Supervisor & Command Training Webinar
Your department is only as strong as your weakest supervisor
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Free Webinar: Supervisor & Command Training
After years of facing litigation, the question that law enforcement agencies must ask is, “who in your department is best able to protect you from a claim of an unconstitutional practice or custom?”
Key Factors to Avoid Agency Liability:
- Developing clear policies to govern the operations of the department;
- Training on core tasks and scenarios which officers regularly face and, more particularly, training on the department’s policies; and
- Effective supervision.
We’ve learned that the role of the supervisor is the department’s most important protector against liability. With departments facing budget and personnel challenges over the past few years, chiefs are asking how to protect their departments with less. Our response has been that departments must ensure that sergeants have the training and tools to be their first line of protection.
One of Daigle Law Group’s key training points is that your police department is only as strong as your weakest supervisor. Cases such as Shaw v. Stroud and the DOJ’s East Haven Settlement Agreement reinforce the importance of having strong First Line Supervisors.
It is crucial that supervisors are properly trained on all aspects of their position. Departments must establish solid and effective policies regarding supervisor duties and responsibilities in the various areas of the department. Departments, however, must also follow through and provide effective training on the substance and requirements of the policies. If training is weak, unfocused, or nonexistent, then the policy will not be followed.
Supervisors must work to ensure that they are not deliberately indifferent to policy violations or unconstitutional conduct. A sergeant who is not holding officers accountable leaves your department wide open to the imposition of agency liability. Therefore, effective measures to hold supervisors and command staff directly accountable for the quality and effectiveness of their supervision are imperative.
Whether your department is small or one of the country’s largest, your protection starts with your supervisors; they are the gatekeepers against a finding of departmental liability.