Every specialized unit like SWAT or K9 encounters this problem. An officer, who was excellent when he joined the unit has grown comfortable and lazy and is now weighing the unit down. His tactics, attitude, and fitness have all deteriorated and he shows no motivation to improve. There are several officers interested in joining the unit that would do a much better job if they had his spot.
How do you jettison that officer?
What is Ongoing Selection?
One way would be ongoing selection. Every position in the unit is vacated and reselected on a regular basis.
There are a couple versions of this concept:
- Every year or two the entire unit is dismantled and reformed, or
- Each position is a one, two, or three year commitment. The openings are staggered so one half or one third of the unit is up for selection in any given year.
In both of these versions, whenever positions are open, officers that previously held that position can reapply. The experience and training that they acquired give them a competitive advantage over new candidates. If the unit is working well and the individuals involved are all performing well, then there will be no turnover. But if not, new blood can be infused into the unit.
Advantages of Ongoing Selection
- It gives existing unit members an incentive to continually apply themselves and improve.
- It gives the unit a mechanism to eliminate dead wood.
- It motivates officers to take advantage of and focus on training that is provided.
Disadvantages of Ongoing Selection
- Anytime there is a selection process, it divides officers and creates friction.
- It pushes low performing officers to patrol rather than spreading the dead wood around the department. Patrol becomes a dumping ground.
- It gives power to the selectors which can fuel the good old boy network.
Initial Selection
When an officer first joins a unit, it can take a year or two to move up the learning curve and mature into their potential. To allow for that development, the first cycle’s time period can be doubled if it is too short. For K9 because the training of the dog also has to be taken into account, the cycle might be as long as the service life of the dog.
Final Thoughts and Questions
Every chief would love to have a unit of knowledgeable, motivated, self disciplined officers with esprit de corps. This process will build that and officers will want to be a part of it. However, strong leadership is necessary to handle the friction it brings and to maintain the standards in patrol.
This system tends to be geared for units like SWAT and K9 that are more tactically oriented but can be used by any specialized unit in the department such as Traffic, Narcotics, and Capers.
If anyone uses ongoing selection in their department, how well do you think it works? Does anyone have additional variations that that might be helpful?
Additional Reading
Is Your Selection Ongoing by Trigger Pull Tactical
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As for the ongoing selection process I would add the following. If you are going to consider such a system keep in mind the average SWAT officer may get lots of training but only gets real experience in call outs and entries. As these can be few and far between it takes a lot longer to get up to speed in SWAT than it does in any position where you are getting real time experience actually doing the job everyday. While any non-preformer should be subject to removal from the team at any time for lack of performance, 2 or 3 years and out is doing a disservice to the team as well as the individual. I understand the person being “let go” having reached the set time limit can reapply, but unless the selection process is unbiased this could lead to some good operators being passed over for one of the “good old boys”.