Does Your Agency Have a Mentoring Program?

Within any law enforcement organization, there are several positions responsible for training a rookie and supporting him (or her) to become capable of professional independence. It might all start with the recruiter, include the investigators, involve an interview board, certainly lean heavily on the academy training staff, and end up with the field training officer. For many rookies, their field training officer ends up being one of the best friends they have in the agency. For some rookies it’s the exact opposite. But one thing is certain: a rookie’s training shouldn’t end with an “all clear” or “good to go” from their field training officer. And, in fact, the training each new officer undergoes shouldn’t be limited to professional job performance. Just as so many have described law enforcement as a lifestyle rather than just a job, that lifestyle incorporates a lot of aspects in the day-to-day that have little or nothing to do with professional performance.

Every agency has a particular culture. The Army does. The Marine Corps does. Every branch of service does (and they all argue among each other about which is the best). The New York City Police Department has its own culture, and it’s a far cry different from the Los Angeles Police Department culture, and both of those are radically different from the Pima County (NM) Sheriff’s Office culture. Why wouldn’t they be? The communities they serve are different both in location and, often, basic values. The demographics are different from one patrol sector to the next even within an agency. Apply that to the differences between Chicago and El Paso and realize that the culture of each agency is so individual and unique that each rookie needs more than professional development to live the agency ethos.

But how many agencies have coaches or mentors or whatever you want to call it that are assigned a rookie with the responsibility of counseling the new young officer on what it takes to become part of the agency beyond being an employee? Very few law enforcement agencies of any size seem to have any type of formal program that we could find. Several chiefs and sheriffs we spoke to seem to feel that it’s an exceptional idea, and a few mentioned how mentoring seems to happen accidentally or organically, but those same few acknowledged that the mentoring wasn’t given enough focus and certainly wasn’t formalized in any way.

Some of the larger agencies we spoke with mentioned having something “like a godfather” for the rookies. It wasn’t an assignment but was usually the old salty (in a good way) veteran officer of any supervisory rank from sergeant to captain who took it upon himself to build more than a professional rapport with the new officers, helping to navigate any unexpected challenges they experienced. The way this veteran mentor was described made him sound like he was part HR, part psychologist, and part priest… along with being a recognized (usually decorated) officer with the agency.

One of the challenges identified in creating a formalized mentoring program was how to identify the skills or knowledge that were to be conveyed or what the guidelines and restrictions were for any officer assigned as a mentor. Like everything else in a law enforcement agency, any official program has to have policies attached. “Assigned duties” often come with an expectation of added pay or extra hours — but it doesn’t have to be that way.

A mentoring program can be formalized and accompanied by all of the requisite policies and formalities OR it can be informal and recommended. If the program is going to be formalized, then buy-in from the “powers that be” has to be obtained. At a bare minimum, the goals of the program should be written up and reflect the final goal of increasing professionalism within the agency culture while developing a supportive work environment that minimizes officer stress.

If the program is formalized, the development of it should be a team effort of agency leadership, training staff and any counselors the agency has to include chaplains. Mentoring, if developed and done properly, should minimize work conflicts and disagreements and help officers avoid or shrug off experiences that can create unnecessary stress.

What are we talking about? Some examples would be the call for service wherein the officer acts 100% professionally, courteously and within all agency guidelines, but the citizen served is just that person who has to find something to complain about… and they do. The mentor would be there to reassure the officer and guide them through the process the agency has to follow to manage the complaint. The mentor is not giving legal advice but knows the agency policy and all the options the officer can exercise to his/her best advantage. Sometimes just knowing that someone is in your corner and can answer policy questions or discuss options goes a long way toward reducing the related stress for such a situation.

Another example would be the officer who knows he wants to eventually move into investigations but he’s not sure what specifically he can do to work toward that goal. “Keeping your nose clean” and “writing good narratives” are not enough to get noticed. After all, that’s expected of every officer. But doing some basic follow-up and including the gleaned info in the report before handing it off to detectives can get an officer noticed quickly. In such a situation, if the mentor can guide the new officer into such actions and the detective sergeant notices the good work, a benefit is created at no cost while motivation is acknowledged, supported and improved. Not only does the new officer but the agency also benefits from that. Further, morale is boosted, thereby supporting an even higher level of motivation and professionalism.

So, if your agency doesn’t have any type of mentoring program, perhaps you should consider it. Formal or informal, the benefits to be had are obvious both for rookies and the agencies (and communities) they serve.