Proactively Identifying Problem Personnel

Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. And Today’s Tip deals with problem personnel.  Today’s tip is applicable to my friends in custody, in the fire service and law enforcement.

Please conduct thorough background investigations. Use caution when hiring personnel who have not succeeded at other public safety agencies. 

If you’ve ever been to any of my live performances, then you know how much I stress the importance of completing a thorough background check prior to hiring public safety personnel. You’ve probably also heard me say before that the greatest predictor of future behavior is past behavior.  

With this in mind, I’m baffled as to why public safety agency’s continue to hire personnel who have been fired or who were problem personnel in their previous public safety agency. I was recently reminded of this issue reading a story about a highly publicized officer involved shooting.  According to media reports, personnel records for the shooter officer show he was fired from his prior police department for failing to report to work and filing disability claims that were “not medically supported.” He was also involved in four car accidents in two years and received reprimands for refusing to follow orders and leaving his weapon with a civilian.

I can’t help but wonder what the tremendous upside was for this officer that his current agency hired him after all of this.  What were the positive traits that off-set all of these negatives? And even though this is a law enforcement example, I have read similar accounts of Custody officers and Fire personnel. 

Please conduct thorough background investigations. Use caution when hiring personnel who have not succeeded at other public safety agencies. 

And that is Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham signing off.

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