Intruding Ima and Falsified Report

Intruding Ima and Falsified Report

In the case of police officers, agencies would normally try to first initiate a disciplinary action against the officer before a threat of termination. There are several grounds for both disciplinary action and termination but misconduct as in the case of officer Ima, agency would most likely opt for disciplinary action and not pursue termination directly. In many cases, officers are asked to resign instead of stripping them of their certification and title so expensive litigation can be avoided (Harrison, 1987)

In the case of Ima, there are sufficient grounds for disciplinary action. For one, Ima has been involved in out of jurisdiction matters which are directly a violation of authority bestowed upon her by the state and county. Secondly she has mistreated people and while not documented, it is observed by many fellow police officers. Some administrative tools are available to deal with such a situation like verbal warning, training sessions, decertification etc.

However to start a proper disciplinary action, a report needs to be filed against officer Ima that would include instances when her behavior was clearly out of line. If it is clear that her actions violated policies and procedures of law enforcement agency, she can be held liable for them and asked to either undergo further training or be suspended till a final decision is made. In order to avoid such problems, law enforcement agencies are required to give proper training and make sure that each officer is fully aware of policies and procedures of conduct. In the case of Ima, it appears that either she is unaware of the required conduct on her part or she has become so powerful within her clique that she is violating policies on purpose without any regard for law.

There were several flaws with disciplinary action process, many of which have now been removed thus making it much easier to bring complaints against a police officer (Ryals, 2002, p. 353). For example even the citizens who have watched officer Ima misbehave can report her misconduct to the agency. They do not need to give a sworn written statement and instead can simply identify the officer and report misconduct. Similarly now immediate supervisors can play a crucial role and since they are aware of the conduct and watch officers more closely, they can also report misconduct on part of an officer.

The fact that no written proof of misconduct exists should not pose a problem if there are enough witnesses to file a report. Even if no disciplinary action is initiated, the report will give the agency a chance to observe the officer more closely and to see why there are more complaints against one officer and not another. This process even if it remains unofficial is a good way of showing the police officer in question that she is being monitored and her conduct is not going unreported.