Preparing to Become a Lieutenant / Sergeant
Whether you are preparing to become a lieutenant or a sergeant, start by listing the duties indigenous to each position. Next, ask yourself how your personal job experience matches up or coincides with the duties of the desired position.
What kinds of values, morals, and ethics can you bring to the table that will help you fulfill the requirements of the position? What kind of informal and formal academic qualifications do you have? What type of job experience have you already had? Most importantly, are you conversant with any of the following terms or concepts: risk management, accountability, ethical behavior, leadership, and quality of life.
Your knowledge and awareness of any of the following topics or questions may prove useful in preparing you for the next level. Please feel free to utilize this information as you see fit.
Critical Incidents:
Citizen Complaints Department Programs/Units:
Issues for Supervisors
Scenario # 1
At the end of EM shift, a male deputy and a female dispatcher are communicating via the MDT. The conversation is filled with innuendoes. The deputy interprets the dispatcher's response as an indication that she is interested in him. In reality, the dispatcher intended her remarks to be sarcastic. She feels the deputy is full of himself.
When the deputy encounters her in the hallway, he attempts to continue the conversation, but she rebuffs him and declines his invitation to breakfast. He tells her that he knows when she gets off work and what days she is free. She tells him that she is not interested in him.
Lateron, he approaches her again, and she refuses to go out with him. On another day she overhears him imply to another deputy that he went to bed with her. Seeing that she is upset, he writes a letter apology and again asks her to go out. He promises to make it up to her. He leaves the letter on the windshield of her car.
She finally comes to you (her lieutenant) and advises you that the whole thing started on the MDT. She indicates that although he might have gotten the wrong idea from her initial response, she has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with him. However, he has begun calling her at home and persists in asking her out.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 2
You are approached by a field training officer who tells you that he doesn't want to work with the new trainee because he heard that the guy was gay.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 3
You are the PM watch commander at a station when one of your field units initiates a pursuit at 1800 hrs. As the information being provided by the field unit comes in, a local news helicopter begins to broadcast the pursuit via television. You see the pursuit on television and realize that the field unit is not providing accurate information regarding the speed of the pursuit, traffic conditions, and the number of units involved.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 4
You are the PM watch commander and a resident comes in to complain that he was standing in his own front yard video taping a deputy making an arrest on the street in front of his house. He thought it was interesting because the deputy was using force. After the arrest was completed, the deputy took his video tape. The resident wants to file a complaint. He says the deputy had no right to the tape.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 5
You are the watch commander at a custody facility. A female Custody Assistant tells you that two deputies have been hazing another female deputy at the facility. She said the deputies also told her that if she did not want the same treatment, she (the Custody Assistant) should have sex with them.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 6
You are the PM watch commander at a patrol station. At 1400 hours, your desk deputy received a phone call from an unknown male that stated, "I'm going to kill one of you tonight." Several hours later a lone male enters the lobby and fires a handgun at your complaint deputy seriously wounding him. A field deputy who was in the station at the time witnesses the incident and fires at the suspect, killing him.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 7
You are the watch commander at a patrol station. You are informed that a commercial airline jet has just crashed within the jurisdiction of your station.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 8
You are the PM watch commander at a patrol station when the police department of the neighboring city contacts you and requests mutual aid for a large group of protestors in their area. They inform you that they have activated their EOC, and estimate the crowd to be about 5,000 people and growing.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 9
You find out that deputies are not responding to calls during the last hour of the shift. The civilian dispatcher reported the incident to a new sergeant, who tells you that she (the dispatcher) is intimidated by the watch deputy, who is a peer leader.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 10
A deputy informs you that two sergeants are always arguing on your shift. Both sergeants hate each other, and they are asking the employees to take sides.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 11
You are the the PM watch commander when a race riot occurs at your custody facility - 65% black, 15 % white, and 50% latino. A fire has been started in a trash can, the booth deputy is in the bathroom.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 12
You are the day shift watch commander when the day shift jailer approaches you and advises you that the EM jailer is going home early. During your inspection of the jail, an inmate tells you that a deputy kicked him in the head and left. You notice that the inmate is bleeding from the head.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 13
Your are the watch commander at a patrol station when you are told over the P/A to immediately 10-19 the desk - there is a "robbery just occurred shots fired call" . . . . A deputy has been shot, an unmarked detective bureau unit is in pursuit behind the suspect's vehicle, and the suspect vehicle is entering the jurisdiction of another sheriff's station. The closest black and white unit is 2 - 3 minutes away.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 14
You are the day shift watch commander. A female trainee approaches you and advises you that her training officer is moving evidence, forcing her to falsify arrest reports, and making her give false testimony in court.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 15
As a newly assigned lieutenant at a patrol station, you are approached by several sergeants who tell you that another sergeant on the shift is not doing his work, and that they are tired of doing this guy's work.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 16
As the new watch commander at a patrol station, you learn that the field crews are routinely going out of their area to make arrests, and that the patrol sergeants are aware of the situation but are ignoring the problem.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario #17
You are the watch commander at a custody facility, when you learn that a race riot in one of the dorms is imminent.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 18
How can you as a watch commander insure that deputies will implement "community oriented policing" and adhere to the core values and Department's mission.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 19
You are shift watch commander at a patrol station, a trainee comes to you and says that her training officer is moving evidence.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 20
You are a lieutenant at a station. Due to personnel shortages and budget constraints, you are told to develop and implement a new schedule.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 21
You are the watch commander at a patrol station. While reviewing reports written the night before, you read an arrest that is different from what the deputy told you the night before when he came to you to get the arrest approved. The differences are such that you would not have approved the arrest if you had known these facts.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Follow up: Your unit commander determines that a unit level investigation is warranted and assigns the investigation to you. What would you do?
Scenario # 22
As the watch commander, you are informed that one of your shift deputies lacks interpersonal skills. He is high producer and a peer group leader. Your watch sergeant tells you that this deputy has a difficult time getting along with people but has a high arrest record.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 23
You are a watch commander at a patrol station. You are told that in the near future an organization will be holding a demonstration in one of your city parks. This organization held a demonstration the year before in another jurisdiction's area and the demonstration turned violent.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 24
You are a watch commander at a patrol station or a custody facility, and you learn that there was an altercation between your deputies and inmates, and there were injuries to both but nothing was ever reported.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Follow up: The unit commander determined that a unit level investigation was warranted and assigns the investigation to you. What would you do?
Scenario # 25
You are the watch commander at a station. There has just been a major disturbance at a high school in your area. Shots have been fired. There are injuries to residents, students and deputies.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 26
You are a watch commander working custody. A male trainee tells you he is being hazed and adds that the sergeant knows about it, but has done nothing.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 27
You are a watch commander working patrol. A resident comes in to the station and tells you he was arrested three days ago and complains about the deputies using force on him.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Follow- up: your captain tells you to do an administrative investigation. What do you do?
Scenario # 28
You are a patrol watch commander and a resident calls you and complains that she called over an hour ago to report a graffiti incident. No one has shown up yet and she adds she saw two radio cars parked outside a donut shop for over an hour.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 29
You are a watch commander and your captain asks you to find a way to cut overtime, especially court overtime.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 30
You are the watch commander at a jail facility when you receive a call from your kitchen prowler that a female civilian cook has been taken hostage and is being held at knife point by a inmate worker. The inmate worker is demanding a vehicle and to be released.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 31
A trainee in his fourth month of training comes to you as the watch commander and says he wants to resign. When asked why, he states that his training officer is falsifying evidence, reports, and finding questionable narcotics.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 32
As the watch commander, you are aware of young inexperienced deputy who has received four complaints for poor conduct exhibited toward one racial group. The average number of complaints received for the remainder of the deputies assigned to your unit is one.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 33
An irate female calls the Station to complain. She states, that she called 911 to report someone attempting to get into her house through the window and it took 25 minutes for deputies to arrive. When they got to her house, she was extremely upset and began yelling at the deputies. The deputies then left immediately.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
Scenario # 34
You are directed to brief your personnel about a policy changing the way inmates are dealt with in custody. As you brief them about the new program which has been put in place to help eliminate inmate disturbances, one deputy loudly objects to this new treatment saying it is a case of the tail wagging the dog. His verbal tirade continues and he proceeds to make profane statements regarding the upper management of the Department.
What are the issues here and what would you do?
In any given situation, make sure you consider/discuss/include department policy, your actions, notifications, resources, and plans for de-briefing and/or training.