Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Case Synopsis
The chief of police in a large city government describes the problem of getting his officers to do paperwork. The officers enjoy working with the public and apprehending criminals, not sitting at a desk. The paperwork is boring, but can make the difference in convictions. The Chief has no financial rewards (budget crunch) and promotions are determined by seniority, not the quality of paperwork. Officers were trained to perform street work, not fill out forms. Arrests, not paperwork, get noticed. Conviction success is due to too many factors to be a performance criterion.
counsel might meet occasionally with officers to describe examples where good or bad paperwork influenced the success of their cases. The captain might try to publicly recognize officers who have contributed to a successful case mainly due to their thorough reports. The police chief might also consider the possibility that some officers lack the competencies to perform the report writing task. A needs assessment might determine who should receive formal training in report writing. A train the trainer approach might be considered where officers who are most effective at report writing receive special training to teach other officers. This might add further social esteem to performance in report writing.