The first line of defense against employee failure is the recognition of the first stages of peer crisis and by providing early intervention. Even better is to provide support from the first day of hire through employee development. This is difficult in the public safety arena for many reasons. Public safety employees are not trusting of individuals outside their peer groups. Public safety employees have heard hollow promises ad nauseam from those claiming to want to help. Public safety employees can quote horror stories of peers who have stepped forward for help only to face agency or legal sanction or loss of employment. Public safety employees don’t want to appear weak by admitting they need help. And yes, public safety employees sometimes are too smart for their own good and resist attempts from well-intentioned peers unless it is already a formal and accepted part of their agency culture.

A promotion to a supervisory position is an invitation to enter the world of personnel management. This course will provide attendees with the knowledge necessary to recognize the most common and costly personnel liability issues confronting supervisors in public safety.

Far too many supervisors are learning about these challenges through the process of trial and error—at great expense to the agencies and themselves. In this course, federal and state statutes and case law will be utilized to illustrate the potential pitfalls of employee relations in public safety administration and the means by which those liability risks can be managed.

This course is designed to prepare public safety supervisors to take preventative steps to limit supervisor liability, maintain organizational standards and protect employee rights under the law.

Course participants will learn today’s best scientific practices in the identification, preservation, and collection of evidence at crime scenes from some of the leading professionals in the field. A blend of classroom instruction and a hands-on practical application will give participants the ability to confidently process a crime scene.

The vast majority of citizen complaints and internal acts of employee misconduct encountered by government agencies are generated by a small number of problem individuals. It is crucial, therefore, that government agencies can successfully discipline these few “bad apples”.

In other cases, disciplinary action is necessary to hold essentially good employees accountable for misconduct that threatens agency operations. In these cases, making discipline stick is actually in the interest of the employee, as it can serve as a much needed “wake up call” to an employee before performance issues become so serious that termination is required or public safety is threatened.

Claims of unlawful sexual harassment levied against public safety agencies are extremely costly in terms of time, resources, finances and agency reputation—the public perception that those trusted to protect and serve are engaging in harassment can often erode public confidence.

Over 15% of the United States workforce has self-reported being under the influence of alcohol in the workplace at least once in the last year, according to according to the National Institutes of Health. Add prescription drugs, illegal drugs and other impairing substances to the mix—particularly in light of nationwide legalization and decriminalization of certain drugs—and it seems only reasonable to suspect that this trend will rise.

The cost of impairment in the workplace is enormous—due to safety concerns, liability risks, lost productivity and increased health care costs.

This course is designed to help students acquire the knowledge, skill and ability to determine if impairment exists and, if it does, whether the impairment is caused by a medical condition, alcohol, drugs or a combination of drugs. We will utilize a known pattern of signs and symptoms along with simple divided attention tests to be able to articulate the evidence of impairment.