NCJ Number
215257
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 54 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 32,33,35
Date Published
August 2006
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article explains the features of risk management for police departments.
Abstract
Risk management involves identifying what can go wrong and what can be done to prevent it. Most accidents occur because of human mistakes, and most of those mistakes stem from alcohol, drug, or fatigue factors. In order to prevent negative conduct due to these factors, risk management should examine an agency's hiring and retention policies. Hiring policies should screen out people with habitually bad behaviors that can create agency liability and damage public trust. Regarding negligent acts, risk managers should build a system that accepts the inevitability of mistakes but designs procedures that reduce the adverse consequences of mistakes. Further, risk management involves learning from mistakes by examining their causes and eliminating them if possible. A recommended tactic of risk management is to examine the tasks of each job in the agency and identify its risks and the frequencies of those risks. The history of mistakes linked to each job can be obtained from the city attorney, workers' compensation representatives, the human resources department, and other agencies that become involved in dealing with agency liabilities and problems. Next, prioritize the risks of a job by whether there is discretionary time to think about the act before doing it or nondiscretionary time when acts are performed with little time for decisionmaking. Training should then be designed to address the risks posed by various risk scenarios that might occur in the course of performing job tasks. The training focus should be on high-risk/low-frequency, nondiscretionary time events such as use-of-force, so that quick reactions are ingrained to be rational and effective.