a supervisor on the job without training is to invite disaster. Supervisors today frequently hold down a full or substantial workload in addition to their supervisory responsibilities. Supervision has always been a big job, but it’s a bigger one today. The difference lies in the dramatically expanded scope of supervisory duties in recent years.

There is an old adage about how an agency should determine when to look outside the organization to hire a new police chief. It says if you are happy with what you have, hire from within. If you are looking for change, hire in fresh blood. The basis for this adage is that people tend to draw from their experience when they make decisions. This is very true for new supervisors. Unless something is done to challenge a new supervisor’s attitudes based on his experiences, he or she will supervise in a manner similar to the manner in which they were supervised.

I am a proponent of grooming officers and deputies who demonstrate certain attributes, including an intellectual capability, personality profile and work ethic that are consistent with the goals of the agency. This “grooming” should consist of a combination of specialized training and mentoring. The first step is to send the officer or deputy to a basic instructor certification training course. The reason I suggest this as a first step is most basic instructor courses include blocks of instruction on adult learning, effective communication and methods of instruction – which are critical skills that any good supervisor must master. In addition, this course teaches students how to organize a course of instruction and present it effectively in front of an audience.

The second course that any potential supervisory candidate should attend is a field training officer certification course. This course normally builds on the topics that were presented in the basic instructor class and should also include a block of instruction on conducting effective evaluations. As a field training officer, the officer or deputy will experience the trials and tribulations of supervision, if only on a limited one on one scale. Of course the benefits of participating in a field training officer program can be greatly enhanced if a sergeant or lieutenant uses the opportunity to mentor the field training officer as he guides his new recruit officer through the process.

Next, I believe that any officer or deputy that desires to pursue a career path that includes supervision should be afforded the opportunity to attend an introductory supervision training course before being promoted. In larger departments, this can be quite a lofty goal and a logistical nightmare, particular at the sergeant level where the number of candidates can be substantial. To address this issue, I developed an online training course entitled Essential of Effective Supervision. This course is divided into eight sections that are composed of two to four modules each. One large agency that contracts with my company simply enrolls all of their personnel in the various sections. If an officer wants to take the course, it is available to him. In addition to the obvious training value of the course, completion of a class that isn’t mandatory definitely speaks highly of those who complete the course. This can legitimately be a consideration when deciding which of the similarly qualified candidates to promote.

Next, once a new supervisor is promoted, he or she should be scheduled to attend the next available classroom first-line supervision course. There are a variety of these courses available ranging from a few days in length to multi-week residential courses like the Administrative Officers Management Program (AOMP) in Raleigh, NC. A good first-line supervision course should include instruction on a variety of supervisory topics such as sexual harassment, OSHA standards, managing police organizations and evaluation procedures. It is important to evaluate the instructional curriculum closely to insure that the instructional philosophy is consistent with your organizational goals.

Finally, each new supervisor should be assigned to an experienced supervisory mentor. The first year as a new supervisor can be very challenging. The newly promoted supervisor needs the guidance and support of a trusted mentor to help him or her get off on a good foot and avoid the the mine field of supervision.

If an agency invests the time and money to properly prepare new supervisors to succeed, they will reap many times the cost of their investment from decreased turn over and higher productivity. Remember if you fail to prepare your new supervisors you better prepare for them to fail.

Burning An ISO Image On A Mac

January 16, 2012 – 11:43 am

ISO ImageISO images are the format of choice for transfering large programs like Linux distribution. Without going into the specifics, you must download the data in an ISO format then burn it to a blank CD-ROM or DVD.

If you are using a Mac, you are in luck since the OSX operating system comes with the built-in Disk Utility. However, the process for burning an ISO image is a little counter intuitive so I though I would post them in this article for future reference. These are the steps for burning an ISO image to disc using a Mac:

  1. Insert a blank disc.
  2. Start Disk Utility.
  3. From the File menu, choose Open Disk Image and select the ISO to be burned.
  4. In the list of volumes, you will now see an item representing the ISO file. Select it.
  5. Click the Burn button and follow the instructions.

If you use a Windows or Linux computer, you are on your one since you will need burning software to burn the ISO image.

Add Old-time Radio Programs To Your MP3 Player

December 5, 2011 – 7:01 am

Old-time RadioI use my iPhone and iPod to listen to music at the gym and podcasts while driving. Now I have found something to give me a little variety – old-time radio programming.

The Internet Archive has a large selection of free and legal old radio programs like my favorite Dragnet. The shows are in MP3 format so you can listen on any music player or computer.

Click her to listen to Dragnet and other old-time radio shows

Get Help Making Your Résumé

November 28, 2011 – 10:54 am

résuméIn this economy, it would be a good idea to maintain an up to date resume. Fortunately, you can turn to the web for help with the process of putting together a professional looking resume or cv. pdfCV is a free service that will help you create your résumé and produce a PDF copy of it so you can email it to prospective employers.

Just sign up for a free account and they will walk you though the entire process. You can edit and download your résumé every time you apply for a position to get a personalized résumé for each prospective employer.

Click Here For pdfCV.com