Officer Up!: Creating a Climate for Appropriate Police Behavior

OFFICER UP! is an effort to help police officers behave appropriately all the time. The ideas offered can help officers keep from crossing the line of improper conduct. The concepts outlined in this book can assist police supervisors to support proper officer conduct and aid police managers to maintain climates conducive to appropriate police behavior, both inside and outside their organizations. The principles are presented in light of the current political context. The importance of understanding how culture and climate affect police work is discussed. A simple, yet easily remembered program, is detailed that can square up an officer’s behavior in an instant. Officer UP! concludes with a conversation about motivating police officers and some recommendations for improving the policing enterprise with the goal of cultivating and maintaining legitimacy within the communities served. “I found OFFICER UP! to be a current review of police culture and climate in America. It is obvious at this point in our history in America that the police and the citizens we serve have very deep issues and a huge divide on trust that must be bridged. OFFICER UP! is a challenge to the existing police culture to change, to give voice during encounters, and to convey trust. Using LEGiT principles like listening, excellence, generosity along with understanding and properly applying legal, ethical, and transparent procedures should begin a culture change … if and only if the police culture internalizes it and if the citizens believe them. It is a big task, have no doubt about it. Will it work? Time will tell, but nothing will change if we don’t start trying now. To do nothing is not an option.” ­—Louie W. Mercer, Director,School of Emergency Services, Police, Corrections, Fire, EMS, Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, Florida, Police Commander (Retired), Daytona Beach PD Published by Burkhart Books, Bedford, Texas www.BurkhartBooks.com