Supervising Police Personnel: The Fifteen Responsibilities (6th Edition) [Hardcover]

Paul M. Whisenand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0131722379 | ISBN-13: 978-0131722378 | Edition: 6

For courses in Police Supervision, Human or Organizational Behavior, and Ethics.

 

Using an exploratory and interactive structure, this introduction to police supervision covers all the latest supervisory concepts and practices with an emphasis on character, teamwork, and conflict resolution. Boasting a 15-responsibility organization, the Sixth Edition implements self-discipline, self-restraint, & self-reliant through Team Fundamentals, Team Development, and Teamwork.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A practical book which covers all the latest supervisory concepts and practices, and encourages the reader to think and then behave as a supervisor. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

PREFACE

This, the fourth edition, continues to represent the police supervisor's role as a set of integrated responsibilities. This has been and, in all likelihood, will be an enduring theme for future editions.

As in past editions, all fifteen responsibilities are formatted as chapters. Each one of the responsibilities has been modified, some considerably. more than others. A few have been retitled to reflect a thematic emphasis on teamwork.

I realize that the term "team" is overused to the point that today some find it trite. I toyed with the words "partner," "collaborative," "consensual," "seamless," and others. "Teamwork" prevailed, as you'll soon see in the three major sections: Team Basics, Team Building, and Teamwork.

Team Basics provides the infrastructure for contemporary police work—community-oriented policing. These chapters deal with constancy and integrity of purpose—values, ethics, and vision—and with the allocation of the requisite time to communicate all three. The chapters on ethics and vision contain a lot of new material.

Team Building starts with a supervisor's responsibility for serving as a team leader. This naturally encompasses motivating, empowering, and training one's staff, while ensuring that everyone is mentally and physically well. The two chapters on team leadership and motivation are essentially new.

Teamwork includes organizing for action, measuring the results of that action, rectifying mistakes, and making certain that community-oriented policing works. I am convinced that it takes teamwork to make it work. Finally, the supervisor is challenged to sense incoming demands or needs for change. Significant updatings are found in the chapters on performance appraisal and conflict resolution.

Being a police supervisor is much more than having more pay, more authority, more influence, more status, and the like, It is much more a set of vital responsibilities, as you will soon discover in the chapters that follow.

I would like to thank Joe Sandoval of Metropolitan State College, Sgt. Twan Uptgrow of the Metro-Dade Police Department, and Sgt. Marc Deluca of the Charlotte Police Department for reviewing the manuscript. My warmest thanks to Kim Davies, Senior Editor, Prentice Hall, who coached and inspired me during the writing of this edition; Pat David and Julie Schmidt, who expertly typed and critically edited the manuscript; and, finally, my longtime prized teammate and wise co-author, George Rush, who said, "Be a big boy. Write this one by yourself."

Paul Whisenand
San Clemente, California --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 6 edition (March 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131722379
• ISBN-13: 978-0131722378
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #553,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Supervising Police Personnel, September 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Supervising Police Personnel: The Fifteen Responsibilities (4th Edition) (Hardcover)

This book is entirly overwritten. It is very listy, for example, It tells you that there is 6 characteristics of a well written report. Then in the very next line he tells of the 6 different types of reports. Then he goes further to break down each type of report and explain what they are and why they are used. The ideas are notable. However the book's content is poorly written and is more for the overall manager not specific to police services. And yes, one needs to do the job before one can write about it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tiresome, windy, unrealistic, list happy, August 31, 2002

By 

Patrick Tortorici (Glendale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Supervising Police Personnel: The Fifteen Responsibilities (4th Edition) (Hardcover)

This guy is out of his mind. A very frustrating read which makes U.S Army technical manuals seem fascinating. Mr. Whisenand is an obvious scholar, but I fear his "book of lists" does not translate all that well to actual human beings. In addition, I found the section on "community oriented policing" especially overblown. He fails to consider the prosecutorial implications of stating that "long and detailed reports are turnoffs to many people" (page 331, paragraph 1), they're turnoffs to defense attornies too!
Again, an extremely intelligent man and dilligent social scientist, but this book is horrible.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is utterly useless, December 19, 2007

By 

Alex "Alex" (Norwalk, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Supervising Police Personnel: The Fifteen Responsibilities (6th Edition) (Hardcover)

If you need this book to tell you that you should have ethics and values, then maybe you shouldn't be in law enforcement in the first place.

I don't know how many ways Mr. Whisenand has to say the same thing OVER AND OVER AGAIN. 319 pages? The same points could have been made in about 70. Maybe the publisher had a minimum page requirement for Mr. Whisenand. It's a bit hypocritical as Mr. Whisenand writes on page 89 that "A concise report expresses all the necessary information in as few words as possible..." He should practice what he preaches.

Which leads me to my next point. What is Mr. Whisenand's real world law enforcement experience anyway? In the book, it lists that he was an officer with the LAPD and a reserve deputy sheriff with the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Curiously, no where does it list how many years he did at each or the ranks he held. He also does not relate any of his own experiences as a PO, only that of others. Hmmmmm...

I only gave this a rating of one star because it won't let you put in zero stars.