Introduction
The police unit at Baker 3 is different from other police units since it is a community-oriented policing program (COP). While the focus is similar to other police units in many ways, it also has goals and elements that would put the COP officers at a disadvantage if evaluated the same way. Therefore, prepared is a document that solves the problem and in it is a detailed job description that compares and contrasts the roles of Baker 3 to other traditional policing. A method of appraising most suitable in this situation, has also been included. Furthermore, two human errors that may occur during the evaluation have been looked into. Additionally, validity and reliability concerns during the evaluation have been taken into account. The main purpose of this write up is to put together a compelling proposal that will give a fair platform to the police officers at Baker 3 when they undertake their performance evaluation.
A Job Description That Compares and Contrasts the Role Baker 3 Does to Other Patrol Units
A job description is a document that lists the major elements of a job. This description normally entails a person’s main obligations, tasks and workspace environment (Goldstein, 2017). Below is a job description designed for a COP officer. Afterwards, the major comparisons between the COP officer and a traditional police officer will be highlighted.
A Detailed COP Job Description
Job Summary
A community police officer is uniformed personnel in field operations that responds to a community’s demand for police services. He or she is driven towards solving public safety concerns and issues (Goldstein, 2017). They use both conventional and non-conventional ways to seek out and arrest criminals. The main goals of a community police officer is to ensure citizen safety, reduce dread among the public, and preserve community order thereby intensifying the community life’s status.
Job Responsibilities and Duties
- Carrying out overall field operation tasks
- Solving predicaments
- Forming a beat profile
- Establishing a trusting long term relationship with the community
- Originating youth initiatives
- Intercepting crime
- Knowledge handling
- Partnership handling
Skills, Abilities and Knowledge
Knowledge
- Conventional police implementation, police force systems, penal law.
- Community oriented organization.
Skills
- Good written communication skills.
- Public oratory.
Abilities
- Relational communication.
- Investigation of problems or issues.
Differences between COP and Regular Patrol Officers
There are several differences between traditional policing and COP. Firstly, a COP officer intercepts crime before it happens (because the main aim is to prevent it) while regular patrol police solves crimes after they have happened. Secondly, there is a shared responsibility between community residents and the COP in ensuring the safety of the community and this element is lacking in traditional policing (Goldstein, 2017). There is also a lot more flexibility when it comes to officer discretion. While traditional policing typically has a rigid set of rules and procedures, COP officers are more creative in addressing community issues and the command structure is somewhat flattened. These differences are vivid and make it unsuitable for the evaluations to be done the same way.
Method of Appraising Most Suitable for COP Officers
The method of appraising that is most suitable in this case is management by objectives. The reason for this is that it is mainly objective based. It relies on whether the goals were met and it is also flexible in that an officer can set his or her target with minimal supervision and accomplish them (Goldstein, 2017). It will give Baker 3 officers a fair chance during their evaluation since the objectives will be unique to COP.
Human Errors Likely to Occur During the Evaluation and How to Avoid Them
There are various human errors that can occur during this evaluation. Firstly, prejudice or biasness impedes objectivity and here, there is favoritism or general dislike based on one’s prior experiences or environment (Goldstein, 2017). Being aware of this happening is an important way of solving it and it may mean that more than two trained raters are present to increase objectivity.
Another one is the halo effect where the appraiser generalizes one aspect or trait of the officer and extents it to all the other factors under review. This human error can be solved by implementing an evaluation procedure that is accurate to the task and does not leave room for interpretation (Goldstein, 2017). It ensures that one gets more accurate results that can be relied upon since there are observable and measurable actions taken into account.
Increasing Validity and Reliability in the Evaluation Process
To increase validity and reliability, some aspects need to be considered. First of all, it would be important to ensure that there are enough questions to assess competence. The other aspect would be make sure that if there are human raters, then they have been well trained (Goldstein, 2017). Additionally, the environment for the evaluation should be uniform for all participants and lastly, the participants should have been well acquainted with assessment tools to be used.
In conclusion, the community oriented policing in Baker 3 is different from traditional policing even though they still share many similarities. It would be biased to evaluate the officers in Baker 3 using the same appraisal method that other police officers use because of these dissimilarities. It is therefore important that this proposal is taken into account since it factors in the unique features that COP has and it also makes great effort to minimize any foreseen errors that might crop up.
Reference
Goldstein, H. (2017). The challenge of community policing. Sage Publications.