As the Lieutenant in charge of an investigations unit you are charged with investigating citizen complaints against your detectives. Today you took a complaint about one of your detectives. Lately he’s had several informal complaints against him, but nobody seems to want to file a formal complaint and all the complainants have been anonymous. The complaint you received today was vague, simply stating that the detective was rude and seemed to have better things to do than chat about the call he was investigating.
As a Lieutenant you realize that not everyone is going to be happy with the way police handle calls, but that doesn’t mean they were handled inappropriately. You mention the complaint with the detective’s direct supervisor, Sergeant Serna, who expressed concern over the detective’s actions and general attitude within the last couple of months. When the Sergeant tried to speak with the detective about what was going on, he simply brushed her off mumbling, “I’m getting too old for this job!” Since no formal complaints had been filed, she didn’t pursue the issue any further.
Considering this scenario, write a well-crafted paper addressing the following questions:
How seriously should informal complaints be taken? Should more weight be given to a known complainant than an anonymous complainant?
What might be some of the sources of the detective’s negative attitude?
Do you feel this is a situation is important enough to be addressed? Why or why not?
What might some of the effects of the detective’s attitude be on fellow officers and the department as a whole?
Assume your advice to Sgt. Serna is that she needs to address the issue with the detective. How should she proceed with properly intervening and documenting the action taken?
