Guidelines for Grievances

The hallmark of the competent Law Enforcement Officer is the ability to record his or her statement of facts in the grievance in a clean, concise and readily understandable manner. The grievance report is the spark that fires the other components into action. It invokes due process of the contract and all New York State laws, and accordingly, should not be approached in a lax or haphazard manner.

The grievance report should be professional, clear, concise and perfectly understandable. Consequently, when you sign your name on the bottom of your grievance, you tell every person who reads it the type of person you are and the type of organization you represent. An incoherent grievance leaves the reader wondering, “What is he/she trying to tell me?”. Explain by reference the “big picture”.

Confused, vague or ambiguous grievances result from a failure to think through the facts and circumstances, which will ultimately make up the body of your grievance. The desired result will be lost if you cannot or will not take the time to document the grievance in a way that is clear and understandable.

Think through each portion of your grievance from beginning to end….then write. This will eliminate the need for future “translation”. Strive for coherence. “Coherence” is the quality of logic and order. If the grievance lacks a logical sequence… if the events are recorded out of logical order… the reader will have the difficult, if not impossible, chore of figuring out what actually took place.

The practice of outlining a grievance before writing it invariably strengthens your report writing. It is a way to organize the information in your possession before beginning to write.
You will get results by putting effort into your report and back it up with documentation: directives, contracts, NY State laws, etc. Explain how they have been violated.

Subjective writing expresses the writer's personal feelings or emotions, opinions, biases or prejudices, and does so generally without regard to verifiable facts, contractual arguments (contract) and evidence.

Objective writing records the facts and circumstances without reference to the writers personal feelings concerning the event, without emotion, and most importantly, without any implication of bias or prejudice.

Each paragraph should be limited to one idea. That central statement should either be elaborated in the beginning of the paragraph, if not the first sentence itself. Clarity and unity of thought is then achieved by relating all other details of the paragraph to the central statement.

These are the questions to ask yourself about your grievance report:

“Does this make sense? Does it report what actually happened? Is it coherent? Will someone else understand this? Does this report adequately recreate the scene? Is it capable of being misunderstood?”

Double-check the contents of the grievance with another officer or grievance coordinator.

If you follow these guidelines, the result will be a report which is more consistent, more detailed, and much more effective….a report which displays a degree of professionalism.