December 1987 Law Enforcement Bulletin December 1987, Volume 56, Number 12 1 Introducing the New Director Transformational Police Leadership by Donald C. Witham The "Bobby Joe" Long Serial Murder Case: A Study in Cooperation (Conclusion) " By Gary Terry and Michael P. Malone On-Line Exchange of Fingerprint Identification Data By Dennis G. Kurre Look But Don't Touch: The Plain View Doctrine By Kimberly A. Kingston 24 Book Review 25 1987 Index 31 Wanted by the FBI l?lIDlJ Law Enforcement Bulletin United States Department of Justice Published by the Office of Public Affairs The Cover: Federal Bureau of Investigation Milt Ahlerich , Acting Assistant Director The fourth Director of the Federal Bureau of Washington, DC 20535 Investigation-Judge William S. Sessions William S. Sessions, Director Editor-Thomas J. Deakin Assistant Editor-Kathryn E. Sulewski Art Director-John E. Ott The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin The Attorney General has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the Production Manager! (I SSN·0014·5688) is published monthly by the transaction of the public business required by Reprints-Mark A. Zettler Federal Bureau of Investigation, 10th and Penn· law of the Department of Justice. Use of funds sylvania Ave ., N.W., Washington , DC 20535. for printing this periodical has been approved Second-class postage paid at Washington , DC . by the Director of the Office of Management Postmaster: Send address changes to Federal and Budget through June 6, 1988. Bureau of Investigation, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Washington, DC 20535. ISSN 0014-5688 USPS 383-310 Introducing the New Director "My pledge today is ... to lead in a fashion that unerringly and faithfully supports the Constitution and the laws of this great land." -William S. Sessions November 2, 1987 Judge William S. Sessions be• came the fourth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on November 2, 1987, succeeding Director William H. Webster. A Federal district judge for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio, since 1974, Director Sessions had been chief judge since 1980. Prior to his service as a Federal judge, he was the U.S. Attorney for the Western Dis• trict of Texas from 1971 to 1974, and before that served as chief of the Gov• ernment Operations Section in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Depart• ment of Justice. Born May 27, 1930, in Fort Smith, AR , Director Sessions' family moved to Kansas City, MO. After high school , Di• rector Sessions enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving 4 years as an airborne radar intercept instructor and rising to the rank of captain . While in the Air Force, the new Director married and then settled in Waco, TX, to complete college and law school at Baylor Uni• versity. The Sessions have four grown children. ___________________________________ December 1987 1 Transformational Police Leadership "Upgrading the quality of American law enforcement has been an important national goal over the last 2 decades." By During the past decade, two semi• have significantly advanced our under• DONALD C. WITHAM, D.P.A. nal works on leadership have been standing of the subject of leadership published. In 1978, James McGregor and brought tangible insights and guid• Special Agent Burns wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning ance to students and practitioners of Federal Bureau of Investigation book entitled Leadership.' Burns wrote leadership. and that leadership is one of the most ob• This article will examine the back• Staff Director served, but least understood, phe• ground and preparation of police Law Enforcement Committee nomena in the world. In 1985, Warren leaders in America, and it will speculate White House Conference Bennis and Burt Nanus authored an• as to how these experiences may relate for a Drug Free America other important book, Leaders: Strat• to their ability to envision. In particular, Washington, DC egies for Taking Charge.2 Bennis and four areas of their preparation will be Nanus built upon Burns' idea of a trans• highlighted-range of police and man• formational leader, and they describe agerial experience, level of formal the essential roles that leaders and ex• education, extent of professional de• ecutives play with respect to organiza• velopment or training, and involvement tional success and performance. Ac• with community and other groups out• cording to these authors, the side law enforcement. The author be• distinguishing talent possessed by lieves these factors are important de• transformational leaders is the ability to velopmental elements for successful envision . They are capable of seeing police leadership. the entire organization, the complex en• vironment, and the interaction of the Law Enforcement Executives two as a single entity. Further, they are The literature on law enforcement able to project this view into the future has long been critical of the inade• and describe a favorable future for the quacies of police executives as they at• organization. They articulate this vision tempt to discharge their responsibilities. to others and provide them with a sense Raymond Fosdick's classic book, of meaning. Also, they inspire trust in American Police Systems, was pub• others- partly because of their stead• lished in 1920, and even then, nearly 70 fastness to their vision.3 These works 2 I FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin _____________ ____________________ years ago, he criticized the perform• efforts in the last decades to upgrade ance of police executives: American law enforcement, there has "Far more than to any other factor, been practically no comprehensive re• the irrational development of Ameri• search on this subject. This article will can police organization is due to in• describe some selected findings of a re• adequate leadership. To the lack of cent study of law enforcement execu• trained and intelligent administrators, tives contained in The American Law obtaining and holding office on Enforcement Chief Executive: A Man• favorable conditions, much of the agement Profile published by the Police confusion and maladjustment of our Executive Research Forum (PERF) in 5 Special Agent Witham police machinery is ascribable. " 4 1985. Upgrading the quality of American law enforcement has been an important The PERF Study national goal over the last 2 decades. A During 1982 and late 1983, nearly number of task forces and commissions 500 police chief executives from have developed a host of recommenda• throughout the United States partici• tions. Interestingly, few of these recom• pated in a major PERF study. The ex• mendations relate directly to police ecutives headed the larger State, leaders. The bulk of the suggestions county, or municipal departments in the pertain to setting standards for police Nation (i.e. , a minimum of 75 full-time recruits in areas such as training and employees). Every State in the Nation education. Such a bottom-up approach was represented by at least one execu• will eventually result in improvements in tive, with the exception of Vermont. The law enforcement. extremely high response rates Perhaps, however, a more immedi• achieved by the two surveys (88% and ate approach to upgrading law enforce• 90% respectively) added greatly to the ment would focus upon police leaders quality of this research. At the same and executives . Although no single time, the response rates indicate the group can bring about enhanced law high level of conscientiousness of the enforcement competence, no other administrators and their dedication to group is better positioned to effect this quality policing in America. Chart 1 con• transformation than police administra• tains some profile data on police execu• tors. tives. Virtually every study or commis• sion to examine American law enforce• Discussion of Selected Findings ment since Fosdick's time also has This section will describe those been quite critical of law enforcement findings believed to relate to the execu• administrators. Despite an awareness tives' ability to become transformational of the complexity of the law enforce• leaders. First, the mean age of the par• ment executive's position and an ticipants was 49. In the chart, items 1-5 awareness of the historical inade• under Heading A-THE CHIEF EX• quacies of law enforcement leadership, ECUTIVE-are all statistical means of and furthermore , despite substantial the data. Readers interested in a more detailed description of the methodology _______________ _____________ _________ December 1987 I 3 or statistical analysis can find that infor- and the entire group averaged over 17 many years) of law enforcement admin- mation in the book, The American Law years in their present department, it's istrators. This condition appears to re- Enforcement Chief Executive: A Man• quite clear that only a few could have main largely unchanged, and such a agement Profile. The respondents were had recent experience in other occupa- narrow range of experience would not not young, impressionable men, but tions or even other police agencies. seem conducive to developing a so- veterans of nearly 25 years of policing. Previous research has criticized the rel- phisticated understanding of the com- In fact, since over 90 percent of the re- atively narrow experience (e .g. , pri- plex environment in which policing must spondents had prior police experience marily within one police agency for function . The educational levels achieved by the participants far exceed the levels discovered during previous research. CHART 1-PROFILE OF POLICE EXECUTIVE There can be no question that law en- forcement leaders have made substan- A. THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE tial progress in this area. Again, this is 1. Age ____________________________________ 49 Years an area in which the field has been 2. Time in Present Position _____________________ 5.5 Years harshly criticized in earlier studies. As 3. Law Enforcement Experience __________________ 24 Years recently as 1975, an International Asso- 4. Experience in Present Department _______________ 17.7 Years ciation of Chiefs of Police (IACP) study 5. Work Week ____________________________ 56 .6 Hours found that only about 10 percent of 6.