Managing Officer Behavioural Risk Using Early Intervention Systems

Since inappropriate and illegal behaviour by officers in criminal justice agencies seriously undermines their ability to achieve their roles and maintain public trust, identifying problematic officers to enable early intervention has become a priority in both departmental management and agency oversight. Events such as officer use of force incidents have been widely used as indicators to flag officers by such systems. Though officers who use force frequently or receive many citizen complaints are a concern, such counts are unlikely to be sufficient to address the full range of officer behaviours of concern. This article describes development of an early intervention system seeking to take this broader view. The system uses data from officers severely disciplined or terminated for various reasons and examines a range of indicators associated with these outcomes. The effort includes officers in both law enforcement and corrections roles, exploring the application of such systems in corrections.