Workshop: Transforming Values into Norms in the Local Police Station 

The Workshop: “Transforming Values into Norms in the Local Police Station” addresses the important connection between the organizational values of the Israel Police and the behavioral norms of police officers in police stations across Israel. The workshop helps consolidate an understanding and an agreement among the participants with regard to “best practices” in implementing police values at the level of the operating unit, taking into account the unique characteristics and environment in which police personnel operate. The program was developed by Beit Morasha, in collaboration with the Israel Police’s Education Department.

The moral backbone of a Police Station’s personnel directly affects operational quality, team cohesion, civilian trust, police officers’ resilience, as well as their ability to handle complex situations.

Each officer on the police force carries a notepad that lists the Israel Police’s code of ethics in terms of mission approach, objectives, and execution. The workshop strives to transform the values from theory to practice – from the notebook into operating reality. It also enables station commanders to analyze gaps between the desired and the actual, and thereby offer operational responses that address and rectify these gaps.

The workshop includes four learning cycles:

1. Knowledge: Becoming acquainted with the code of values and ethics of the Israel Police.
2. Understanding: Gaining an understanding of the significance and centrality of values in police conduct, both at the organizational level and at the individual officer’s level, thus enabling operations that are in synch with the Israel Police’s code of ethics.
3. Agreement and Internalization: Adopting Police ethics and values as behavioral directives that also foster individual motivation to uphold these values on a daily basis. 
4. Implementation: Implementing the behavior in practice, as directed and influenced by Police code of ethics, and formulating operational behavioral norms to guide police officers in their professional tasks. 

The one-day workshop is led by the station commander together with the Beit Morasha facilitator. This methodology reinforces the commander’s position, and ensures that the discussion will focus on the unique values-based environment of the specific station and will not remain only in the theoretical realm.

Accumulated experience indicates that a unit that maintains a high moral standard is strong and resilient, even in the face of complicated and challenging tasks and events, and over time, will function with a high level of achievements and outputs!

The workshop is intended for the core staff of police stations and is held at police academies across the country.