By James Fox
Police1 Member
You wake up early. You don your ironed uniform, polished badge, and spit-shined shoes. You climb into your spotless cruiser and carefully navigate your path to shift line-up.
Eventually the sergeant arrives, only 10 minutes late today, the floor sagging under his dusty boots. The revealing signs of bed-head and foul breath indicate to you that he skipped his much-needed grooming session in favor of his daily fast food breakfast.
He must have eaten it in his car as most of the ketchup made it down his wrinkled white shirt. He starts the briefing with some personal gripes and ends it with no real direction on what he expects for the day.
You stare at him, just pondering to yourself, “What idiot promoted this guy?”
I assure you that you are not alone. I’ve been on the job for 12 years and have had the pleasure of working for some really great supervisors along the way. Then there were the others, the ones that just make you shake your head and wonder, “How do you still have a job?”
If you are reading this then you likely know one of these excellent examples of dead weight. So why were they promoted? Well, I can’t give you a definitive answer on that problem, but I can offer some possible explanations and advice so that you can better prepare yourself.
Our careers in law enforcement are very susceptible to something called the Peter Principle. In short, this theory — developed by Dr. Laurence Peter — says that an individual will rise through the ranks to a level of incompetence at which they will rest until they are demoted, fired, or ignored by upper management.
Essentially: Do your job well, get promoted. Do that job well, get promoted again. This continues to happen until the person no longer does the job well — or arrives at a level of incompetence.
Of course, there are instances that break this particular trend, such as promoting someone who has shown ineptness at a current level.
One rationalization for this is management’s acknowledgement that the supervisor is ineffective at his present task and is hopeful that moving his attention to another division or level will prove successful. I’ve seen this happen many times, and unfortunately, it’s been a disaster every time.
Another detriment of a career in law enforcement is political correctness. Nobody wants to openly discuss this but upper management may be pressured to promote candidates based on factors other than job performance.
Finally there is plain-old favoritism. It is human nature for people to bond with other like-minded individuals and to support their advancement. Management is not immune to this phenomenon and sometimes may legitimately feel that those who share their views are the best fit for supervision roles.
This leaves hard-working officers feeling slighted and mistreated. I have even seen promotion policies rewritten to allow those in who would have otherwise been ineligible to apply.
Whatever the real reason, you will find that even idiots can stumble onto good fortune and get themselves promoted.
Charles Reith once said, “Ignorance of police duties is no handicap to a successful career as a policeman.”
I work in a smaller department where hits to morale spread like the plague. I’ve recently passed up two promotional opportunities in order to stay in my current position.
I suspect that many of you feel my pain. If I were to be promoted, I would suffer an immediate transfer back to shift work in the patrol division. I haven’t worked this hard to get where I want to be only to trade it for a whopping five percent pay increase. That slap in the face wouldn’t even cover the loss I would suffer in incentives.
So, two other people will enjoy the headaches of supervision, whether or not they were the best qualified individuals for the job.
The thing to keep in mind as you go about your workday is that ultimately only you can control your destiny, unless you give that right away.
Keep your personality energetic, your morale healthy, and your hopes alive. Find an area of police work that you like and can outshine everyone else in and come to work with a can-do attitude.
Will this always get you ahead? Absolutely. You just have to put into perspective what “ahead” means to you.
To me, even though I gave up an opportunity for advancement, I am still ahead because I am where I want to be. It is acceptable to moderately move around departments today. If one agency isn’t the right fit for you, then move on with your head high to the agency that you feel is the best match. The worse decision you can make is to accept failure and stop trying.
About the Author
James M. Fox is a veteran narcotics detective with the Poquoson Police Department in southeastern Virginia. He is currently assigned to a regional drug task force. James has served in many positions within his department to include patrolman, master police officer, field training officer, accident reconstruction expert, detective, equipment manager, dignitary protection specialist, ERT member, Honor Guard member, and task force agent among others. He has received over 3100 hours of training in law enforcement and leadership topics in addition to an associate’s degree in criminal justice. He will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Saint Leo University in 2013. James has experience in training and front line supervision and enjoys writing about police employment practices and motivation.
