Laserfiche WebLink
contentious, acrimonious, and adversarial, creating an us-versus-them <br /> mentality within the police family~ <br /> <br /> However, the leadership of the Eugene Police Department has the <br /> opportunity to work in partnership with the Police Employees Union to <br /> improve relations not only with the community, but also within the <br /> department. During discussions with the executive board of the union, the <br /> review team was pleasantly surprised with the union's assertion that they <br /> would welcome an external review board; that they wanted to improve the <br /> quality of policing in Eugene; and that they were tired being negatively <br /> viewed by the community. The union wants change and wants it now. <br /> <br /> When focus group members and other interviewees were asked if they would <br /> be surprised to hear that the union supported the external review board, they <br /> indicated their disbelief that this was possible. This is clearly a case of the <br /> right and left hands wanting the same thing, however, neither knows about <br /> the other. It is time to meet with the union to find areas of agreement and to <br /> work collectively toward meaningful change. <br /> <br />Recruitment and Selection <br /> <br />Acknowledging that any police department should select only those who are <br />qualified and capable, administrators should embrace a philosophy which ensures <br />that only qualified personnel are selected. Personnel systems should be designed to <br />screen in applicants as opposed to screening out applicants. Personnel systems that <br />screen out applicants attempt to identify those who are unqualified and remove <br />them from consideration. Once this is accomplished, employees are selected from <br />the remaining applicant pool. Some have observed that in this process, "survivors <br />are not necessarily the 'cream of the crop.' They merely represent applicants the <br />agency has found no reason to reject" (Doerner and Nowell, 1999:343). On the other <br /> <br /> 29 <br /> <br /> <br />