Supervision, Training, and Professional Development. 36 SDPD’s supervisor training 37 Challenges with SDPD’s staffing model 39 Chapter 6 . Accountability via Early Intervention Systems, Internal Investigations, and Discipline 44 Early identification and intervention system 44 Substance abuse policy 48 San Diego’s Citizens’ Review Board 50 SDPD’s complaint investigation process 51 SDPD’S complaint processing and the public service inquiry process 51 Discipline 53
Supervision, Training, and Professional Development. Supervisors and department leaders have significant influence over the agency’s culture and maintaining xxxx- dards of integrity within the department on a day-to-day basis. Once hiring and training processes have been completed, officer supervision becomes the primary method of preventing and detecting officer misconduct with first-line supervisors (often the rank of sergeant) serving as the linchpin in making sure the accountability systems are used effectively. Supervisors are also responsible for modeling and coaching officer behavior, ensuring that officers interact respectfully with community members and demonstrate fairness and transparency in how they carry out their daily duties. Officer supervision is a key issue in ensuring constitutional policing.45 Patrol sergeants, who work directly with their officers on a regular basis, are perhaps in the most critical position to notice, address, and document changes in personnel behavior. Supervisory and other training provided by the department should focus on these first-line supervisors, in particular. According to New World of Police Accountability, “The culture of a police organization involves the ideas, values, and habits that shape everyday policing. It includes what is expected and what is tolerated in routine interactions with citizens.”46 Senior and mid-level department leaders set the tone of any police agency through their expectations and personal actions. Their day-to-day activities and examples create the standard for the agency. Failure to establish a culture of integrity, discipline, and professionalism can lead to officer misconduct and community distrust. Failing to pay attention to minor issues can lead to crisis situations. It is easy for leaders to get caught up in day-to-day responsibilities and miss substantive issues that can develop into serious problems. Leaders at all levels must constantly monitor the agency’s culture and environment to detect these issues, and it is imperative that the right people be in the right positions to ensure this happens, all the way up to the very top levels of the organization. In a forthcoming report on police leadership being produced by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance,47 Chief Constable Xxxxx Xxxx of the Greater Manches- ter Police noted that the United Kingdom has a much more formal, structured, national system for developing leaders in policing than does the United...
