Internal Investigations Determine Public Perception of a Law Enforcement Agency

Best practices are evolving in nearly every sector, and law enforcement is no exception. In fact, expectations for up-to-date practices and procedures in law enforcement are arguably as high as they have ever been. The old internal affairs investigation of the past is gone for good. Open and transparent investigations are the best way for law enforcement agencies to protect themselves from liability.

When you can demonstrate that you have practices in place that bring appropriate transparency to the investigation of critical incidents, allegations of misconduct, and other issues of concern to the community, your agency will surely benefit.

Our seasoned investigators are independent finders of fact, who conduct transparent investigations and understand the nuances of conducting a controversial, high-profile investigation.

Our investigators have completed The Reid School of Interview and Interrogation and are retired law enforcement supervisors who spent the majority of their careers conducting and supervising complex investigations. All of our investigators have advanced degrees, and at least one certification, most have multiple certifications that focus on specific areas of investigations. The STIRM Group investigators collectively hold numerous certifications issued by:

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination
• The Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview program
• The Federal Bureau of Investigations-sponsored Internal Affairs Investigator certification
• DEA Undercover Investigations course

Our investigators have that rare combination of education, experience, and common sense that allows them to complete the most complex of investigations, in an unbiased way.

Our law enforcement background doesn’t preclude us from being able to conduct unbiased, conflict-of-interest-free investigations concerning a law enforcement official, it actually helps us. Knowledge is power and our collective generational knowledge and experience in law enforcement allows us the ability to provide an uncompromised investigation and report, regardless of the outcome. Understanding how an industry or sector works is key when conducting agency specific investigations. We pride ourselves on our ability to provide that type of investigation with professionalism and expertise.

STIRM Group Can Help Agencies Receive Accreditation They Seek

All of our law enforcement accreditation inspectors are retired law enforcement superior officers who were responsible for their former organization’s accreditation program. Our accreditation director is a former inspector and chief of police who has conducted dozens of accreditation inspections. Our team can help prepare your organization for your upcoming certification inspection.

Police Chief Recruiting, Vetting, and Interviewing

Choosing the next leader of an organization is a daunting task, even more so when you are picking the next chief of police. Law enforcement is arguably the greatest liability for any town, city, or county government. The excess liability insurance costs for local government have increased by about 150 percent in a recent three-year period. This has changed recently, as one example, from 2013 to 2016, the City of Sacramento’s excess liability premiums rose by only 16 percent.

A bad hire could cost a local government more than a quarter of a million dollars, not factoring in the cost of litigation. Here are a few of the costs that are often overlooked:

• Recruitment advertising fees and staff time
• Relocation and training fees for replacement hires
• Negative impact on the officers and the departments performance
• Disruption to projects
• Public scorn and distrust
• Negative press

Our group of career law enforcement professionals will help you identify, recruit, and vet up to three finalists for your vacant position. We will work with the municipality to ensure we find a candidate that fits all their requirements. Our vetting and verification processes are second to none. Once we sign off on a verification, we guarantee the information has been independently verified by at least two verifiable sources.

Law Enforcement Oral Board Interviews

Our team of former commissioned officers can conduct your entry and promotional oral board interviews. Having a truly unbiased, conflict-of-interest-free team conduct your oral board interviews prevents allegations of nepotism, preferential treatment, and quid pro quo. Leaving the responsibility for oral boards in house increases the municipality’s exposure to a civil suit, a risk your organization can’t afford to make.

Law Enforcement Evidence Auditing and Policy Review

Evidence management is an ongoing law enforcement pain point, and it is just a matter of time until the next big scandal hits. The data shows that there was at least one evidence issue a day in a recent three-year period.

Our team of retired law enforcement professionals can help your organization avoid becoming the next front-page headline. We will conduct a full audit of all your evidence policies and procedures and make sure your agency is using industry best practices. We will also conduct a full inspection of the organization’s physical security hardware and protocols.

Learn more about the STIRM Group Evidence Management program and consider incorporating an audit with the installation of the state-of-the-art PADtrax evidence management system. STIRM Group provides considerable savings as we are able to tag each piece of evidence as we conduct the audit. Combined with updated policies and procedures, a law enforcement organization will have all the tools necessary to be successful, while ensuring the integrity of the evidential chain of custody remains intact for prosecution.

PADtrax Evidence Management Solves Evidence Management

PADtrax is an RFID evidence management system specifically designed to replace the antiquated barcode systems that many law enforcement agencies use to track evidence. PADtrax stands for People, Asset, and Document Tracking, and the system was specifically designed for evidence management and to help law enforcement improve the accountability, speed, handling, and storage of law enforcement evidence. The PADtrax system allows the completion of weekly audits in a matter of minutes, resulting in significant resource savings and peace of mind. Weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly audits will become nearly effortless at this point. Learn more about how PADtrax can simplify all aspects of evidence management.

Zeus Currency Discriminator Helps Law Enforcement Agencies Deal with Cash Reliably

Cash in evidence needs to be managed carefully. Reduce the time officers spend dealing with large sums of cash and how it’s documented can help ensure the chain of custody stay intact. The Zeus Currency Discriminator uses a two-pocket design to offer numerous functions, including identifying and separating counterfeit bills, tracking and recording serial numbers, counting mixed bills, and sorts them by denomination, orientation, and face direction. The unit will also generate reports to document every function.

Law Enforcement Policy Reviews

Policies, procedures, rules, regulations, and written guidance documents are all intended to provide uniformity in how members of an organization are to respond to a particular incident. They are supposed to incorporate industry best practices and be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain current.

If your organization hasn’t reviewed your policies and procedures with in the last two years, we highly suggest you get this done as policies are subject to change each time a judge renders a decision. Valid today, outdated tomorrow is regular occurrence in law enforcement.

The policy review and update are for the police chief or their designated command staff member/s, and supervisors are charged with enforcing the policies and the front-line officer simply follows the policies. Imagine a police officer using an outdated policy to handle a situation that goes bad. Rest assured the officer is going to point out that he did everything he was trained to do. That leaves the supervisor, the chief and their designee responsible for failing to do the job as required. There isn’t a police officer out there that wants to be left holding the proverbial bag when a civil suit is filed.

Don’t get caught using outdated and irrelevant policies that aren’t worth the paper they are written on.

New Policy Development for Law Enforcement

Our team of industry experts can create new or update existing policies for your organization. Let’s say you’ve decided to develop a policy on crash-scene preservation, something we recommend. Countless amounts of evidence can be unknowingly destroyed at a crash scene, because the initial first responders are often unaware of the proper procedures necessary to preserve an Event Data Recorder (EDR), commonly referred to as a black box. Our in-house accident reconstructionist has personally completed over 700 motor vehicle fatality investigations, has an engineering degree, and was the section commander for the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section. He would head up the development for this particular policy. He is also one of the few reconstructionists certified by the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstructionists that is not employed by law enforcement or an insurance company.

Regardless of the policy or procedure you need developed, our experts will work with your agency to craft custom policies that meet your expectations and standards, while incorporating industry best practices, to help mitigate your liability exposure.