Early Warning Systems

An early warning system (EWS) is a personnel management tool utilized by police command staff to identify individual officer or group performance problems at the earliest possible stage. EWSs collect data on a number of managerially defined police performance indicators (e.g., citizen complaints, use-of-force incidents, arrests, etc.) and compare them to predefined organizational tolerance levels or thresholds. Officers whose levels exceed the threshold for any one given indicator are “flagged” or otherwise noted by the system, and this notice is brought to the attention of supervisory staff, whose duty it is to intervene. EWSs allow police managers to proactively intervene through the use of counseling and retraining, thereby redirecting officers’ work performance toward the orga-nization's goals.

EWSs are a police accountability tool. They bolster accountability by establishing quantifiable departmental standards across a broad spectrum of police performance indicators and then capture individual officer or unit performance on each of these indicators. This information can then be easily accessed and utilized by supervisors responsible for evaluating each officer's performance. With one keystroke, supervisors can see all relevant data concerning each officer under their command. As rank increases, the span of officers reported upon by the system increases up to the point of the chief, who can view the performance profiles of the entire department.

The prevalence of EWS technology is on the rise in the United States. More than 25% of all law enforcement agencies serving populations of 50,000 or more currently have a system in place, and an even greater number are in the early stages of developing a system (Walker, Alpert, & Kenney, 2001). In addition, the advent of police-involved civil litigation and consent decrees has seen the development and use of these systems become judicially mandated reforms in many jurisdictions. Of the five existing consent decrees, all outline and require the use of robust automated early warning systems. In addition, many memoranda of agreements include provisions for early warning systems.

The idea for EWSs grew out of a recommendation by the 1981 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and its recognition of the problematic officer. The “problem officer” concept, which maintains that a small number of officers account for a disproportionate number of citizen complaints and other troubling behaviors, has been well documented by investigative reporters, journalists, and academics. EWSs attempt to identify these officers by capturing information concerning critical behaviors that are characterized as high risk and therefore could[Page 162] lead to increased agency or individual liability. EWSs alert the command staff to the existence of a problematic officer before the level of his or her transgressions grows beyond control. In addition, EWSs monitor other, more benign behaviors that can often be early signs of an officer in need of intervention. For example, excessive sick leave usage may be an indicator of substance abuse, inability to cope with stress, or a physical impairment, all of which could result in devastating consequences to officer performance and public safety. This information (sick time, overtime, absent without leave, missed court appearances) is also critical to the effective management of a police agency.

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