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Article: Letter of the Policy Versus Spirit of the Policy: THE LOSS OF COMMON SENSE IN POLICING?
- Article from:
- Law & Order
- Article date:
- November 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Hendon Publishing Company Nov 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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How do you train officers to balance doing what they are told with using some common sense?
How do you train them to sort out following the letter of the policy or they will be in trouble versus following the spirit of the law or they will be in trouble? Do you write exhaustive policies to cover all eventualities or write brief policies to cover the overall issue of policing? Every department struggles with this balance on a recurring basis.
When I first became a police chief, one of my initial objectives was to create a much more streamlined (and thin- ner) policy and procedure manual. I had come from an organization that had pol- icy and procedure manuals both about 4 inches thick! I ...