often overlooked opportunities to expand these topics into tabletop exercises for your people. Be familiar with any standing plans and proposed command post locations. The future will prove this to be time well spent! Create And Carry A Generic Unusual Occurrence Checklist. Create and always carry a generic checklist of just about every unusual occurrence/command post issue that you can think of (log, ingress/egress for emergency vehicles, communications with other entities, inside and outside perimeters, evacuations, notifications, SEMS, NIMS, etc.). This will come in pretty handy when an incident occurs, as it will help determine what is and what is not appropriate to the circumstances. After several years, this type of information will be second nature; until then, the generic checklist will serve you well. Although there are virtually scores of potential types of events, the above issues are common to all of them. Recognize possible significant events and pre-plan for them before they occur. Look Carefully At Organizational Deviations. Upon arrival at a new command, it is not unusual to encounter a situation where things, hopefully for good reasons, are done just a little bit differently than elsewhere in the Department. You may be a new supervisor, but you are not a new employee, and you know when people have embarked on an inappropriate or slippery slope. Do not tolerate anything that is wrong. You are the only person who can take away your ethics and integrity! Always Look Sharp. A supervisor who becomes sloppy lowers the bar for others as well. From day one, set the standard by your personal appearance. Good grooming enhances your command presence and thereby increases the likelihood of respect for you. Know Your Community And Become It’s Cheerleader. Ensure that your actions, both in deed and in spirit, reflect the reality that it is an honor to serve your community. Do all that you can to become familiar with that community, its leaders, and those things that cause it to be unique. Do not tolerate criticism of that community by your people,
read the information verbatim. Put together informative and dynamic presentations. It does not take that long, is appreciated by the troops, noticed by all, and is a solid reflection of you. Also, do not hesitate to use knowledgeable troops to provide training as well. Do Not Permit Jokes To Get Out Of Hand. There is no group of people anywhere who collectively have a greater imagination or love of humor than cops. Unfortunately, however, our profession is replete with stories of seemingly humorous incidents that got out of hand. Be quick to shut down anything that might be inappropriate. Know when to stop laughing and bring the humor to a halt. If it is clearly out-of-bounds, stop the behavior immediately rather than waiting for the activity to end and later taking the instigator aside. Make sure to look at the year listed on the current calendar, and measure words and actions by current benchmarks, whether you like them or not. It sometimes takes courage to do this; that’s why you have those stripes and others don’t! Do Not Let The Department Be Used As A Cover For A Cheating Spouse. Do not tolerate any situation where an off-duty officer solicits on-duty personnel to tell an inquiring spouse that he or she is on duty, but temporarily unavailable. A credible individual lies about nothing, and that includes this type of non-sense. Just ask someone who has been confronted at the station by an irate scorned spouse! Deploy With The Public In Mind, And Not At The Expense Of The People We Serve. Whether a department of ten or ten thousand, there are never enough officers to do the job we would like to do. However, we need to deploy wisely and put the bulk of our resources where they are most needed, which is often on those days and times when many of our people would like to be off. Factor this reality into your planning at the beginning of the deployment period. You have failed if, at the end of the deployment period, more people had worked on Wednesday nights than Saturday nights. Our people occasionally need to be reminded that these shifts go with the territory. Never Permit A Performance Evaluation To Be A Surprise. It is critical to provide periodic performance feedback to your people, and