Early Warning Systems

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice National Institute of Justice R e s e a r c h i n B r i e f July 2001 Issues and Findings Early Warning Systems: Responding Discussed in this Brief: A system- atic study of early warning systems to the Problem Police Officer designed to identify officers who may be having problems on the job by Samuel Walker, Geoffrey P. Alpert, and Dennis J. Kenney and to provide those officers with the appropriate counseling or training. The findings are based on a It has become a truism among police providing counseling or training to help survey of 832 local law enforce- chiefs that 10 percent of their officers them change their problematic behavior. ment agencies and site visits to cause 90 percent of the problems. Inves- three departments with established By 1999, 39 percent of all municipal and early warning systems. tigative journalists have documented departments in which as few as 2 percent county law enforcement agencies that Key issues: A growing body of evi- of all officers are responsible for 50 per- serve populations greater than 50,000 dence indicates that in any police 1 people either had an early warning sys- department a small percentage of cent of all citizen complaints. The phe- officers are responsible for a dispro- nomenon of the “problem officer” was tem in place or were planning to imple- portionate share of citizen com- identified in the 1970s: Herman Goldstein ment one. The growing popularity of plaints. Early warning systems help noted that problem officers “are well these systems as a remedy for police supervisors identify these officers, misconduct raises questions about their intervene with them, and monitor known to their supervisors, to the top their subsequent performance. administrators, to their peers, and to effectiveness and about the various pro- the residents of the areas in which they gram elements that are associated with Even though early warning systems effectiveness. To date, however, little has are becoming more popular among work,” but that “little is done to alter their 4 law enforcement agencies, little conduct.”2 In 1981, the U.S. Commission been written on the subject. This Brief research has addressed the effec- on Civil Rights recommended that all reports on the first indepth investigation tiveness of such programs. This police departments create an early warn- of early warning systems. The investiga- Brief reports on a study that estab- tion combined the results of a national lishes a baseline description of early ing system to identify problem officers, warning system programs and asks those “who are frequently the subject of survey of law enforcement agencies with some fundamental questions: complaints or who demonstrate identifi- the findings of case studies of three G Are early warning systems effec- able patterns of inappropriate behavior.”3 agencies with established systems. tive in reducing police officer misconduct? An early warning system is a data-based How prevalent are early G Are some types of early warning police management tool designed to iden- warning systems? systems more effective than others? tify officers whose behavior is problematic and provide a form of intervention to As part of the national evaluation of G What impact do early warning early warning systems, the Police systems have on the departments correct that performance. As an early in which they operate? response, a department intervenes before Executive Research Forum—funded by such an officer is in a situation that war- the National Institute of Justice and the G Do early warning systems have Office of Community Oriented Policing unintended and undesirable rants formal disciplinary action. The effects? system alerts the department to these Services—surveyed 832 sheriffs’ offices and municipal and county police depart- Key findings: Twenty-seven individuals and warns the officers while percent of local law enforcement ments serving populations of 50,000 or agencies serving populations of at least 50,000 had an early warning continued… Support for this research was provided through a transfer of funds to NIJ from COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE R e s e a r c h i n B r i e f Issues and Findings more.5 Usable responses were received Intervening with the officer. The pri- …continued from 571 agencies, a response rate of mary goal of early warning systems is to 69 percent. The response rate was signifi- change the behavior of individual officers system in 1999; another 12 percent were planning to establish cantly higher for municipal agencies than who have been identified as having prob- such a program. for sheriff’s departments. lematic performance records. The basic intervention strategy involves a combina- Larger agencies were more likely Approximately one-fourth (27 percent) of than smaller agencies to use an tion of deterrence and education. The early warning system. Among the surveyed agencies had an early warn- theory of simple deterrence assumes that agencies with 1,000 or more ing system in 1999. One-half of these officers who are subject to intervention sworn officers, 79 percent had or systems had been created since 1994, will change their behavior in response to a planned to have an early warning and slightly more than one-third had been 7 system; only 56 percent of agen- perceived threat of punishment. General cies with between 500 and 999 created since 1996. These data, combined deterrence assumes that officers not sub- sworn officers had or planned to with the number of agencies indicating ject to the system will also change their have such a program. that a system was being planned (another behavior to avoid potential punishment. No standards have been estab- 12 percent), suggest that such systems will Early warning systems also operate on lished for identifying which offi- spread rapidly in the next few years. the assumption that training, as part of cers should participate in early warning programs, but there is Early warning systems are more preva- the intervention, can help officers general agreement that a number lent among municipal law enforcement improve their performance. of factors can help identify problem officers: citizen complaints, agencies than among county sheriffs’ In most systems (62 percent), the initial firearm-discharge reports, use- departments. intervention generally consists of a review of-force reports, civil litigation, by the officer’s immediate supervisor. resisting-arrest incidents, and How does an early warning pursuits and vehicular accidents. Almost half of the responding agencies system work? (45 percent) involve other command offi- Data from the three case-study agencies (in Miami, Minneapolis, Early warning systems have three basic cers in counseling the officer. Also, these and New Orleans) indicate the phases: selection, intervention, and systems frequently include a training class following: postintervention monitoring. for groups of officers identified by the sys- G In spite of considerable differ- tem (45 percent of survey respondents). ences among the programs, each Selecting officers for the program. program appeared to reduce No standards have been established Monitoring the officer’s subsequent problem behaviors significantly. for identifying officers for early warning performance. Nearly all (90 percent) the G Early warning systems encour- programs, but there is general agreement agencies that have an early warning sys- age changes in the behavior of about the criteria that should influence tem in place report that they monitor an supervisors, as well as of the officer’s performance after the initial identified officers. their selection. Performance indicators that can help identify officers with prob- intervention. Such monitoring is generally G Early warning systems are lematic behavior include citizen com- informal and conducted by the officer’s high-maintenance programs that immediate supervisor, but some depart- require ongoing administrative plaints, firearm-discharge and use-of-force attention. reports, civil litigation, resisting-arrest ments have developed a formal process of observation, evaluation, and reporting. A caveat is in order about the find- incidents, and high-speed pursuits and 6 Almost half of the agencies (47 percent) ings reported here. The research vehicular damage. design was limited in a number of monitor the officer’s performance for 36 ways, and each of the early warn- Although a few departments rely only on months after the initial intervention. Half ing systems studied operates in the citizen complaints to select officers for of the agencies indicate that the followup context of a department’s larger intervention, most use a combination of period is not specified and that officers commitment to increased accountability. It is impossible to disentan- performance indicators. Among systems are monitored either continuously or on gle the effect of the department’s that factor in citizen complaints, most a case-by-case basis. culture of accountability from that (67 percent) require three complaints in of the early warning program. a given timeframe (76 percent specify a Target audience: State and local 12-month period) to identify an officer. law enforcement administrators, planners, and policymakers; researchers; and educators. 2 R e s e a r c h i n B r i e f Limitations of the survey Also, the three systems differ from Characteristics of officers identified findings one another in terms of structure and by early warning systems. Demo- administrative history, and the three graphically, officers identified by the The responses from the national survey departments differ in their history systems do not differ significantly from should be viewed with some caution. of police officer use of force and the control group in terms of race or Some law enforcement agencies may accountability (see “Three cities, ethnicity.

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