Mid-level police leaders, such as sergeants or lieutenants, have a strong influence on the perceptions, behaviours and well-being of police officers and are vitally important to the implementation and development of organisational culture, goals and objectives.
Because of the substantial impact that police leaders have on a police organisation and, ultimately, on the delivery of public safety services, police forces must have mechanisms in place to find, identify and select the best candidates for these jobs. This is achieved through promotion processes, i.e., the promotion of members of the organisation to higher ranks and higher levels of responsibility.
The promotion process in police agencies involves a combination of written tests, oral interviews and assessment centre analysis. However, this process lacks uniformity among the different police forces and there is also a lack of research on the most effective ways to carry out police promotions.
According to research published at the end of 2024, carried out by several researchers from the RAND Executive Research Forum a group of experts was convened to analyse how the police conduct promotions for intermediate positions. Through a series of interviews and workshops, the researchers identified 47 needs for improving police promotions, of which 26 were considered top priority.
These needs relate to bias, disparity and barriers in promotions, development of metrics to identify successful candidates, valid and reliable methods to evaluate candidates, training and career progression, and transparency and organisational fairness considerations.
The researchers recommend:
- Conducting quantitative and qualitative research to identify disparate barriers to promotion for qualified candidates.
- Conducting longitudinal research to identify challenges and achievements from the perspective of the candidates who went through the process.
- Developing and validating metrics to evaluate performance in all areas of work.
- Developing training experiments that evaluate different feedback models.
- Developing best practice guidance based on what effective police agencies are already doing.
- Developing educational materials, curricula and resource guides that summarise what organisations and employees need to know about employment law.
- Conducting a systematic review to identify evidence-based best practices for selecting, training and supervising evaluators and raters.
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