CHAPTER 6: The Police Leader As An Evaluator

Question 1

THE POLICE LEADER AS AN EVALUATOR

The police sergeant may be the single most important individual _______ by the law enforcement agency. Without him, the direc-tives, orders, and designs of the upper ranks would go unimplement-ed. Without him, the concerns and problems of the working police officer would be much more difficult to identify and address.

Answer 1

employed

Question 2

THE POLICE LEADER AS AN EVALUATOR

First-line supervisor also may be one of the _________ jobs in
the police agency. Not only must the leader be aware of proper pro-cedures and departmental guidelines, he also must be capable of quickly improvising and adapting to fit the unique situation, which perhaps no pre-existing directive or order fits exactly.

Answer 2

most difficult

Question 3

THE POLICE LEADER AS AN EVALUATOR

If the police sergeant is indispensable to the effective and efficient
operation of the police agency, then the uniformed sergeant on patrol is the most important _______ of that larger supervisory group.

Answer 3

subsection

Question 4

THE POLICE LEADER AS AN EVALUATOR

In no area of his job description is the competent field supervisor
more relied upon by both management and subordinates than in his role of work _________. Here he will strive to improve the organization as a whole by helping its component employees under his direction to do their jobs better for the benefit of the agency and the community as well as themselves.

Answer 4

performance evaluator

Question 5

PURPOSES OF EVALUATION

Properly administered and closely monitored by command staff as well as first-line supervisors, the performance evaluation system can identify problems in the department’s _____, training, or operational procedures.

Answer 5

selection

Question 6

MEANS OF EVALUATION

At the same time, every individual police employee must be rated
on the same criteria as his peers who are in the same category or job description. It would be ______ to have one patrol supervisor rating on one set of criteria while a different patrol sergeant used a different set of performance standards.

Answer 6

unfair

Question 7

MEANS OF EVALUATION

Partiality and _______ can be kept to a minimum, however, by the consistent use of a uniform set of rating criteria designed to measure the skills necessary for a given task.

Answer 7

distortion

Question 8

MEANS OF EVALUATION

First of all, the agency’s leaders must decide what is to be ________. Different departments may place varying degrees of impor-tance on particular skills and traits.

Answer 8

measured

Question 9

MEANS OF EVALUATION

Second, it is vital that performance appraisals look only at behavior or results that are ______, observable, and capable of being mea-sured in some way. Results can be measured; attitudes cannot.

Answer 9

tangible

Question 10

MEANS OF EVALUATION:

Characteristics of a good police officer:

1) General Knowledge and Skills
2) Personal Characteristics

Question 11

MEANS OF EVALUATION:

Personal Characteristics: Appearance

The need for ________ in evaluation standards cannot be overemphasized.

Answer 11

consistency

Question 12

MEANS OF EVALUATION:

Personal Characteristics: Appearance

The _______ of the form makes it relatively easy to complete and
explain to the rated employee. This can be a distinct advantage to supervisor and supervised alike.

Answer 12

simplicity

Question 13

MEANS OF EVALUATION:

Personal Characteristics: Appearance

Numbers simply can-not compare with ______ in descriptive value to all concerned.

Answer 13

words

Question 14

MEANS OF EVALUATION:

Personal Characteristics: Appearance

1) Numbers

2)

Answer 14

words

Question 15

MEANS OF EVALUATION:

Personal Characteristics: Appearance

The “open narrative” evaluation does have a disadvantage. The
drawback is, in reality, an ________ of weakness in some super-visors’ communicative abilities more than it is a true fault in the evaluation format itself. This weakness is centered around the unfortunate inability to express oneself clearly in writing that afflicts many persons today, police supervisors among them. Sometimes the leader who can counsel effectively and lead decisively has a problem in reducing his observations and opinions to written form.

Answer 15

open admission

Question 16

MEANS OF EVALUATION:

A finished evaluation should be proofread carefully at least ______ by its writer; once for content and clarity and once for errors in spelling or grammar. The writer should check to be sure that nothing has been omitted by accident

Answer 16

twice

Question 17

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The critics believe that the evaluation system traps both employee and supervisor into a role that each must ______. According to them, the supervisor may find himself defending his evaluation to a vehement-ly objecting subordinate. Just as bad, the disagreeing employee may say nothing but will harbor bad feelings about the supervisor he sees as callously wronging him.

Answer 17

defend

Question 18

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The Evaluation Session Must Be Treated as Very Important.

Before discussing the performance review with the subordinate, a private place free of _______ and distractions should be selected.

Answer 18

interruption

Question 19

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The Evaluation Session Must Be Treated as Very Important.

The evaluation should not be presented when either party is pressed for time. For this reason, it is sometimes best to avoid the _____ or ___ of the work day as a time for the presentation.

Answer 19

start or end

Question 20

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The Evaluation Session Must Be Treated as Very Important.

Praise must be used only when de-served. Otherwise, it will soon lose its _______ for the employee. Weaknesses and areas needing improvement must be covered, too.

Answer 20

meaning

Question 21

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The Evaluation Must Be Fair and Accurate.

Nothing will destroy a supervisor faster than substantiated claims of ________ or gross inaccuracy in the evaluations he writes.

Answer 21

prejudice

Question 22

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The Evaluation Must Be Fair and Accurate.

_______ is vital in the evaluation. If the sergeant writes that
Patrol Officer Smith was late for work on a certain number of occa-sions, then he had best be able to document the dates and circum-stances in each instance. Precise statements and examples are prefer-able to generalized remarks. Exactness becomes even more critical when the evaluation’s remarks are of a negative nature.

Answer 22

Accuracy

Question 23

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The Evaluation Should Not Spring Surprises.

Before a supervisor can be fair in “dinging” a subordinate in his yearly or six-month evaluation report, he should have first ______ the employee at least verbally and preferably in a written supervisor’s log entry of his observations at some earlier time. Any early warning of unsatisfactory performance should, of course, be accompanied by advice on what sort of improvement or behavior change is expected.

Answer 23

notified

Question 24

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

Statistics Should Not Be Overemphasized.

An evaluation system paying too much attention to quantity alone could ________ rate rookie and veteran alike.

Answer 24

unfairly

Question 25

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

Statistics Should Not Be Overemphasized.

It can be truthfully hypothesized that quality cannot be claimed without at least some _______ to choose from, but quotas and rigid targets set in numbers are poor yardsticks when used alone for evaluative purposes.

Answer 25

quantity

Question 26

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

The Evaluator Must Not Play Santa Claus.

Ideally, ________ should in no way be tied to longevity pay. Merit pay raises and length of service salary increases should be kept entirely separate from one another. Bonuses or other performance incentives arising out of good evaluation reports should reflect truly extraordinary work, not a meeting of routine job demands.

Answer 26

evaluations

Question 27

GUIDELINES AND PITFALLS:

Evaluations Should Be Completed on Time.

Common sense dictates that the sharp supervisor will give himself
________ (weeks or days, not hours or minutes) to think about what he is going to say before he actually puts it to paper. A last ditch flurry of effort, hours before the evaluation is due, does not speak well of the supervisor’s planning abilities.

Answer 27

plenty of time

Question 28

Appearance:

_______ examples are required if an employee is to understand what behavior is to be sought or avoided. Good examples also are required if the supervisor is to successfully sustain a challenged performance review.

Answer 28

Concrete

Question 29

INSPECTION AND FOLLOW-UP

To be truly useful, any performance evaluation tool must be part
of a _______ process. There is little value in establishing goals and objectives if no one ever checks to see if they are being met.

Answer 29

continuing

Question 30

INSPECTION AND FOLLOW-UP

To be complete, an effective employee evaluation report needs a
section for the rater to comment on the employee’s progress towards meeting established goals and ______.

Answer 30

Objectives

Question 31

INSPECTION AND FOLLOW-UP

The employee generally will labor much harder to achieve an objective if he shares in the _______ of its importance and its relevance to his job.

Answer 31

recognition

Question 32

INSPECTION AND FOLLOW-UP

If the police employee is in sharp disagreement with his supervisor about the relative value of a given objective set for him, further ________ is in order. Compromise may, on occasion, be necessary.

Answer 32

discussion

Question 33

INSPECTION AND FOLLOW-UP

Whatever the system in operation at a particular agency, the supervisor serves as the ________ for the employee seeking deserved awards—monetary or otherwise. Once the actual evaluation is complete, the supervisor must see to it that the necessary procedures and paperwork are completed to get the de-served recognition to the employee recipient.

Answer 33

gatekeeper

Question 34

SUMMARY

As an impartial and accurate evaluator the supervisor will furnish _________ and examples to back his opinions. He will stay focused on the subject at hand, assure completeness of the assessment and emphasize its importance by getting it done on time. Then, he will follow up the performance appraisal session with inspections and observations as required.

Answer 34

hard evidence

Question 35

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

Performance appraisals help both the _______ and the organization.

Answer 35

employee

Question 36

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

Preparing clear, impartial and informative performance appraisals is a _______ for the supervisor.

Answer 36

key task

Question 37

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

To ________ performance effectively, the supervisor must be a good writer.

Answer 37

evaluate

Question 38

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

Employee performance appraisals must contain clear _______ of employee behavior, both good and bad, to back up the ratings given.

Answer 38

examples

Question 39

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

The evaluation session must be seen as very important and ________, uninterrupted time provided for it.

Answer 39

adequate

Question 40

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

The evaluation must be ____ and accurate.

Answer 40

fair

Question 41

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

The evaluation should stay on the ______ at hand and contain no surprises. Performance reviews must be completed on time.

Answer 41

subject

Question 42

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

Evaluations should not _________ the value of productivity statistics.

Answer 42

overemphasize