When I’m looking at a police promotion, I don’t start with who deserves it.

I start with the job that needs to be done.

An officer can be very good at their job and still not be the person I want supervising other officers. They may handle calls well, make good cases, stay productive, know policy, and be somebody I trust on the street. That tells me how they’ve handled the job they already have. It doesn’t tell me they’re ready for the next one.

Supervision is a different job.

Now I’m looking at what happens when the answer isn’t obvious, when somebody needs to be corrected, when two officers are in conflict, or when a decision is going to piss somebody off. I want to know whether the person can explain an expectation, treat people fairly when they don’t particularly like them, and take responsibility for what happens on their shift.

I pay attention to how they handle disagreement too. It’s easy to look steady when everybody agrees with you. I learn more when another officer pushes back. Can they listen, make the call, explain it when an explanation is useful, and move on without making the disagreement personal?

Experience, productivity, credibility, and testing all give me useful information, but none of them tells me by itself whether somebody is ready to supervise other people.

Somebody can have ten years of growth, or the same year ten times.

Strong numbers may tell me an officer works hard, but supervising means getting good work through other people. A strong test score tells me they prepared and know the material, but I don’t want one score doing all the thinking for me. I also want somebody who can be corrected. Putting stripes on a person doesn’t mean they’re finished learning. If anything, I’m giving them a new set of things to get wrong.

That’s part of why I don’t like using rank as a reward. Good work should be recognized, but promotion isn’t the only way to tell somebody they’re valuable. An excellent investigator may be exactly where they should be. The same can be true of a K-9 handler, patrol officer, trainer, or school resource officer.

If they want to supervise and I think they’re ready, their record as a strong officer helps their case. But moving somebody up just because they’ve been good at the job they’re doing can cost me twice. I can lose a strong officer and create a weak supervisor.

And if I promote the wrong person, that isn’t only their failure. I made the decision to give them authority over other officers. If it goes badly, I need to look at what I missed and what I gave too much weight.

I can’t guarantee every promotion will work. I can make sure I’m choosing for the job in front of them, not rewarding the one behind them.