For subordinates to buy into a culture of ethics and integrity, employees and their unions must trust in the chief’s own integrity as well as that of the agency’s internal-affairs division. (The popular-entertainment media have often portrayed internal-affairs investigators as administrative dupes out to burn good cops. Citizens who serve on juries have been exposed to this backward mentality for years by watching movies and television shows.)

Prepared with written guidelines for internal-affairs investigations, chiefs can successfully defend their disciplinary decisions and the agency itself if they have demanded consistently that internal investigations be conducted fairly, without personal bias, and with a sense of balance between individual privacy and organizational compliance. When officers perceive that they are treated fairly in disciplinary matters, internal distrust is minimized, and the organization benefits as a whole.