You must feed your brain now and then.

Here I am in Santa Claus, Indiana.  It’s really in the middle of nowhere amongst cornfields already harvested but waiting for the rigid, orderly stalks to be removed.  This is the 4^th annual meeting of the Emerson Society Summit.  Bill Westfall, an old friend and training colleague, has again gathered 35 police professionals and budding young up and comers in the public safety field from all corners of the country to this idyllic neighborhood for a weekend of sharing and growing professionally.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson, who used to have these meetings with his closest colleagues, would say, “Tell me, what has become clear to you since we last met?”

This is a rare meeting where everyone can share ideas, new directions, network with other professionals, and maybe ask for help with some new challenge or discuss a heartache of a problem left unsolved.  It’s casual with absolutely no distractions!

Alan Brunacini, retired, longtime Fire Chief of Phoenix, was the featured presenter.  He talked about his opportunity to change the culture of his 2,000-person agency.  The turning point for him was when he realized that “being nice” and consumer-oriented was as important, if not more so, than efficiency and effectiveness in firefighting.  On a sad note, he acknowledged that his agency reverted to its past autocratic ways almost before the door hit him in the ass on his retirement.

A young Connecticut State Trooper who was a lead investigator in the Sandy Hook school shooting made a passionate presentation.  This tragedy forced every law enforcement officer even indirectly involved in this investigation to face personal conflicts.  He strongly made the point that everything anyone did during this investigation was prefaced with the thought, “What impact will this have on the survivors.”  What the police might have thought was important for the investigation was really not that significant when considered against the impact it might have on the surviving family members.  Troopers and police officers were assigned to each family who lost someone in this tragedy.  While this may now become the norm for agencies experiencing this type of tragedy, he cautioned us to ensure that these uniformed men and women need to be prepared for the psychological trauma they themselves will face. 

Pat Gallagher, my old best friend for the past 36 years, forcefully proposed that our police agencies must service two communities – the external one and the community within our agency of our employees.  He and several other presenters stressed the point that we need to reexamine our basic beliefs in what we are in business for.  Are we just law enforcers, or are we guardians of the peace and helpers for those who need our help.  This is a significant cultural change.  Can everyone in your agency define what the culture of your agency is and what direction it’s going?

Pete Sarna, another old friend and longtime retired Captain from the Oakland CA Police Department, harped on the need to seek purpose in what we’re doing.  Are we doing the right thing at the right time?  He lamented the problems perplexing his old agency, but knows it was foreseen and not addressed when it could have been. 

A young trainer from Raleigh Police Department talked about the need for situational training based on learned habits.  He asked that at the conclusion of a field incident how would you answer the question, “Was I good or just lucky?” 

This two-day meeting of aged and new thinkers in law enforcement and public service was reinvigorating for even an old-timer like me.  But it’s something that should be replicated throughout our ranks.  We can never sit contented or rest on today’s successes or our past laurels.  We need to learn from our histories and our shared experiences.  Tomorrow is here and it’s time to build each person’s and each agency’s legacy.  How about yours’? 

Is decentralizing IA/OPS a good idea?

Last week I taught an IA seminar in Kansas City.  By the way, they have one of the finest police training facilities you’ll find these days.

One of the students offered a suggestion that I quickly gave a knee jerk reaction to and dismissed.  But the thought intrigued me as I chewed on it for a few moments. 

His suggestion was whether it might be beneficial to assign an IA investigator to decentralized police stations as a local resource.  It may only be practical in an agency with more than one station or maybe a statewide agency.  Progressive agencies today do that when they insert a local prosecutor into the station.  In that case the attorney helps with search warrant applications, legal questions and provides some roll-call training.  Some agencies currently have a victim advocate in-house who can help with difficult emotional cases including child sex, rape and domestic violence.

Now what would an IA rep in the station house do?  You might rush to say it wouldn’t work because s/he would simply be considered a snitch.  In some agencies that might be true.  It would be a constant challenge for the IA investigator to build trust and show that IA expertise can be beneficial.  But, s/he could become a valuable resource for local supervisors and the station management.  The vast majority of citizen complaints are usually delegated to the field sergeant.  The IA rep could be a resource to help that supervisor and could even assist with a critique of the completed investigation.  Local station managers are often the ones who have to review administrative investigations done by IA and make recommendations.  The local rep could assist and the final product will most likely be better.  The IA investigator assigned to this local station would still carry a normal workload; just do it at another location other than the IA/OPS office.  This might encourage the investigator to make more face-to-face calls to complainants and civilian witnesses rather than wait for them to come to the central office or conduct them on the phone.  It could also cut down on the overtime or loss of field time by not having agency witnesses and targeted employees going to the main administration building.  

I must admit that I find this an interesting concept.  A couple of years ago the Texas DPS began a program of decentralizing its IA process.  It trained sergeants to conduct IA investigations and assigned a cadre to each of its seven district areas throughout the state.  I’m not sure how the DPS program has worked out and it seems to be still in the developmental stage.  NYPD has integrity lieutenants in each precinct house who are supposed to do checks, audits and other types of oversight; but it appears to be less effective and they spend most of the time with trying to ferret out accepting gratuities, checking on overtime usage and officers who are sleeping on the job.  New Orleans recently has placed compliance officers in each of its stations to do some IA type tasks as well as audits and training.

Maybe we could take this decentralized IA/OPS concept a little further and even use it in an agency with a single station.  Too often the IA/OPS function is either in some office down the hall from the Chief or in some outside location away from the station.  The only time the uniformed cops see someone from IA is when they’re under the gun either as a target or witness officer. 

We’ve continuously worked to get detectives to visit uniformed officers’ briefings and roll calls.  The idea was they could share current crime trends, offer some suspect information and answer any questions.  Unfortunately, most of those attempts have failed.  We can all argue why and come up with a bunch of reasonable answers!

What could regular visits to uniformed cops by an IA investigator do?  One is that the uniformed cop would now see the investigator without being under the gun.  The investigator could discuss completed administrative investigations where the work of the officers and the IA investigation ended up clearing the accused employees.  Or the IA investigator could grab some case from the Internet where an officer got jammed up in another city and use that as a catalyst to discuss agency protocols and safeguards.  IA gives an investigator valuable experiences that most cops never get.  Sharing these can only make everyone a better cop and further professionalize the police agency.

It’s an intriguing concept; something we should not rush to kick aside.  At least it’s something to chew on….