Supervising in a Community Policing Environment

1. Supervising in a Community Policing Environment Dr. Phillip Lyons Texas Regional Community Policing Institute

2. Introduction Phillip Lyons Asst. Prof. SHSU Ph.D.--Forensic Psychology, 1997 J.D.--(Law), M.A., 1994 B.S.--Behavioral Science, 1988 A.A.S.--L.E./Police Admin., 1985 Former Detective--Alvin Police Dept. Master Peace Officer Asst. Dir. T.R.C.P.I

3. SECTION I The Evolution of Policing in America

4. The Evolution of Policing in America • The Political Era • The Reform Era • The Community Era

5. What is Community Oriented Policing? Community Oriented Policing is a policing philosophy that promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem-solving tactics and community-police partnerships.

6. Consultation Adaptation Mobilization Community Policing A philosophy of police service delivery that rests on three essential elements:

7. Neighborhood meetings. Surveys. Telephone. One on one. The police must consult with citizens to determine the policing priorities. Consultation

8. Police agencies and personnel must be willing to change in order to address priorities identified in the consultation process. Challenge the traditional! New Methods. Adaptation

9. We must identify all stakeholders and resources and bring them to the table. Look both internally and externally. The police serve as a catalyst to drive them to action. Mobilization

10. SECTION II The Changing Roles for Supervisors and Managers

11. Traditional Management Style • rigid hierarchy--chain of command • strict supervision • tight control • limited officer discretion • thick bureaucratic regulations

12. Critique of Current State of Policing (Goldstein) The police field is preoccupied with management, internal procedures, and efficiency to the exclusion of appropriate concern for effectiveness in dealing with substantive problems.

13. How Does Supervision Need to Change?

14. Critique of Current State of Policing (Goldstein) The police devote most of their resources to responding to calls from citizens, reserving too small a percentage of their time and energy for acting on their own initiative to prevent or reduce community problems.

15. How Does Supervision Need to Change?

16. Critique of Current State of Policing (Goldstein) The community is a major resource with an enormous potential, largely untapped, for reducing the number and magnitude of problems that otherwise become the business of the police.

17. How Does Supervision Need to Change?

18. Critique of Current State of Policing (Goldstein) Within their agencies, police have readily available to them another huge resource: their rank-and-file officers, whose time and talent have not been used effectively.

19. How Does Supervision Need to Change?

20. Critique of Current State of Policing (Goldstein) Efforts to improve policing have often failed because they have not been adequately related to the overall dynamics and complexity of the police organization. Adjustments in policies and organizational structure are required to accommodate and support change.

21. How Does Supervision Need to Change?

22. Supervision Changes • Preoccupation • Resources • Community Potential • Rank and File Officers • Organizational Dynamics

23. Exercise:4 Equilateral Triangles

24. SECTION III Roadblocks to Implementation

25. What Roadblocks Do You Anticipate?

26. Common Roadblocks They have mastered the current system. Power as a zero sum game. Zero tolerance for experimentation and failure. Loss of promotional slots if organizations are flattened or downsized.

27. Common Roadblocks (contd.) It’s not police work. Problem solving and community engagement don’t make sense under current conditions. We didn’t try it, and it didn’t work. I’m on the B-Team. Paramilitarism.

28. Common Roadblocks (contd.) Accountability beyond authority. We’re too busy to change. The middle managers’ bosses encourage traditional policing. A Desire to stay in the loop.

29. Common Roadblocks (contd.) The management of community problem solving is hard work. Boosting Expectations: “If you think our crime clearance rates look bad, wait ‘til you see our problem closure rate.” People hate change.

30. Key Point: You, as a supervisor, can be a primary roadblock!

31. Exercise

32. Section IV How You Be a FacilitatorRather than a Roadblock

33. 1.Develop Communication Skills • Communication is a two way street. • Speaking. • Listening. • also consider the channel & feedback. • Talking with not at or to • Body Language.

34. Exercise

35. 2. Empower Your Officers • Discretion • Autonomy • Innovation

36. Be a part of the community, not apart from the community • Be an Active Member of the Community • Consider all Community Members as Stakeholders

37. Discuss with officers identified service demands. Assess, adjust, devise alternate, and implement plans as developed. Coordinate plans in multiple neighborhoods. Provide feedback to officers. Convey feedback to neighborhood groups. Sergeant’s Role

38. Ensure efficient utilization of resources. Procure necessary resources. Identify training needs to further enhance officer’s COP skills. Be a facilitator, motivator and coach to personnel! Keep Lt.s informed Sergeant’s Role

39. Coordinate recommendations received from all Sgts. Convey to Captain all activities within command area, districts, and neighborhoods. Coordinate a multitude of potentially different and similar requests.(Different from Sgt in that Lt. must also coordinate across shifts). Lieutenant’s Role

40. Must verify information collected, accuracy of analysis, availability of resources and compatibility of the recommendations.(Practicality) Must assume a delicate role in coordinating the needs of numerous independent entities, all of whom have legitimate concerns. Lieutenant’s Role

41. Organize demands, manage implementation and assess effectiveness by conducting field inspections. Be a facilitator, motivator and coach to personnel. Lieutenant’s Role

42. Ultimate responsibility is to approve or disapprove all plans. Compare the Officer’s, Sgt’s, and Lt’s performance .within the criteria developed for the activities, strategies or programs administered. Captain’s Role

43. Review the progress of all plans so a determination of the results can be made. Coordinate the distribution of resources. Procure resources. Be a facilitator, motivator, and coach to personnel! Report progress and results to superior officers. Captain’s Role

44. EMPOWERMENTask yourself... • Is it right for the Community? • Is it right for the department? • Is it ethical and legal? • Is it something for which you are willing to be held accountable? • Is it consistent with Departmental values and policies ? If YES . . . JUST DO IT

45. SECTION V Organizational Structure and Community Policing?

46. Communication Four styles: • Telling-instructing what to do • Selling-persuading about your idea • Participating-working together to decide best course of action for issue • Delegating-Allowing the individual to think on his/her feet without permission from you

47. Changing Management Style • Focused on ends rather than means. • Rewards for behaviors not only geared toward crime control. • Emphasize and model consistency in implicit and explicit communication. • Ability to translate mission of the agency to the officers.

48. Changing the Structure • Bureaucratic, yet decentralized • Pigeonholes within which officer works autonomously, but subject to controls of profession • Wide spans of control over professional work, & large support staff to support professionals

49. SECTION VI Evaluating the COP Officer

50. Assessment Keeping the old, but combining the new