imjin138
US Veteran
Reading the Claude Dallas post brought up a question. I have read 2 books about him and watched the movie and TV programs so it always interested me.
However I don't want to steal the post so here is my humble offering.
After 17 years in the Deparment of Corrections I have seen officers who were assertive and those that were agressive. Working in the male and female, adult and juvinile ends of it I have seen some odd things.
The new officers come from the academy and work for 2 weeks on OJT in the faciity they will probably go to. After they graduate they arrive at the center and we give them another 3 weeks training before they go out on their own.
As an officer or sergeant or even a captain there is a time to be assertive and there is a time to be aggressive you have to learn and know the difference.
I have had all 3 ranks that I will call head hunters they come on shift looking for an inmate to write up or lock up and then there is the guy who just wants a quiet shift to read his paper. the guy in the middle who enforces the rules professionally is the officer I would like on my shift.
The aggressive ones need to be led and toned down and that is where the shift supervisor comes in. My people do searches everyday sometimes they give out conduct reports sometimes warnings depending on the contraband they have found.
I do have some staff on my shift that want every inmate locked down because "we can" I am the Seg captain and I only have so many rooms available.
The staff and inmates on my shift know my rules, if you put your hands on anyone you get locked up, if you disrespect staff you go to Seg. if you are caught with drugs or booze you go to seg. everything else we make an informed decision on.
We train the new staff on these rules and it usually works out. I do have some staff that never learn and they usually get burned because they go beyond the norm into harrasment. After a few times of getting called in and days off they usually learn to become good officers.
We want them to be assertive because the inmates will walk all over them if they aren't,and yes I do have the social worker types too who just want to help a bad girl gone wrong. That is a whole set of different problems.
I would expect it is the same way in most departments, officers deal with the general public and with criminals they just need to know the difference.
I have been stopped for speeding and for a bad tail light I always treated the officer with respect and if I was wrong I said I was I have one ticket. the officers that stopped me have always been polite to me, even the Illinois State Police Sergeant who stopped me for speeding and only gave me warning even though I had Wisconsin plates.
The officer is the one with the control and authority. I also believe we all go through phases in which we lose or perspective and use our authority to a degree more than is called for because we are human.
However I don't want to steal the post so here is my humble offering.
After 17 years in the Deparment of Corrections I have seen officers who were assertive and those that were agressive. Working in the male and female, adult and juvinile ends of it I have seen some odd things.
The new officers come from the academy and work for 2 weeks on OJT in the faciity they will probably go to. After they graduate they arrive at the center and we give them another 3 weeks training before they go out on their own.
As an officer or sergeant or even a captain there is a time to be assertive and there is a time to be aggressive you have to learn and know the difference.
I have had all 3 ranks that I will call head hunters they come on shift looking for an inmate to write up or lock up and then there is the guy who just wants a quiet shift to read his paper. the guy in the middle who enforces the rules professionally is the officer I would like on my shift.
The aggressive ones need to be led and toned down and that is where the shift supervisor comes in. My people do searches everyday sometimes they give out conduct reports sometimes warnings depending on the contraband they have found.
I do have some staff on my shift that want every inmate locked down because "we can" I am the Seg captain and I only have so many rooms available.
The staff and inmates on my shift know my rules, if you put your hands on anyone you get locked up, if you disrespect staff you go to Seg. if you are caught with drugs or booze you go to seg. everything else we make an informed decision on.
We train the new staff on these rules and it usually works out. I do have some staff that never learn and they usually get burned because they go beyond the norm into harrasment. After a few times of getting called in and days off they usually learn to become good officers.
We want them to be assertive because the inmates will walk all over them if they aren't,and yes I do have the social worker types too who just want to help a bad girl gone wrong. That is a whole set of different problems.
I would expect it is the same way in most departments, officers deal with the general public and with criminals they just need to know the difference.
I have been stopped for speeding and for a bad tail light I always treated the officer with respect and if I was wrong I said I was I have one ticket. the officers that stopped me have always been polite to me, even the Illinois State Police Sergeant who stopped me for speeding and only gave me warning even though I had Wisconsin plates.
The officer is the one with the control and authority. I also believe we all go through phases in which we lose or perspective and use our authority to a degree more than is called for because we are human.
