Historically, regardless of the profession, organizations have merely reacted to individual acts of misconduct or devastating scandals. Many administrators throughout the nation have done little other than hold employees accountable for their actions after a violation, as a means for preventing unethical acts.

Other managers have knowingly ignored the constant lack of integrity by some employees, fearing that addressing the situation would fix the problem and might ultimately result in negative publicity. Thus, they elect to knowingly let it continue.

In the worst of cases, supervisors become driven by the hope that employees and the community will not learn about the internal misdeeds. Meanwhile, an internal climate of dishonesty is perpetuated by the role modeling of deceitfulness and bitter internal politics. Ignoring it gives the "green light" to continue.

As opposed to this brief yet disheartening insight within a workplace belittled by misconduct, good administrators are inherently driven by their own integrity and honor. It is their personal role modeling of honesty and respect toward others that molds a culture of dignity, integrity and honor.

These are the law enforcement leaders whose leadership style is consistent with today’s state-of-the-art prevention of misconduct and maintenance of integrity within an organization. The current state-of-the-art is comprised of three crucial important elements. Step number one, accurately assessing and enhance any lack of respect and dignity toward employees, must be addressed first, or ethics training will be perceived as very hypocritical.

The 1990s has witnessed a revolution of knowledge and ability to prevent unethical acts. Most of the elements that comprise the current "state-of-the-art" focus on prevention rather than merely reacting after careers have been destroyed and reputations have been lost.

Ethics has been law enforcement’s greatest training need since the mid 1980s. Prior to this time, law enforcement’s most significant need was firearms training. For decades instructors had been anchoring the wrong survival responses into officers’ long-term memory during firearms training.

This tragic situation changed only because the FBI in Quantico, VA, conducted a training needs assessment and literally determined how officers were dying. The result of this study changed firearms training forever. Armed with this vital new knowledge, trainers and corporations developed discretionary, video dilemma training systems. The results have been dramatically improved firearms training. We have already made identical improvements with ethics training.

• Ethics training within academies was poor.

Historically, law enforcement academies across

America have devoted little or no time to ethics as

a training topic within their curricula.

• In-service ethics training, until recently, has

been nonexistent.   Virtually, none of the 15,000

agencies across the nation provided any in-service

ethics training.

It is ironic that ethics training has suddenly become the most sought after type of training in law enforcement, since a decade ago no one would have wanted it even if it was free. The state-of-the-art ethics training is anything but boring. In fact, it is about as hands-on and interactive as training can get. The problem is that many trainers have never seen or participated in ethics training presented this way.

There are many similarities between the evolution of firearms training and that of ethics. When I was sworn in over twenty-five years ago, we as a profession, didn’t know how to conduct effective firearms training. As a result, many good officers died because we anchored the wrong reactions into their long-term memory. State-of-the-art firearms training now includes realistic, stressful dilemmas that implant the right actions into our long term memory. And of course, because we react the way we have been trained, under stress, many lives have been saved.

The analogy between firearms training and ethics training is that ethics/integrity training is now, in terms of its effectiveness where firearms training was twenty-five years ago. Now you can implement exceptional, cutting edge ethics training in your organization.

In doing so, you will be making one of the most significant improvements in the history of your agency. More important, you may prevent devastating scandals, destroyed careers and perhaps save the lives of current or future officers.

Throughout history, effective leadership has met with varied success. Tremendous efforts by a fairly small group of individuals and organizations created great managerial advancements during the last two decades. As with most endeavors, improved knowledge has resulted in better leadership.

Unlike past decades, some administrators realize the management style of our nation's "best run" corporations can be adapted to any organization. Due to bureaucracy, the managerial effectiveness of many managers has lagged behind the leadership within most Fortune 500 companies.

Administrators can make a difference by promoting a philosophy that is people-oriented and participatory instead of one that is strictly authoritarian. In doing so, a working atmosphere that encourages unethical conduct will be eliminated and replaced; one that generates teamwork, comradeship and ethical workers.

What is the most difficult part of developing such a tremendous leadership style? The courage to take the first step and having a sincere commitment. Many have done so. They are glad they did...but few would say it was easy. In a sense, it's like any great achievement; only hard work makes it happen.

If you do not know what your problems are, how do you know that what you are planning is the right thing to do? The solution is to conduct a needs assessment. It is an essential "first step" for making any substantial change. But there is a right way and a wrong way; and a safe way and a risky way of doing things.

An ethical needs assessment is the gathering of a wide assortment of information concerning the possible need for ethical enhancement of an organization's employees. Just as with other types of needs assessments, it will tell you the difference between what they are actually doing and what they should be doing.

Every corporation and agency has many opportunities to assess its ethical needs. They often come in the form of written records. Such records include summaries of group or division performance, discipline records, internal auditing reports, employee evaluations, accident records, customer complaints and suggestions from any source.

Another effective method of determining ethical needs is to thoroughly interview workers from all divisions and levels. Only through a face-to-face dialogue with all segments and levels of any workforce can a true account of needs be ascertained.

Those spearheading the ethical assistance program must keep an open line of communication with everyone throughout the agency. This communication will not only assist in determining ethical needs, but provide interviewers with a realistic view of their actual value within the department.

It would be very difficult to determine how effective your ethical improvement process has been without employee interviews both before and after the improvements have occurred.

Conducting written surveys and questionnaires is a fairly common manner of assessing an agency's needs. They evolve around asking how much ethical improvement is needed concerning a particular job requirement, skill or endeavor.

The creation of Field Training Officer Programs is the single greatest advancement in the history of law enforcement professionalism. Countless mistakes, civil suits, injuries and heart wrenching tragedies have been prevented because new officers were quickly given crucial skills, knowledge and abilities through FTO training.

Research reveals the first organized law enforcement field training program was implemented by the Milwaukee Police Department in April, 1962. The subsequent, nation-wide adoption of the San Jose model has been a priceless help to most agencies.

It is disheartening then, that the national standard of field training has remained relatively stagnate. Most FTO programs still struggle with a variety of serious problems. The real life problems of current programs include a lack of support from administrators, poor program communication, inept standardization and a bad FTO selection process.

Unfortunately, the advancement of FTO programs has been minimal. Although they have existed for more than two and a half decades, most FTOs still train the way they did in the seventies.

The good news is that the ‘90s has witnessed a revolution in FTO training. The state-of-the-art is much more effective and efficient than the national standard. The new cutting edge of field training can be achieved by accomplishing a series of goals and objectives. Achieving these 15 goals will enable any FTO program to become effective and efficient, while creating a positive organizational culture.

I. Customize your field training process through a training needs assessment of your patrol division.

II. Turn the organization’s greatest needs into field training goals and objectives.

III. Maintain effective and efficient management and leadership.

 

IV. Maintain respect and support for program.

V. Use a multi-faceted trainer selection process.

VI. Maintain effective communication.

VII. Compensate field trainers fairly.

VIII. Standardize field training.

IX. Customize training for new employees by conducting a needs assessment of trainees.

X.   Select and alternate most effective leadership styles for a     trainee.

XI. Use problem solving techniques on trainee problems.

XII. Select effective learning theories for a trainee.

XIII. Select best training techniques.

XIV. Prevent misconduct of officers.

XV. Ensure constant evaluation and improvement.

 

Bad Background Investigations Are Devastating Law Enforcement

It is true. Employee background investigation is absolutely crucial to the career path of most supervisors. The success or failure of individual leaders and organizations often rest on whether they really supported and ensured an effective inquiry into an applicant’s past takes place. The truth is, and always has been, that "the best predictor of future behavior is past performance."

In some organizations the background investigation is the unsung hero has built the foundation for employees, division or units to achieve more than they ever thought possible. Within others, they are nothing more than the first step to everyone’s devastation. Between those two extremes are endless real life situations where background investigations affect employee and employers in either a positive or negative way, every day.

It is impossible for administrators to escape the repercussions of their background investigations. If high-quality backgrounds are a high priority, the agency will reap the benefits for decades. On the other hand, they will suffer the consequences in the form of misconduct, for decades if quality investigations are not supported and mandated.

When someone asks me what single improvement will have the most positive influence on enhancing integrity, my answer is always to demand outstanding backgrounds.

One of the true secrets to success as a leader is to quickly learn to surround yourself with effective, competent people. Those who do are likely to reap the benefits or a relatively enjoyable career. Those who don’t will probably face far more daily headaches and constantly be thrown into never ending "management by crisis" situations.

The most crucial element of a superior background investigation process is sincere support and commitment from the upper administration. This is very different than the person at the top simply saying they want a thorough investigation of applicants conducted.

A checklist for adequate support should include the following. Review them from the perspective of conducting an assessment of your own background investigations. Do you:

• Ensure recruitment efforts are generating sufficient applicants, in both quality and quantity?
• Train background investigators so they will have the skill, knowledge and abilities to fulfill their responsibilities?
• Clearly communicate to investigators and their supervisors, through both words and actions, that background investigation is a very high priority?
• Ensure investigators are given sufficient resources, particularly time?
• Ensure investigators are held accountable for the quality of their investigations?
• Ensure investigators are given praise and recognition when they deserve it?

Chris Vail