Police Department Synthesis Essay

This organization provides police, fire, and medical response services or assistance. Services offered to the public by this organization are clearly defined. Each position in the center has a standard operating procedure (SOP), providing clear instruction on what services are provided to the public and each agency, the Billings Police Department, Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Department, Billings Fire Department, AMR, as well as, the fourteen rural volunteer fire departments in the area. Employees know they are to serve the public, basically anyone that calls into the center. They understand that if someone calls 911, or one of the non-emergency lines, they are going to be offering some type of service, whether that be a law enforcement

New 911 employees get another manual outlining employee expectations within the 911 Center itself. The first two weeks is spent going over that manual with a supervisor on a one-on-one basis. Each position whether it be, call taking, fire/medical dispatching, or law enforcement dispatching, has its own manual summarizing tasks and expectations of those positions. Employees are given those manuals when they start training for each particular position. Plus there is a dedicated trainer that covers those tasks with the new employees for a minimum amount of set hours. To monitor and evaluate a trainees progress, the certified communication trainer fills out a daily observation report, which is reviewed with the trainee at the conclusion of each shift until the training phase is complete. After that, a supervisor completes a yearly audit on each employee or more if there are noticeable concerns with job

Unfortunately there has been a breakdown in communication amongst the supervisors and some unclear unwritten rules have been created. It would be beneficial to review each one of those manuals and add in the agreed upon unwritten rules and make those actual policies so the employees have a clear written policy they can follow. This is something else that can be discussed at the labor management meeting previously mentioned in this assessment. Review of those policy manuals should be continued on a regular basis to add in new information and take out unneeded or out of date procedures. In addition a clear termination policy should be implemented, followed with consistency, and added to the 911 Center employee handbook given to new hires in their orientation