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Officer.com - USA
05 October 2007

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Nurturing Misconduct

There is a Latin phrase often used when the oversight of law enforcement officers is discussed: Quis custodiet ipso custodes? (the first word is often cited without the �s�. Not being a Latin scholar, I can�t tell you which is correct.) It�s difficult to translate literally, but it comes out to something like �Who will watch the watchmen?� or �Who will watch the watchers themselves?� The idea is that there is always a question among the watched�in this case, the citizenry�about who will make sure that the police are doing their jobs, and doing them properly. It�s a valid concern.

Left to their own governance, just about anyone will start to goof off or only follow the rules that suit them, sooner or later. This applies to everyone from fast food workers to members of Congress�come to think of it, especially to members of Congress. So, although we hate to admit it, it�s actually good to have someone around who will kick us in the butt when necessary. This assumes, of course, that you are actually interested in getting the job done, or in doing it properly. That�s most of us. There will always be a few whose primary interest is in getting away with as much as they can. If the job is one that doesn�t lend itself to close supervision, or if the supervision is inadequate, then the worker can do exactly that. The worst of all worlds is when the supervisor is also one of the people subscribing to the minimalist work philosophy. If that happens, even well-planned controls are useless.

Police work is one of the jobs that isn�t supervised all that closely. The independent nature of the typical police assignment is one of the aspects that appeals to many cops. Most of the time, this isn�t because they fear being supervised. They just like the freedom that the job offers. You have to answer the radio and perform certain tasks as prescribed, but most of the time, you decide how you will spend your uncommitted time. You can work traffic, check doors and windows, stop in on the convenience store clerks, bartenders and security guards on your beat, visit all the vacation house checks, or just pull over and watch the world go by for a few minutes. Some of my most pleasant memories of patrol are nothing more than driving down the street with the window down and the radio turned low, not knowing what I was going to be involved in one minute from now, and appreciating that there were a thousand guys who would love to be me at this moment. I understand that last part even better now, because when I see a patrol car, I�m usually one of those thousand guys.

Of course, there are police supervisors, usually called �sergeants.� The sergeant is the first-line supervisor, with anywhere from zero to ten officers or other employees reporting to him. Because his subordinates are usually spread all over the jurisdiction, he has to rely heavily on spot checks of their work, reports from citizens, the quality and quantity of their paperwork, and what he hears over the radio. The supervisor can always follow his people to calls and show up at their traffic stops, but doing that too often lowers morale, makes him unable to accomplish the various administrative tasks he is assigned, and brands the sergeant as a micromanager.

The good sergeants learn the balance between being available and/or present when needed, and not harassing the troops. He will identify the emergent leaders among his flock and ask them to quietly look out for officers who are inexperienced or are having problems, counsel them when needed, and report back on their progress. He shows up on selected calls after the main festivities have ended, so that he can get the gist of what happened and bring in additional resources if needed. He gives the officers who will do the job the freedom to do it.

Unfortunately, not all sergeants are good sergeants, just as not all cops are good cops. Police work is unlike most other professions, in that being promoted through the organizational hierarchy often means that less, not more, is expected of you. There are a few others like this. In large law firms, new associates toil at 80 and 120-hour work weeks in the hopes of making partner. Once you�re there, the job is less lawyering and more bringing in and keeping business�being a �rainmaker.� Academia is similar. Instructors, lecturers and assistant professors teach multiple �preps� of courses, often taking on night classes, courses held at remote sites, and summer sessions all in the hope of being offered tenure. Once you get that, you might teach several classes, but they will be only one or two preps, so that they�re in essence giving the same lectures, papers and tests several times a week. Publish a paper that no one will ever read now and again, and you�re fixed for life.

In most private industry, where any expense reduces the bottom line, a promotion may mean more money and perquisites, but it also means more work and responsibility. It�s nice to have the big corner office and ride on the private jet, but the office is there for the frequent meetings the manager will chair, and the jet is a place where one is expected to meet and confer more and work while getting from A to B. Time is money. The typical big business executive is a driven, Type A person who challenges his subordinates to keep up with him. Slackers, they ain�t.

The police supervisor and manager can be like this, too, but there is often a tremendous opportunity to be a slug, if that�s the objective. Sergeants respond to very few calls�lieutenants and above go to none, or close to it. The sergeant can be so laissez-faire that he never sees his troops anywhere outside the station. One sergeant I know of was known to the troops as �the eternal flame.� He never went out.

The sergeant who does this has little idea of what his troops are up to, in part by design. If he doesn�t know about any misconduct, he doesn�t have to do any personnel investigations or follow-up, doesn�t do extra paperwork, and continues to live his working life in blissful ignorance. Well, that�s not entirely true. Cops are some of the most vicious gossips in creation, and there isn�t much that goes on in a police agency and remains secret for long. If an officer is engaging in a pattern of misconduct, you can bet someone knows about it.

How is it that the sergeant is allowed to do this? It happens because his lieutenant is practicing the same level of nonfeasance, as is the captain, and so on. This chain non-reaction perpetuates throughout the agency for generations of cops, because the old regime will see to it that the people coming up are people who won�t rock the boat. This is one of the ways that an organizational culture develops and entrenches.

Law enforcement organizations plagued with this kind of problem are not only ripe for officer misconduct, they also have no hope of progressing in any meaningful way. Doing something new means that someone has to acquire more knowledge, and even worse, might have to take a risk that the venture doesn�t work. No, too much trouble.

This is where strong leadership is critical. If the chief executive decides that he is going to coast into retirement, the people he serves are screwed. But if the top dog starts holding people accountable, provides incentives to excel, and ensures there are consequences for poor performance, the results can be breathtaking. When William Bratton was the police commissioner in New York City, he initiated the Compstat program. Compstat tracked all sorts of measurements of performance for cops: absenteeism, hours lost to on duty injuries, cases closed, crimes reported, summonses written. Periodically, meetings were held where precinct and unit commanders stood in front of the assembly and reported their progress, and then were grilled on how they were addressing their deficiencies. Those that didn�t have good answers were told to report to One Police Plaza for reassignment. If they couldn�t or wouldn�t do the job, it was time to find someone that would. When the survivors, or their replacements, got back to the office, you can bet that the stuff started rolling downhill and lower-echelon managers were given their marching orders. Cops were forced to get out of their comfort zones, and crime rates dropped.

Poor supervision doesn�t create bad cops, but it does nurture them. The good cops that work with the bad ones can continue to strive for excellence, but they will escape recognition for it until the regime changes or they move someplace where their efforts will be more appreciated. More often, they succumb to the standard of mediocrity and become one of those people that Thoreau described, leading quiet lives of desperation.

This is another area where the cops are relatively powerless to change things. The individual cop that reports misconduct will not only take heat from his peers, he will be ridiculed or just ignored by his supervisor. If he is persistent, he�ll find himself the target of �package building,� where every transgression, real or imagined, is documented and held out for discipline, until there�s enough to fire him or he quits. This might sound overly dramatic, but it happens far more often than most people know.

The solution lies more with the citizen who has the tenacity to demand accountability from the local government, but most citizens are content to stay in their own comfort zones, not rock the boat, and not put forth any effort to make things better. Maybe this organizational culture thing is more contagious than I thought.

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Officer.com - USA05 October 2007

Nurturing Misconduct

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Officer.com - USA
05 October 2007