Confronting the Toxic Officer

Every law enforcement officer—like any human being in any profession—has bad days at work.  But this training is focused on the small number of chronically toxic officers who generate a disproportionate amount of stress, frustration, and organizational dysfunction for fellow officers, supervisors, and police administrators.  An agency’s toxic officers can require an extraordinary amount of supervisory time and attention.  Instead of focusing on developing personnel and improving operations, agency leaders can find themselves repeatedly addressing the conflicts, complaints, performance deficiencies, disciplinary issues, and workplace disruption generated by a toxic few. 

When toxic behavior is allowed to continue unchecked, the consequences extend well beyond the individual employee.  Morale suffers when good employees believe that agency leaders are unwilling—or unable—to hold chronically problematic employees accountable. Furthermore, the liability in the court of law and the court of public opinion created by toxic officers is made worse if it is shown that they were widely known to be serious problems but were never adequately confronted by agency leaders.

This training will introduce law enforcement leaders to strategies for confronting this small but extremely damaging presence in the workforce in a way that both protects the integrity of the organization and is legally defensible.  Ensuring that these management techniques are legally defensible is particularly important because so many toxic employees become frequent abusers of grievance procedures, administrative complaints, and litigation—often challenging legitimate management efforts to address their conduct.

Recognizing the Toxic Officer

• What are the common characteristics and behavioral patterns?
• Walking, talking liabilities—the unleadable, the unfixable, the unmotivatable
• The impact of the toxic few on the agency
  
  

Identifying Toxic Individuals Before They Become Your Toxic Employee

• Background investigations—back to basics
• The field training program and the probationary process—a once-in-a career vetting opportunity
• Avoiding the negligent hiring “doom loop” when staffing shortages create pressure to lower standards

Recognizing the Legal Avenues that Toxic Officers Abuse

• Discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblower protections under state and federal law
• Grievances, arbitration, civil service systems, and personnel review boards
• Distinguishing legitimate protected activity from an employee's underlying performance or conduct issues
• If it isn't in writing, it didn't happen: the consequences of failing to identify, address, and document significant conduct and performance problems as early as possible

Confronting Toxic Behavior

• Evaluating performance in a way that reflects reality
• Progressive discipline and the Just Cause doctrine demonstrating a good faith effort to make all employees successful
• Identifying and articulating insubordination
• Best practices for making discipline stick when facing external review in court or in arbitration
• Avoiding inconsistency, delay, and other management mistakes that undermine otherwise legitimate discipline
• Separation agreements and toxic employees