Transcript Managing Risk in Risky Times

Managing Risk in Risky Times
Karen J. Kruger
Funk & Bolton, P.A.
Lecture Sponsored by the Local
Government Insurance Trust
Components of Risk Management
• Identify risks
• Assess and categorize risks by severity,
frequency, consequences, etc.
• Develop controls to eliminate or mitigate
• Implement the controls
• Evaluate the efficacy of the controls
Law Enforcement Risks
• Police activity creates high risk of municipal
liability because:
▫ High level of interaction with citizens
▫ Often under stressful circumstances
▫ People fear police, but depend on them
• Liability is greatest with high risk, low frequency
tasks such as use of force, vehicle pursuits
Effective Risk Management
• Don’t ignore problems that are lying in wait
• Focus on competency and integrity
• Identify & evaluate risks, then institute control
measures
• Document the efforts
How do the risks manifest?
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Citizen complaints
Negative media reports
Claims/lawsuits filed
Internal dissention
Outside investigations
Governing body/community dissatisfaction
What this means to the Police
Department
• Civil rights liability
• Suspect & officer injuries
• Diminished public safety
• Loss of public confidence in agency
Good Controls Include
• Sound policy guidance
• Providing effective equipment
• Training and practice in current law
enforcement techniques
• Comporting with standards of the industry
Five Management Elements
• People
• Policies
• Training
• Supervision
• Discipline
Translation
• Who are the people doing the work?
• How are they supposed to do the work?
• What do they need to learn to do the work
properly and well?
• How do we oversee the work they do?
• What do we do when they perform the work
wrongly or not at all?
1. Selecting the Right People
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Not everyone is suited to police work
MPTC standards are the minimum
Need thorough background investigations
Identify the essential job functions and ways to
determine if your applicants can perform them
• Use probation wisely
2. Providing Adequate Guidance
• Purpose of policies:
▫ To help employee know what to do
▫ To establish agency practices
Policies should provide both guiding principles and
specific procedures without unduly restricting
officer discretion – Concentrate on highest risk
areas
Policies
• Must be current on the law
▫ “clearly established” principle
• Must be available and understandable
• Specific to your operation and flexible
• Avoid having agency’s own policies used against
it
3. What Training Do Employees Need?
• Entry level – where and how are your (good)
people being trained?
• Have you reviewed the actual curriculum?
• When was the curriculum last reviewed for legal
sufficiency and currency?
• Are your training records adequate?
When is Training Needed?
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Changes in the law
New equipment/technology
In response to local issues
When employees demonstrate a lack of
competency
• When mandated by State regulation
Training is not always the answer
• Training must be a systemic part of the
organization , but is not a stand-alone solution
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Work environment
Organizational culture
Personnel management
Supervision
▫ All implicated
4. Supervision
• Emphasize a positive approach to provide
guidance and mentoring
• Supervisors must take an active role in
operations – daily field presence is expected
• Responsible for performance management and
evaluation
• Monitor behavior patterns and know how to
respond to them with common sense
Role of Supervisors
• Implement policies and training
• Provide quality control
• Identify problem employees or good employees
who have problems
5. Discipline to Correct Behavior
• Primary goal – to save, not destroy, careers
• Needs to be prompt, fair and effective
• Must comply with law (LEOBR) but not be
hampered by law
• Regulations for internal processes are essential
Managing Misconduct Risk
• Intervention options
• Early warning signs
• Cultural failures – does your organization
tolerate mediocrity?
• Do officers value loyalty over integrity?
Avoid Over-Use of Punitive Discipline
• “Discipline” – a systematic method to obtain
obedience; punishment intended to train or
correct
• Assess and monitor employees – look for early
intervention options that target the specific
problem
• Replace “progressive” discipline with coaching
and counseling
Early Intervention
• Coaching: Identify and seek to correct problem
behaviors using specific task-related strategies
• Counseling: Effort to discern underlying issues,
supportive but less directive or evaluative –
burden on employee to develop solutions
Municipal Risk
• “Pattern and practice claims”
• Where plaintiff can identify an agency’s
unconstitutional practice or custom that it has
instituted or simply allow to exist/persist
Defining “Misconduct”
• Mistakes of the mind v. mistakes of the heart
• Are we looking at deliberate misconduct or some
other problem?
• Do we have a problem employee who has no
desire to be productive and yet expects to receive
unfair advantages from the organization?
Is Your Disciplinary System Effective?
• Are complaints thoroughly and fairly
investigated?
• Do your investigators know how to recognize
misconduct versus some other problem?
• Are investigations timely? Why not?
• Do the investigations comply with the LEOBR?
Disciplinary Process
• Is there a system to resolve administrative
charges?
• Are suspension over-used?
• Are employees’ rights protected?
• Is there a process for conducting an LEOBR
hearing?
• Has the agency provided the proper training?
Risks of Defective Discipline
• Required to retain problem employee
• May be liable for money damages to employee or
others
• Undermines organizational culture and
demoralizes troops
Summary
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Hire good people
Give good directions
Train for automatic response
Provide good role models
Perform quality control through Internal Affairs
management
Karen J. Kruger
[email protected]
410.659.8322
154513 April 2013