Journal Article Review

A BLUEPRINT FOR ENHANCING INVESTIGATIVE EXCELLENCE POLICING AS A TRADECRAFT

Staff Sergeant Dan Jones

Policing today is referred to as a profession. The desire to move off the front line, out of a uniform,

seems to start earlier and earlier in today's police membership. At some point in the last 20 years the

current focus of police organizations moved from investigations to leadership. Not leading

investigatively, but leading people. There are PhD programs in policing leadership, management,

and other forms of getting personnel to believe in and work toward achieving organizational goals.

American businessman Harold Geneen once said, “Leadership cannot be taught. It can only be

learned.” In regard to the foundation of policing and the role of investigative excellence, I provide the

following submissions. Unlike leadership, investigations can and should be taught. A lack of focus on

investigative tradecraft has stunted our ability to learn superior investigative skills, and as a result we

are not serving the public in the best manner possible.

Let me clarify one thing, policing is not a profession, it is a tradecraft. Undergraduate or graduate

degrees do not make you a better investigator. There are no university programs that make a great

investigator. Policing may not be a profession, but in no way does that say or imply that police are

not expected to be professional. It simply means there is an on-the-job learning component, or

apprenticeship. During the police officer's career, it is during the time on patrol that a police officer is

taught the skills necessary to effectively fulfill his or her role. I cannot emphasize enough how this

very important component of police work is being overlooked. The rash of retirements, people

quitting to move on to other jobs prior to retirement, and the desire of members to get out of front-

line policing as soon as possible, results in a lack of skilled investigators. A three-year member as a

patrol training officer has not yet reached the “journeyman” stage in policing and therefore is at a

disadvantage when asked to teach the important skills of investigations. This lack of proper tutelage

in the initial stages of many young police officers' careers has a lasting ripple effect on the entire

service, and we are definitely seeing this in the quality of our investigations today.

The public demands that we be adequate at investigations; I assert we should strive for investigative

excellence. Police organizations, as well as the investigating police members, are liable for

inadequate police investigations as set out in Hill vs. Hamilton-Wentworth. It is time we arm our

police officers with the investigative skills and abilities needed to do the job they have been sworn to

do. The police officer's tool belt should not only contain a sidearm, CEW, and handcuffs, it needs a

working knowledge of the Canadian Criminal Code, interviewing techniques, warrant writing, photo

lineups, covert operations, and wire taps. The training regimen recruits go through has grueling

amounts of Page 54officer safety and firearms training. In no way am I saying this is not necessary,

but use of force and firearm use compose speculatively 2–4 percent of an officer's duties.

Today's police constable has become somewhat of a report writer, rather than an investigator. The

Edmonton Police Service has started the Level 200–400 ISEP courses to teach investigations in a

classroom setting. These courses are scenario based and are a move in the right direction to

teaching the skills necessary to effectively investigate a serious occurrence. When the Northern

Alberta Institute of Technology teaches an electrician the classroom work, that electrician is not

suddenly a journeyman. The apprenticeship continues past the classroom and into the field.

The first phase in the investigative blueprint is ensuring quality investigators return to the patrol

function in leadership roles. The germane issue in this instance is the word quality. The stark reality

is that just because a police officer has worked in an area does not mean that he/she produced quality work. When constables are promoted from an area such as the Gang and Drug unit, they

should automatically be returned to the patrol function as sergeants for their first two years, so that

they can impart their knowledge to others. When a detective gets promoted from a major crimes

area he should automatically be returned to the patrol function as a staff sergeant for his first two

years, for the same reason. In the recent past the Edmonton Police Service has promoted Gang and

Drug Unit members back to Gang and Drug Unit and major crimes detectives back to major crimes

as staff sergeants. This “boomerang” style promotion process that returns people to their respective

areas may strengthen that area, however it weakens the service. The process of returning

promotions to the front line not only strengthens the organization's ability to run a successful

apprenticeship program, it strengthens the members in the service by making well-rounded police

officers as they move through the ranks.

I cannot stress enough the importance of this first phase of the blueprint. The entire concept that

policing is a tradecraft requiring ongoing on-the-job learning requires people that can provide the on-

the-job learning through mentorship. Promoting people to areas and allowing empires to be built in

certain units within the different policing bureaus is short-sighted. It is not hard to understand why

inspectors and superintendents want to have familiar individuals they trust and have confidence in

working for them, but this is not in the best interest of creating a police service that has quality

investigators throughout.

The second phase in the blueprint for excellence in investigations is training. Traditionally, training

for police officers is week-long in-house courses, or an out-of-town learning opportunity allowing a

select few to receive this coveted skill or knowledge. It is incumbent upon all members in the

organization to train its investigators. When the service returns investigative promotions back to the

front line, these individuals can provide short training opportunities on parade and mentorship in the

field. These opportunities can be 10–15 minutes long and can have a huge impact. A short Power-

Point presentation on an item such as sworn statements could vastly improve the quality of patrol

constables' investigations. The inception of units such as IMAC allow the street sergeants and staff

sergeants far more time to be where they need to be, and that is on the street at calls offering

investigative mentorship to front-line patrol officers.

The Edmonton Police Service management team needs to become more engaged in the training of

its members. Commencing in 2013, West Division has led the way by embarking on a monthly

training schedule providing one- to three-hour training sessions that familiarize and educate patrol

members with topical and vital investigatively oriented learning opportunities. These sessions are

made up of a Subject Matter Expert coming to facilitate an interactive learning session with patrol

members. These skills symposiums are opportunities for junior members to learn something new

from an expert, or senior members to get a refresher and an up-to-date understanding of pertinent

investigative issues and methods.

Training has to be considered a priority. Patrol members who are scheduled to be on a course are

often getting called back due to staffing shortages in a squad to ensure no overtime is incurred by

the division. The reluctance or refusal to call in overtime for training is unacceptable. Not only does it

lessen the few opportunities the front line membership has for training, it tells the front line that

management does not believe training is that important.

The training budgets for patrol divisions also have to be increased. The limited funds patrol divisions

have make it very difficult to provide adequate training to the 190 members in the division. When

management talks of the importance of training and does not adequately fund it, it sends a message

to the front-line members that management is not committed to their training needs.

Training sessions are a start to improving upon the investigative skills of front-line members. The

third phase in this process is opportunity. There are several investigative areas within the Edmonton

Police Service. These investigative areas utilize the Major Case Management model of policing. The

Major Case Management model utilizes an investigative triangle made up of the Primary

Investigator, File Coordinator, and Team Commander. There are offshoots of the triangle as well,

one of these being the sworn member responsible for authoring all search warrants and affidavits

known as the Affiant. The Affiant role on an investigative team is an excellent opportunity for front-

line workers to be exposed to and engaged in high-level investigations. If areas such as homicide,

robbery, sexual assault, and domestic offenders provided one spot per investigative team to a

frontline member for one year, the developmental opportunities would be amazing. Compounding

the benefit is a ripple effect when these individuals bring these strong investigative competencies

back to their patrol squads after being immersed Page 55in the investigative tradecraft full time for

one year. When a member gets this type of a learning experience, the results upon return will be

readily applicable and measurable as that individual will become a go-to person for warrants and

investigation within a squad or division.

An introductory step is to identify several areas which would offer investigative mentorship by

allowing members to spend two to three weeks on loan to investigative areas immersed in an

investigative culture. This introduction to full time investigating would be an excellent way for

members to get on-the-job learning.

The other issue as far as opportunities go is ensuring these opportunities are equal. Oftentimes a

constable will be in a street team in a division and continually have his or her tenure extended

beyond the agreed-upon time in the team. It is understandable that the project team sergeants want

to keep these individuals as long as they can, but it is inappropriate. The return of a project team

member to patrol provides patrol with a person who can lead by example and be a go-to person

providing mentorship. The adherence to the policies of tenure allows more members to experience

investigations at a higher level, thereby making more mentors. The vacancies that are created by

allowing patrol members to be in these teams for specific times result in more members having the

opportunity to gain the knowledge in the unit.

The fourth and final phase is the simplest one, knowing who your subject matter experts are and

utilizing them. This is a seemingly simple way to get the proper information, but often leaders do not

want to admit that they do not know something. When leaders purport to have all knowledge on all

things, they often give poor advice to a member. If this poor advice is followed it may filter through

many people, becoming the gospel. This is a dangerous and irresponsible practice, and divisional

management needs to impress on all ranks that they need to ensure proper advice is being sought

through the subject matter experts. There is no room for conceit or ego in helping the Edmonton

Police Service to become an investigative leader in policing.

The reintegration of investigative abilities is going to be a long process. It took years to filter the

investigative tutelage out of the front line, and it will take years to bring it back. There has to be a

shift in the culture to show that front-line policing is the place to be, and our goal should not always

be to get out of patrol and into a specialized area. By returning solid investigators back to patrol in

leadership functions, offering training opportunities, and ensuring that tenure in specialized areas is

adhered to, we will enable members with valuable skills to go back to patrol and teach what they

know. The public expects police to investigate crimes, not just report on them. Leadership is

important, but the proper leadership is invaluable. We can have our sergeants on parades be

motivational speakers all we want, but we need then to motivate the membership in the proper

direction. The direction is investigative leadership; the message needs to be not call to call as fast as

we can but rather investigation to investigation as thoroughly as we can. Customer service is not

about how fast we arrive, it is about bringing offenders to justice, about excellent investigations,

about making the victim feel like we are taking their violation as seriously as they are.

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