Abilities are also a primary area of concern given the captain's indication that officers lacked the relative familiarity or education in this area as opposed to the aspects of street-level enforcement which constituted the larger part of their training. This may even mean that many officers do not know how to adequately compose written reports. Role Perception would also seem to be a product of training, as the failure to address paperwork properly implicates a disinterest in the centrality played by officer reports in the process of conviction. Situational Factors are a real problem, as the captain has stated. The shortcoming in financial resources will tend to prove itself a significant obstacle if the department is incapable of generating the necessary funds and facilities to improve these areas of training. Indeed, this will be a crucial part of the plan for improvement in motivation.
It seems clear that this is the primary aspect of the problem which the captain has not considered. Training for the address of paperwork will be instrumental to improving the orientation of officers. The MARS model is especially informative to us as it promotes several practical areas of training that could considerably alter the current situation....
Most specifically, the abilities area of discussion strikes as one avenue down which the captain has not pursued improvement. It is likely that most officers, particularly those who balk at proper investment in their paperwork, lack the skills to write ably or adequately. Composition education and training could be a key to ensuring that proper formatting parameters are adhered to, that full information is provided and that it is provided in a logical sequence. The greater writing skill possessed by officers the less time they will feel is spent on paperwork.
Improving role perception is a foundational way to improvement as well. Education in this area should ensure that officers are made fully aware of the key role which they play in putting criminals behind bars. Officers must understand that this is not a role which stops at the time of arrest, but which continues into the courts. A fuller appreciation of this as a central rather than peripheral part of their duties should render this as an attached part of the arresting process rather than as the afterthought which has generated so many protestations.
Works Cited:
McShane, S.L. (2008). Canadian Organizational Behaviour. McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
