Successful Defense Against Incompetence

A possible misconception many officer may have is that once they their basic training they will be found to be competent in all aspects of their job.   In actuality and as in many other professions, training really begins when an officer begins working and gaining real life experience.  For this reason, it is often the more experienced and seasoned officers that receive harsher disciplines for sustained allegations of incompetence.  The expectation of competence increases the longer an officer is employed. 

The key to successful defense against incompetence usually rests on the ability that an officer was not trained to handle a particular situation, or to show that the officer was either trained differently than the departmental policy.  However, nothing will substitute following the letter of the possibility and documenting instances where the officer is directed otherwise by their superior.