Why it’s important to prepare an officer to be a first line supervisor. When you promote someone to a corporal, or sergeant position, they may have a promotional test and go before an oral board to be questioned. While they may pass a test and do well on an oral board that doesn’t mean you will be a good supervisor or be prepared to lead. I believe the correct first line supervisors are important to departments. They represent the officers and his leaders. “The first line supervisor is the bridge between the line staff and management. The first line supervisor is the person who communicates with both of these groups on a continuous basis. It is the first line supervisor who is first to be able to sense the morale of the line staff, find …show more content…
He needs to be able to listen to officers and understand their concerns. At the same time be able to understand what is wanted from his supervisor so he can relay the message back down to the line officers. First line supervisors need good report writing skills. If the first line supervisor does not have good report writing skills, then how good will he be when he is responsible for reviewing his officer’s reports? He needs to be able to review reports and send them back for corrections if needed. The first line supervisor needs to be able to administer discipline. Not everything bad an officer does need to be written-up. The supervisor has to be able to look at everything and take into consideration what an officer did wrong. The supervisor has to be able to decide if the issue is something he can pull an officer aside on and verbally couch him or something that has to go strait to a write-up. I think this is something we all learn and one way of learning is by talking to other supervisors to see how they may have handled similar situations. He must be fair or lose the respect of his