Answer

Rating Criteria Supervisors Utilize in Appraising Patrol, Traffic, Investigative, and Auxiliary Personnel

            Performance appraisal is a fundamental aspect of the personnel management of any police department. Despite this, the current status of the appraisal system has proven to be low in the municipal police agencies and the individuals available in the law enforcement community in general (Jegeris, 2016). The status is attributed to the perceived inadequacies evident in the existing systems of performance appraisal as well as the confusion associated with the system. The challenges related with the appraisal systems can be discouraging for the staff who may further object taking part in the appraisal process (Jegeris, 2016). The focus of this paper is to explore the rating criteria utilized in appraising the performance of the investigative personnel, patrol and traffic personnel, and staff and auxiliary personnel.

            When appraising the performance of patrol and traffic officers, different rating criteria can be implemented by the supervisor. According to Iannone, Iannone and Bernstein (2014), the officers’ performance while in the field can be utilized for appraisal. Evidently, while in the field, the officers can prove if they are reliable to offer their services in an effective way as required by the profession or if more efforts should be included to meet the required standard. Additionally, the manner in which the officers control traffic can also be utilized as an appraisal technique to determine if the officers’ performance meets the required standard (Iannone & Bernstein, 2014). More so, the performance of the patrol and traffic officers can also be appraised based on their court performances (Iannone & Bernstein, 2014).

            The performance of the investigative personnel can be appraised by gauging the quality of the personnel’s work alongside the cleared cases (Iannone & Bernstein, 2014). Moreover, analyzing the progress of the cases assigned by the supervisor to be accomplished within an estimated time period can also provide an outlook of the investigative personnel’s performance. Iannone and Bernstein (2014) further relay that looking at the record keeping capabilities of the personal also provides a rating criteria that can be used in the process of appraisal.

            When it comes to the staff and auxiliary personnel within the police force, the working relationship which the members have with the operational personnel can be used to outlining the rating criteria that can be further used for the appraisal process (Iannone & Bernstein, 2014). Evidently, teamwork is an important consideration stressed within the law enforcement and the manner in which the auxiliary personnel interacts with the people available at the operational level can provide a depiction of their capabilities to work in a team to meet the organization’s vision. Also, the writing ability of the auxiliary personnel members can also be used to outline rating criteria that can be implemented for appraisal (Iannone & Bernstein, 2014).

            After the rating criteria is provided to rank the employees and their performance within the law enforcement, different rating systems such as the worker ranks are implemented to compare the performance of the employees against each other. This is important as it encourages the staff to put in an extra effort it improving their performance for a better rating outcome. Ideal employee standard can also be effective for evaluating the performance of the employees against each other based on the features depicting by the ideal employee in comparison to the other members of staff.