May 2008 State of—Specialization

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6/16/2008 12:51 PM
Editor View Editor's profile Find recent posts by Editor Find recent threads started by Editor Send private message to Editor Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 102	May 2008 State of—Specialization Do you feel it's now necessary for an officer to specialize in order to succeed? If so, how are you gaining special skills to adv

6/16/2008 12:51 PM

May 2008 State of—Specialization

Do you feel it's now necessary for an officer to specialize in order to succeed? If so, how are you gaining special skills to adv

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6/17/2008 7:58 PM	#1
Steve Rothstein View Steve Rothstein's profile Find recent posts by Steve Rothstein Find recent threads started by Steve Rothstein Send private message to Steve Rothstein Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 380	RE: May 2008 State of—Specialization In many agencies, some specialization is necessary in order to advance. I deplore this, but I recognize that a supervisor of a specialty unit needs to know something about that unit. The downside of this is that in order to get further ahead, you then need to generalize again. You may be an immediate supervisor in a specialized unit, but management needs to be generalists with the management skills. Of course, there are people who point out that supervisory and management skills are specialties all unto themselves also.

6/17/2008 7:58 PM

RE: May 2008 State of—Specialization

In many agencies, some specialization is necessary in order to advance. I deplore this, but I recognize that a supervisor of a specialty unit needs to know something about that unit. The downside of this is that in order to get further ahead, you then need to generalize again. You may be an immediate supervisor in a specialized unit, but management needs to be generalists with the management skills.

Of course, there are people who point out that supervisory and management skills are specialties all unto themselves also.

6/17/2008 10:58 PM	#2
wolfva View wolfva's profile Find recent posts by wolfva Find recent threads started by wolfva Send private message to wolfva Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 215	RE: May 2008 State of—Specialization The 'meat and potatos' of any police force is the patrol officer. They should be 'jacks of all trades' because of the large number of varied incidents they handle. Heck, if you have a jumper, but your 'specialty' is armed robbery, are you going to ask the guy to hold on for a few minutes until the jumper specialist arrives? Or are you going to try to keep him from taking a nosedive?

6/17/2008 10:58 PM

wolfva

Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 215

RE: May 2008 State of—Specialization

The 'meat and potatos' of any police force is the patrol officer. They should be 'jacks of all trades' because of the large number of varied incidents they handle. Heck, if you have a jumper, but your 'specialty' is armed robbery, are you going to ask the guy to hold on for a few minutes until the jumper specialist arrives? Or are you going to try to keep him from taking a nosedive?