|
_________________________________________________________ |
|
Is Records Management Taken Seriously In Your Agency?
Edward Claughton
PRI Management Group
Don't get caught with your pants down...you'll pay the price.
Is your police records unit undervalued? Are the employees who work there appreciated? Is the records management function one that is taken seriously? If not, then it's time to take an inventory of this important area of your department.
Unfortunately for those who work in records (and for the department as a whole), most officers are clueless about what happens to their report once it gets submitted. They have no idea about the work that is required to make sure the reporting officer, the parties involved in the report, the public and the department itself are getting the right information into the right hands at the right time. Little do they know what it takes to ensure the department doesn't violate public records law and to ensure it produces accurate UCR reports. How do I know? Because I used to be one of those officers until I got assigned to oversee the Records Unit; and what an eye opening experience it was.
I have since learned after several years in that assignment and one promotion later that in fact, police records personnel are often under-appreciated and unrecognized for the hard work they do. Conversely, I have also learned after now conducting many training seminars and records management assessments that police departments routinely fail to develop these employees and end up paying a price.
Sound information management in law enforcement is critical. How many cases have been lost, employees disciplined and lawsuits filed as a result of mismanagement of information? Many.
Some of the news headlines include:
Dallas PD investigates more mishandled cases
Misfiled warrant leads to young woman's murder
Information is the lifeblood of any organization but when the organization is dealing with the protection of life and liberty its proper management becomes really important. The information management life cycle includes 6 stages: creation, collection, processing, maintenance, dissemination and disposition. If there is a breakdown in any of these, the information can be spoiled, lost or improperly changed, the results of which can be catastrophic for a police department.
How do you achieve turnaround in a problematic records unit or in an agency where records management isn't taken seriously? Begin with assessing 1) the agency's business processes and 2) the performance of personnel. Determine efficient ways to shorten your report turnaround time, lower the report error rate and flatten information workflows throughout the agency. Then analyze how the records unit and its employees are performing. If your team is one that is well trained, professional and customer service focused then you're probably in good shape (such as the Fort Collins, CO, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office, and Largo, FL police departments). If on the other hand your records personnel have not been sent to regular training, empowered to perform, or have been neglected in any way, then chances are the agency is missing records and has boxes of files piled up somewhere where they shouldn't be.
Take the time to recognize the efforts of your records unit and work towards changing the organizational culture into one which takes seriously the proper production and management of police records. Your clerks (specialists if you prefer) will appreciate it and your agency will be all the better for it.
 
|
|
_________________________________________________________ |
We Hate To Say It But....We Told You So. Yet another accusation of cooking the books has emerged in law enforcement- this time in Milwaukee (victim of watchdog journalism gone awry?). I find myself writing about this more and more lately, unfortunately for the wrong reasons.
Policeone.com recently published "Fudge Factor: cooking the books on crime stats", in which Lt. Col. Dave Grossman was quoted as saying he believes the biggest problem facing law enforcement today is altered crime stats. Wow. That is a big statement and one which PRI disagrees with. Nonetheless, we have been teaching over and over that we officially endorse and recommend teaching officers a little bit about how UCR works. We have stated in our classes that, incredibly, an officer can go through an entire police academy and not even learn one thing about UCR- the nations premier system for measuring crime.
In one class I taught, a police commander engaged me in an argument stating that recruits and rookie officers don't need to learn about it. How about another Wow. We disagree. And so do some other agencies who are quickly learning that cops need to know about UCR.Lo and behold, Milwaukee PD, Kansas City PD and many other police departments have changed course and decided it was prudent to train officers in basic UCR information. That's the right decision. Following an internal audit that found problems in the crime reporting process, Kansas City police in 2009 trained roughly 1,500 officers on the incident-based reporting guidelines, Kansas City police Capt. Greg Volker said. "We are better for it," Volker said. "Our officers understand what a (simple assault) is and what an (aggravated assault) is. We didn't just make a few people accountable, we made everybody accountable." While we think the FBI UCR training is a start, it is not designed for sworn personnel who need a great and easy to understand overview of the program, not a step by step guide on UCR reports. Our class has received excellent reviews and after much research on crime stats, UCR and cooking the books we developed this class to help agencies prevent problems with the numbers and to produce accurate stats.By the way cooking the books is not a widespread problem. In fact, inaccurate statistics are caused most often by factors which are completely unintentional. Widespread, systematic efforts to falsify crime stats are the lore of conspiracy theorists- not reality. Agencies should however be certain that the employ of COMPSTAT is done appropriately and not in a manner which tempts the weak.
|
|
_________________________________________________________ |
|
Upcoming Police Records Training Seminars
- Winter Garden, FL Police Department: August 10.
- Bunnell, FL Police Department: September 17.
 Reading a UCR report is one thing; understanding what the numbers represent and how to explain them to those who ask is something entirely different. We teach you how. UCR is highly misunderstood and this class will provide the police executive or other interested employee a very practical understanding of the program. This class will give you the tools you need to understand, review and report your crime statistics correctly. Learn about what it's for, how it works and why it's done.
Host our Building a Model Police Records Section seminar and get 2 free seats ($750 in training, free). All we need is use of a room and some coffee. We take care of the rest. Contact us here.
|
|
_________________________________________________________ |
