Officer Safety: Conflict In The Police Culture

Officer Safety

There may be conflict inside the police culture. By placing citizen complaints under the category of unbecoming an officer, which covers many things (e.g., appearance, tone of voice, gestures, comments), police administration needs no further evidence to find a trooper guilty of a violation. The end result is that troopers may second guess their actions during critical situations in fear of receiving a complaint. The results may be fatal.

Education

The Indiana State Police does not encourage advanced education (Allen, 2011, July 11). Although the Indiana State Police did require a college education at one time for new employees, the department has since “dummied down” the department (Allen, p. 7). According to Allen,

First, administrators are responsible for leading a team of diverse employees, who have a variety of skills (Whisenand, 2011). Good leadership requires listening to employees and it has been estimated that about 85% of a leader’s abilities involve the ability to understand and use the power of emotions. Human nature involves emotions and opinions, and they provide information that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Thus, when the ISPA stated that they condemned the opinions troopers, they are basically stating that qualitative information is unimportant (Rader, 2011). However, qualitative information is the only way to investigate why problems exist, and, therefore, opinions should be sought. Indeed, quantitative studies are ineffective for this type of study (Creswell, 2009). In other words, the ISPA does not understand the value of qualitative information and this limits their effectiveness at being trooper representatives. In addition, profound dissatisfaction is the catalyst for change (Whisenand). Only a person who is deeply dissatisfied, has much energy, is willing is break old bonds, and who has the insight to address sensitive issues can motivate change. In short, instead of dismissing the complaints of disgruntled employees, the ISPA should seek them in order to understand truth from the troopers’ perspective (Berg, 2007).

Second, the courts and legislatures have recognized that police officers have a constitutional right to free speech (Peak et al., 2010). The Court ruled that an officer’s derogatory remarks toward the police department are not necessarily unreasonable. According to the Indiana State Police policy, troopers cannot exercise their right to free speech (Whitesell, 2011, August 30). This rule is not supported by the Muller v. Conlisk ruling and should be challenged by troopers in