Managing Critical Tasks Through Policy - May 2001

Once a law-enforcement agency has created a manual of orders, it must address the best way to train personnel in the new directives, supervise according to the standards they present, and update them. On the last point, in policy-writing workshops that DCJS conducts, participants frequently complain that manuals become dated before management can create a system to keep them current. If manuals are not current, then personnel cease to consult them regularly. Also, few agencies have any systematic way of training personnel in the purpose and content of written directives.

Some agencies have tried to remedy the problem of having dated orders and an irregular training program by isolating orders on high-risk, critical tasks, training personnel intensively in high-risk orders, and updating them frequently. Agencies following this thinking review critical-task orders at least annually and train personnel intensively. Orders not considered high-risk or critical may be left in effect for up to three years before either re-issuance or rewriting. Agencies dedicated to the critical-task approach must develop tools to enable managers to ensure that orders become blueprints for how personnel act in the field. The following checklist is one such tool. The topics listed are all matters of current professional and legal concern about the use of any means of force that an officer may apply. The checklist does not mean that an agency must address all of the topics in a single order. All of the topics listed, however, must be addressed somewhere, either in a directive, a training outline, an in-service bulletin, or through some other method. Further, most agencies do not confine a discussion of the use of force to an order labeled as such. Force directives can be found in other orders as well, such as pursuit driving. For example, many pursuit orders contain a provision which instructs officers on using their pursuing vehicles as instruments of deadly force, or shooting at or from a moving vehicle, or which define stationary roadblocks as methods of lethal force.

To use the checklist below, a manager must survey written orders, bulletins, or inservice training outlines to identify all directives that address the use of force. All pertinent directives should be listed under "relevant agency orders." As each relevant order is located and identified, the manager should check off the appropriate topics. After conducting the review, the manager can easily spot topics unaddressed or inadequately addressed and plan to remedy the deficiency. If the manager needs additional sample directives or policies, he or she should contact the Crime Prevention and Law Enforcement Services Section at DCJS.

When most agency executives order inservice training or briefings on a new or updated order, they usually leave the matter to the discretion of the first-line supervisors. If an agency is concerned with achieving consistent compliance with a new directive, then supervisors must be given tools to accomplish the training. Following the checklist below, continue reading to find a sample policy training outline on the use of force, geared to the DCJS sample order, General Order 2-6. When requested to train personnel in a new order (such as on the use of force to be consistent with the topic of this essay), each supervisor responds differently in the absence of further guidance, or absent a training outline. Agencies should supply supervisors with a training outline to ensure that each supervisor handles training consistently. Further, the outline constitutes a lesson plan and ought to be filed with the date training was presented and the names of attendees. Training records for inservice sessions devoted to understanding and applying directives are valuable for many reasons, not least as a buffer against vulnerability to lawsuits.

Note that the training session is treated as an "open book" session. To use the training outline given below, the supervisor tells subordinates that by a certain date they are to have read an updated or revised order and be prepared to ask questions. At the session, the supervisor, in following the outline, directs officers' attention to certain provisions or definitions and reviews the highlighted portions. The outline, though, poses questions that the supervisor can ask the officers. To answer the questions, officers must look up the answers in the policy. Whether or not the officers have read the directive before the training, at least during the training they are forced to examine it. The final part of the training outline consists of "what if" questions to help officers think of how they would apply the order. Answers are provided on the form for the supervisor. Once the training has been accomplished, the supervisor can attest as much by submitting the outline and a roster of personnel who attended and the date of training to the administrator who maintains records. The lesson outline can easily be updated if the order changes, and the outline furnishes an easy method of periodic refresher training.

In future Q&A essays on this website, policy checklists and training outlines will be provided for topics on other critical issues such as sexual harassment, emergency or pursuit driving, and communicable diseases.