LAW ENFORCEMENT AND JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION BLOG

Anecdotally, through my experiences, I have witnessed numerous times where a departmental  Chief or shift administrator will establish new expectations or measures of performance for employees.  Generally, performance expectations are set to assuage a new demand from external sources or to address a potentially dangerous emerging trend.  Even if the evidence for the new expectation is compelling and thoughtful, many times, employees view the new standard for performance as suspect at best.  Employees often discount it as temporary, arbitrary, or misguided.  Many times, employees will judge a performance expectation against their own internal emotional beliefs of how a thing should or should not operate; instead of a rational weighing of the evidence while being mindful that they are the employee, not the boss.  As an employee, they were hired to do the work of the organization.  The people who run the organization get to set performance standards and it is the responsibility of the emp...

One of the easiest actions for increasing worker performance and creating a pleasant work environment is clarity.  Workers, supervisors, and administrators want clarity.  Clarity of message.  Clarity of rules. Clarity of expectations. People by nature are creatures of habit.  We perform best in environments that are predictable and stable.  Humans like the comfort of knowing what to expect and being able to predict likely outcomes.  Think about your own small habits and the comfort these bring.  Do you like to shop at the same grocery store?  Do you tend to park in the same space at work?  Do you sit in the same chair for shift briefings or meetings?  Do you keep items at work or home arranged in a consistent way?  More specifically, do you wear your work uniform and gear the same way, in the same place, all the time?  More likely than not, most of us can probably identify with habitual patterns of behavior, and would almost certainly admit that we have these habits because they make u...

What does trust look like to you? Is it a a cliché? Does it sound old, tired, and worn out? What images or meanings does the word trust invoke and hold for you? In Lying (1993), Sissela Bok tells us “ Whatever matters to human beings, trust is the atmosphere in which it thrives”; meaning trust must be the underpinning for whatever you’re looking to accomplish. Bok’s notion on trust is especially true in the field of law enforcement.  The actions taken by law enforcement officials have a profound ability to impact the emotional, financial, and stability of families and individual lives for a long time. Research tells us working in an organization built on trust and respect creates high performing, ethical, and fair-minded employees.  Therefore, it’s crucial for law enforcement employees to work in a climate built on trust since their authority can have a weighty influence over others. Unfortunately, there are times law enforcement administrators and co-workers alike treat the word and ...