socialization

Ferguson & Public Engagement | What are they good for?

What’s the best time to plant a tree? – 30 years ago. What’s the next best time to plant a tree? – Today In general, law enforcement has made for horrible horticulturalists. We’ve not tilled the soil of community engagement as a practice. Now we wonder why no one understands us. When an incident like Ferguson erupts, the pundits hurry to fend off allegations from a civilian population incessantly asking for answers. I’ve had so many tell how they’ve unfriended people on []

“If Not Us, Who?”

“If Not Us, Who?” My heart weighs heavy in this week before the important decisions contemplated by a civilian grand jury in another state. After nearly 25 years of serving my community and country, I see the potential for an occupationalrevolution. The potential for substantially significant cultural change. While most revolutions are spurned through violence, this cannot be one of them. Soon, events born in violence will again effect this country. Not just for today, but years to come. Regardless what you []

Us versus Them | A Ferguson Outcome

Us versus Them: Sunday I shared the burden on my spirit in anticipation of the grand jury decision, “If Not Us, Who?” (https://www.facebook.com/CopsWritingCrime) It wasn’t about an outcome. It was that our nation rallied on either side of the issue based not on facts and evidence, but on historical perspective. Truth is, there’s more than one narrative to American history. Just before turning off the news, I received a private message. Simply, it read – We Won! In clarity, I saw this []

Leading or leaning?

Think of those immediately surrounding you in supervisory positions. Now filter out your natural biases, jealousies or negative comments. Just look around. How did they get to where they are? Okay, now you’re free to flood the responses with whatever your perception is of how they arrived at that level. Some of your suspicions are probably true. This article isn’t as much for those being led, as those doing the leading. Ask yourselves how’d you get where you are? Was it because you []

Mission Possible: TPD Accepts the ALS Ice Water Challenge

I’ve been challenged by numerous fantastically caring people over the last several weeks. We sat in a light-hearted brainstorming session this week to create a response video. Within 15 minutes the imaginative group of officers took a simple idea and ran with it. More pleasing to me as their Chief of Police was that everyone dropped their guard to join in. Even if it meant making fun of themselves. It was for a cause greater than anyone of us. In this era []

Rating Success Differently

Cop Culture: Why Good Cops Go Bad ranked in 3 of Amazon’s top categories. I am truly grateful. More importantly, I’ve received calls and e-mails from people asking about the work. They share that reading the book is like watching what their spouse or family member is going through on the job. I always assure them to read through to the recommendations!! If it helps one cop, one family or one community, it is a measured success. That’s rating success differently. Stay Blue, []

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