Case Study: PSO Jane Roberts

Kaplan University

Public Safety Officer Jane Roberts got pregnant while on duty by her Field Training Officer, Andrew Tibbetts. She blames her supervisor, Sergeant Williams for the incident because he’s the one that paired her with FTO Tibbetts, knowing he was known as a ladies’ man. She is threatening to obtain workers’ compensation since it occurred on duty, after contacting a lawyer over the pregnancy. There are several issues with the incident with PSO Jane Roberts, as well as the department and how it’s ran in terms of keeping employees.

Sergeant Williams paired Roberts with Tibbetts because he was one of the best field training officers he could pair her with and she held her own against other officers like him in terms of the flirting. He felt she could handle it and she completed with high marks on her training. Sergeant Williams could not have foretold that Tibbetts and Roberts would have a relationship with each other when he paired them up for training.

Some states have policies against workplace relationships such as the one between Tibbetts and Roberts. This is because it can lead to sexual harassment claims, as well as interfere with the job at hand. Texas, for example, has a policy that can lead to termination of employment for such relationships that occur on duty .

There were mistakes made in the beginning, prior to PSO Jane Roberts and FTO Andrew Tibbetts were paired together for her six months of training. The department for Astonville had made some errors with how they managed their officers. The Astonville department was too lenient on officers in an attempt to keep them, due to the high turnover rate.

Management would allow officers to attend school, events, and even have extra break time on shift. There was extremely low managerial supervision when it came to the officers. This leniency and lack of supervision, as well as a possible lack of policy regarding workplace relationships could have prevented such an incident from occurring.

There are multiple parties that can be at fault, or at least have a fault in the pregnancy. PSO Jane Roberts should have kept her legs closed and not have sexual relations with her FTO while on duty. FTO Andrew Tibbetts is a married man, and should have had more respect for his coworker the job at hand, and his wife at home before seducing his coworker . Sergeant Williams new somewhat that PSO Roberts and FTO Tibbetts had some sort of relationships going on, but didn’t intervene.

Management should have not been that lenient when it came to their officers and supervised them more . They also should have had a policy regarding interpersonal relationships just in case something of this sort should happen. This could have prevented or at least hindered situations like this from occurring because of on duty trysts. For future situations, policies need to be in place regarding these types of relationships. Also, management needs to be more present when it comes to their employees. I agree that some leniency might keep officers around, but allowing such trysts during work hours can cause issues such as with Roberts’ situation.

Sergeant Williams needs to look up the policies regarding any interpersonal relationships. If there is one, such as they do in Texas, disciplinary action can be placed in effect for both FTO Tibbetts and PSO Roberts. He also needs to contact upper management over Robert’s claim regarding workers’ compensation and why she’s claiming. He needs to address how it came to be so upper management can start updating policies to prevent future occurrences. Since there is a policy regarding pregnancy, Williams will need to place Roberts on a leave of absence as well .