Police Seniority System Essay

Introduction Police officers on the job face a variety of challenges on an everyday basis. The police department’s job is to insure and guarantee a better and safer community in order for citizens to feel at ease. There are a couple of techniques used by officials to improve their work in the field. Methods such as the seniority system, subculture, changing rank, career development, rights and responsibilities are aspects of the job that officers may face or deal with. These factors organize and develop the police force into a sophisticated and professional organization. They are designed to keep qualified officers in the right positions and ranks to make the best decisions, but it is a stressful job and there is pressure on officers from
The system works in favor of those who have enough experience in the field instead of performance. A survey of 34 questions was given to eight different police departments in Michigan to investigate the effect that the seniority system, has on police performance. The results showed the favoritism towards officers who have been working in the field for a long period of time. The system seems to give these officers with more experience “a dominant determination for pay scale, shift selection, vacation selection, lateral transfer, and promotional ranking” (Wallenmen, 2010, Seniority Rights section, Para. 2). Although sworn officers have been devoted for an extensive period of time to their duties, as police officers, it is not accurate for well performing officers whom do not share an equal amount of experience to be given less privileges. Results however, correspondingly demonstrated “a strong desire to replace seniority rights with performance standards in areas that concerned advancement, such as lateral transfer and promotional opportunities” (Wallenman, 2010, Seniority Rights section, Para. 2). Police who have to deal with the seniority system undeniably get tired of being put aside when stepping up in the