Self-Supervision

[white]

How much of your day at work is dictated and how much do you get to self-supervise what you do? When working patrol do you have any choice or responsibility to self-manage your duties or are you guided in what you do most of the time?

[Old Trooper]

You may have certain duties to perform, depending on your post, your department, number of officers on a shift,etc., but I daresay most of us have lot os discretion as to where we go on our post and what we do.

[ChesCopPodz]

Mostly independant, supervisors only come out to the big calls

[fetom]

Mostly independant, supervisors only come out to the big calls

Same here. Although I will be working on the same unit with my Sgt for the next 4 days.

[mcsap]

As the squad Sgt. for my squad, I depend on my Corporal to run the road while I am at the station doing the admin stuff. I still monitor the radio though. When I do go out on patrol ( usually about 8 out of 12 hours) , I still have the Cpl. handle the day to day officer requests etc. I will respond to the more important calls too. All of the patrols have an assigned area they are responsible for. They can pretty much do what they want as long as the calls get handled and their reports aren't behind.

They can run speed enforcement, serve warrants, seize plates etc without having to ask permission.

[Oldbillplod]

When I was on shift I had to have supervision to wipe my ***, now im on traffic the world is my oyster and I rarely get hassled

[JR_23]

Just go to your calls, treat people with respect, and pull paper when it needs to be pulled. That's all the Sarges ask. They always show up to hot calls and dead bodies. They will sometimes come on a call or traffic stop just to check up, and it offends some guys. I like it, let them see how Officer friendly I can be, so that when complaints roll in they take it into consideration...plus, it's another Cover Officer should the **** hit the fan.

In between calls, we can do as much Officer Initiated stuff (ie-run traffic, business checks, foot patrol, pull the wants list and go hunting etc...) as we want. Some of the older guys, since they've done it already, engage in virtually zero Officer Initiated stuff, and they're ok with that too.

It's a little talked about benefit of the job...

[bpd35]

100 percent self here. Only time the brass gets called if there is a death , pursuit , or major dope bust. IE : Lab getting taken down or growing operation. Other than that they can stay were they are ..... Away from me. LOL.

[mcsap]

Just go to your calls, treat people with respect, and pull paper when it needs to be pulled. That's all the Sarges ask. They always show up to hot calls and dead bodies. They will sometimes come on a call or traffic stop just to check up, and it offends some guys. I like it, let them see how Officer friendly I can be, so that when complaints roll in they take it into consideration...plus, it's another Cover Officer should the **** hit the fan.

In between calls, we can do as much Officer Initiated stuff (ie-run traffic, business checks, foot patrol, pull the wants list and go hunting etc...) as we want. Some of the older guys, since they've done it already, engage in virtually zero Officer Initiated stuff, and they're ok with that too.

It's a little talked about benefit of the job...

Besides being responsible for all of my officer's actions , I am also a half decent back-up officer , as was mentioned. I have a number of new officers on my squad so I make sure to check in on them without having to follow them around. Any complaints do not go to the chief first, they go to the squad Sgt. to handle. So, I do go out and go to calls and traffic stops etc. ( Had a dead body yesterday, 37 yr old male refused treatment after a BAD crash on Tue and on Wed he died at home from his injuries)