ASSOCIATE Magazine FBINAA Q4-2024

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of the incident adds unnecessary complexity to this situation. Public safety leaders can source training material. For example: • January — Protected leaves overview and awareness • March — Planning for Staffing Challenges Due to Protected Leaves • May — Examples of Public Safety Accommodations • July — Awareness of USERRA • September — Tabletop Scenario • November — Religious Accommodations and Workplace Issues Training can be provided by human resource professionals, insurance providers, public safety academies, or developed from reputable online resources. Just a few of those resources are: - https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla • Accommodations – U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy — Job Accommodation Network: - https://askjan.org/ • Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) — U.S. Department of Labor — Veterans’ Employment and Training Service: - https://www.dol.gov/agencies/vets/programs/userra • Religious Accommodations — U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: - https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/what-you-should- know-workplace-religious-accommodation Lastly, many states have additional protected leaves or laws governing the use of sick leave and disability accommodation. It is recommended public safety executives partner with their human resource or legal staff to ensure an awareness of local regulations is also provided. CONTINGENCY PLAN YOUR HUMAN RESOURCE ISSUES During the pandemic, many public safety organizations had to consider what would happen to their operational posture if large segments of first response staff were unavailable to report to work due to illness or exposure. Hoping this never happens to your organization is not a solid strategy. In addition to the ability to operationalize your contingency plan, your staff will be evaluating the competency of your administration and deciding whether it is worth staying or leaving the organization. Having a plan arguably makes a positive impact on employee retention — operationalizing that plan further positively impacts employee retention. Employees want to know there is a plan and that someone is making sound decisions in this area. For example, what if your organization has four employees assigned to a particular shift to allow 24/7 patrol coverage. Two of the employees assigned to this shift have just notified your agency of protected leave. One employee will be going on mili tary leave for three months (they presented their orders to you) and the other employee is taking FMLA for the birth of their first child. How do you respond to this staffing challenge? Arguably it is much easier to plan for it during the calm rather than during the crisis. • Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) — U.S. Department of Labor:

How would you respond to this? A few times I’ve heard that the mission of public safety should “override” the approval of protected leaves. I’m unaware of any public safety exceptions to approving these leaves — not an acceptable strategy for all the reasons stated above. But what can be done? Here are a few suggestions: • Create on-call hours based on an analysis of when calls for service are at their highest demand? Respond to certain low priority calls only during certain hours. There is a balance here in transparency with your community and alerting criminals to staffing challenges. Consider random patrol strategies and deployment as an option. • Adjust normal schedules to adapt to vacancies within specific shifts. This may require consultation with a labor organization or declaration of an emergency situation. Consulting with labor leaders and legal advisors early is recommended. • Establish an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with other LE agencies to provide for gaps in service. • Use reserve or auxiliary officers from your own agency or neighboring agencies. Depending on local regulations and labor agreements, these officers may be used to fill shifts — or to partner with career officers who otherwise would be working alone. • Clearly communicate with organizational (governmental) leadership regarding staffing impacts and what the community desires for public safety services. This will likely require long-term strategizing based on data and contemporary public safety best practices. CONSIDER HUMAN RESOURCES AS PART OF YOUR PUBLIC SAFETY STRRATEGY Lastly, consider human resources as part of your public safety strategy. My organization provides members with a train ing course titled Harassment, Discrimination and Workplace Conduct that Matters. In addition to the content regarding illegal workplace behaviors, bullying and unwelcome behaviors, and the importance of professional workplaces, I tailor a version of this training for our public safety members. The tailored version has the same content but adds two main points for our public safety members. The first point sur rounds the connection between recruiting, hiring, retention, and supervision; and human resource efforts. These are phases of employment of which human resource professionals have professional knowledge. The quality of recruitment can have a direct impact on the morale and retention in the organization and impacts the follow-on phases. The qualities which embody the best of our public safety personnel can be brought into your organization through human resource partnership. This partner ship can help ensure the values of your organization are reflected in the recruiting and hiring process, ultimately ensuring those values are reflected as employees interact with your community. Those values help ensure your employees and the communities they serve receive the best opportunity to be safe and thrive. Secondly, an officer-safety argument exists surrounding the involvement of human resources. When law enforcement em ployees are engaged in the numerous dangerous circumstances they encounter in the course of their duties, the best opportunity for proper situational awareness and response to dangerous

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