A Message to Chiefs
Gordon Graham here, and thanks for taking the time to visit my
little corner of this great website – and a quick thanks to Paul and
Ted for all the work in putting this site together and making a
difference.
Today I would like to
spend some time talking to chief officers and those of you who will
be future chief officers in your profession. One of your
responsibilities in that position is the “hiring” function, and that
job of “getting and keeping” good people is so important for the
success of your organization. Perhaps someday I will
see you in one of my long programs on this topic where I get into
great detail on the “RHR” (recruitment, hiring, retention) issues,
but for this brief piece today I want to talk about the importance
of the “background” investigation. Like anything else in my
life, this topic did not just pop up “out of the blue” but was
generated by a series of recent news articles involving what happens
when this issue is not taken seriously. And because I am “fair
and balanced,” I picked one from my profession (the cop side) and
one (actually thirty) from your side in the fire business. First, out of Illinois
is the story about a troubled cop; and I have redacted this news
story for a bunch of reasons. “An Illinois cop
caught on camera allegedly breaking a 15-year-old special needs
student's nose for failing to tuck in his shirt has a troubling
history that includes killing a man in a case of disputed
self-defense and is now in an Indiana jail on an unrelated rape
charge. “The involved cop,
38, was identified Thursday by his father and the mayor as the
officer who was recorded by a school security camera scuffling
with student. An attorney hired by
the student’s parents released the video this week, calling the
incident an "unprovoked attack" on a vulnerable child. The
video, which has no audio, appears to show the officer slamming
the student against a locker, wrestling him to the ground and
pinning him. “But speaking
Thursday, the father said he had seen the video and discussed
the incident with his son, who he said was 'just trying to do
his job as a police officer and is completely innocent.' "My son said, 'Sir,
you need to tuck your shirt in,' and this boy (cussed at him and
said), 'I'm not going to tuck my shirt in, you can't make me,' "
the father said. "That boy struck my
son in the eye and broke his glasses – he had a history of
behavior issues," he alleged. “The involved cop
was also arrested last month and charged with sexually
assaulting a woman he knew at her home, his father said. “According to court
documents, he held a pillow over the woman's face while sexually
assaulting her and had previously threatened her with a knife. “The involved cop,
who's being held in lieu of $110,000 bail, faces up to 20 years
behind bars if convicted of rape, criminal deviate conduct,
criminal confinement and sexual battery, said a spokeswoman for
the county prosecutor. “A lawsuit filed by
his ex-wife last summer alleges he gunned down her new husband
in front of their children outside their home last year. “He was a police
officer in a different city at that time and was suspended after
the shooting but eventually found work with another police
department this year, his father said.” So let me see if I got
this right, because I am a little slow these days. This guy is
on suspension for killing the new husband of his ex-wife, and he
manages to get hired by another agency! Now, I am not going to
beat this to death and touch on all the ancillary issues regarding
his upbringing, his father continuing to cover for him and why and
how he ended up in so much trouble. No, my focus is much
simpler. How the heck did this guy get hired by his first
department, and then how did he end up getting hired by the second
department? And now you must be
asking yourself, what does this have to do with me; and what does
this have to do with the fire service. Here is a troubling
piece that I read on multiple sources in the last week or so. “More than 30
firefighters across West Virginia have been arrested for arson
in the past year, according to the State Fire Marshal. "He said
firefighters are in control of their own destiny and don't
realize it, calling the firefighter arson arrests an epidemic. "'What my worst
nightmare is, I'll get that 3 and 4 o'clock call from the arson
hot line that a firefighter has died, and another firefighter
set the fire,' said the fire marshal." Sadly, this scenario has
happened before, and it is so tragic. The link between both of these
stories? Background Investigations are an essential component
of the “RHR” process. The fire service and law enforcement do
not hire good people and turn them into bad people. For a
number of poorly thought out reasons, both of our professions
occasionally hire bad people who continue to be bad people and put
each of us in a bad light. So with this in mind,
please make sure that you are doing comprehensive background
investigations. I know how tight money is these days, but the
nickels – literally nickels that we spend on the “BI” process – will
pay off handsomely in the future. I encourage each of you
to check out the California Background Investigators Association.
They do good work, and I don’t care what state or province or
country you are in or if you are on the cop side or the fire side –
it is essential that we weed out those with major problems and
prevent them from getting into our professions. As a “risk manager,” I
study tragedies. Part of my study is the search for “cause” – and
not just the “proximate cause,” but the “root” cause – and all too
often the root cause for the tragedy was the failure to weed out the
loser up front. Anyhow, enough of this.
I know that the vast majority of things you do you are doing right.
But in this day of increased public scrutiny, full transparency and
the power of the Internet, we must revisit the way we are doing
business in the world of RHR. That is all for now, and
I look forward to seeing you again soon. Until then, please take the
time to work safe. For Gordon Graham
video tapes,
click here.
Seminar information can be found within Gordon Graham's website
at
www.gordongraham.com Translate this site:
Risky Ramblings
GORDON GRAHAM is a 39-year veteran of California law enforcement. He is currently the co-president of Lexipol LLC (www.lexipol.com) He is a practicing lawyer specializing in keeping fire departments and firefighters/officers out of legal trouble. During his tenure as a police professional, he was awarded his Teaching Credential from California State University, Long Beach. He was later graduated from University of Southern California with a master's degree in safety and systems management. Subsequent to this, he was graduated from Western State University with a juris doctorate.
Mr. Graham has centered his efforts in providing knowledge to both public and private sector organizations in the area of organizational and operational risk management, civil liability, professionalism, ethical decision-making and related topics. Over the last decade, Mr. Graham has made over 3,000 presentations to various groups including law enforcement; corrections personnel; fraud investigators; fire professionals; EMS; other first responders; legal professionals; educators; city, county and district employees; law firms; hospitals; and real estate companies, along with many other private sector organizations.