Scarborough Police Case Study

Needs Assessment

Methods

An interview with Deputy Chief David Grover of the Scarborough Police Department provided information on the agency’s statistical data, and other relevant information related to duties, scheduling and supervision. South Portland (Maine) Police Lieutenant Frank Clark provided cost and equipment choices regarding his agency’s implementation of a body worn camera 2017. All research regarding body worn cameras, police accountability and criminological theory in this paper was gleaned through peer-reviewed scholarly journals, articles, and books. Strengths and Limitations

Determining the exact cost of a body worn camera program that best suits the needs and budget of the Scarborough Police Department was difficult due to

Patrol shifts consist of patrol officers working permanent shifts and the sergeants working rotating shifts. Consequently, sergeants only work with certain officers on one shift for up to 56 days until their shift rotates to the next 8-hour shift. Therefore, sergeants do not supervise any one officer for more than 56 days and are likely to go through two 56-day cycles without ever supervising certain officers (Deputy Chief D. Grover, personal communication, March 16, 2018). This variation in scheduling makes it very difficult for sergeants to sufficiently mentor, teach and discipline officers due to a lack of continuity. Each sergeant is likely to have different management styles, values and expectations making accountability difficult. For accountability to exist, officers need to be aware of what they are expected to do and to whom they will report (Cheung,

Sergeants must also perform duties such as approve reports, handle situations that require a supervisor and handle calls when the patrol officers on the shift are unavailable. Furthermore, the Scarborough Police Department responded to over 3,500 calls for service and conducted over 10,500 traffic stops in 2017, most of which were handled by patrol officers without supervision from a sergeant (Deputy Chief D. Grover, personal communication, March 16, 2018). These factors result in very few opportunities for sergeants to directly supervise patrol officers and reduces the probability that sergeants will be able to influence or correct the behavior of