Supervisor Liability for Law Enforcement

A promotion to a supervisory position in law enforcement is an invitation to enter the world of risk management.  Far too many supervisors learn about these challenges through the process of trial and error—at great expense to themselves, their agencies, the people they lead, and the public that they serve. It is vital to agency operations that supervisors are continuously considering the ramifications of their leadership decisions in the context of liability, public safety, and risk management.

In this course, real-world case studies will be utilized to illustrate the most common and costly liability issues confronting supervisors in law enforcement and the most effective strategies for minimizing that liability. 

This training is designed to prepare law enforcement supervisors—and future supervisors—to take preventative steps to limit supervisor liability, maintain organizational standards, and protect the public trust.

Course Objectives:

• Answering The 3 Most Important Questions in Supervisor Liability

                 – What should you know?

                 – When should you know it?

                 – What should you do?

• “Inspect what you expect”—taking on the role of early detection and intervention to save careers
• Making legally and ethically defensible hiring decisions 

                 – Long-term liability associated with bad hires in an effort to get “boots on the ground”

                 – Failure-to-hire liability

                 – The vital role of field training and the probationary process

• Recognizing Internal Affairs Operations as an agency-wide undertaking
• Understanding the sources of liability in personnel management and the Supervisor Liability Balancing Act between citizens’ rights and officers’ rights to fair treatment
• The Just Cause Doctrine and consistent officer discipline
• Performance evaluations—are they helping or hurting us?
• Combating the diffusion of responsibility and the bystander effect as supervisors
• Officer discipline, termination and the liabilities incurred by the failure to act