Dear Chief Superintendent Lee,

I am writing to you to express my views on the need to increase

levels of team building activities in our police force to
strengthen the team cohesion of our officers. it has come to my
attention that the officers located at the Central District Police
Department are beginning to lack leadership initiative as well as
positive teamwork within the workplace. As a force, we must
maximise of efficiency as a whole, thus providing activities where
officers must work together should increase our teamwork efforts.
Please find below a report that I have produced justifying the
need of team building exercises/activities in our forces training
and development. As you would know, it is very important that our
officers work well together for future projects and cases, as well
as for day-to-day operation of the centre. It has become apparent
that team-building would be needed to assist our officers to
better improve their teamwork skills to build better communication
and teamwork within our team.
I look forward to your response, and please do not hesitate to get
in touch should you have any issues.
Thank you very much for your time.
Kindest Regards,
Dominic Clark

Station Sergeant
Central Police Station

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TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES REPORT

TEAM BUIlDING ACTIVITIES IN THE HONG KONG POLICE FORCE
INTRODUCTION
In this report, reasons and justifications for why funds need to be invested for
team building activities for the police force. I will include why this is
necessary and examples of good and bad team performances. After reading this
report, I hope that you understand the need to take action to fund these team
building activities to maximise team performances.
GOOD TEAM COHESION IN REAL LIFE TEAM PERFORMANCE
An example of good team cohesion within a police force was during the French
Police terrorist raids taking place on the 18th of November 2015.
The task force commissioned to raid the apartment of two suspects linked to the
terrorist attacks in Paris, worked together to successfully take custody of the
suspected terrorists. This task force consisted of approximately 50 special
forces police officers, as well as some military personnel.
The officers were assigned with the task to safely and carefully obtain custody
of the two terrorist suspects. The outcome was incredible, with no civilian
casualties. This could not have been done without the close teamwork and team
cohesion between the police officers. Overall, the cohesion of this task force
team was high.
Taking the suspects into custody without causing threat to the public or any
public harm, making the operation crucial. In regards to measuring their team
cohesion using Tuckmans theory, they were definitely at the performing stage
where they carried out the task with high efficiency and performance, where
there was a clear line of command and where there was a very organised team
structure.
They could have provided additional support and backup to ensure the safety of
the general public in the area. Although the area was majorly blocked off, some
residents of nearby buildings or office workers may have been unaware, causing
potential risk to their lives.

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The role of the leader was to initially brief the team on their overall group
task, to allocate specific roles, to motivate the team, to provide clear
instructions on how to go about carrying out the task, to indicate safety
measures and to come up with contingencies. In this example, the leader was not
clearly identified, however there was one officer as part of the task force who
was moving behind other members the team calling out specific instructions. It
is assumed that this is the leader as they are providing instructions on the
task.
In this task force, Honeys team roles were notably present. As any team should,
this team had a leader to give instructions and ensure safety of both the team
and the public. Other members of this SWAT team would have acted as
Challengers by altering or bringing up potential changes during the briefing.
During the hunt and arrest, the remainder of the team acted as Doers by
listening to tasks given by the leader and acting accordingly. In addition to
this, every member of the team had to be a Supporter in order to maximise the
safety of their team members, and to be Thinkers, allowing them to make quick
decisions that could save their lives.

BAD TEAM COHESION IN REAL LIFE TEAM PERFORMANCE

On the contrary, a real life example of bad team cohesion is during another ISIS
terrorist attack which took place in Tunisia in early 2015. ISIS militants
carried out attacks on predominantly British tourists, which killed north of 30
people.
As the presence of the police force in the area was not strong, it was the
responsibility of the Tunisian military forces to deal with the situation.
However, the military did not arrive to the scene quickly enough and teams that
were sent out did not provide satisfactory safety for the tourists of the area.
It was so bad in fact, that the UK government strongly urged their citizens that
were holidaying in Sousse (the Tunisian holiday area) to return home. In
addition, they also sent some aircraft to evacuate these citizens.
The military forces failed to properly distribute military personnel across the
zone and was unable to attend to all of the affected individuals. As a result,
bad team cohesion was shown as there was an issue with providing instructions,
allocating roles and prioritising safety.

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It was also seen on much news coverage that many army personnel were missing
armour and other crucial military resources which shows there was either an
issue with logistics or that safety was not prioritised.
With there being uneven group sizes and scattered teams, it was very difficult
to determine the team leaders and show who is providing the instructions. In
regards to Tuckmans theory, these teams clearly have not surpassed the
Storming stage as the structure and organisation of the teams are weak. In
addition, it is very difficult to determine the roles of the team members where
the usually noticable roles such as the Chair (Belbin) or Leader (Honey),
can be identified.
I believe that it is necessary that implement these team building activities to
allow for good team cohesion in the future. I advise that we carefully indicate
and strategise the necessary skills for the entire force then create and
implement team building activities based on them. It is important that our
teams, groups, departments and task forces can work well with others and
cooperate as teams for us to reach our annual aims and objectives and to
maximise performance.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/shots-reported-paris-northern-saint-denisarea-151118034913465.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3157237/Second-terror-attack-Britishtourists-Tunisia-foiled-Five-Islamic-extremists-shot-dead-thousandsholidaymakers-evacuated.html

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