"MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Beyond the beating, kicking, cursing and pepper spraying, the video of Tyre Nichols’ deadly arrest at the hands of young Memphis police officers is just as notable for what’s missing — any experienced supervisors showing up to stop them."
February 7, 2023
Where were they, you ask. It's just a guess, but the experienced supervisors were back at their desks doing administrative chores. Such as:
Employee Evaluations
And not just the yearly document most departments (wisely) require their supervisors to complete. Many organizations also maintain formal periodic logs, designed to record an employee's performance. Technology has made this task a bit easier, but for a supervisor with six officers on his/her team, keeping up with logs can take an entire duty day or two per month. Since most sergeants work about thirteen days a month - you're looking at more than ten percent of their time just writing "Officer (whomever) was late to work, again." If you think this could easily be whittled down, since Officer Whomever has a constitutionally-protected right to their job, as an employee of government, profusely documented performance may be the only way to discipline/terminate a poorly-performing employee before they make it on to CNN.
Report writing faux pas
There are two kinds of these. First, there is the day-to-day review of the written work of a supervisor's direct reports. Computerization has made this task simpler in some ways, and more complex in others. Simply reading - for content, clarity, grammar, spelling...you get the idea - fifteen or twenty reports every shift takes up nearly an hour, sometimes more. In the more cumbersome systems, one might double that time if the reviewer has a heart, and fixes spelling and punctuation mistakes rather than returning report(s) to their author. Additional time is consumed ("80% of my time is taken up by 20% of my employees" is the common lament) making sure that a non-standard report rejected back to an officer isn't resubmitted immediately, without changes, in the hope that another, less exacting supervisor, will approve it without reading it.
There are also reports, fewer but still existing, rejected downstream (often by a Records Employee) for flaws related to national (read: Eff...Bee...Eye) reporting standards. This is not an inconsequential matter, and often takes a considerable amount of effort to resolve. Police reports are actually a form of data entry. Anyone reading this who wants to read further on this arcane, albeit demanding subject need only pick up a copy of A Miracle of Zeros and Ones. I still have some printed copies, if you want one.
All of this is another investment of ten percent of the average workday. For those keeping score, one fifth of the duty day is already accounted for.
Payroll
"JDE will make liars of all of us" a friend said. JDE was the payroll software that each officer used to record their time - sort of like an individualized punch clock done over a computer. This is how people get paid. It is also subject to this axiom: To err is human. To really (mess) things up, you need a computer. Each supervisor is responsible for making sure that their employees submit an accurate and timely payroll accounting every two weeks. The material elements are every employee, accurate and timely. This doesn't take all that long, even when the usual employee (me, for example) either doesn't submit anything at all, it is incomplete or inaccurate, or isn't done on time. But, it's still a solid hour of heartache every two weeks.
Oh. Finance works Monday-Friday, 8-5. Cops, and their supervisors, don't.
Computer Training
Sure, just complete the class when there isn't anything to do. Sitting in a supervisor's cubicle listening to the radio and working on computerized training - just because the radio is quiet (or routine) doesn't mean nothing is going on.
Return Voice Mail Messages, Emails and Misc. Missives
Citizen complaints, harangues from The Boss. Complaints from detectives about non-standard investigations. Birth announcements. Court. Training classes cancelled, or rescheduled.
All of this assumes that:
The supervisor actually cares.
The supervisor is there - as a 25 year employee I got 4 weeks off per year. Add training days, holidays (another two plus weeks off because street cops work on Christmas, eg.) and I might work not 52 weeks a year, but 43.
While we're at it - supervisors are evaluated by how well (and profusely) they complete their "Admin." In some departments, both pay raises and promotions are tied directly to a sergeant's reputation for prowess as an administrator.
Give that some thought.
By the way - Roll call and getting the previous watch out the door is an hour at the front end of a duty day. Getting a sergeant's watch home is an hour at the end. Twenty percent of a ten hour day is already accounted for before a supervisor even contemplates getting into a police car.
Many years ago, a friend who'd worked for another agency (known for its especially harsh winters) talked about foot beats he'd been assigned. In those days, the officers wore greatcoats in the winter, large wool items that extended below the knee. Good winter boots took care of his feet, and the greatcoat was a godsend. His shins were always cold. So, a couple times a night, his sergeant would pull up without notice and let him sit in the car for a few minutes to warm up.
"Hey," the sergeant would call out. "You want some shin heat?"
And they would sit in the car and catch up. "What's been going on, how are things? Anything fun to talk about? I'll be out and about if you need me."
It's what the profession needs now, more than ever. Shin heat from the Sarge.
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