The Peter Principle is when a good patrol officer with no management experience is promoted to a management position based on their skills in law enforcement. This often leads to challenges as they may not excel in their new role.
In policing, as in most vocations, the best employees are often promoted into leadership without much training. One economist thinks he can address this problem — and, with it, America’s gun violence.
SOURCES
Kenneth Corey, director of outreach and engagement for the Policing Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago and retired chief of department for the New York Police Department.
Stephanie Drescher, operations captain in the City of Madison Police Department.
Max Kapustin, assistant professor of economics and public policy at Cornell University.
Jens Ludwig, economist and director of the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago.
Sandy Jo MacArthur, curriculum design director for the Policing Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago.
Sean Malinowski, D.O.J. strategic site liaison for the Philadelphia Police Department and retired chief of detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department.
"What Drives Differences in Management?" by Nicholas Bloom, Erik Brynjolfsson, Lucia Foster, Ron S. Jarmin, Megha Patnaik, Itay Saporta-Eksten, and John Van Reenen (NBER Working Paper, 2017).
"Management as a Technology?" by Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen (NBER Working Paper, 2017).