[Note: The following troubling article comes from the Arizona Republic. What is the role of local, community-oriented police in these matters? Some would say “response.” I would say “prevent” and work closely with school and mental health professionals. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think of school resource officers, even the DARE program. Not necessarily to keep kids away from drugs, but to provide a mature, respected, caring authority figure in our schools. These recent investigative findings reveal what many of us already are thinking — emotional distress and bullying is a major prob ..read more

Pete Gamlen [New York Time columnist David Brooks does a great job talking about leadership on the part of those whom he calls “middle managers.” Although I do not ascribe to the term “manager” for those whose job is to promoted and model “continuous improvement,” I understand the context. The attributes Brooks identifies below should be the attributes of all who wish to lead others, not just those in “middle management.” The following attributes are especially important to those who lead our police today. If you follow this blog, you will find that I have addressed many of these attributes of ..read more

Closing Bars Early Reduced Murders by 40% in One US Neighborhood A most interesting research finding. We cannot eliminate alcohol from our society. We tried that once. But what we can do is to better “manage” both the consumption of alcohol and other drugs. Here’s one proposed solution. (Of course, my cop-mind kicked in right away and was asking “But what about after-hours ‘tippling houses?'” Was a parallel study done to track murders around those illegal establishments at the same time?) Nevertheless, here is the report from my daily news sent from PERF: _________________________________ “Re ..read more

Think about the numerous incidents of police trying to arrest a person (often of color) who is armed with a knife and who refuses to surrender. Are there other ways of trying to resolve this matter? Recently, on March 28, the Associated Press released an article identifying the number of persons who died after being “tased” by police — more than 1,000! Are there other methods of “less-than-lethal” methods of controlling persons with blunt or sharped instruments other than the Taser? I think there are. And thinking, innovative and creative police leaders need to search them out and experiment w ..read more

P BOHICA — Acronym of “bend over, here it comes again.” Used colloquially to indicate that an adverse situation is about to repeat itself, and that acquiescence is the wisest or only course of action — Wiktionary. ++++++++++++++ I first ran into this saying while engaged in making some major organizational improvements. There’s history to it — failed organizational innovations and improvements in business, government and the military. The failure of organizational improvements due to inept leaders has become so frequent that most workers k ..read more

I can strongly attest to the necessity and effectiveness of policies and programs to improve the health and wellness of our police officers. Mid-career, after seven years as chief of police, I was burnt out, “a crispy critter”… after years of fighting with the police union while my marriage was breaking up. I asked my mayor, Joel Skornika, for a leave of absence. He agreed (He could have said no and I would, at the time, have simply quit). My time off was unpaid. I took out a loan and off I went to heal… travelled, met old friends, skied and hiked mountain trails. But most important was that ..read more

“The officers did not have a warrant, and some called themselves ‘The Goon Squad’ because of their willingness to use excessive force and not to report it.” GOON: A violent, aggressive person who is hired to intimidate or harm people; a thug. [My note: Over the years, we have heard about “bad apples” in policing; the idea being that “bad apples” do, in fact, spoil “the barrel;” that is, the police organization. But these guys were more than “barrel-spoilers,” they undermined the entire concept of policing a free and diverse society. So how does this continue to happen in the 21st century? Hasn ..read more

“Reimagining Safety,” a new (2024) documentary on Amazon Prime. In it, ten experts discuss how policing and incarceration create more harm than good, why the system persists, and what changes can be made to make everyone safe. The following is from their website. “Worldwide protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd included calls to defund or abolish the police until a sharp rise in crime gave politicians and police supporters the fuel they needed to suppress the movement. Unfortunately, a detailed conversation about transforming public safety was never had. In this film (shot on iPh ..read more

Three words for police leaders to enable personal and organizational transformation and continuous improvement 1. Passion To be deeply committed and have a strong belief in what you are attempting to accomplish. Seek out allies. 2. Persistence To continue forward through strong, entrenched resistance by teaching, modeling, selling and persuading others of your vision for the future. Enlist allies. 3. Patience To remember that transformations, lasting change, takes time. Give others the grace to come to believe what you are doing and where you are going. Collaborate with allies. These three vi ..read more

To Pursue or Not? [Note: I am posting a trending note today from Chuck Wexler, Executive Director of my professional organization, The Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, DC. Chuck takes on a most urgent topic (and one that has been overlooked over the years — “When (and when not) should police pursue a fleeing motor vehicle?” In my early days, we knew this was a problem — it was dangerous not only to the communities, but also for our officers. One of the first things I did when I came to Madison, was to put into policy (and revamp training) that the dispatch sergeant had the auth ..read more