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Depends on if I was right or wrong - legally, morally & ethically. I wouldn't expect any special treament if I screwed the pooch!

I can honestly say my supervisors would support me however they could, no matter what.  If I screwed up, I would have to accept responsibility for it, but the moral support would be there.  If I were in the right, they would back me 100%

My supervisor would defintely cave in. He is afraid to confront, or even request, the Chief with anything. I've always gone to bat for my folks when it wsa the right thing to do. Right now, my subordinates are not real happy with me. I had one of those butt chewing sessions the other day and lost my cool. i'm waiting for a mutiny.

KSP494 says ...

Mine have stood behind me. And they always will unless I commit some heinous violation of policy or law.

DITTO.....

I know I'm not a "LEO" however I am a supervisor and as long as my guys do their jobs to the best of their abilities I stand up for them and have taken reprimands for fighting for my officers in the past. In my opinion, I count on my guys to support me and I am only as good as my subordinates make me look. Sorry for intruding I will crawl back under my rock now and slink away. :-)

My current boss has already screwed one of our guys bad. Wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him. We have overlapping bosses between afts and nts though, and the night boss is good.

With the rank comes the responsability and sometimes we have to do the right thing, not the popular thing. That being said, I stand along side my men until Im presented with overwhelming evidence that they did something so over the top, that it becomes indefensable!

My guys will always get the benefit of the doubt because Ive been where they are and I know what they are up against. I treat them fairly but firmly, I lead by example and I lead from the front not from the rear. Those are all leadership qualities I learned while in the military and it has served me well in the civilian world. My job is to give my guys the best equipment, training, and tactics, along with undying loyalty and leadership in order for them to get the job done, not to look for reasons to self promote my agenda to the upper brass or to further my career on the backs of their failures. If they fail, Ive failed period! Too many of todays supervisors are not leaders, they are slef promoters and in my opinion, cowards for their lack of leadership skills ,both under fire and in times of calm.

I must say, my department has some characteristics Im not fully in agreement with, but they have never failed to back any of our men/woman and myself in some tough times. Ive been through federal and local civil trials, and scrutiny for actions while engaged in physical and deadly force actions. They have always stood tall in my defense and I am eternally grateful for their support.

In todays policing, many, many departments ,would rather cut and run from their officers than defend them. They are cowards of the worst type and will continue to put their officers in the negative, which will cause their officers to simply look the other way rather than engage the criminals.

Leadership is learned and then earned not self appointed, that lesson is mostly lost in todays world. I feel for all the officers here who face danger both within and without their depts's. 2 enemies are much harder to fight than 1!

vbpdaco says ...

Will your supervisor stand up for you when the chips are down or will they stand behind you and watch you fall???? Recently I learned how mine would react even when all the evidence says the complaint is false. I was sad to see what would happen. I only thank god it wasn't me who fell!!!!

Only when the cop is right and then it's us against them!

Taffy,

Iwent many years as a SGT. in a LT. position. Just when I gave up, it happened. Hang in there you've got the leadership part down pat!!!

I stand up for my guys, my Lt says I back them to a fault. I think that means sometimes I try to cover them to much but its only on chickenshit stuff. Anything major and there is evidence to back the claim, we have a problem.

Early on in my career, I benefitted tremendously from good supervision.  Now that I am strong enough to fight my own battles, I have deat with very bad supervision.  As a Union Steward, I get to pursue other's battles.  My reputation with my agency is competent at my job but difficult to get along with, but they said that about everyone else that stood up to them, or beat them in arbitration.

My tale of supervisory woe began out of a citizen complaint that I was using influence as a detective over my department, not to investigate burglary complaints.  I unwisely had a month-long affair a year ago and the ex-husband decided to make a complaint against me.  My agency didn't require him to sign anything (we have a proceedure and a form they are supposed to sign, stating they are aware of the consequenses of false statements against Peace Officers), proved the guy was lying, cleared 3 other officers he complained about, and then investigated me for over 6 months.  They went way outside the guy's original claim, violated Fair Labor Practices, my Civil Rights, and then lied to make the evidence support the charge.  They either wanted to terminate me or suspend me for so long, I would just quit.  I had a Pre-Disciplinary hearing and I caught my immediate supervisor and our 2nd in command in a couple lies.  I recorded everything.  After the hearing, I gave our City Manager documents proving my immediate supervisor and our #2 lied.  The charges were dismissed, I filed an Unfair Labor Practice (they ordered my Labor Rep. to disclose what we had talked about in private), and then they went after me again for trying to make contact with the guy who made the original complaint, saying I was trying to "rub his face in it."  I left a phone number with a friend of a friend, who gave it to his mother to call me if he wanted to.  Of course, my Department did not stand behind me when he went to a Council Meeting and told the Mayor, City Manager, all Council Members and my entire chain of command outright lies about me.  Instead they gave me a written reprimand for trying to arrange contact with the citizen who made the complaint. 

Fortunately, the #1 and #2 of my Dept. have left, but I still work in the same room with someone who told outright lies about me.  I tried to figure what was there to be gained by lying to burn one of her subordinates, and all I can come up with is to make her boss happy.  I did the right thing.  I keep my mouth shut, smile, polite, helpful and hired the meanest attorney I could find to make this situation right.  Anyone else in my boat, I would recommend documenting everything, wearing a recorder at work--digitals are cheap, and never forget your mouth can be your worst enemy.  I never have been good at keeping my mouth shut but this was the one time I did and its paying off in spades.

If you really want to know if your supervisor has your back, you already know if you are asking yourself about it.  If you have to think about it, they don't have your back.   Just think about what they were like on the road--how did you rate their integrity?  Do they always strive for the 'easy way out,' does their demeanor change dramatically when your supervisor's supervisor walks in the room?  I have been thrown under the bus, and I survived it.  Part of that "what doesn't kill me will make me stronger" credo.  I have seen it time and time again, supervisors that aren't trusted by subordinates will not advance.  It will come back and haunt them.

As a front line supervisor for a small department I have taken my fair share of heat and complaints about my guys from the entitled elite of this town.  I know we have all met them.  I take mistakes by my guys very personally.  If my guys (I call the female officers my guys too, call mesexist but we are all on the same team and the uniforms dont change) make a mistake it's because I failed to give them the knowledge, training, or resources they needed to make the right decision.  We take all complaints seriously, and I will always defend my guys until there is no shadow of a doubt that they messed up.  If the evidence shows that my guys made a mistake I will land with both feet and make sure the lesson is learned well, but I also believe that one "Oh Shit" does not erase all the "Ata Boys" and my guys know this and aren't afraid of getting a complaint or recieving and IA notice.  If your doing the job, you will get complaints, thats a fact.  

On a similar note, I'm a baricuda about my officers recording all contacts with citizens.  We now equipe all our duty Officers with personal audio/video recorders (VIDMIC by Earhugger).  They work great and most people dont realize they are being recorded.  They go where the Officer goes and documents what goes on from his perspective.  We have used the videos numerous times to exonerate my guys of wrong doing and turn the light back on who needs to be in it, i.e. the bad guy.  If you are a supervisor I would strongly suggest you look into and push for adoption of this new tech.  It will make oyur job soooo much easier and makes convictions a snap.  I dont get a kick back from Earhugger on this so I'm pushing the unit just on it's merrits.  If you have any questions or are in the process of working out implamentaion of the units or similar units in your Department don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions.