Tater Take: Supervision from a beat cop's perspective

Cops and their supervisors; if you want an earful ask a cop about the worst supervisor they've worked for and grab a seat, and maybe some popcorn.  Every cop has the horrible supervisor story, and probably more than one.  Why is it some supervisors don't see why they are being bad at the job they are supposed to do?

I've found that bad supervisors were never the real, working police.  And the ones that were, have forgotten what it's like.

Any cop reading this can point out their good/great supervisors.  The ones that they didn't mind working for or when the supervisor asked for volunteers or for some sort of activity, the officers gladly went and did it.  I have had several really good supervisors, and still do, and while I am not a supervisor (yet...maybe one day?) I have been in positions of leadership or supervising in my life.

The best supervisors I have had have done police work or been on a team of sorts (tact, gang, narcotics, etc.).  They know how paper should be written and how crimes should be explained in the narratives.  They are also very willing to take the time to help while treating their officers like the professionals they are.  Kicking back a report with a "fix narrative" and no other direction doesn't help the new officer.  They also reward their officers for a good job, whether that is department awards or recognition or a personal note.

Captain James Lavoy, who passed away a few years ago, hand signed a note addressed to me after assisting on a gun arrest.  It was my first one as a new officer on the job, and while nothing to write home about (it was a west side guy with a gun in Chicago) the note meant a lot to me.  In fact, I still have it and it still does mean a lot.

Whether you are a field sergeant or a sergeant running a team, when your people do good work make sure you reward them.  In today's world where cops are under extreme scrutiny (good or bad) your officers are battered from just about everywhere else and we hope to have a "safe place" to be (TRIGGERED).  Getting an honorable mention, or put in for other awards for doing police work, or even just recognizing individual accomplishments, will go a long way to maintaining morale.

I know some crotchety old sarge is thinking right now, "Give you an award for JUST doing your job?  What is this, participation trophies?"

More on that in a moment...

A lieutenant, or captain, or commander has a much more important role.  Coppers and their sergeants will bond differently, the separation gap due to rank isn't that big.  However when you got those bars or leaves, your role shifts.  Some of the best bosses have been the ones that were in tune to their officers.  Getting an honorable from an immediate supervisor has it's feel goods, but when someone with more authority stops an officer in the hall and thanks them for their good work, that officer's whole demeanor will shift.  I've watched it, I've experienced it too, and when one of my bosses thanks me for a job that I sometimes think is just "normal", I know I've done something good.  Ask any cop that has had their commanding officer thank them for an arrest or action taken, and they will tell you how they felt.

Bad bosses are the ones that will "congratulate" an officer and then immediately ask for something more.  If your goal praising someone is to get something for yourself, get better numbers for your bosses, or earn yourself praise from your higher ups, then it is nothing more than two-faced.  While that might work for a while, it will be uncovered and you can watch your officers begin to avoid working under or around you.  I've seen it, and I've watched coppers leave districts, watches, or even the job because of it.

It's Not A Participation Trophy

Zig Zigler was famous for pontificating "If you help enough people get what they want, you'll automatically get what you want."

Here's what seems to be missing right now for a lot of big city departments: Bosses who care.

I realize that a lot of being a commissioner or chief or sheriff or superintendent is a balance of politics and lip-service, I get it.  Many are elected, as in the case of sheriffs, or appointed by a council or mayor or some other elected official.  So you need to play the game, in a sense.  However that doesn't mean it needs to be the problem of your subordinates as well.

Here's what I mean by that: if you're demanding activity from your next in rank, they are going to their next in line, and so on and so forth until the beat cop is being order-asked during roll call.  And if you're a bad supervisor you probably led more with ordered with a sprinkling of threats.

So, that's where the front line supervisors who are immediately over the working cops come into play.  When your guys and gals go out there and do work, whether asked or told, and they come in with a good arrests it's your job to reward them.  

This isn't a participation trophy, this is a direct reflection of you and your leadership.

If you can't find a way to reward your working officers, then create something. We have Honorable Mentions as the lowest form of official department recognition.  Like Capt. Jame Lavoy above, even a note with your signature means something, and it might be the one thing to keep a new officer around, or an veteran officer active and engaged.  Now that we got the feel goods out of the way for your front line cops, I'm sure (if you're a supervisor) you're asking "Whats in it for me?".

Glad you asked...

After Gary McCarthy was the super here in Chicago he brought this NYPD metric tool called 'Compstat'.  While I've never been in the room with one, I've talked to enough bosses to know it basically is the higher command staff yelling at the district and unit level command staff about their activity like arrests, PCIs, traffic stops, ISRs, and so on.  While having the numbers to crunch is great, it has always been the numbers that get cops in trouble.  

When supervisors reward numbers, cops that want the recognition will go after those numbers and eventually cut corners.  Now I'm not talking boot-stomping civilians with no regard to the Constitution, but the work becomes about getting the number and not actual good police work.  Traffic stops that could result in a good arrest now become about getting a number for a vehicle stop made, and then the stop is over and onto the next.

So if the goal is to incentivize officers for their good police work, and rewards can be a motivating thing, why not start off with the awards your district or unit has earned?

If I was a district commander I would first and foremost want the awards my officers were put in for.  I'd proudly stand before whomever and read off the number of life saving awards, department commendations, what officers were put in for the officer of the month, or traffic stop of the month, or top gun arrest.  I'd share the details to those awards, especially the more prestigious ones, especially the life saving ones.  If the upper echelon of leadership in a department can be more in-tune to their officers on the front line, then the gap of rank seems a little smaller.

Like I've already mentioned, the good bosses are the ones that get in the squad cars with their officers and hit the streets together.  While I don't expect every boss can do that, especially the large departments, if that gap in rank can be shrunk just a little, I'd imagine that the officers out on the street will feel a little more energized to do proactive work.  The numbers that are used to determine what is happening where, what resources are needed, and so on are great, for getting an idea of what is happening.  The data can be entered into a spreadsheet, plotted on a map, or used to write articles on how department resources being deployed are because of racism (yeah...that's my dig at the media).

But the real bosses, the working bosses, the ones that didn't forget where they came from and who they were once upon a time should be plotting those numbers for their officers earning awards.  I'd bet that if the district and unit level commanders did that, and then told their officers what the other districts were looking like in the same categories, they would see their officers go out in on the streets with some friendly competition to look forward to.  Police work attracts the driven, Type-A personalities for the most part, and no one likes to be the first place loser, so why not benefit your officers by allowing them to work how they want so it benefits themselves and generates the numbers you need?

Whoa, whoa, whoa Potatoes, that manipulation!

No, manipulation is telling your officers they will get their day off requests denied, they can't have that extension for their furlough, they are shuffled around on start times, they can't work with their usual partner unless they do X, Y, and Z for YOU.

Telling them another watch got X number of whatevers over the last week, or so many arrests for [insert major crime pattern that needs to be addressed] were made by the station right next door, or what goon squad tact team got for gun arrests last month is encouraging competition.  Friendly, engaging, and morale boosting competition.  But like any competition there needs to be some sort of reward at the end, so being cognizant of what your people are doing, and how you can reward them, will go a long way into keeping morale up and good, solid activity flowing.

And if you're a boss that is so high up on the food chain that 99% of your department can only look up and see your sparkling asshole, instead of asking what your officers did, ask: 

Who did they help?  

What they've earned for recognition?

How are they highlighting the mission and values of the department?

I'd bet, and I'd bet a lot, if those were the questions first asked when talking about "stats" the leadership in a department would have to do very little coercion to, I mean correction, in the long run for the officers out there on the streets.  The cops that got into the job for the right reasons would be excited on their own to go do something knowing there was appropriate recognition in it for them.

Maybe, just maybe, there wouldn't be such a hiring crisis for law enforcement right now and morale would improve without the beatings if a few supervisors throughout the rank structure took it upon themselves to check on the heartbeat of the officers they supervise.

Or maybe I'm just talking out my Pollyanna ass and I need to STFU and go get the PCI.