Police Sergeants Research Articles

Police sergeants and disaster management during Australia’s Black Summer bushfire crisis

ABSTRACT The police sergeant, or equivalent supervisor, is the glue that binds police units together, assigns workloads, and distributes organisational power from ‘above’ to ensure that those in the field play fairly and by the rules. Yet very little empirical research has been undertaken to examine the work of sergeants or consider how these roles impact the ability of police and their partners to manage critical incidents, including complex disasters. Drawing on a case study of disaster policing during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, this paper examines how police sergeants with two distinct emergency management roles leveraged their authority, relationships, and knowledge to support the effective management of this incident. Using composite accounts, it illustrates how both sergeants drew upon and adapted traditional understandings of their role to negotiate the perceived deficiencies of command-and-control and networked features of complex disaster management systems. The case studies illustrate how the officers’ positionalities (organisationally, geographically, and systemically) enhanced their sensemaking abilities during the crisis, and they utilised their recognised authority, relationships, and soft skills to inform, nudge, and influence a wide range of stakeholders. The paper reveals that police sergeants may be uniquely positioned to assist with the coordination of increasingly complex disaster management assemblages at a time when the neoliberal state’s ability to even ‘steer’ these effectively is increasingly called into question.

Purposeful leadership for the future police service

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of purposeful and ethical leadership in a UK county police force – referred to by the pseudonym PoliceOrg. The paper also evaluates the extent to which officers feel their values fit with those of the organisation, and the outcomes achieved by purposeful and ethical leaders.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey, interviews and focus groups were conducted at PoliceOrg. The findings are compared with those from a public sector case study and with a representative sample of the UK working population.FindingsPurposeful leaders at PoliceOrg have a positive impact on important outcomes for their direct reports and provide a sense of direction and guidance to those who do not feel a strong fit between their values and those of their organisation.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focuses on a new construct (purposeful leadership) that has not previously been explored in the academic literature. Consequently, the findings cannot be directly compared with those of other studies. The survey focused on the views of police sergeants and constables, and only one police force participated as a case study; hence, the generalisability of the findings is limited.Practical implicationsPolice organisations should nurture and sustain workplace environments where leaders can translate their personal moral code and ethical values into their role behaviours to address the policing challenges of the future.Originality/valueThis study elucidates the concept of purposeful leadership in the context of a police force.

Remarks documented on medico-legal examination forms on sexual abuse cases; are they properly comprehended by the police?

Introduction : Expert medical evidence is widely used in sexual abuse cases, but its contribution to the progress of legal cases is unclear. Poor understanding of the remarks given by the medical officers in a Medico Legal Examination Form (MLEF) in alleged sexual abuse cases by the police officers may affect effective administration of justice. Objective : This study is mainly aimed at assessing the degree of understanding by the police officers’ when reading three commonly expressed medico-legal remarks in cases of alleged sexual abuse. Secondly, to identify the areas of poor understanding, for which interventions need to be carried out. Study Design : Cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 64 police officers, in the rank of police constables and sergeants from western province, who are attending to routine work of a police station (criminal investigations, children and women’s desk and traffic unit). Data collection was done by self administered questionnaire after a briefing regarding the study and instructions on how to fill the questionnaire. Results : 72% of the officers believed that they understood the statements written on Medico-Legal Examination Form (MLEF) when it is in native language while only 32% believed so for statements in English. However the analysis of the correct responses revealed that only 28.9% of officers understood the exact meaning in native language while it was 10.4% for English. The understanding about the statement on absence of medical evidence to confirm or exclude the allegation when given in Sinhala was 26.6% while it was 10.9% in English. The statement on evidence of vaginal penetration has been correctly understood by 20.3% in Sinhala while it is 7.8 % in English. Conclusion: Statements made in native language are approximately three times better understood than the ones made in English. However, overall understanding of the remarks made by doctors was very poor. It is high time we take necessary actions to intervene if our goal is effective administration of justice. Medico-Legal Journal of Sri Lanka 2013; 1(2) : 23-28

Gender differences in burnout among municipal police sergeants

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to compare the levels and predictors of burnout between female and male sergeants in a large municipal law enforcement agency.Design/methodology/approach– This study used surveys of 171 female and 737 male sergeants. In the survey they described their extent of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and reported on other issues that affect burnout. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare the levels and predictors of these chronic stress reactions.Findings– Female sergeants expressed higher levels of emotional exhaustion and lower levels of depersonalization than male sergeants. Also, the burnout process is largely consistent between female and male sergeants, driven by similar factors, including feelings of work-life conflict and relations with peers and supervisors.Research limitations/implications– The survey was fielded in one organization, which may or may not be representative of other agencies. Future studies of different organizations are needed to test external validity and refine the theoretical model.Practical implications– The results indicate the importance of studying the different components of burnout as well as allocating organizational resources to mitigating these conditions. Programs focussed on mentoring female sergeants or younger sergeants would be beneficial.Originality/value– Prior research has not examined how the burnout experiences of female sergeants differ from or resemble their male counterparts as typically their numbers are too small to conduct a reliable test of differences and predictors. By focussing on a single large department, this obstacle can be overcome, while controlling for other variables.

Utility of Assessment Center for Promotion of Police Sergeants

Is the cost of an assessment center worth it? This study demonstrates the economic utility of an assessment center as a part of a promotional examination to police sergeant. The total cost of the program to assess 208 candidates was $158,970, or $764 per candidate. Based on initial promotions of 22 sergeants, total utility was estimated to be at least $414,943, utility per candidate was estimated to be at least $1995, and utility per selectee was estimated to be at least $18,861. Substantially higher estimates of utility were shown when alternative values of costs, validities of the assessment center, number of sergeants promoted over the life of the promotional list, and the benefits of selecting effective sergeants.

Nation, demographic, and attitudinal boundary conditions on leader social rewards and punishments in local governments

AbstractBoundary conditions on the relationships of contingent rewards and noncontingent punishments with evaluated performance and satisfaction are sought for supervisory and professional staff in local governments in the United States and Japan. Subgroup differences in tolerance for noncontingent punishment are reflected in mean differences in its use between nations (more reported in Japan), genders (less reported by women), and regions of the United States. The effects of noncontingent punishment on outcomes were not found for U.S. police sergeants. Evidence for a national contingency is reflected in the finding that the relationship of noncontingent punishments (but not contingent rewards) with cooperation, individual effectiveness, and satisfaction was stronger in the United States than in Japan. The study adds caution to the culture‐free and contingency‐free application of the theory of performance‐contingent rewards and punishments. Implications for the theory of social rewards and punishments and for the contingencies and criteria considered in leadership research, particularly cross‐cultural leadership research, are addressed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The New Public Management and Managerial Roles: the Case of the Police Sergeant

This paper explores the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) techniques within the UK police service since the late 1990s, and in particular, the impact upon the role of the first line manager: the police sergeant. It draws upon qualitative data collected within ‘City Police Service’ by means of in‐depth interviews with role sets of police sergeants, constables, inspectors and members of the senior management team in two police divisions. After evaluating a number of NPM precepts in the light of the findings, the paper makes a number of conclusions relating to the role of police sergeants. These echo the findings of other research on changes in managerial roles, including a shift towards more strategic responsibilities, but with a significant intensification of work, tighter control and scrutiny through organizational performance management systems, and less daily contact with their police constables. As elsewhere in the public sector, a shift towards becoming a ‘practitioner manager’ was apparent, but with respect to police sergeants the effect was to limit their ability to provide leadership and support for their constables, and to encourage a greater reliance upon peer group networks and on the constables they supervised.

Suspects who have a learning disability

More than a million people in the UK have a learning disability. A small but significant proportion of these people will come into contact with the criminal justice system because they have offended or have been accused of an offence. This article reports on the perceptions of police officers toward this potentially vulnerable group and their knowledge of issues related to learning disabilities. Interview data were collected from eight police sergeants employed by Humberside Police and analysed using qualitative techniques. The article concludes that further training in the subject area is required. This is likely to be successful in the force under study due to their promotion of positive perceptions toward people with learning disabilities.

Modus Operandi Modelling of Group Offending: A Data-Mining Case Study

This article looks at the application of data-mining techniques, principally the multi-layer perceptron, radial basis function and self-organising map, to the recognition of burglary offences committed by a network of offenders. The aim is to suggest a list of currently undetected crimes that may be attributed to one or more members of the network and improve on the time taken to complete the task manually and the relevancy of the list of crimes. The data were drawn from four years of burglary offences committed within an area of the West Midlands police. They were encoded from text by a small team of specialists working to a well-defined protocol and analysed using the above techniques contained within the data-mining workbench of SPSS/Clementine. Within minutes, three months of undetected crimes were analysed through the Clementine stream, producing a list of offences that might be attributed to the network of offenders. The results were analysed by two police sergeants not associated with the development process who determined that 85 per cent of the nominated crimes could be attributed to the network of offenders. To produce a manual list would take between one-and-a-half and two hours and be between 5 per cent and 10 per cent accurate.

A study of Korean police sergeants stress

The objective of this research is to examine closely the effect that police stress has on job satisfaction. In order to study the effect with well supported evidence, a survey was conducted of 401 sergeants at the National Police Academy in Korea concerning police stress. The research method made use of the survey and relevant literature related to police stress. The research techniques included frequency analysis, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The study determined some internal and external factors of the police organization were significantly influential; and the research indicates some factors that cause police stress and the effect that this stress has on job satisfaction.

Accuracy of the Situational Interview in Rating Multiple Job Candidates

The importance of perceptual accuracy to human resource decision processes is evidenced by better than 40 years of accuracy research. This article extends such research by presenting an examination of the situational interview format (Latham, Saari, Pursell, & Campion, 1980) as a means of inducing and maintaining high levels of rating accuracy in a context in which interviewers must evaluate candidates in rapid succession. Situational interview ratings of 48 police sergeants and lieutenants showed consistently high levels of perceptual accuracy in both their overall ratings and differential accuracy scores in rating 6 videotaped sergeant/lieutenant job candidates who were of varying quality and appeared in 4 different multiple candidate sequences. Extensive experimental controls for “cueing effects” and ratings gained from a separate sample of 48 sergeants and lieutenants using a highly structured conventional format and familiar rating practices indicated that the accuracy of SI ratings were due to the SI itself.

Stress and the Woman Sergeant

Stress and gender are both somewhat contentious matters for the police service. This article describes the results of a study that attempts to draw these two issues together for the purpose of addressing the following question: are woman police sergeants more or less susceptible to the impacts of operationally generated stress than their male colleagues? The implications of the answers to this question relate to selection and training as well as broader issues of the confidence placed in and competence of women as supervisors.

Investigation of Raters' and Ratees' Reactions to Three Methods of Performance Appraisal: BOS, BARS, and GRS

AbstractIt was hypothesized that in comparison to a GRS‐based performance appraisal and review, behaviour‐based (BARS and BOS) appraisals and reviews would generate superior goal properties (e.g., specificity), better goal characteristics (e.g., acceptance), and more favourable user reactions (e.g., ratee satisfaction with the appraisal process). Data from a field experiment involving 46 police sergeants (raters) and their 152 subordinates (ratees) supported almost all of the predictions. Particularly strong evidentiary support was found for the BOS‐based performance appraisal and review. These results, as well as recent empirical evidence from other studies, lend credence to the proposition that a BOS‐based performance appraisal and review may be superior to other appraisal methods in terms of yielding more favourable attitudinal effects.RésuméDans la présente étude, nous examinons l'hypothèse selon laquelle, comparativement a l'évaluation du ren‐dement 4aG l'aide de l'échelle GRS, l'évaluation se basant sur les échelles BOS et BARS entraine des réactions plus favorables chez les usagers, des perceptions plus claires quant aux propriétés des objectifs (p. ex. spécificité) et des caractéristiques plus positives des objectifs de performance (p. ex. acceptation) établis au moyen de ces méthodes d'évaluation. Les données recueillies à partir d'une étude expérimentale menée dans une organisation auprès de 46 cadres (évaluateurs) et de leur 152 subal‐ternes (évalués) appuient presque toutes ces conjections. Ces résultats, ainsi que des évidences empiriques récentes, indiquent que les évaluations du rendement à l'aide de l'échelle BOS sont supeérieures à celles observées au moyen des échelles GRS et BARS, en ce qui concerne les effets attitudinaux engendrés (notamment les perceptions quant aux propriétés des objectifs de performance, fixés à l'aide de chacune des trois échelles d'évaluation).

Managing conflict with a subordinate or a superior: Effectiveness of conglomerated behavior.

Rather than a single behavior, handling conflict is a conglomeration of behavioral components characterized by a pattern of occurrence and by a pattern of covariation of its components. Theories (R. R. Blake & J. S. Mouton, 1964, 1970; R.E. Walton, 1969) have predicted (a) that the forcing component counters effectiveness and (b) that the problem-solving component enhances effectiveness, especially at a moderate level of occurrence of the forcing component. Systematic observations of videotapes of 116 male police sergeants handling a standardized conflict with either a subordinate or a superior supported the main effects but not the qualification. An increase in problem solving tended to enhance effectiveness, especially if a superior combined it with much forcing vis-a-vis a subordinate. An increase in controlling the process had an extremely positive effect on the parties' joint outcomes and mutual relationship.

Supervisory behaviour and team performance amongst police patrol sergeants

This study examined the generality of Komaki's operant model of supervision (Komaki, 1986; Komaki, Zlotnik & Jensen 1986; Komaki, Desselles & Bowman, 1989) in an organizational setting characterized by a formal chain of command. Ratings of subordinate performance were used to index supervisory effectiveness. Using the Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and Index, measures of supervisory behaviour were obtained from 20 police patrol sergeants over a period of several months. Compared with supervisors in other settings, police sergeants spent less time providing antecedents (i.e. instructions, rules, goals) and consequences (i.e. feedback), and more time monitoring subordinates' performance. Sergeants of higher performing teams spent more time monitoring performance and providing neutral performance consequences. In contrast with earlier findings, monitoring via work sampling was not related to subordinate performance. Performance was, however, related to the time supervisors spent soliciting self‐reports from subordinates, and the time they allocated to those solitary activities which provided more opportunities for monitoring subordinates' performance. The findings were consistent with Komaki et al.'s (1986) operant conceptualization of how supervisors motivate their subordinates.

EVALUATION OF A SUPERVISORY TRAINING PROGRAM FOR POLICE SERGEANTS

Personnel PsychologyVolume 25, Issue 1 p. 95-106 EVALUATION OF A SUPERVISORY TRAINING PROGRAM FOR POLICE SERGEANTS JOEL LEFKOWITZ, JOEL LEFKOWITZ Baruch College, City University of New YorkSearch for more papers by this author JOEL LEFKOWITZ, JOEL LEFKOWITZ Baruch College, City University of New YorkSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1972 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1972.tb01093.xCitations: 7 Also at BFS Psychological Associates, Inc. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume25, Issue1March 1972Pages 95-106 RelatedInformation

The Police Sergeants Manual

The Police Sergeants Manual

Morale in a Police Department

(What is morale? Why is it necessary in policing? How can we build good morale in a police department? These are the significant inquiries discussed in the following article. The author has been a member of the Berkeley Police Department for the past eight years, has an M.A. degree in police administration (University of California), and is author of the recently published volume Police Sergeants' Manual. At present he is on leave of absence from his department and is now serving as Advisor, Personnel Training, Division of Public Safety, U. S. Group Control Council for Germany.-EDIToR.)