Early Intervention System

This handbook is intended mostly as an explanation for our employees of a new system which affects them. Since some members of the public may be interested in understanding how our Early Intervention System works, and why we developed it, we have endeavored to write in a way that minimizes police jargon and will be understandable by a general audience.

As noted in Chief Stephens’ preceding comments, in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police
Department, we place a high priority on solving crime problems when they occur and on preventing future problems. Similarly, when it comes to performance by our sworn and civilian employees, we are committed to helping them handle challenges that might impede their effective and appropriate conduct.

When we notice potential performance problems, we want to prevent them from growing to the point where they will jeopardize an employee’s career, weaken our service to the public, or damage the reputation of the CMPD. To be sure, if our employees violate our rules, our internal affairs and supervisory structure are responsible for investigating and recommending discipline as may be appropriate. We are strict about compliance with our rules because we owe high standards to the community and to our justly proud workforce.

We also owe the public and our employees the very best supervision possible—supervision which encourages employees to continue what they do well and helps them steer away from potentially troublesome patterns of conduct. With the increasing complexity of police work, the responsibilities and workload of our supervisors are greater than they were a generation ago. The CMPD strives to find methods that make high quality supervision as easy and effective as possible. There is no substitute for well-trained and motivated individuals selected to serve as supervisors, but one of the systems we have established to assist them in doing their jobs proficiently is an automated record keeping and notification system— system— called our Early Intervention System
(EIS).

This handbook explains why we created this system; how it works; how it is expected to affect sworn and civilian CMPD employees and supervisors; what input our employees had in designing the EIS; how our system differs from those adopted by other departments; and what criteria we will use over time to assess whether the EIS is making a positive contribution to effective supervision and employee assistance. These topics are discussed using a question-and answer format, with the discussions grouped under six general categories.

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http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?Item=1767