Officer __________ (a.k.a. "Goofball")
You know who he or she is...
The one who when they worked as a patrol officer everyone else stayed away from them. The officer acted so goofy or said the weirdest things, ranging from simply strange to absolute bizarre. You would often steer clear of them when on the road, because you feared they would get you in trouble with their weird antics, or you feared the other officers would start to look at you differently because you befriended this goof. More often than not, this officer would victimize the law abiding public by issuing them costly traffic citations for minor offenses, rather than aggressively deal with the known criminal elements in your community. You know who they are. The cowards who hide behind the badge, empowered by wearing that Glock 17, screwing with those who don't deserve it, and then one day they start screwing with you.
What the %^&*!!
Your worst professional nightmare becomes reality: the mental midget gets promoted! How the heck does this happen? Well, when your chief uses an outside assessment team who spends 30 minutes with a total stranger, and they look strictly at test scores then that is unfortunately how it happens. Truth is the chief knows who is a looser and who isn't, but given the fact that the chief lacks intestinal fortitude him or herself, means that they place the promotion responsibility on someone else. Who best than the complete unknowns (a.k.a. members of the "assessment center") who blow into town render unpopular decisions and blow out of town as quickly as they came in and are never seen, nor heard from again?
Six months later you find yourself sitting in front of "Sgt. Weirdo" who is now rating your performance, as if they ever properly performed or knew what good performance was themselves. The assault on you is swift and fierce. In less than two paragraphs, Sgt. Weirdo has established in written form that you are the worst police officer who has ever served the public. You know for a fact that the assertions made in the performance evaluation are completely untrue, but you struggle to understand what motivates someone to be so evil as to try and destroy your reputation and career on a public document.
Give up trying to figure them out. Truth is nobody can. Just come to terms with the fact that someone, a long time ago, probably abused Sgt. Weirdo as a child and now the rest of humanity will have to suffer as a result of their insecurities. However, being knocked down never means being knocked out.
The Pen is Mightier Then the Sword
You better believe it. In our litigious society what is recorded on paper is often viewed as being as accurate as the Word of God. Just look at your local newspaper. How many citizens, or cops for that matter, believe what they read? The problem, as it pertains to officer performance evaluations, is that their intended purpose was never to harm officers, but to help them. Actually, that is true with all performance evaluations regardless of the profession you are in. However, attorneys or human resources administrators have modified their use overtime so that they are the "GO TO document" when officers are faced with "lack of performance" discipline, eventually the "set up" to termination.
Whenever the chief says to the city law director, "Hey, we've got a problem with this officer”, the first response of the city attorney is usually, "What do their performance evaluations look like?" In other words, how long is the paper trail?
Best Defense is a Good Offense
If you have ever received a bogus performance evaluation, or are facing it now, you have two choices. Lie down and die (meaning watch your career go down the tubes) or push back when shoved. So, what can you do to make sure Sgt. Weirdo's psychotic personality doesn't manifest itself onto the paper that has your name affixed as an evaluation?
Negotiate:
- Make sure the performance evaluation process is included in your union contract.
- Include a meditation method that will resolve differences, to include going outside of the department if necessary.
- Require that police supervisors are properly trained to administer evaluations first, before they evaluate anyone.
- Demand that the primary purpose of officer performance evaluations be held to what it was originally implemented for: Enhancement of officer skills, knowledge or abilities and its use as a roadmap to bringing about positive developmental change.
- The evaluation should not be annual. If training is identified as the solution, most often times it is, to enhancing officer skills, and then another evaluation should be followed up within 90 days of training completion to see if objectives defined within the evaluation were met. In other words, the written evaluation really serves as a useful document forcing positive change, not just another way of "dinging" a cop as they have been used before.
No Contract?
No problem. Figure out another way to put the above 5 elements into action. I don't have to tell you how to be creative. You are cops, which means you are used to surviving in a hostile environment. Just be prepared to get mean. If Sgt. Weirdo is collecting data on you, then you collect it on him or her. The nice thing about those who demand that others perform to a level they themselves can't live up to is that they leave their own trail of evidence. If things get bad, get an attorney. You certainly wouldn't be the first group of officers to split the cost of a lawyer to get a bad supervisor off their backs. I knew of seven officers on the same shift, once, who did just that. Within 2 years the sergeant was essentially forced to retire and 5 years after that she was found in a crack house. Nobody was surprised. If they could ever find those assessment center members who recommended her promotion, do you think they would?
