Developing an identity book.

During the past several years, many law enforcement agencies have adopted progressive management styles, overhauled departmental policies, and updated mission statements to reflect a more community-oriented approach to policing. Intradepartmental documents and policy manuals have been revised to reflect the important changes taking place in police agencies across America. However, despite all of the updating and revising, departments rarely consider tying all the facets of structure, mission, and policy together in a single document that projects a clear picture of their organization.

The Olympia Fields, Illinois, Police Department decided to create such a document. The Olympia Fields Police Department Identity Book draws from various sources, such as policy manuals, employee handbooks, and current ordinances, to present a clear image of the department's structure and functions in a single document.(1) The department's identity book also gives readers, whether they are residents, politicians, or police recruits, an understanding of something often difficult to glean from policy manuals - the agency's ideological identity.

What is an Identity Book?

An identity book defines a department's unique mission, philosophy, strategic goals, organizational makeup, and decisionmaking processes. Its primary purpose is to combine elements from various existing documents to give readers a more comprehensive image of the organization.

Deciding to Develop an Identity Book

When the idea of developing an identity book was initially discussed, two practical questions arose - "Why is it needed?" and "How will it benefit the department?" An identity book has several uses and can be extremely helpful in a variety of settings. Simply by distributing the document to civic leaders or members of the local news media, an agency can enhance understanding and support for its operations within the community.

However, other uses abound. Police departments can distribute identity books to:

* Homeowners' associations or individual residents to give them a better understanding of the structure, philosophy, and decisionmaking process of the department. Such a document can answer a number of questions often posed by residents who want to learn more about the police department

* Public officials so that they can refer to the identity book as a source of documentation for the police department. In fact, a properly drafted identity book can be used as documentation to help defend against discrimination claims and other legal actions directed at the police department

* Employees, particularly new recruits, to provide them with a clear picture of the organization's structure. Employees who understand better the mission and philosophy of the department can more effectively perform the often-complex tasks required of them.

Because an integral function of the identity book is to foster community support for the police department, distribution generally should be as broad as the budget allows.

Deciding the Contents

Each department can decide how much information to include in its identity book. The Olympia Fields Police Department Identity Book is 10 pages long and is divided into 6 chapters that answer fundamental questions about the department.

The first chapter, "Who We Are," provides a brief history of the department, its current staffing level, and operations. The next chapter, "What is Our Purpose," incorporates a formal mission statement and the six-fold program of services provided by the department. These include:

1) Creating a safe atmosphere throughout the Village of Olympia Fields

2) Promoting the philosophy of community policing

3) Responding to all service calls and treating all individuals with dignity and respect for their individual rights

4) Upholding - both publicly and privately - the highest standards of the law enforcement profession

5) Improving the ability of officers to perform their tasks through continual training, and

6) Fostering an environment for officers to continue their education for self-improvement.

The third chapter, "What We Believe," is dedicated to a statement of affirmative equal opportunity. It is followed by an explanation of the police organizational structure in chapter 4, "What Our Structure Is."

The final two chapters, "Where We Are Going" and "How We Make Decisions," are dedicated to the department's strategic goals for the future and its basis for making operational decisions. The last chapter also reports on the department's administrative philosophy.

An appendix shows an organizational chart of the police department and its administrative affiliation within the city government. Agencies may choose to include the names of city officials, relevant committees, assignments of all police personnel, or even a community map outlining police beats.

In preparing an identity book, agencies can limit the contents to what they believe is relevant to those who may read the document. Of course, strategic assets must not be compromised, but the book should provide enough information to give readers from outside the department a complete overview of the agency.

A statement of affirmative action and/or equal opportunity should be included in a chapter describing the ideals for which the agency stands. Recognizing individual dignity in a clear statement of nondiscrimination promotes a positive view for everyone who makes judgments about the police department based on what they read in the identity book.

Drafting an Identity Book

The information presented in an identity book may seem simple, but what appears straightforward to a police official may look much more complex to an outsider. Therefore, the more departmentalized an organization, the more detailed the document should be to ensure that readers understand the agency as fully as possible.

Dividing the information into sections on patrol, investigation, and administration may provide an adequate level of detail for small or medium-sized departments. However, the more levels of decisionmaking in an agency, the greater the need to explain the intricacies of the decisionmaking process.

Planners also must ensure that documents referenced in the identity book do not contradict one another. Instead, the individual sources need to support structure and policies in a uniform manner.

Enforcing policies becomes difficult when rules and regulations state one thing while employee policy manuals state another. The process of drafting an identity book can bring all of these various documents into alignment.

Obtaining Employee Input

In creating its identity book, the Olympia Fields Police Department distributed draft copies to each member of the command staff and posted a copy for the patrol staff to review. All members of the department had an opportunity to review the document before the administrative staff solicited suggestions for changes or additions. In doing this, the staff ensured that each employee had an opportunity to provide input in the formulation of the identity book. This increased the likelihood that department personnel would support the final product.

Tying It All Together

To give the identity book credibility, the document should reference appropriate State statutes, city ordinances, and internal regulations that provide the basis for the police department's authority to perform the functions described. Further, by specifying statutes by chapter and section number, the document affords readers the opportunity to confirm specific points of the law or statutory authority vested in the agency.

Administrators also must understand that developing an identity book does not eliminate the need for existing policy manuals or other agency documents. An identity book should complement the other documents by tying them all together. In most cases, existing manuals and documents address topics in greater depth than would an identity book.

Finally, as with other documents, an identity book should evolve as an agency adapts to meet the changing needs of its community. Every law enforcement agency should review and refine policy and procedures continually to serve these changing needs. Accordingly, each agency should review and update its identity book on an annual basis to include the latest information on the department's structure and policy.

Conclusion

The most successful commercial firms devote considerable resources to forging and maintaining a strong individual identity with customers. Progressive law enforcement agencies should take their cue from these successful organizations.

An identity book helps establish a clear image of the police department for a community's residents. It shows how the agency fits within the community to perform the duly-authorized functions established by State statutes and municipal ordinances. It provides the public with insight into a department's internal structure and decisionmaking processes.

The Olympia Fields Police Department Identity Book gives readers an indication of the future direction of the police department. By providing this information to citizens, identity books do more than give residents a clearer picture of police structure, functions, and decisionmaking; they also help break down some of the barriers that can separate a community from its police department.

Agencies interested in obtaining a copy of the Olympia Fields Police Department Identity Book should submit a request on agency letterhead to Lt. Mark A. Fazzini, Olympia Fields Police Department, 20701 Governors Highway, Olympia Fields, IL 60461.

Lieutenant Fazzini serves with the Olympia Fields, IL, Police Department.