Textbook Overview

Management and Supervision of Law Enforcement Personnel is a direct, practical treatment of the responsibilities performed by police supervisors and managers. Rather than building the text primarily around abstract organizational theory, Schroeder and Lombardo organize the material around the actual functions a law enforcement leader must perform: leading, planning, communicating, training, evaluating performance, disciplining employees, solving problems, and managing human relationships.

The fifth edition reflects the authors’ combined experience in law enforcement, teaching, and consulting and was explicitly positioned for both promotional candidates and working supervisors seeking to improve performance.

Why we love this textbook and write promotional exams from it: Functional topic organization is one of the book’s defining strengths. Each major responsibility is treated as something the manager or supervisor must understand and apply in daily work, giving the text a particularly straightforward and operational feel. Publisher descriptions also identify problem solving, field operations, and multicultural issues among its areas of emphasis.

For promotional study, this book is very approachable. It presents management knowledge in identifiable, job-related categories rather than burying the reader in lengthy theoretical development. We have found that characteristic to help make the title useful for Sergeant, Lieutenant, and management-oriented examinations.

Preparation for Oral Boards and Assessment Centers is part of the draw of this textbook. Understanding and citing the specific leadership principles that define why a supervisory action is taking place, or should take place, is the essence of the oral board, in-basket assessment, role-play exercise and many other modern assessment exercises. Quoting directly from the text shows the ultimate in professional preparation for your new role as a supervisor and leader.

Major Subject Areas

• Leadership and the supervisory role
• Planning
• Communication
• Training and employee development
• Performance evaluation
• Discipline and corrective action
• Human relations
• Problem solving
• Field operations
• Multicultural workforce issues
• Management responsibilities and organizational effectiveness

This textbook shows you exactly how the supervisor or manager is also a leader, planner, communicator, performance evaluator, trainer, disciplinarian, and human-relations specialist.

The book’s overall approach is function-based supervision and management: identify the responsibility, understand its basic elements, and learn how it applies to law enforcement leadership.

 

Why This Book Matters

The book matters because it addresses a reality of police promotion that is sometimes obscured by more academic texts: newly promoted supervisors do not receive the luxury of mastering one leadership concept at a time.

They must lead, communicate, plan, evaluate, train, discipline, solve problems, and manage relationships—often during the same shift.

Management and Supervision of Law Enforcement Personnel organizes these responsibilities in a manner that is relatively easy for candidates to translate into practical supervisory thinking. The fifth edition was expressly marketed as useful both to people studying for promotion and to existing managers and supervisors seeking better on-the-job performance.

That practical structure also creates value for assessment-center development. A Role Play may require counseling and communication; an In-Basket may require planning and prioritization; an SJT may require leadership judgment; and a performance problem may require evaluation and corrective action. The book’s functional approach aligns naturally with those applied supervisory tasks.

 

Historical Promotional Influence

This title has a substantial history in police promotional testing. Earlier editions were used for Lieutenant and Captain examinations, including promotional processes in New Jersey, and our company's experience reflects repeated agency and candidate use of this textbook.

The fifth edition was published in 2013, following several earlier editions, which gives the title considerably more history than many newer practitioner-oriented leadership books.

Its influence appears to have been driven less by novelty than by utility. The book provides a broad collection of clearly identifiable supervisory and managerial functions, making it comparatively easy for agencies to select chapters and for exam developers to create questions tied to recognizable job responsibilities.

That makes it an example of a title whose promotional longevity has been based largely on practical testability and organizational usefulness.

Current Professional Relevance

The fifth edition is now more than a decade old. That matters. Contemporary subjects such as body-worn cameras, post-2020 accountability developments, modern de-escalation frameworks, current wellness practices, rapidly changing technology, and newer approaches to workforce recruitment and retention are either absent or necessarily reflect an earlier professional environment.

However, its major supervisory subjects have aged much better than the publication date might initially suggest.

Leadership, planning, communication, training, performance appraisal, discipline, human relations, and problem solving remain fundamental responsibilities of law enforcement supervisors. Those functions identified in the fifth edition remain readily recognizable in the work of contemporary Sergeants, Lieutenants, and managers.

This textbook is an established earlier-era management text with durable supervisory content. Agencies using it today should supplement it with current policies, contemporary legal material, and newer leadership resources, but its core management principles remain highly useful.

 

If This is the Only Leadership Book You Read ...

If Management and Supervision of Law Enforcement Personnel is the only supervision and management book you read, its strongest contribution will be giving you a clear picture of the many different jobs contained inside the supervisor’s job.

You will be asked to think as a leader, planner, communicator, trainer, evaluator, disciplinarian, problem solver, and manager of human relationships.

That breadth is valuable because effective supervision rarely fails from ignorance of one isolated concept. It more often fails when a supervisor does not recognize which leadership function a situation requires.

The book should be supplemented for current legal, technological, and contemporary policing developments, but its practical organization still provides a useful foundation for understanding the daily work of law enforcement supervision.

 

Study Resources Available for Management and Supervision of Law Enforcement Personnel

Click here for exam questions from these editions of the textbook, including a proven study method and bonus items. You can also sign up to try our system - no name or credit card needed:

- Management and Supervision of Law Enforcement Personnel - Schroeder and Lombardo 5E - 270+ questions
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Do You REALLY Want the Promotion? — Textbooks to help you prepare for:

Police Corporal
Police Detective
Police Sergeant
Police Lieutenant
Police Captain
Police Administration and Upper Management
Understanding Police Leadership Concepts
Understanding Police Ethical Considerations
Understanding Police Patrol and Field Operations
Understanding Community and Problem-Oriented Policing
Understanding Intelligence-Led Policing
Police Case Law Application with Case Law Pro

Master list of articles and resources: from PolicePromotion.net

Your Police Promotion Timeline — When Should Preparation Begin?
Field Training — Your First Defining Chapter
Building Your Promotional Reputation Over Time
How Citizen Complaints Can Affect Your Promotion Chances
Recordkeeping — Your Evaluations, and Training Documentation
Great Police Leaders Focus on the Details — Here's How!
The Two Tracks — Supervision vs. Specialization
The Role of College Education in Law Enforcement
The FTO As an Early Promotion Credential
The Written Promotional Exam — What It Covers and How to Prepare
The Oral Board — the Promotion First-Timer's Biggest Challenge
The In-Basket Exercise — NOT as Easy as You Think!
Assessment Center Exercises — Don't Fear — Prepare!
Making it To The Top — Or — How High is High Enough?
When it's Time to Leave it All Behind — And What to do Next.