The Right Fit: Choosing the Best People for Promotion and Special Assignments

In the majority of police agencies, chiefs and other upper administrators are responsible for selecting employees for promotion and special assignments. This duty is critical and errors can have potentially fatal consequences for an organization as a whole. For that reason, great diligence and thought must be used in the selection process.

Depending on the size of the agency, promotions and special assignment opportunities may be rare. In some cases, officers may wait a decade before there is any chance to compete for a new position. As a result, officers keep a watchful eye on the selection process used to reassign or promote individuals.

When it comes to selection of personnel for special assignments such as detective teams, SWAT teams, community services units, or warrant apprehension units, there is often more flexibility than in the regimented promotional process. For administrators, it may be easier to base selections to special units on individual factors such as initiative, attitude, and technical skills. The promotional process is much different. Most agencies, whether they are civil service or not, have written guidelines for promotion. These guidelines were established with good reason in an effort to prevent leadership from unfairly promoting friends and relatives or fulfilling political favors. The guidelines are typically spelled out in a formal contract with a union or in an established policy agreed upon by all members of the department. The process usually involves a written test, a panel interview, and a practical exercise that then results in an overall numerical score for each candidate. An eligibility list is then created, and administrators can choose from the top three or four candidates on the list. This is a limiting process for those who are responsible for making selections, and it yields a small applicant pool, but it does allow some degree of flexibility once the field has been narrowed down to the top applicants.

When working within this discretionary area, police administrators should first review the job description. Every position should have an accompanying job description that outlines the specific duties associated with an assignment. These descriptions need to be updated periodically as duties can and should change over time. Ideally, selection to different positions should be based on the assessor’s belief that an individual has the right combination of technical abilities, personal characteristics, and personality traits that will best fit the job.

Any discussion of internal promotion should include two interesting principles regarding selection and promotion within an agency. These concepts are popular in the mainstream business sector, but are equally applicable to the world of policing.