Early Warning Systems - Paper Example

An Early Warning System is a police management tool that contains information about police officers and is designed to identify those whose behavior is problematic and provide means to rectify them. Approximately 75% departments have the early warning system. Large departments are more likely to have such systems compared to small ones. These systems are mostly found in law enforcement agencies. It has been identified that 90% of officers cause trouble however, only 2% are said to be responsible for 50 % of all citizen problems (Alpert & Lum, 2014).

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One of the departments that use the early warning system is the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). In the mid 1990s, the NOPD had a national reputation where its officers were corrupt and used force while dealing with citizens. Between 1995 and 1998, the department terminated about more than 18 officers in a year and suspended 100 of them. At around the same time 97 officers resigned and others retired while still under investigation by the department. Additionally, 105 other officers were either arrested or issued with charges of criminal law violation. These figures were higher compared to departments of similar sizes (Alpert & Lum, 2014).

The NOPD has a Professional Performance Enhancement Programme (PPEP) that aims at identifying possible corrupt activities carried out by the officers. This program does not focus on an individual officer but also examines procedures, training and supervision. However, the program seems to have weakened due to the retirement of the most reliable individuals. Officers are selected for the program according to three categories of their performance (Alpert & Lum, 2014). Each officer is supervised for a period of six months. The supervisor observes how the officer interacts with citizens while on duty. The NOPD faced a lot of challenges while conducting the new system before they could fully approve it.

Failures and Successes of Early Warning Systems

I attempted to contact an official from the department to find out about the success and failures of the early warning system. According to him, the introduction of early warning systems has been of great importance since cases of corruption among officers has declined. Additionally, the program has helped in shaping most officers behavior. This also has improved or rather created a good relationship between the police and the citizens. He explained that the number of complaints concerning problematic officers reduced. The average number of citizen complaints received by officers dropped by 62% in one year after intervention. This indicates that officers at NOPD responded positively to the Early Warning System. This also improved officers performance after attending training programs. Conversely, there are failures that accompany the new system such as; they are not as effective as they may seem.

How the Early Warning System Works

The Early Warning System has three basic phases; selection, intervention and monitoring.

Selection

There are no standards set for determining officers for the early warning programs but there are agreements about the procedure to be followed to influence their selection. Some of the performance indicators that can be used to identify officers with problematic behavior include; complaints issued by citizens about a specific officer, officers reported to use force, fire arm discharge found to belong to a specific officer, incidents of resisting arrest, vehicle damage and civil litigation. Most departments however, mostly rely only on citizen complaints to select officers to join the program. Most departments require three complaints in a given time frame for the officer to be selected for intervention (Walker & Archbold, 2013.

Intervention

The main aim of this system is to rectify the behavior of individual officers who have been identifies or rather reported to have problematic performance records. The strategies used during intervention are; deterrence and education. According to deterrence, it is assumed that the officer selected for intervention will change their behavior once they are subjected to threat of punishment. Additionally, it is assumed that officers who have not been selected for the system will also change their behavior to avoid punishment. During intervention, officers undergo training which is assumed to help them improve their performance (Walker & Archbold, 2013). The officers are either monitored by a supervisor who later provides a review on their performance. Alternatively, some agencies involve other commanding officers to counsel the selected officer.

Monitoring

Most agencies monitor the officers performance after the initial intervention. This is conducted by the officers immediate supervisor which is informal. Some departments have come up with a formal process of observation, evaluation and reporting. Some agencies monitor the officers performance for 36 months while others do not have a specified follow up period. The officers could be monitored continuously or on a case-by-case basis (Walker & Archbold, 2013).

How Officers are disciplined

Officers are likely to be punished either by; verbal warning, written warning, suspension or termination. Verbal warning is an informal way of ensuring that the officer is aware of his mistakes and is given time to rectify them. Written warning is issued if the officer does not make positive changes after the verbal warning. This is formal and the officer signs the written warning. Suspension is mainly for situations that require investigation before action is taken. This can serve as final warning to the officer. Finally, termination is the final step and cannot be avoided (Walker & Archbold, 2013).

I would suggest that departments should be very keen on identifying problematic officers by involving the citizens. Once a citizen identifies an officer who is being problematic, they should report immediately. They should not only monitor officers while on duty but also while they are off duty. Most officers take advantage of their title to harass citizens. Every problematic officer should be punished accordingly for them to rectify their behavior and act as examples to others. Departments should also come up with improved means of identifying and dealing with problematic officers. Problematic officers should also be limited in interacting with the public.

Ethics Training

As an ethics official at a corrections department, my goals for the training would include; eliminating problematic behavior among officers, I would aim at building a good relationship between officers and citizens and help improve the performance of officers. These goals will help ensure that my training program is effective since I will be able to aim or rather focus on a specific goal. Ensuring that officers

During the training, there will be lessons on how officers are expected to rectify their behavior. This will include awareness on what consequences one will face once they are faced with charges of being problematic. There will also be guiding and counseling classes for officers. This will help monitor their behavior and also come up with ways to deal with them. Lessons on how to create good relationships with citizens will be of essence. This will make them aware that citizens should not be afraid of them rather they should feel secure about them.

The training will approximately take 3 to 4 hours a day. There will be exercises that the officers will be involved in during the training to ensure that they get the point of the training straight. The first exercise or scenario will be something to do with a drama club. Some will act as citizens while others will act as police officers. The police officers will be involved in unpleasant activities such as corruption and use of force towards the citizens who will then report the misconduct to the authorities. Action will be taken where the officers will be faced with charges and later on be punished. This scenario will help those involved to understand what consequences they will face due to their actions.

The second scenario will be where officers are allocated different punishments according to their misconduct. Hard labor will be a part of the training program where officers are involved in difficult activities such carrying heavy loads under harsh climatic conditions. This will help shape their behavior since once they leave the correction centers, officers will be afraid to go back and experience what they experienced before. This also will act as a warning to those that will not have visited the correction centers. In most cases, threat of punishment helps in rectifying ones behavior. Eventually, there will be fewer cases of problematic officers.

In conclusion, Early Warning Systems should be used to reduce citizen complaints and other problematic police behavior. This can be an effective management tool, to raise standards and improve the quality of police services.

References

Alpert, G. P., & Lum, C. (2014). The Future of Police Pursuits Research and Policy. In Police

Pursuit Driving (pp. 53-60). Springer New York.

Walker, S. E., & Archbold, C. A. (2013). The new world of police accountability. Sage

Publications.