Leading The Small Police Department

Almost 90 percent of the police departments in the United States employ 25 officers or fewer. Many agencies are staffed by fewer than ten peacekeepers. The leaders of these small departments face some of the same challenges as do the bosses of larger departments, but they encounter many additional problems, as well, and they labor in a somewhat different environment. Much has been written to assist the CEO of the larger department. Much less effort has been devoted to aiding the smaller agency chief in navigating the operational, personnel, and political landscape to be found in the smaller community, to name but one of the challenges. This book is intended to fill that knowledge gap. The author is a 52-year veteran of law enforcement who has served as a successful police chief in cities of 8,000, 23,000, and over 100,000 citizens. The book is a compilation of real-world experience and lessons learned, bolstered by the observations of many other police chiefs. Its goal is to assist the small agency chief in building and maintaining an exceptional police department. It is additionally designed to assist the leader in enjoying a successful and rewarding career for as long as he or she chooses to be employed there. This is not a book about leadership or management theory. Rather, it is a handbook focused upon providing practical, time-proven advice for handling the small department chief’s daily fare of challenges and opportunities. It will prove equally useful to the leader of a larger police department, but the focus will remain on the small agency boss.

Based on forty years of extensive experience, the author draws on current knowledge to provide a thorough overview of the highs and lows of the job. The book provides practical, common sense advice for doing the multitude of jobs the chief faces with effectiveness and efficiency. It furnishes sound advice intended to help the chief retain his physical, emotional and ethical health while leading a professional law enforcement agency. Chapter topics include advice on taking control of the police department and setting the agenda in place, emphasizing the extreme importance of role modeling the behavior that the chief expects of his people, the requirements for a productive relationship with the chiefOCOs top staff, exploring the multifaceted relationship a chief has with his employees, guidelines for managing relations with the various factions that make up the community, getting along with the boss, discipline and the role of the chief in this vital process, deciding on a course of action when things go wrong, the death of a police officer, officer-involved shootings, misconduct, and a good working relationship with the media. Each chapter concludes with OC Points to RememberOCO that will be beneficial to the new police chief in order to avoid previous mistakes and build on the body of knowledge that constitutes professional law enforcement leadership. This resource will be invaluable to all law enforcement professionals, policymakers, and police academics."

The purpose of this book is to provide the first-line leader with practical, time-proven guidance for making decisions that range from the seemingly mundane to the life-critical. The text emphasizes the importance of common sense applied to sound decision-making, and provides the first-line leader with the insight, experience, talents, and skills to meet specific challenges. The following topics are featured: why decision-making is important; assessing your people; employee grievances and fair decisions; setting a good example; making decisions concerning employee performance; disciplinary decision-making; troubled employees and compassionate decision-making; identifying high-risk behavior; keeping your officers alive; tactical decision-making; decision-making in critical incidents; handling media encounters; how to fix communication breakdowns; surviving the difficult boss and what your supervisor expects; surviving an organization's politics; making decisions when unsure of yourself; and making career plans. The embodiment of the text lies in its ability to involve the reader in tasks that must be accomplished following the use of lethal force by an officer, the leader's key duties and responsibilities to citizenry and his organization, responding effectively to high-risk, on the street scenarios, while simultaneously maintaining true professional calm and even-handedness. This book will be useful as a learning tool for those interested in preparing themselves for law enforcement supervisory or management positions, policymakers, and police academies.

With renewed interest in both emergency management and homeland security, disproportionate attention and resources have been focused on terrorist threats. However, natural hazards pose a far greater risk of death, injury, and property damage to the typical American jurisdiction. Hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes cause billions of dollars in damage and substantial numbers of deaths and injuries each year. The aim of this book is to focus on these natural hazards and the linkage between law enforcement and emergency management. It draws from criminal justice, psychology, public administration, emergency management, public health, meteorology, leadership, and management in an effort to synthesize a wealth of knowledge to better prepare police officers to respond to the complete range of emergencies and disasters they encounter on the job. Emergency Management for Law Enforcement: Strategies, Operations, and Tactics will help to better integrate law enforcement officers with other first responder agencies as they work together to resolve critical incidents. It pulls together important information obtained from empirical research and disaster experience. This knowledge is designed to help law enforcement officers deal with disasters and emergencies more effectively as important players in emergency management. Learning these evidence-based practical applications will assist police officers in making better decisions in order to take more effective actions at critical incident scenes.

This book has been written specifically for the leadership and management needs of the law enforcement professional. Most examples in this book are real-life examples and will relate directly to law enforcement, and therefore should be practical to the law enforcement professional. This book will discuss many principles of leadership. It will provide stories, examples, and experiences that offer lessons and takeaways linked directly to leadership principles. It will also dive into management and law enforcement-specific topics as to how you might drive performance, maintain accountability, or just do a more effective job as a supervisor. The ideas and suggestions made in this book are founded on sound leadership behaviors. The content is practical, and though the foundational leadership principles are nothing new, they are presented differently and specifically to law enforcement. Everything rises and falls on your ability to lead. All the supervisors in your organization may be carrying out the same tasks as expected of your organization's management. However, whether they are successful or whether their work group is effective will depend on the type of leaders they are. This book shows how a person can take action to eliminate or minimize leadership voids to enhance their ability to lead and develop high-performing, successful work groups. The book has a useful appendix, and references have been included for the reader to continue to grow and seek out materials that reinforce the principles presented.

This is the only book in existence that discusses the process of documenting an investigation from start to finish. It presents just about everything an investigator needs to know regarding how to document an investigation. This new edition builds upon the principles outlined in the first edition, but the new edition has a criminal defense bent, with numerous case examples provided that include insurance claims and civil litigation, criminal defense, murders, sexual assaults, and other serious felonies, particularly wrongful convictions. These require meticulous documentation. Proper documentation matters most in criminal cases. This book therefore will focus also on the rights of those accused of crimes. The first chapter discusses the five primary principles of investigative documentation: taking comprehensive notes; documenting every effort to contact witnesses and all surveillance; preparing reports whenever there is any possibility of needing to testify; taking verbatim statements from hostile witnesses and declarations from friendly witnesses; and providing all case documents to the client or maintaining a document retention plan. The second chapter details the numerous misconceptions pertaining to investigative documentation. This chapter sets the stage for the remaining chapters on note-taking, running resumes, reports, statements, and documentation retention. Each chapter is broken down into four or five sections that approximate the methods used to complete that particular documentary endeavor. The book also contains an exhaustive appendix that many investigators will find to be very useful. This is an advanced book for people who already have the necessary skills to do an investigation. By following the principles outlined in this book, investigators will see the quality of their investigations improve markedly and ultimately be more successful. Although the authors have chosen to refocus the second edition on criminal defense investigations, where proper documentation is most important, the principles herein remain the benchmark of how to document any investigation in the private sector.

This book provides knowledge on the history of law enforcement and its development and explains the factors leading to the evolution of the modern police officer. The first chapter provides information about the book’s purpose and methods of data collection and analysis. The next two chapters summarize ancient forms of law enforcement in Europe and the Middle East. Chapters Four through Ten describe the eras of American history from the early settlements to the modern metropolitan areas and how law enforcement evolved to serve and protect through these eras. Chapters Eleven and Twelve explain the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and how this legislation affected law enforcement through increased availability of equipment and opportunities for education for all personnel in the criminal justice system. Chapters Thirteen through Fifteen describe specific problems that have developed throughout modern American society and how law enforcement has responded to these problems. Chapter Sixteen summarizes the evolution of police technology and how it affects the most visible member of policing: the patrol officer. Chapter Seventeen reviews the recent criticism and politicization of law enforcement. The final chapter provides conclusions that can be reached about the past and recommendations for improvement in the future. Whether the reader is a college student preparing to enter a career in criminal justice or a seasoned professional, this book will help avoid systemic mistakes of the past. For politicians, journalists, educators, and other people whose professions take them close to law enforcement personnel, this book will explain the evolution of those who have chosen to serve and protect and how they have gone from captured slaves to caring professionals.

The Police Manager gives practical, field-tested guidance to students and professionals who aspire to leadership roles in law enforcement, providing a comprehensive explanation of issues and challenges that they will face as police supervisors. The book is divided into four parts, covering historical and philosophical underpinnings, behavioral aspects of police management, functional aspects of police management, and major issues in modern police work.