The NJ Police Chief Magazine Volume 24, Number 9 | Page 20

The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | December 2018
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She is looking to broaden her experience before seeking promotion to the next rank.
On her appointment, she immediately conducts a very thorough end-to-end process review of detention practices
and uncovers a number of areas of weakness, and non-compliant methods of work. She implements amendments
and invites a peer review of the new procedures she has introduced. They are identified as not only compliant
with policy and procedure, but also highlighted as best practice nationally.
One day, detainee X arrives at the station. She is searched in accordance with practices introduced by Inspector
A, and a weapon is recovered. She is taken to a video cell, and put on 15 minute visits.
Within two minutes of the cell door being closed, the detainee flings herself head-first at the wall, and collapses.
Assistance arrives within twenty seconds, and first aid is administered by custody staff while an ambulance is
called. She is conveyed to hospital by paramedics, where she is pronounced dead on arrival.
The subsequent IPCC investigation found that custody procedures were exemplary. They further commended
custody staff for the response and efforts to save the life of the detainee.
In response, the force reviewed the antecedence of the detained person, and identified that intervention by
partner agencies at key points leading up to the arrest may well have prevented a point of crisis being reached.
Leadership activity was undertaken with partners to design and implement new approaches to tackling certain
types of vulnerability. Staff across the police organisation felt a sense of relief that their work and risk
management was recognised and valued.
In these two examples, deaths occurred. It is the business of police organisations to manage and carry risk with
some extremely vulnerable people, and occasionally deaths sadly result. What is demonstrated though is that a
pre-occupation with ‘leadership’ may in fact be harmful to the longer-term ambition and evolution of a high
functioning police organisation, because leadership capacity is consumed dealing with the consequences of weak
management.
The Leadership-Management Conflict: Two Strategic Risks
Strategic Risk 1: Data Management
Police organisations do not sit in isolation from the rest of the world. The discharge of policing functions such as
administering criminal justice, or dealing with missing people, are activities that take place as part of a wider
system.
Due regard to this is vital to drive efficiencies, provide good public service, and in considering the legal
responsibilities of organisations in certain key areas. One example of this is the legal and moral responsibilities
linked to data management – its storage, access control and weeding.
By the nature of their activities, and the breadth of their responsibilities, police organisations and their sister
agencies in the various systems collect vast quantities of information, much of it personal and confidential. Some
of it is extremely valuable to criminals.
Legislation in the UK that governs this area includes the Data Protection Act 1998, which sets out that personal
data retained shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they
are processed, and personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
The challenge is articulated by Tupman (1998) who identifies a tendency for data to build up and for information
systems to become log-jammed by excessive and irrelevant information, and if prosecutors and the police do not
want to find themselves involved in civil litigation they must set up administrative rules to deal with the following
questions:
i. What data may be held on an individual?
ii. Who can input data on an individual and how is the input recorded?
iii. For how long should data be kept?
iv. Who should read data regularly and have the right to remove it?
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