Supervising Police Personnel: The Fifteen Responsibilities - Hardcover

Whisenand, Paul M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 013245758X ISBN 13: 9780132457583

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2010

Synopsis

Using an interactive, three-part structure, this book covers all the latest supervisory concepts and practices—and emphasizes character, values and strengths-based leadership throughout. Organized around 15 core responsibilities, it tackles issues such as ethics, communications, training, evaluations, empowerment and problem-oriented policing— uniquely combining the human factor with the performance edge. New chapters on strengths-based leadership, emotions, and performance appear in this edition and exercises reinforce what’s required to lead and supervise today’s police force. Broken up into three parts, the updated content includes:

• Part I–On Becoming a Leader focuses on core character traits and values such as ethics, strength-based leadership, vision, communications, emotions and team leadership.
• Part II–On Becoming a Supervisor discusses police supervisory competencies such as time, vitality, issues, training and evaluation.
• Part III–Getting Results includes discussion of empowerment, community and problem-oriented policing and performance.

This book is a perfect resource for professionals with a career in police supervision, human or organizational behavior, criminal justice, community relations, mediation, and/or ethics.

About this title

From the Publisher

A practical book which covers all the latest supervisory concepts and practices, and encourages the reader to think and then behave as a supervisor.

From the Inside Flap

PREFACE

This, the fourth edition, continues to represent the police supervisor's role as a set of integrated responsibilities. This has been and, in all likelihood, will be an enduring theme for future editions.

As in past editions, all fifteen responsibilities are formatted as chapters. Each one of the responsibilities has been modified, some considerably. more than others. A few have been retitled to reflect a thematic emphasis on teamwork.

I realize that the term "team" is overused to the point that today some find it trite. I toyed with the words "partner," "collaborative," "consensual," "seamless," and others. "Teamwork" prevailed, as you'll soon see in the three major sections: Team Basics, Team Building, and Teamwork.

Team Basics provides the infrastructure for contemporary police work—community-oriented policing. These chapters deal with constancy and integrity of purpose—values, ethics, and vision—and with the allocation of the requisite time to communicate all three. The chapters on ethics and vision contain a lot of new material.

Team Building starts with a supervisor's responsibility for serving as a team leader. This naturally encompasses motivating, empowering, and training one's staff, while ensuring that everyone is mentally and physically well. The two chapters on team leadership and motivation are essentially new.

Teamwork includes organizing for action, measuring the results of that action, rectifying mistakes, and making certain that community-oriented policing works. I am convinced that it takes teamwork to make it work. Finally, the supervisor is challenged to sense incoming demands or needs for change. Significant updatings are found in the chapters on performance appraisal and conflict resolution.

Being a police supervisor is much more than having more pay, more authority, more influence, more status, and the like, It is much more a set of vital responsibilities, as you will soon discover in the chapters that follow.

I would like to thank Joe Sandoval of Metropolitan State College, Sgt. Twan Uptgrow of the Metro-Dade Police Department, and Sgt. Marc Deluca of the Charlotte Police Department for reviewing the manuscript. My warmest thanks to Kim Davies, Senior Editor, Prentice Hall, who coached and inspired me during the writing of this edition; Pat David and Julie Schmidt, who expertly typed and critically edited the manuscript; and, finally, my longtime prized teammate and wise co-author, George Rush, who said, "Be a big boy. Write this one by yourself."

Paul Whisenand
San Clemente, California

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 013245758X
• ISBN 13: 9780132457583
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 342