225 105 4MB
English Pages 248 [249] Year 2023
Arvind Verma Dilip K. Das Editors
Police Leaders as Thinkers
Police Leaders as Thinkers
Arvind Verma • Dilip K. Das Editors
Police Leaders as Thinkers
Editors Arvind Verma Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA
Dilip K. Das Department of Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Coppin State University Baltimore, MD, USA
ISBN 978-3-031-19699-7 ISBN 978-3-031-19700-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Dedication to IPES, Since its establishment, the International Executive Symposium (IPES) has sought to integrate police officers, other professionals in the criminal justice system, and academics. This dedication aims to bridge the gap between the practical knowledge of public security professionals and the knowledge built on the rigor of scientific research. The horizon of IPES is precisely the construction of bridges between groups for the development of policies aimed at improving policing in contemporary society. The complexity currently experienced across the planet imposes challenges of the most diverse order on professionals working in police forces, in the courts, and in the penitentiary system. New threats and risks have joined the global agenda, such as the ever-increasing presence of criminal organizations, drug trafficking, environmental crimes, terrorism, and human rights violations, among others. This context also places greater pressure on the police around the globe. There is a movement for greater legitimacy of the police. This trend is reinforced by the increasing mediatization of society, as more and more interactions between police and citizens are recorded through smartphones, surveillance cameras, and instantaneous disclosures on the Internet. This new reality imposes the need to deepen studies on the relationship between police and society in the most diverse contexts. The need for rule of law is increasingly evident, whether in developed or developing economies, as securityrelated problems are common in the most diverse countries. Since its inception in 1994 with the first meeting in the Palace of Nations in Geneva 1994, IPES has been working from a multicultural and global perspective. This can be seen in its annual meetings (Appendix I) held in countries of different cultures, as well as in the plurality of topics covered over the years. The perspective of integrating professionals and academics from different backgrounds can be seen in the books edited over all these years. Through this channel, it has been possible to get to know different perspectives on the challenges to democratic policing.
Therefore, we would like to dedicate this book to the International Police Executive Symposium, IPES, for the work in all those years. Since its beginning, IPES’ objective has been to inspire, support, and work with the police to relentlessly strive for a close and constant collaboration between police practice and research. This aim follows Goldstein’s classic and revolutionary idea: police leaders as thinkers. Now this perspective is crucial for the police in free societies to deal with complex contexts. More and more motivated and educated police leaders can understand the complexities of wide range of activities of their organizations. A police leader needs to make decisions that affect the entire community or to manage limited resources to fulfill the tasks of the organization. Besides, the leader is required to think strategically about the future of the force. Those competencies are acquired through education and training. This is exactly what IPES has been practicing since its establishment. Born in the United Nations (UN) cradle of Human Rights, IPES has been enthusiastically advocating the universal norms of human rights, safeguarding the protection of the vulnerable segments of society, and the rule of law as values and ideals the police must be wedded to. Thus, the concept of a police leader as a thinker is more accurate than ever. Due to the great challenges faced by our societies, in all corners of the globe, legitimacy is central to achieving the objectives of the UN’s human rights chart. Therefore, IPES will continue to pursue initiatives that promote Goldstein’s idea of police as thinkers. In all those years, IPES has conducted its mission through these avenues: publishing books, particularly Advances in Police Theory and Practice (Routledge/Taylor and Francis Series – see the list), and a yearly international meeting between police practitioners and police academics (see an account of the meetings). The series published by IPES has gathered the finest scholars in the field of policing from all over the world. Its books are a reference for practitioners and academics. The meetings are an opportunity to gather colleagues from different parts of the globe and are an example of how IPES is driven to foster international cooperation. For all those reasons, this book is dedicated to the IPES for its past actions and the ones to come.
Some Thoughts and Reflections
There are the officers who have thought deeply about policing challenges and have critically commented upon various issues. They have not hesitated in looking within their own organizations and identifying fundamental limitations plaguing the much- needed reforms to serve the community. They are consequently well-read, thoughtful, and concerned with working with the community and involving them as co-producers of their safety. They also have a firm grasp over the management of their organization and have exhibited innovative solutions to set the right course. They are police officers who have an aptitude for learning and seeking knowledge. We have conceptualized such police leaders as those “Thinkers” who share ideas with other “thinkers” and with those who work in the police profession. Both of us are practitioners who have served as police leaders in India and have ventured into academia to understand the philosophy of policing. One of us (Dilip K. Das) while doing his doctoral research was inspired by the writings of Herman Goldstein and came across an idea of police leader as thinker. Goldstein argued that for professional policing and reforms in policing, police leaders must be “thinkers.” Inspired by this concept, Das went on to establish the International Police Executive Symposium (IPES), a nongovernmental organization to bring together police researchers and practitioners and facilitate cross-cultural, international, and interdisciplinary exchanges for enrichment of the policing profession. Since 1994, IPES has been holding annual conferences across the globe on themes ranging from community policing to terrorism. A large number of books, encyclopedias, and working papers have been published through this organization. Das also founded and edited (with Verma) Police Practice and Research: An International Journal for 20 years publishing cutting-edge research on policing. Guided by Goldstein’s vision, these were sincere efforts to conceptualize policing as a moral profession to promote rule of law and safeguard human rights. Accordingly, this concept of a thinking police leader has been in our minds for a long time. Still, it needed all the stars to align before the steps to develop this theme into a book began taking shape. The subject matter of this book is “Police Leaders as Thinkers” who we conceptualize as a philosopher practitioner having relentless curiosity, humility, dogged determination, and vivid imagination. Such leaders have vii
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seen major crises and calamities and have led by example in dealing with them effectively. They are the leaders who have left an indelible mark upon their organization and have demonstrated that modern policing involves empowered citizens as co-producers. They provide evidence that a trustworthy organization can be constructed despite great obstacles and that police can truly prevent crimes, win cooperation of the people, and contribute towards building a healthy harmonious community. The book has taken shape through extensive consultation and support of many renowned intellectuals who have helped identify the characteristics of such thinking leaders. The contributors to this book are leading criminologists and police scholars who have not only shared their perception of such police leaders but have also identified police leaders who represent this description. The book is thus an amalgamation of theory and case studies that exemplify the thinker first mentioned by Goldstein. Each case study provides background of the police leader and importantly presents in their own words what they have done for the organization and what they recommend as avenues for greater reform of the police. This volume seeks to contribute to the growing literature about policing and to initiate debate about a thinking leader. This is significant since we need a police leader who will provide the stewardship of police organization to meet the challenges of the twenty- first century. In particular, we wish to thank Curt Griffiths, John Eterno, Peter Kratcoski, John Coxhead, Badi Hasisi, Simon Perry, David Weisburd, Clifford Shearing, Gary Cordner, Brian Williams, Deepika Suri, Vincent Henry, and Naoko Yoshida for contributing to this book. We also wish to identify co-authors Neil Dubord, DeAnza Cook, Megan LePere-Schloop, and Dan Silk for assisting in the writing of their respective chapters. Importantly, we sincerely wish to thank Chief Theresa Tobin, Commissioner Michael S. Harrison, Commissioner Lee Brown, Chief Darrel Stephens, Chief Roni Alsheich, Commissioner Mal Hyde, Additional Director General Pradnya Saravade, and Commissioner William Bratton for sharing their vision and experiences and contributing to this book. Last but not least, we wish to recognize the silent contributions of Dr. Chapla Verma and Dr. Snezana (Ana) Mijovic-Das who have been our true partners to make this book possible. Bloomington, IN, USA Baltimore, MD, USA
Arvind Verma Dilip K. Das
Contents
How Do We Recognize Police Leader-Thinkers?������������������������������������������ 1 Curt Taylor Griffiths and Neil Dubord Police Leaders as Thinkers: Interview with Chief Theresa Tobin, Chief of Interagency Operations, NYPD ������������������������������������������������������ 21 John A. Eterno Police Leadership: A Learning Experience �������������������������������������������������� 35 Peter Charles Kratcoski The Thought Police: The Need for Police Leaders as Thinkers������������������ 65 John Coxhead Relational Policing at an Inflection Point: A Need for Police Leaders as Thinkers���������������������������������������������������������� 79 DeAnza A. Cook, Megan LePere-Schloop, Dan Silk, and Brian N. Williams The Contribution of the “Super Evidence Cop”; Key Role of Police Leaders in Advancing Evidence-Based Policing ���������� 105 Simon Perry, Badi Hasisi, and David Weisburd Interview with [Former] General Commissioner of the Israel Police – Roni Alsheich���������������������������������������������������������������� 119 Badi Hasisi and Simon Perry Darrel Stephens: An American Police Leader with Vision�������������������������� 141 Gary Cordner and Clifford Shearing Thinking Police Leader in India: Case Study of Dr. Pradnya Saravade, IPS ���������������������������������������������������� 153 Deepika Suri and Arvind Verma
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Hirofumi Ichise: A Japanese Thinker Police Leader������������������������������������ 171 Naoko Yoshida Police, Race, Crime, and Leadership: Interview with William J. Bratton������������������������������������������������������������������ 191 Vincent E. Henry Conclusion�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 213 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 239
About the Authors
DeAnza A. Cook is a candidate in history at Harvard University. Her doctoral research traces the evolution of urban police science, police reform, and police- community relations in America during and after the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to her graduate work, Cook administers seminar courses focused on race, civil rights, and constitutional policing for law enforcement officers in her home state of Virginia. She also teaches a college-level African American history course for incarcerated students in Massachusetts. Gary Cordner is Academic Director in the Education & Training Section, Baltimore Police Department (USA). He most recently served as Chief Research Advisor for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) LEADS Scholars Program and as Senior Police Advisor in Ukraine for the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). He was a CALEA Commissioner (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) for 9 years and has been associated with the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing since its inception. John Coxhead is Professor of Policing Innovation and Learning at Loughborough University, UK. John is a policing educationalist and twice winner of the Queen’s Award in Innovation in Police Learning and Development. He is also an Honorary Professor of Practice at Keele University, where he focuses on professional interdisciplinarity, building on heutagogical principles in a new application called Koinagogy which involves self-determined learning within a group format in areas such as safeguarding. His primary research interests surround policing, particularly around enabling innovation and learning environments. He is the founder of the UK Innovation in Policing annual competition and is keen to create a “Silicon Valley” center for policing innovation and enterprise at Loughborough. He also works as the policing research manager for the East Midlands Police Academic Collaboration, bringing policing practitioners closer to research opportunities and is a columnist with Police Professional, the UK’s biggest selling policing publication.
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Dilip K. Das has years of experience in police practice, research, writing, and education. A professor of criminal justice, former police chief, founding editor-in-chief of Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, Dr. Das is a human rights consultant to the United Nations. Dr. Das serves as president of IPES and manages the affairs of the organization in cooperation with an appointed group of police practitioners, academia members, and individuals from around the world. Neil Dubord joined the Delta Police Department on June 29, 2015, after 3 years as Chief of the Metro Vancouver Transit Police and 25 years with the Edmonton Police Service where he was the Deputy Chief in charge of Community Policing Bureau. Dubord has been awarded the Officer of the Order of Merit from the Governor General of Canada, the Police Exemplary Medal, and the Queens Diamond Jubilee medal. He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, FBI National Academy, FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association and serves on committees for the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the British Columbia Association of Chiefs of Police. He is the past president of the British Columbia Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police and is an Honorary Aid de Camp for the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Chief Dubord holds a master’s degree in Leadership & Training from Royal Roads, has graduated from the FBI National Academy and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development program, is a Canadian Human Resource Professional (CHRP) and successfully defended his dissertation to fulfill the requirements of his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in business from Northcentral University. John A. Eterno is a Professor and Associate Dean of Criminal Justice at Molloy University in New York. John is a retired captain for the New York City police. His career included serving as an officer and supervisor on patrol, doing extensive research for the department, and training officers. He has done research for the United States Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, National Development Research Institutes, and is recognized and testified as an expert on police in the federal courts. Dr. Eterno is a representative to the United Nations for the International Police Executive Symposium. His recent books include The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation (with Eli B. Silverman), The Detective’s Handbook (with Cliff Roberson), and The New York City Police Department: The Impact of Its Policies and Practices. He is also widely published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals such as Justice quarterly, The International Journal of Police Science and management, The Criminal Law Bulletin, and many other outlets. He also has many book chapters, encyclopedia entries, op eds, and much more. Curt Taylor Griffiths is a Professor and Coordinator of the Police Studies Program in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. Among his primary research interests are the organizational and operational dynamics of policing, police effectiveness and efficiency, the police and communities of diversity, police performance measures, the effectiveness of police strategies and interventions, and
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the delivery of policing services in high demand urban and remote environments. His work has been carried out at the national and international levels. In Canada, this has involved working with communities, municipal councils, municipal police services and the RCMP on a variety of projects focused on the police and communities of diversity, including Indigenous communities and vulnerable and at-risk persons, police performance, building organizational and operational capacities, and the effectiveness and efficiency of police policies and strategies. Internationally, this has included police-related projects in Latvia, Denmark, Netherlands, the Commonwealth Caribbean, Japan, the United States, and Egypt. Badi Hasisi serves as a full professor and Chair of the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University. His work focuses on the interaction between minority communities and the criminal justice system, policing, crime prevention, and evaluation studies. He also specializes in homeland security and crime- terrorism nexus, and law and Society. He received the 2018 best article prize from the Israeli Organization of Law and History and the Fattal Prize for Excellence in Legal Research & Criminology. Prof. Hasisi also served as the executive editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology and acts as the current chair of the Israeli Society of Criminology. Vincent E. Henry is Professor of Homeland Security Management at the Homeland Security and Terrorism Institute at Long Island University, and was the Founder and Founding Director of the Homeland Security Management Institute from its 2004 inception to 2015. He earned his PhD in Criminal Justice from the City University of New York (John Jay). A first responder to the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks, Dr. Henry retired from the New York Police Department following a 21-year police career in which he served in a wide variety of uniformed and plainclothes, patrol, undercover decoy, training, investigative, supervisory and management assignments. The first American police officer to be named a Fulbright Scholar (Australia, 1989–1990), Henry has also held the American Society for Industrial Security’s Certified Protection Professional (CPP) credential since 1994. Among the academic awards Vincent Henry has received are the McCabe Fellowship (2001), the City University of New York’s Arthur Niederhoffer Memorial Fellowship (1994) and the Kenneth B. and Mamie Phipps Clark Fellowship (1994–1995), as well as the John A. Reisenbach Foundation Dissertation Prize.As Commanding Officer of the Police Commissioner’s Office of Management Analysis and Planning’s Special Projects Unit from 1991 to 2000, Vincent Henry was a member of the Police Commissioner’s Executive Staff and played an integral role in developing and implementing policy initiatives throughout the agency, particularly those related to the COMPSTAT process and the NYPD’s reengineering. Vincent Henry is the author of numerous publications in the fields of law enforcement management, police corruption and reform, psychological trauma, terrorism, and homeland security. His recent books include The COMPSTAT Paradigm: Management Accountability in Policing, Business and the Private Sector (Looseleaf Law Publishers, 2002) and Death Work: Police, Trauma, and the Psychology of Survival (Oxford University Press, 2004).
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Peter Charles Kratcoski earned a PhD in Sociology from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, an MA in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana; and a BA in Sociology from King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was selected for several postdoctoral grants by the National Science Foundation. He taught at the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, and at the Pennsylvania State University before assuming the position of Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, in 1969. He retired as Professor of Criminal Justice Studies and Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, where he is currently a professor emeritus and adjunct professor. He has published many books, chapters in books, and journal articles in the areas of juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, international policing, crime prevention, corrections, and victimology. His most recent writing and research have centered on juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, collaborative policing, correctional counseling, financial crimes, corruption and fraud, and victimization of the elderly. His most recent books publications are Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Research, and the Juvenile Justice Process, 6th edition (co-authored with Lucille Dunn Kratcoski, and Peter Christopher Kratcoski), published by Springer in 2020 and Experiential Education and Training for Employment in Justice Occupations (Co-authored with Peter Christopher Kratcoski), published by Springer, 2021. Megan LePere-Schloop is an assistant professor in the Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University. Her research uses computational and qualitative methods to examine issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in public and nonprofit organizations; organizational change through an institutional lens; and knowledge production and integration in the field of public affairs. Her work has been published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the Journal for Public Administration Research and Theory, and the International Review of Administrative Sciences. Megan works with practitioners to translate her research into practice in meaningful ways. Simon Perry is an associate professor at Hebrew University’s Institute of Criminology in Jerusalem. In the last years Perry’s work has focused on the issue of “Policing Terrorism Strategies & Tactics” studying effective “policing terror” models. In his work he attempts, to study the terror phenomenon and systematically describe, measure, evaluate and assess the effectiveness of different police responses to terrorism. In collaboration with leading international scholars, he is studying the effectiveness of situational crime prevention as a way of reducing the opportunities for terrorism. Professor Perry is a retired officer in the Israeli National Police (INP), where he served for 30 years specializing in intelligence – gathering and operations, which included head of European Operations of the INP between 1987 and 1991 and INP Police Attaché to the USA and Canada between 2003 and 2007 at the rank of Brigadier General. Perry also has extensive experience teaching and training intelligence and law enforcement agencies worldwide in the areas of “Policing Terrorism,” “Homeland Security.”
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Clifford Shearing is a Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Toronto and Cape Town. He holds professorships at the Universities of Toronto, Montreal (Canada), Cape Town (South Africa) and New South Wales and Griffith (Australia). His research and thinking explores developments in the governance of security and the conditions that enable enhancements in safety and security. His current research focuses on responses to climate related crises, developments in criminological theory as well as energy transitions and their implications for ecological security. His recent books include Criminology and Climate: Finance, Insurance and the Regulation of Harmscapes, Routledge, 2021; The Policing of Flows: Challenging Contemporary Criminology, Routledge, 2019; Criminology and the Anthropocene, Routledge, 2018; and Security in the Anthropocene: Reflections on Safety and Care, Transcript 2017. Dan Silk serves as the Chief of police at the University of Georgia, where he also has a courtesy faculty appointment in the Department of Political Science. Deepika Suri an officer with the Indian Police Service with an experience of 23 years. She has worked at both provincial and federal levels in areas of investigation, intelligence, law and order, women safety, anti-human trafficking, and cybercrime. She was awarded the TCS-Chevening Cyber Security Scholarship in 2015 and completed her PG Diploma in Cyber Security and Information Assurance from Cranfield University, UK, in 2016. She led the police party to Hot Springs in 2013 and was nominated by the Ministry of External Affairs, India to lead a batch of pilgrims to Kailash Mansarover in 2014. She has been awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2015. Presently, she is posted as Inspector General of Police, Narmadapuram in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Arvind Verma has been a member in the Indian Police Service (IPS) and has served for many years in the State of Bihar, holding several senior positions in the organization. His first degree was in Engineering Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and later he earned his PhD in Criminology from Simon Fraser University, Canada. His doctoral work was concerned with analysis of criminal justice data using a variety of mathematical techniques such as Fuzzy Logic, Topology and Fractals. He has served as the managing editor of Police Practice and Research: An International Journal and he has also been an advisor to the Bureau of Police Research and Development in India. His current research interests are in policing, criminal justice policy issues, Indian police, research methods, mathematical modeling, and agent-based simulation.His recent publications includeBooks titled She must not Die (Thompson Reuter); Counting Crime: An Exercise in Police Discretion (Routledge), Combating Corruption in India (Cambridge University Press), Policing Muslim Communities: Comparative and International Context (Springer), The New Khaki: The Evolving Nature of Policing in India (CRC Press), and “Understanding the Police in India” (Lexus) andJournal articles “The Sociological conception of Corruption: A case study of Karnataka Lokayukt,” “How Real is the Crime Decline in India,” “Policing Non-violent
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Crowds: Lessons from Kumbh Mela in India,” “Police Manipulation of Crime Reporting: Insider’s Revelations,” “Situational Prevention & Elections in India,” “Measuring Performance in India: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis,” “The State and Coercive Power in India,” “Rationalizing Police Beats using Voronoi Tessellations,” “Validating Distance Decay through Agent Based Modeling,” and “Assessing the Role of Police in Containing Mob Violence.”He is currently Professor of Criminal Justice at Indiana University Bloomington. He is also affiliated with IITK on a visiting position and has established a Center for Criminal Justice Research to promote research and technology applications on Indian police. David Weisburd is Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University, and Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at the Hebrew University. He is also Director of the Center for Evidence Based Crime Policy, and Chief Science Advisor to the National Policing Institute. Brian N. Williams is Associate Professor of Public Policy in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He is the founder and director of the Public Engagement in Governance Looking, Listening and Learning Laboratory (PEGLLLLab) and serves as the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Society Equity and Public Administration. He is the faculty affiliate with the Center for Race, Public Education in the South and also The Equity Center at UVA. Naoko Yoshida is a visiting researcher at Institute of Law and Social Sciences at Meiji University, Japan. Naoko has conducted extensive research on police organization and its officers in Japan as well as overseas. She has lectured at universities in Japan and Philippines on this subject and her research has been published in academic journals in Japanese and English. Her current primary research interest is career path of female police officers and interactions between local police organizations and the national police agency. She is frequently invited to provide her expertise on police related subjects for TV program and media outlets.
How Do We Recognize Police Leader-Thinkers? Curt Taylor Griffiths and Neil Dubord
Police Leader-Thinkers in the Early Twenty-First Century The ability of police leaders to be thinkers is impacted by the environment of policing in the early twenty-first century. The traditional conceptualization of the role of the police no longer accurately captures the diversity and complexity of contemporary policing. The police officer in the early twenty-first century is a psychologist, mediator and problem-solver and has near-continuous contact with community residents (Griffiths 2020). In some police services, officers are involved in a more holistic approach to problem-solving that has the potential to effectively address the underlying issues that contribute to crime and disorder, rather than merely responding to the symptoms of these issues. Officers are involved in developing and sustaining partnerships with the community, taking initiatives to improve the quality of life in communities and neighbourhoods, providing reassurance to community residents and reducing the fear of crimes and conducting outreach to communities of diversity, including Indigenous persons, newcomers, visible and cultural minorities and persons who are marginalized and vulnerable. Increasingly, police services are being required to fill gaps in services that are the mandated responsibility of other agencies and organizations. For example, when governments cut the numbers of social workers and mental health workers and funding for shelter beds and for specialized facilities for the mentally ill, there is a direct impact on the demands placed on the police resources (Cotton and Coleman 2010).
C. T. Griffiths (*) School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University - Surrey Campus, Surrey, BC, Canada e-mail: [email protected] N. Dubord Delta Police Department, Delta, BC, Canada © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_1
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The police role has become more multifaceted in recent years, often referred to as “diversification”. Increasingly, police services are being asked to address non– law enforcement issues and most police services have developed an extensive network of collaborative partnerships with agencies and community organizations to address issues related to crime and disorder (Murphy 2012). The following figure informs about this role of the police today:
Source: Delta (BC Canada) Police Department Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan, 2022–2025. https://deltapolice.ca/community-safety-and-well-being-plan-2022-2025
It is estimated, for example, that Canadian police services have about one million encounters a year with persons who are mentally ill or who are suffering from substance abuse, or both (Marcoux and Nicholson 2018). In some police services, up to 40% of the calls involve a person with mental health problems, some of whom have hundreds of contacts with the police annually (Wilson-Bates 2008). The challenges have become even greater in cases of persons who are severely addicted and mentally ill (SAMI) and have complex treatment needs. Mandated responsibilities include the tasks assigned to the police by legislation, the various provincial/territorial police acts and regulations and policies formulated by government. Police services are also responsible for adhering to provincial policing standards and regulations. The assumed responsibilities are those that are a consequence of community expectations, the expansion of police activities due to the above-noted downloading, the 24-h, 7 days a week call response model of the police, recommendations of task forces and commissions of inquiry and the policies of individual police agencies as set out in strategic plans and documented in annual reports, among others.
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Among the assumed responsibilities of the police are the following: • Developing and sustaining partnerships with the community • Taking initiatives to improve the quality of life in communities and neighbourhoods • Providing reassurance to community residents and reducing the fear of crime • Conducting outreach to newcomer groups, Indigenous peoples and at-risk and vulnerable groups • Engaging in collaborative partnerships and integrated teams with agencies and organizations, including operating specialized patrol units (Montgomery and Griffiths 2017; Griffiths and Stamatakis 2012: 23) Historically, there have been very clear boundaries between the various components of the criminal justice system. This often has resulted in agencies operating in “silos”, focused only on their specific mandate and not considering the larger context of the problem of crime and disorder, specific patterns of criminal behaviour or the needs of offenders, which are often multifaceted (i.e. addicted, mentally ill). There is increasingly a more holistic approach to problem-solving that has the potential to effectively address the underlying issues that contribute to crime and disorder, rather than merely responding to the symptoms of these issues (Griffiths 2020). In Canada, there has been a significant shift in the role of police influenced by the changing public safety, social, health and economic landscape. Current discourse suggests that police have a more prominent role in the context of broader community safety and well-being. This is especially true, with much of the day-to-day policing activities revolving around social and public health problems—or those committing “social crimes” due to health and social reasons. The societal problems that police have become the first responders for cross the mandates of multiple human service agencies, resulting in many community members calling for a “modern” and “social” policing model, while others call for police de-funding. At the same time, however, the value of “traditional police work”—incident response, enforcement and investigative work—cannot be diminished and is required for community safety. Cities throughout the United States who de-funded the police and diverted the funds to public service agencies saw a significant increase in homicide rates among other crime rates; the effort is now on “refunding” the police. Thus, both aspects of types of policing—social and traditional policing—are necessary for the community’s safety and well-being in the current landscape. There is no doubt that multidisciplinary solutions and approaches must be utilized as the police operate in a complex environment with a myriad of social and health issues impacting vulnerable citizens. Collaboration is critical, with the need for all community partners, including police, to focus on matters beyond their perceived part of the part. Focusing on the perceived part of an organization’s problem or response is often counterproductive and ineffective. community/health services’ responsibility. Undoubtedly, the police have a part to play in both “traditional” and “social” policing; however, appropriate funding and resources are needed. Municipalities provide the police with resources for traditional police work and community safety. The funding for “social” and more of a proactive policing
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approach often is not provided. For the police to successfully operate in a modern and social policing world, contributing to both community safety and well-being, the funding needs to align with the level of responsibility, expected from the society. Policing will remain a crucial player in the community safety and well-being model, but collaborative efforts from other community/social/public health services are essential for meaningful and lasting change. A former Canadian police officer and now a well-known psychologist describes three types of stress faced by police officers. The first is catastrophic stress or the stress that comes from a one-time horrific event such as a natural disaster or a terrorist act. The second type of stress is major stress, the type seen in major incidents such as the death of a family member or a divorce. The last and most prevalent type of stress and he indicates by far the type of stress that brings police officers into his office is organizational stress. This stress is the day-to-day workings of a police organization that are insidious and cumulative. This type of stress is caused from systems in the organization such as the promotion and job posting process, professional standards process and other similar management decisions. These and other contingencies may challenge police leaders and hinder their development as thinkers (Mackoff 2019). Added to these complexities was the impact of the death of George Floyd on 25 May 2020. In its aftermath, there were calls for de-funding the police and redirecting monies to social and mental health programs, a variety of state legislative reforms and the creation of crisis response teams to respond to mental health–related calls for service, among others (Subramanian and Arzy 2021). There were also significant implications for police leaders. In the months following his death, police Chiefs in several major urban centres left their positions. Chiefs in Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas and Rochester, New York, were fired, resigned or abruptly retired (Yancey-Bragg 2020). A high percentage of these police leaders were African Americans and several were African American women. In many of the instances, there were triggering events involving officers’ interactions with the community or with specific individuals, some resulting in death. The primary focus in the policing literature is on the decision-making of frontline patrol officers with that of police leaders being more opaque. Police leaders, however, have a significant impact on the organizational culture of their police services, the existence of organizational justice and the job satisfaction, morale and mental health of sworn officers and civilian employees. Research studies have found that many of the stressors experienced by civilians and officers originate in the police organization rather than solely from operations (26, 27, 28). Among the top organizational stressors for officers are shift work, inadequate organizational support, lack of political and/or public support, inadequate support from supervisors, inadequate staffing, unfair evaluation systems and workload (18, 29). A key role in this is played by the organizational, or workplace, culture. Duxbury and Higgins (2012:5) have stated that: Organizational culture refers to the unwritten rules and corporate norms that dictate how things are done, how things work, what is to be done and what is valued in the organization (i.e., “the way things are done around here”).
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Organizational stress “is generally recognized as the tension resulting from characteristics of the workplace” (Shields 2018:3). Poor leadership, a lack of transparency in the promotion process and a perceived lack of support from supervising officers may exacerbate the stressors in a police officers’ operational environment and these factors have been found to have a negative impact on officers’ mental health and well-being (Hassell et al. 2011; Santa Maria et al. 2020; Montano et al. 2017). Similar controversies have surrounded Canadian policing and police leaders have found themselves under increasing scrutiny. In 2021, the mayor of Vancouver publicly called out the municipal police service for “indefensible lack of action on systemic racism” (Little and Garcha 2021).
Perspectives From the Leadership Literature “Leadership” has been variously defined as: • “The behavior of the individual…directing the activities of a group towards a shared goal” (Stogdill and Coons 1957: 7) • “The process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort” (Jacobs and Jacques 1990: 281) • “The ability to step outside the culture…to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive” (Schein 1992: 2) • “Is about articulating visions, embodying values, and creative the environment in which things can be accomplished” (Richards and Engle 1986: 200) (cited in Kingshott 2006: 122) It has been noted that “Leadership is important for motivating followers and mobilizing resources towards the fulfillment of the organization’s mission; it is also essential for organizational innovation, adaptation, and performance…leaders also impact organizational effectiveness via actions that attend to the internal and external organizational environment” (Antonakis and House 2014:746; see also Morgeson 2005). How leaders think is a less studied area. It is suggested that, “A more productive, though more difficult, approach is to focus on how a leader thinks – that is, to examine the antecedent of doing, or the ways in which leaders’ cognitive processes produce their actions” (Martin 2007: 2). “Integrative thinking” occurs when leaders step outside “simplicity and certainty”, evolve beyond the “either-or” choice and seek creative resolutions and solutions (Martin 2007). As Martin (2007: 5; 6; 7) notes: Integrative thinkers welcome complexity... Integrative thinkers don’t mind a messy problem. In fact, they welcome complexity, because that’s where the best answers come from…Integrative thinkers don’t break down a problem into independent pieces and work on them separately or in a certain order. They see the entire architecture of the problem – how the various parts of it fit together, how one decision will affect another. Integrative thinking generates options and new solutions. It creates a sense of limitless possibility.
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A key concept is “tipping point leadership”: Once the beliefs and energies of a critical mass of people are engaged, conversion to a new idea will spread like an epidemic, bringing about fundamental change very quickly…such a movement can be unleashed only by agents who make unforgettable and unarguable calls for change, who concentrate their resources on what really matters, who mobilize the commitment of the organization’s key players and who success in silencing the most vocal naysayers. (Kim and Mauborgne 2006:24–25)
Most literature on leadership is related to the private sector. There are fewer materials on leadership in police services. A key question is the extent to which the knowledge on leadership applies to the public sector and to policing. A major difference is that the CEO of a private company can maintain more control over the goals and objectives of the company and has specific performance metrics by which to assess their leadership, e.g. profit and shareholder value. In contrast, police leaders work in an industry that has a monopoly, e.g. there are no public safety competitors. The outcomes of policing, generally, and of the decisions of individual police leaders are much more difficult to measure than those of a company that is producing a tangible, hard product. Management has been defined as, “guiding and directing personnel or other resources in an organization towards a given objective in the most efficient and cost effective manner” (Kingshott 2006: 127). Absent in this description are the notions of vision, risk-taking and innovation and critical thinking, among others. In contrast, leadership “must involve active participation by managers to maximize the skills and abilities of the individuals for their own and the organization’s benefit” (Kingshott 2006: 128). Good leadership has been defined as “the ability to apply all the professional skills at your disposal whilst at the same time harnessing the energy of those who work with you towards the achievement of the task” (Royal Irish Constabulary 1986: 3, cited in Kingshott 2006: 134–135).
he Lists of Attributes of Police Leaders: Character T and Competencies A review of the vast literature on leadership is beyond the scope of the present discussion. However, there are several key concepts that can inform a consideration of police leaders as thinkers and how a thinking police leader can be identified. There is no shortage of lists of the attributes that police leaders are to possess. Public consultations conducted as part of the search for a new Chief of Police in the city identified the following “Top Qualities and Characteristics of Toronto’s Next Chief of Police”: committed to communities; accountable leader; courageous system changer, transparent communicator; skilled collaborator; and anti-discrimination and inclusion (Environics Research 2021:15). Desirable character traits for police leaders that are frequently mentioned include “integrity”, “humility”, “humanity”, “judgement” and “justice” (Porporino 2018:91). “Thinker” is absent from attribute lists.
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Although these terms can provide the framework for assessing the degree to which a police leader may be effective, they provide little guidance in a discussion of police leaders as thinkers and of the cognitive processes that are required for effective leadership. There are few insights in the published literature on how the desirable attributes of police leaders are manifested in day-to-day policing or how these terms are operationalized to assess the performance of police leaders. Similarly, there have been few investigations into the extent to which these notions of leadership character equip police leaders to effectively respond to the demands of the current policing environment which require that police leaders be thinkers in order to navigate it through programs, initiatives and plans: 1. The demands of the external environment, e.g. a northern and remote community, a community of diversity, or an Indigenous or racialized community, must factor in a determination of what makes a police leader a thinker. 2. In larger police services, a police leader will have the benefit of an extensive infrastructure of support, which may assist in facilitating innovation and actioning “thinking”; in smaller departments, the onus may fall on one individual, e.g. the RCMP corporal in charge of a detachment in the Canadian north. This leader’s policing environment may be as, or more demanding, than an urban centre. In Canada, for example, the highest rates of crime and violent crime are in the Northwest Territories and the Inuit homeland of Nunavut. Few of these communities have over 500 residents and most are smaller, isolated and accessible only by air. Speaking of leadership in police services, it has been stated: Leadership is not limited to police personnel but must include all the support staff found within a modern police service. Nor will leadership be limited by rank as it is necessary for all personnel to be aware of and accept their individual and collective leadership roles as and when the situation demands. (Kingshott 2006:132)
Although there are differences between management and leadership, “the dividing line between both is often obscured by the complexity. Fluidity, inconsistencies, in exactitudes, and emotional volatility that covers the multitude of tasks that fall within the parameters of ‘policing’” (Kingshott 2006:134).
Perspectives of Canadian Police Leaders To address the paucity of research on police leaders as thinkers, in-depth interviews were conducted with five Canadian police leaders (three men and two women, one of whom is a visible minority) widely regarded in the profession as being innovators and strong advocates for the profession. Of interest was the leaders’ view of the notion of police leaders as “thinkers”, what the criteria were for a leader to be classified as a “thinker” and their own personal and professional experiences that contributed to their leadership style, the decision-making and their thinking processes.
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The interview was unstructured and designed to allow the leaders the opportunity to share their perspectives. A list of topical areas covered in the interviews is set out in Appendix A. The responses of the participants revealed that there are different styles among police leaders who can be regarded as “thinkers”: some think at the 40-foot level and rely on their personnel to implement a vision, while others are at “ground zero” as the visible fact of the police service, championing innovation.
he Police Organizational Culture as a Barrier to Police T Leaders Being Thinkers A Chief Constable commented on how the traditional culture of the police was an obstacle to new thinking paradigms: I don’t think we can rely on good old-fashioned instincts in policing anymore. We actually have to be much more proactive and critically think about things whereas maybe twenty, thirty, forty years ago in policing in our culture, there’s the problem you react to it, as opposed to trying to prevent the problem in the first place. Now, we need to recognize that we’re not the only show in town, that we actually need partnerships to do that, so that requires critical thought. And then, how do you develop that critical thinking throughout your organization in a culture that stymies critical thought at the entry level where you have Masters, and PhD holders coming in at the constable level who aren’t allowed to talk because of the hierarchical structure. I’m speaking generally, but I’ve seen it where they’re not even asked for their view, yet they might be a subject matter expert with an outside degree or education, but they’re never even asked. And your bright ones who want to challenge the status quo leave. So how do you counter that?
This Chief also commented on police culture as an obstacle stating, “We killed everybody with discipline. That was our number one thing: knock the shit out of them, preach an innovation culture and then beat the shit out of them. And, and honestly, it wasn’t working”. This police leader also critiqued what police services tend to focus on: So, we’re not quite hitting our vision. How are we going to get that vision? We’re going to measure our eight key crime indicators and we’re going hard on those. You know how much of our crime those eight key crime indicators actually account for? Fifteen percent. How the f*ck are you going to get there when you’re only measuring fifteen percent of your stuff?
The comments of the two women Deputy Chief Constables revealed that gender may play a role in the development of women police leaders as thinkers. One noted: I think there are some men who feel threatened by women who are critical thinkers, not even necessarily smarter, it doesn’t matter. It’s more the ability to bring thoughtful and bring ideas and suggestions to the table. There’s a threat there in the hierarchy and culture of policing.
Successful police leaders action their thinking by employing strategies that often require “work arounds” and creative thinking to overcome obstacles. Sometimes those workarounds benefit from macro issues occurring in the environment such as
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the pandemic or the tragic death of George Floyd. One Chief stated, “I think between Covid and George Floyd, it actually gave us the agenda to drive. Cause we actually stated the process any way before that.” This Chief believed in that a crisis can assist in creating the momentum for a shift in the culture that accelerates the change towards the vision. Thinkers understand that reducing the barriers created by culture requires a well thought out and preconceived strategy. The police leader is required to understand data and how to use data in their effort to enable sustained change: People that don’t understand data and their impact in power to make change. So what I equate that to is police always use their voice of authority, but don’t very often use their voice of influence.
Several of the police leaders commented that police leaders often lacked accountability, one stating, “There is a lot of accountability for constables and corporals, but not for police leaders”.
Challenging the Status Quo A woman Deputy Chief Constable used the example of a recent discussion about the recruit physical activities test to illustrate the resistance to change that is embedded in police culture and the necessity of police leaders to have critical thinking skills: I have initiated a study of the viability of the POPAT, the Police Officer Physical Ability Test for today’s policing and more so for tomorrow’s policing. So, I participated more as a fly on the wall yesterday within the first focus group session. The people on the call were all of the sergeant level, one staff sergeant. And they were sergeants in recruiting and the one staff sergeant was a staff sergeant in Human Resources. And it became shockingly apparent to me, um, and I think I’ve known this but it, it just slapped me in the face yesterday. When I was listening to a couple of the sergeants talk about what, and they were almost offended that we were even looking at this topic. For me the sign of a leader, a critically thinking leader, is somebody who has the ability to pause and take a topic and look at it from different perspectives, and think about it, not just in its application today, but what’s the bigger picture of that application as it fits into our society and, needing to apply that to any problem that we face as, as leaders. So, it’s the ability to have a, a different view and be willing to be open to different perspectives about a topic. I think that differentiates somebody from being a supervisor versus a leader.
Another police leader, noting the challenges facing police services in the early twenty-first century, commented: Throw in the challenges in recruiting. Throw in the lack of resources. Throw in social media that continues to blacken our eye. So, we’re in for a good fight. But an effective police leader will anticipate that. You have to get out. You have to be the face of the police service. You should control what you can control and influence what you can’t.
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Open-Mindedness and Humility A woman Deputy Chief Constable noted the importance of listening to and considering new information and being willing to change one’s mind: You’ll make a decision but then you get new information and if you’re not so stuck in your position and your view with that new information you’re incapable of critically thinking about that new information, incorporating it into the position that you already took. And gosh, maybe even changing your mind, showing that humbleness as a leader. That’s another aspect of leadership that I think is, imperative to have as a police leader.
Conversely, a police leader who is not a thinker was characterized as being more reactive: Someone who thinks they have to have the answer and everybody expects them to have the answer, to everything. So, they have to come up with something. They are usually an extrovert, somewhat like a salesman, someone who will just fill in the blanks to make it look like they have an answer, but someone who is not thoughtful and whose ego is too big to admit that they don’t have all the answers or they don’t have necessarily the right answer right away. (woman Deputy Chief Constable)
Additional attributes of police leaders who are not thinkers were described by a woman Deputy Chief Constable: I think another one that has irked me over time is somebody who’s going to talk over you and not let you finish your explanation of your point, um, because they have to insert themselves so much into the topic. Somebody who is going to counter absolutely everything, every idea that you have with the negative side or the, um, di…discounting your, your perspective, especially if you’re trying to insert bigger picture ideas or ideas that require work, hard work. And they may not necessarily want to do that work so they’ll look to try and discount it or dismiss it because they know it’s a big giant can of worms and they don’t want to do it. Or they’re afraid to do it, even though it might be the right thing to do. We’ll always have the naysayers because every time there’s a sign of trouble, the negatives try to pop their heads back up, but at the end of the day there’s fewer and fewer of them.
mpowering Officers and Staff in the Police Organization E and Creating an Organizational Environment of Innovation The Chief of a large urban police service offered: Sometimes when you try to put too much structure around a change you actually stifle. So, coming into this year based on what we experienced, hell on wheels last year, I simply created a, a weekly, minimum one week, one hour session with every member in the organization. We can get onto a team’s environment where we had just an open discussion on any topic that any of my members want to raise.
One police leader stated: It’s a matter of influencing one person at a time and being an active listener, inviting their thoughts and their feedback. This has to be done very slowly because no one’s going to do it until they trust you and they get to know you and they know that you’re going to other
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action it or you know, respond to them or at least acknowledge what they’re saying. I think it’s a very slow process but if you can identify the people that are worth putting your time into, then the process is worth it.
Both women police leaders stated that a key to their leadership style was constant communication with all ranks and positions in their departments (both of which were under 250 officers): We go and talk to all our watches on a regular basis. So, they see people from the third floor, or whatever your floor is, coming down and talking to them face to face. Getting feedback, giving feedback, talking about stuff. So that the communication is like right from the top to the bottom. I do that every day, I start my day by walking around the floor and, um, say hi, even if it was just to have time to say good morning, at least they see I’m here, I’m available. And the number of people who walk through my door and sit down and start to open up about things, it’s awesome. It’s the mantra of walking around talking to people. I want to empower and give autonomy to people to solve the problem they’re bringing to me. Go figure it out. Go talk to your friends. Go research online and come back with some possible solutions. I think we need to push people more to do that.
Another of the police leaders indicated that they were considering adopting a Shark Tank model in the department to create a framework and dynamic for generating ideas, “To invite those ideas from the frontline, from anybody in the organization, sworn or civilian. If you’ve got a better idea on how we can do something in these categories, we want to hear it and you’ve got to sell it to us and we’re going to go with it”.
Risk Aversion and Risk-Taking “In hockey, you miss 100 of the shots you don’t take”. – Canadian police leader
Risk aversion was viewed as a major impediment to a police leader being a thinker. A major city Chief noted, “Many Police Chiefs are working towards their next contract renewal. And, and that’s what holds them back. You can maintain status quo, stay under the radar.” Another Chief stated: There’s definitely, culturally, that risk aversion where you know, we’re probably politically conservative, financially conservative, sheep some might say. Operationally we take risks, we don’t think reward. We’re not based on reward model. We’re based on a risk model. You know, nobody goes into a community they have been assigned to and says, “Hey, how can I profit in this area.?” It’s how can I manage risk? Not what’s right for this place, what’s wrong with this place and how do I keep what’s wrong from getting worse. So yes, it’s culturally, operationally, institutionally driven into us.
This Chief made a distinction between being risk adverse and the cultural tendency in policing to take the path of least resistance, stating: There’s a relationship that is similar, but they’re different. So, if you’re a risk taker, if you’re outspoken, if you’re a different thinker, your likelihood of getting all the way to the top of
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Another Chief commented, “The risks are staying status quo. There are no other risks. There’s probably never been a better time to drive some change”. The two women Deputy Chief Constables reflected on their careers and how, ironically, not being part of the “boys club” allowed them to take risks: I was never part of the club of people. We never worried about what people thought about us. We never had any expectations of being anything but a constable. So, you have the freedom to be yourself and to take those risks and to not care at all. We didn’t have to subscribe to the membership dues that other men, I think, have to subscribe to if they want to be a part of that club and move up and move, move on. I think that a key to the development of talent in the organization is autonomy.
Another police leader commented, “Some police leaders are just marking time. Someone has to have the energy and the vision”.
Thought Processes of Thinking Police Leaders Several of the respondents offered insights into their thought processes. A woman Deputy Chief Constable distinguished between quick thinking and slow thinking, “deciding first whether the issue is something I have to make a decision on quickly or not. Even if it’s something I have to make a decision on quickly, I also always reserve the right to take it away and think hard about it. Is it a complex decision or is it a simple decision?” A major city Chief offered: I think it starts with introspection and then goes outwards, and then comes back in. So, it’s almost a virtuous process. The opposite is true if you really lack any intent to be introspective; you’re going be in an echo chamber. You’re going into what we see on social media, we’re going into those extreme polarized positions where you only go to people you like and who like you. And you forget all the other portions of content and context and individuals. So, introspection, true introspection allows you to go into true thinking, true exploration, true resetting of your framework. And I’ve been good at it at certain times in life and less good at other times in life. I have to think deeply about my role as a man and the entitlement that I have when it comes to the issues of Gender Equity and Misogyny, workplace sexual violence and harassment. So um, those are the issues I’m focused on. But you can’t have your entire executive team a bunch of thinkers because then you got nobody doing anything.
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This Chief admitted that, “Although I’m a more thoughtful police leader, I’m trying to be more of a doing police leader than I’ve ever been before. I’ve done enough of the thinking over 25 years, now I’m really focused on the doing”. He identified discretion as a key element of being a leader and a thinker: The most powerful element of our profession is discretion. And discretion by definition is a thinking process. So, if you can’t, if you can’t accept that discretion is the most powerful and impactful aspect of the policing profession and that is mainly in the gray matter that’s connected to your heart. You’re not going to go particularly far or do particularly well in policing.
Another Chief used a hockey analogy: What made Gretsky a good hockey player is that he could see where the puck was going. In policing, you’re always trying to focus on the puck. Where is the puck going? What’s ahead. You need to be able to navigate the political systems. You need to understand what you’re navigating. So, understanding the process and how it works is absolutely critical to success. You’ve got to make sure you have the data, so you’re actually influenced in the right way and you’re not just the police chief here making shit up or blowin’ it out your ass. We’ve got Police Chiefs out there right now that are tryin’ to run their police service on how many fricken twitter likes they get. Social media is great. I use it to push positives. But at the end of the day, don’t run your organization based on that crap.
This perspective was echoed by a police leader with responsibility for vast rural and remote areas in a Canadian province: Do you wait until there is a crisis? Do you wait until you’re provided with a prescription? You need to get out ahead of it. You need to anticipate. What could you have done pre- emptively? A good police leader will anticipate what could be done ahead of time. I anticipate that the police are going to be asked to do more. Does a police leader wait until there is a prescriptive direction or does the police leader see that a train collision is going to happen and gets out in front of it. When we see trends happening, such as Missing and Murdered [Indigenous] Women and Girls, we don’t need a whole recitation of what we should have done better. We should have been doing all of those things at the outset, before it happened. A police leader will anticipate what needs to be done and what could be done better. You can’t just keep watching the waves coming. You can’t just watch the collision coming at the intersection. You have to get out in front of it. With respect to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples: you have to prioritize it. Spend time rebuilding trust.
Taking ideas and vision from thought to action was identified by one Chief as a major challenge: At the end of the day, you got to have a mechanism for implementation. You need data, a “what works centre”, evaluation, someone to sell the deal, and fiscal resources. You have to know how the system works before you can implement.
The importance of localizing solutions was also noted by a Chief: When you think of the McDonald’s in Japan and you think of the McDonald’s in Canada, you know what? The cooking was the same, the accountability systems are the same. The sign’s the same, the clown’s the same, but the menu is always different. You have to have a local menu to meet the local needs. So, it’s not a cookie cutter approach.
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The Role of Training and Education One of the police leaders lamented that training may be wasted if it is not provided to the right persons in the organization at the right time of their career: “Some agencies will send people in the last couple of years of their careers and that’s really a shame because that’s a waste of money”. Another commented on how their view of advanced education had changed: I never ever believed before in advanced education as a police leader. I didn’t think I needed a degree to do this job. I really firmly believed that your skills are acquired through your practical practise of those skills in policing. Until I did my Masters and I learned a lot about thinking. I thought I was a critical thinker going into my Masters but I became a better critical thinker.
The Chief of a major urban police service offered a perspective on education for police leaders: We call ourselves a profession we’re not one that has requirement for continuous education, continuous improvement. We expect, and almost feel entitled to any training development we get, has to be on the job and compensated. I’ve listened to nurses and teachers talk about when they have to go do a course, it’s on their time, quite often on their dime. We’ve become a very lazy profession, if a profession at all.
This police leader noted the weak relationship between academia and the field of policing in Canada: We have a very apathetic academia institution and an apathetic policing institution. We do not want you to study us in way to help us and, with very rare exceptions, we don’t actually think we need to be studied. In the United States, not broadly but in pockets, there are brilliant relationships involving progressive thinking leaders and progressive academic institutions. It’s amazing where you see that come together. think that’s where Canada has let down thinking policing. We haven’t had a thoughtful relationship with our academic institutions.
Another police leader noted the work on high-level committees as an area where aspiring leaders can learn and experience different ways of thinking, stating, “I co- chaired a committee of federal, provincial, and territorial deputy ministers. They taught me everything I needed to know about the government system”. A Chief who had experience and success in the private sector highlighted the importance of this factor in developing thinking police leaders, stating, “When you’re training the Police Chiefs tomorrow, give them some business skills, second them on their success. Develop them at a young age. Give them projects. Give them experiences”.
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Creating Thinkers in the Police Organization A Chief pointed out the importance of creating thinkers and fostering leadership not only at the senior management team level but throughout the ranks down to the patrol level: How do you create an environment? Do you give them a twelve-unit, on-line training course become a thinker? These new officers, how do you identify them and then nurture them. We must have an eye on persons all the way down to the patrol supervisor level of somebody who has elements of being a thinker. How do you create the environment where that can be, you know, they can build that core competency up?
This Chief highlighted the importance of curiosity and innovation: I think some of those things that we don’t really measure when we hire people is that whole curiosity piece, that whole innovation piece. You want those people that are looking for a deeper understanding. And not necessarily just in the academic sense, but in the practical sense, what does that mean to make my job different and better? And if I do that, how does it make it a better experience? So, I’d say that curiosity piece.
Moreover, the importance of hiring the right sworn and non-sworn talent in the organization: I have more talent here now than I had [in government]. I have a Doctorate in Data Modelling, a doctorate mathematician. I’ve got two Epidemiologists. Three economists. I have a, a Public Health Doctorate data expert. We have probably the two best I.T. guys that I could find in policing that we went out and recruited. They’re really going to push my police talent. want people who that are going to challenge the status quo, but in a meaningful, thoughtful manner that aren’t going to be disrespectful. So, you need talent to actually create the change. So, we’ve really focused on that.
This leader continued, noting that “They are going to push my police talent in a good way. But they all get along are they are all starting to challenge each other”. Another police leader recalled that when they were a constable, their sergeant had a significant impact on their development as a leader: You have to do the little things well. Early in my career, a Sgt. taught me to pay attention to detail. He was particular about appearance. I hope that the leadership qualities that I have become infectious. You also have to remember to go back and water the seeds you’ve planted.
This leader, an RCMP Chief Superintendent, shared his philosophy on assuming command of a department: [My predecessor] was an excellent leader, but my vision, my effort when I assumed command of [ ] detachment was to leave it in better shape than when he left it to me. It would have been easy to carry on with the same programs, the status quo. But we changed some things
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Going Forward The responses of the Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs reveal several key factors that contribute to a police leader being a thinker and the challenges that police culture often poses to alter the thinking that occurs within a police service. The police leaders who contributed to this discussion displayed thinking skills as well as having strategies to implement their ideas and vision. Regardless of the specific contingencies in a police service’s operational environment, police leaders can have a significant impact on both the dynamics within their organization and on the delivery of services to the communities they serve. Outstanding questions about police leaders as thinkers include the following: • What are the organizational factors in police services that create police thinkers? • Are the traditional attributes ascribed to police leaders relevant in the context of twenty-first-century policing and the creation of police thinkers? • What competencies are required for a police thinker? • How much does the personality of individual police leaders impact their ability to be a thinker? • Are there best practices and lessons learned from the experiences of police leaders that would provide insights into the qualities of police leaders as thinkers? • How does one put together the right recipe of education, experience and exposure to develop police leaders as thinkers? Features of successful police leaders include not standing on the sidelines but rather viewing themselves as part of the problem and part of the solution. There is a willingness to take risks, challenge the system, make mistakes and learn and improve. Effective police leaders “own” decisions that had negative outcomes and consequences. Police thinkers know that it is important to first “prepare the head for change and then the feet”. In many respects, the transformational leadership demonstrated by police thinkers is not taught, but rather discovered. There are several themes that emerged from the discussions with Canadian police leaders about police leaders as thinkers: • A police leader’s creativity and curiosity may lead to innovation and ideas that may result in failure, but these experiences contribute to becoming a police thinker. • Leadership thinking is enhanced by a strong surrounding team. A strong team pushes the leader to think and they challenge each other as well. • Experience in the private sector can contribute to a police leader being an innovate thinker and to thinking outside the public sector realm. Being outside the culture of the police service and the public service may mitigate obstacles to creative thought. • Police leaders who are thinkers never let a good crisis go to waste; rather they use it to drive change and to facilitate officers to think differently. • Police leaders work in different environments that require different types of thinking, adaptation and flexibility.
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Appendix A: Police Leaders as Thinkers Project Interview Topics 1. In your view, (a) What are the attributes of a police leader as a thinker? (b) How do we tell whether a police leader is a thinker? 2. What/who were the major influences in your personal and professional life that have influenced how you think as a police leader? 3. How important is it for leaders to be thinkers? Can one be a leader without being a thinker? 4. Would you characterize most police leaders as being risk adverse? –– If so, why do you think that is the case? 5. What is the process that you engage in when thinking about a long-standing problem or issue? 6. How have you been able to avoid (or have you been able to avoid) being restricted by the culture of policing which it might be argued often does not support innovation? 7. Police leaders often have ideas but are unable to action them. –– What strategies do you use to increase the likelihood that your ideas will come to fruition? –– Move from blue sky to implementation? –– How do you secure and sustain buy-in? Within and outside the department? 8. Does being a thinker require skill in the art of compromise? If yes, in what way? 9. In your view, are there risks associated with being a police thinker? If so, what are they? 10. How do you help others in the organization become thinkers? Is this a skill that can be learned and passed on? Or is it innate? 11. What lessons have you learned about the factors that facilitate or hinder “thinking”, “acting” and “succeeding” in implementing ideas?
References Antonakis, J. and R.J. House. 2014. “Instrumental Leadership: Measurement and Extension of Transformational-Transactional Leadership Theory.” The Leadership Quarterly, 25(4), 746-771. Cotton, D. and T.G. Coleman. 2010. “Canadian Police Agencies and Their Interactions with Persons with a Mental Illness: A Systems Approach,” Police Practice and Research. 11(4), 301-314. Duxbury, L., and C. Higgins. 2012. Caring for and About Those Who Serve: Work-Life Conflict and Employee Well-being Within Canada’s Police Departments. Ottawa and London, ON: Carleton University; The University of Western Ontario. Retrieved from https://sprott.carleton. ca/wp-content/uploads/Duxbury-Higgins-Police2012_fullreport.pdf
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Environics Research. 2021. Toronto’s Next Chief of Police: Public Consultations. Toronto: Toronto Police Services Board. Retrieved from https://environics.ca/content-access/ content-access-torontos-next-chief-of-police-public-consultations/ Griffiths, C.T. 2020. Canadian Police Work. 5th ed. Toronto: TopHat Monocle. Griffiths, C.T. and T. Stamatakis. 2012. The Economics of Policing: A Closer Look. Ottawa: Canadian Police Association. Hassell, K.D., C.A. Archbold, and A.J. Stichman. 2011. “Comparing the Workplace Experiences of Male and Female Police Officers: Examining Workplace Problems, Stress, Job Satisfaction and Consideration of Career Change,” International Journal of Police Science and Management, 13(1), 37–53. Jacobs, T.O. and E. Jacques. 1990. “Military Executive Leadership.” In K.E. Clark and M.B. Clark, eds. Measures of Leadership. West Orange, NJ: Leadership Library of America. 281-295. Kim, W.C. and R. Mauborgne. 2006. “Tipping Point Leadership.” Harvard Business Review on Leading Through Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. 19-44. Kingshott, B.F. 2006. “The Role of Management and Leadership Within the Context of Police Service Delivery.” Criminal Justice Studies, 19(2), 121-137. Little, S. and N. Garcha. 2021. “Vancouver Police Chief Hears Call for His Ouster as Systemic Racism Debate Lands at Police Board.” globalnews.ca. June 24. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/7979590/vancouver-police-chief-hears-call-for-his-ouster-as-systemic-racism- debate-lands-at-police-board/ Mackoff, R. 2019. “Sources of Stress for Police Leaders.” Presentation. Delta, B.C. Marcoux, J. and K. Nicholson. 2018. “Deadly Force: Fatal Encounters with Police in Canada, 2000-2017.” Retrieved from https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform-custom/deadly- force Martin, R. 2007. “How Successful Leaders Think.” Harvard Business Review. 2—9. Montano, D., A. Reeske, F. Franke et al. 2017. “Leadership, Followers’ Mental Health and Job Performance in Organizations: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis from an Occupational Health Perspective,” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(3), 327-350. Montgomery, R. and C.T. Griffiths. 2017. Contemporary Policing Responsibilities. Ottawa: Public Safety Canada. Research Summary. Retrieved from https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/ pblctns/2017-s006/2017-s006-en.pdf Morgeson, F. P. 2005. “The External Leadership of Self-Managing Teams: Intervening in the Context of Novel and Disruptive Events.” Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(3), 497–508. Murphy, C. 2012. “Canadian Police and Policing Policy, Post 9/11.” In K. Ismaili, J. Sprott, and K. Varma (Eds.). Canadian Criminal Justice Policy: Contemporary Perspectives. Toronto: Oxford. 5-29. Porporino, F. 2018. “Developments and Challenges in Probation Practice: Is There a Way Forward in Establishing Effective and Sustainable Probation?” European Journal of Probation, 10(1), 76-95. Richards, D. and S. Engle. 1986. “After the Vision: Suggestions to Corporate Visionaries and Vision Champions.” In J.D. Adams, ed. Transforming Leadership. Alexandria, VA: Miles River Press. 199-214. Schein, E.H. 1992. Organizational Culture and Leadership. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Santa Maria, A., C. Wolter, B. Guys, D. Kleiber, and B. Reeneberg. 2020. “Reducing Work-Related Burnout Among Police Officers: The Impact of Job Rewards and Health-Oriented Leadership,” The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 94(3). Retrieved from https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0032258X20946805 Shields, R. 2018. Police Mental Health: A Discussion Paper. Toronto: Canadian Association of Mental Health. Retrieved from https://www.camh.ca/-/media/files/ pdfs---public-policy-submissions/police-mental-health-discussion-paper-oct2018-pdf Stogdill, J.K. and A.E. Coons. 1957. “Development of the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire.” In R.M. Stogdill and A.E. Coons, eds. Leader Behavior: Its Description and Measurement. Columbus, OH: Bureau of Business Research, Ohio State University. 6-38.
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Subramanian, R. and L. Arzy. 2021. “State Policing Reform Since George Floyd’s Murder.” brennancenter.org. May 21. Retrieved from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ research-reports/state-policing-reforms-george-floyds-murder Yancey-Bragg, N. 2020. “More Than a Dozen Police Chiefs Faced Backlash – and Left – After George Floyd’s Death. Here’s a List.” usatoday.com. September 9. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/09/ george-floyd-death-police-chiefs-fired-resign-abruptly-retire-list/5755934002/ Wilson-Bates, F. 2008. Lost in Transition: How a Lack of Capacity in the Mental Health System is Failing Vancouver’s Mentally Ill and Draining Police Resources, Vancouver: Vancouver Police Department. Retrieved from https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/lbrr/archives/cnmcs- plcng/ cn30371-eng.pdf
Police Leaders as Thinkers: Interview with Chief Theresa Tobin, Chief of Interagency Operations, NYPD John A. Eterno
This chapter is about Chief Theresa Tobin who is the epitome of a police leader as a thinker. She earned her doctorate from the University at Albany (SUNY), one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning for criminal justice. She has an outstanding career, is a 9/11 first responder, and is highly respected. This chapter is divided into two sections. The first describes police leadership. My thoughts on this are based on my research and leadership as a police captain in the New York City Police Department (NYPD). In general terms, I have found that leaders who operate with the utmost respect for their underlings are the best. That is, they lead through service and example to those below. While this is seemingly a contradiction, the best leaders see themselves as servants to those they command. They have humility and compassion yet, when necessary, they demand the utmost from officers as they do in themselves. The second is an interview with one of the most respected leaders in the NYPD, Chief Theresa Tobin. She is an elite member of NYPD being a scholar, a woman, and a true leader. She is an example of excellent leadership in her role as one of the elite 3-star chiefs of the NYPD.
What Makes the Best Police Leader? In my book with Dr. Eli Silverman The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation, we outline how some police leaders operate especially in the modern, performance management era. Importantly, we speak of leaders whose main method The author would like to thank his graduate student Allan Drew for assistance with this chapter J. A. Eterno (*) Molloy University, Rockville Centre, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_2
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of motivating others is fear. That is, they embarrass, berate, and yell at underlings publicly shaming them. In this way they hope to get better performance. Generally, this is very counterproductive to getting the behavior desired. Subordinates are likely to react in a resentful, secretive, and angry way to such treatment. They may try to find a workaround or, in an attempt to avoid such treatment again, they simply do not tell the supervisor what is going on or, worse, they lie, change reports, and even avoid the supervisor altogether, if possible. Such bully bosses do not engender respect and may lead to a dysfunctional organizational culture. Experts in police supervision are clear that motivation by fear is not effective leadership and often leads to unwanted behavior. For example, Iannone, Iannone, and Bernstein (2009), who examine the issue of reprimanding subordinates, state: The supervisor should never lose his temper and become angry or hostile when reprimanding subordinates, nor should he exaggerate and overstate the reason for the criticism. Indeed, effective communication skills, combined with effective interpersonal skills, will allow him to “punish without drawing blood.” … The employee should be given an opportunity to make a positive response concerning the issue and to save face. … A “soft,” intelligent approach rather than a “hard” one tends to reduce antagonism and resistance to criticism, the object of which is to bring about improvement, not to produce resentment and hostility. (Iannone et al., 2009, p. 41)
Furthermore, Iannone et al. (2009, p. 41) explicitly discuss basic supervisory behavior, “There are much more effective tools of leadership than condemnation, criticism, or punitive action. The supervisor should follow the adage, ‘Commend in public but criticize in private.’” Leaders need to have the Christian virtue of humility. They should not be arrogant and filled with pride about their position or themselves, rather, a healthy sense of modesty combined with a confidence in one’s experiences, training, and ability. Leadership through service is the penultimate way to get a desired behavior. Leading by example (it should never do as I say, not as I do). The leader must see oneself as the servant of those being commanded. The leader motivates by inspiring, not by demanding obedience. While those who are motivated by fear may get the job done (albeit poorly, surreptitiously, or minimally), the inspired subordinate will not only get the job done but will do it willingly and even add to it as they feel a part of the process. Leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are inspirational. People do not follow because they must follow; they follow because they are motivated. Throngs join the cause because they see the truth in what is being said. Those that willingly follow understand their situation and relate to the leader. For police officers, their role in the democratic process is a way to inspire. Packer’s (1968) understanding of the dual models for the criminal justice process is instructive. Many police leaders are very shortsighted and see their role as mainly crime fighting. This, however, misses what is likely the key role of police – protecting the rights of those in society. This is where many police leaders simply do not understand. CompStat and broken windows policing as done in New York City which focuses nearly entirely on crime fighting fails miserably to understand the populace or the social contract. The stop and frisk issue in New York City is
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particularly instructive. In Floyd et al. v. City of New York (2013), the NYPD was found liable for unconstitutional and racist stops. While this may not have been done consciously, the stubbornness of leaders under stop and frisk was viewed as necessary behavior for crime control. Even if it was, police must work within the law to enforce the law. Nevertheless, it was not legal or constitutional. Violating the rights of New Yorkers is no way to police a city. Returning to Packer’s (1968) dichotomy, crime control can be thought of as an assembly line. That is, arrest to conviction is done swiftly without much due process. The due process model, on the other hand, is like an obstacle course. Officers must face roadblocks and cannot do as they wish with suspects. For example, they cannot beat confessions out of suspects or even question the suspect’s their rights. Officers may have to get search warrants rather than immediately searching a home. These obstacles are critical to protecting basic rights. The key to this is that there is a tradeoff to the two models. The best officers understand that it is easy to stop crime. We simply disrespect rights and arrest at will and so forth. They understand that such a society is reprehensible. They understand that there is no choice here but to find a better way. This requires hard work, innovation, and working with community’s especially minority neighborhoods for which police have a checkered past to say the least. The best leaders aim to gain the respect of all communities and officers. The job of police, then, is not an easy one. They must navigate a path balancing crime control and due process. Complicating matters officers are under tremendous pressure from numerous areas. According to Eterno (2021), we can divide the various influences on police behavior into nine basic categories that are not mutually exclusive: law, political, media, supervisors, whistleblowers, unions or fraternal organizations, peers or police culture, community, and others. The influence of the law can be complicated (Eterno 2003, 2006, 2007; Eterno et al. 2016a). Whether the law is explicated in bright-line rules, for example, can have an impact on officer behavior. If the law is explained in a way that is understandable, officers are more likely to obey those restrictions. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) contained a clear rule that nearly every officer knows, if you have people in custody and officers are going to interrogate them, then the officers must read them their rights. The law, then, does have an impact on officers. The influence of political power can be quite direct. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s support for stop and frisk policies influenced officers’ behaviors. It can also be indirect such as through another influence such as the media. That is, officers may read a story about politics and be influenced by it. The Black Lives Matter movement is an example of how officers can be influenced not only by politics but by the media as well. Supervisors influence officers by sharing expectations and enforcing them. This can sometimes be in the form of quotas such as how many summonses are written but also through simple things such as the sharing of stories. About what happened to officers who do not listen and so forth. Peers have a great influence on officers especially with respect to the police culture. This is due to the dangerousness of the work environment. Officers must rely on other officers for backup. Therefore, they do not want to alienate fellow officers.
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This leads to a powerful influence known as the police culture. Officers do not like to “rat out” other officers due to this. The euphemism of the “blue wall of silence” can be attributed to police culture as well. Whistleblowers can also influence officers. Adil Polanco, Adrian Schoolcraft, Robert Borelli, and many others had a powerful influence on officers. In the case of Schoolcraft, who was forcibly hospitalized by the NYPD, some officers were highly influenced by the case. Indeed, some officers used his name as a verb as in, “I do not want to be Schoolcraft.” Fraternal organizations also have an influence on officers. What they say can make a real difference. Officers may do “sick-outs” or summons slowdowns or simply go to the organization for advice. There are countless other influences. Regardless, the best leaders understand the multifarious influences on officers. Police leaders have such influences on their behavior. It is the best leader who is able to navigate all the pressures and properly balances them to get the job done properly.
Interview With Chief Theresa Tobin, NYPD Chief Theresa Tobin is a 3-star chief (a super-chief) in the New York City Police Department. She is currently Chief of Interagency Operations. She is the highest- ranking female officer in the NYPD. She has also won the Medal of Honor for risking her own life to help others during the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. Our interview took place on Wednesday, September 29. We spoke for about a half hour with my graduate assistant Allan Drew also present. Chief Tobin has made herself available for additional conversation and clarification as needed. Chief Tobin is exceedingly busy, and I was very appreciative of all the time and effort she gave to this. The interview For the first question I asked Chief Tobin: What is your philosophy as a leader? What is your approach to getting people to do what you need them to do? Chief Tobin’s response: I think it is really important that when we ask people to do something that they know why we are asking them to do it. We should try to get buy-in because if you don’t, your chances of success are not great. You must engage them. Let them see the benefits of what they are doing. They are more likely to do what you want when they see the work will be fruitful. One person was talking about how the NYPD could do a better job of getting cell phone numbers. This is important because a pilot project indicated that when you text or call, people are more likely to go to court or make other appearances. However, to get compliance we should not demand the cell phone number. You want to limit any negative interaction. The way you ask is very important.
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The second question: Your education background includes a PhD in criminal justice. As a leader, does teaching and scholarship influence you? Do you read up on anything? Chief Tobin’s response: I would say this about scholarship. I think what’s wonderful about my teaching at Molloy College is that it keeps me very current in the academic world of what’s new, what’s innovative, what’s working, and what research has recently been done. So, I think scholarship plays a very important part, because you want to bring the most new and innovative ideas to the table. When you’re in leadership and also open up the opportunity to have people bring their own scholarship and their own innovative ideas to the table as well. John Eterno: Do you have people who find out what’s going on with respect to scholarship or best practices regarding innovative ideas such as body cameras or something? Chief Tobin: Absolutely! I think that’s one of the wonderful benefits of being in my current position and actually for the last two positions. It’s about collaboration. We find out what is happening around the nation. How other agencies are addressing crime victims and other issues is so important. There are great programs that we examine. For example, there was a crime victim representative in prisons. Other programs that hire an outside agency that has expertise with people who have been traumatized. We can insert them and try similar programs with the NYPD. So, I think scholarship plays a huge role in my work here in terms of seeing what other jurisdictions are doing. John Eterno: I know you must attend meetings. Do you go to anything like the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) either local or nationwide? Chief Tobin’s response: I was supposed to go to major chiefs, but that got cancelled. But locally, if I see someone presenting on a topic of interest, I will attend. For example, something like DNA and forensics interest me. What are the implications of new technology? Even a roundtable at a local college might attract my attention and I will attend. Also, local meetings of the American Association of Professionals in Law Enforcement (AAPLE) would also be something I would attend. They often have phenomenal speakers, so I try to attend. John Eterno: I would like to get your perspective as a woman in policing. I think it’s important as a chief and a woman to understand your experiences in this area. Are there negative and positive aspects to this? Is being a leader as a woman affected you either negatively or positively or both or none at all? Chief Tobin’s response: Being a woman is my only perspective. I don’t know what this would be like for a man, but one of the things that I have observed is I think it’s much easier for a woman to understand the role of a supervisor. When
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women become bosses in the NYPD, they have other experiences that help them especially in terms of the transition to supervisor. I’m not talking about how they do better on tests. Rather, when you have a man and a woman who have both passed the examination, they are being promoted and they have already had a different set of experiences. I’ll use myself as an example: As a woman I would walk into a lunchroom and the conversation would stop. This is usually because guys are engaging in their talk, and it will stop as soon as a woman walks into the room. How you react to this is all perspective. I always thought that was a sign of respect. It’s like turning the channel on television to another that might be offensive to a newcomer. But the thing is that, as a woman you’re used to that response. When men are bosses and get the same response, they don’t understand. As a sergeant you now walk into the police lunchroom or the officer’s lunchroom everyone stops and looks at you. The conversation stops. For a female who does the same thing, we were used to that. It has less impact, where I think it’s tough for men who get promoted to understand. For men, who go from being one of the guys to all of a sudden they’re not invited out for the drink, they are suddenly kept at a distance. Whereas I think women were never part of being one of the guys and so you don’t see that. Women adjust to the new role of supervisor so much better, in part, because of this. I recall a newly promoted male sergeant saying I used to go out with these guys. They were like my friends. Now that the men get promoted, they are suddenly in this new position that they have trouble understanding. It is not that they do not want to be friends, but they are respecting your new role. I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s somewhat easier for women in terms of rising through the ranks. There are other issues too. When I was in a precinct that you served in also, there were difficulties for females as well. In that particular place, there were no locker rooms for women sergeants. Being the first female sergeant carries with it certain difficulties. They have to find a locker room for you. In this precinct I happened to have to share a locker room with a higher rank. So right away, though I think sometimes it just puts you at such a disadvantage. This other supervisor feels put out. Think about it, I have a key to his locker room. I’ll never forget him when he said, “listen sweetie I’m living at this precinct and I’m going through a divorce.” And I said, “no problem, I just need to come in and get changed.” He says, “I’m okay with that. You can leave your stuff in there.” The commanding officer had me put on midnights so that just totally upset this guy’s locker room plans. I think this may have been done by the commanding officer to get this guy out of the precinct. But suppose that wasn’t the case, I’m immediately displacing someone out of their space. Those are the things that happen. That immediately sets you up for failure. You’re getting off on the wrong foot. I think part of that has been to make that adjustment. I remember going to my first women in policing conference in around 1986 at the Police Academy. The guest speaker was a city official who was a female. She got there and had to go to the restroom and freshen up before going on stage. She is advised it is right over here. She walks in and quickly comes out. She said I’m sorry I walked into the men’s room.
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And they tell her, no, that’s the women’s room. She says, but there were urinals in there. The Police Academy personnel advise that that is because when the police academy was built, there were no females so that’s the way it is. When she took the stage, she made the comment that the police department is not removing those urinals, it was a way of an organization saying to women, we don’t really expect you to stay. So, we’re not going to be bothered taking the urinals out. I thought that was a really interesting comment. You know, of course, the NYPD’s solution was by the end of the day, all the urinals were all boxed up. John Eterno: As a leader of your experience, do you have any difficulties when you order a man to do something as opposed to a woman? Did everyone respect the role that you were in? Was there any pushback or something along those lines? Chief Tobin: I think the advantage of being in a paramilitary organization is that it’s clear who you are. Your insignia, your uniform, and so forth are so obvious to all that it minimizes such problems. However, when I’m in plain clothes I do remember some issues especially when I was younger and not as familiar to everyone. I’d walk into the room and people would assume that I was the secretary, or that I was there to take notes. I was actually a sergeant and they would be surprised. Even now the people who I don’t know will call and they’ll say something like “I’m good friends with him (meaning me).” My staff here will explain that that is obviously not true since Chief Tobin is a female. I might even have issues driving into headquarters. If I’m in plain clothes, there is an assumption that I am just the driver for someone else, not that I am actually the person that is entitled to the space. It does take some time for that mindset to change, but I think that because the bottom line is the vast majority of the job is men. Women make up about 20%. In fact, it is more like 18% so there are realities that make it understandable as to why it happens. John Eterno: Do you feel like you’re a role model for other women? Chief Tobin: I don’t because I think there were people that went before me. You know, like Joanne Jaffe and Diana Pizzuti. The further I get in my career; I realize that I am the one that started in the late 70s and early 80s. It is a question of whether you are the first one in this rank. What should happen is you’re wanting to just say you’re going to appoint the most competent person to the position, and if the person happens to be female, fine and if not that’s fine too. John Eterno: I want to switch the topic to CompStat. And just get your opinions on that. Also, broken windows, the whole thing that was done by the NYPD. What are your thoughts on how that’s done? Would you do it any differently or would you do it the same kind of way that things have been done?
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Chief Tobin: I think there are a couple of areas where we could really improve, and one is we have so much data and don’t necessarily connect all those dots. And I think that we can certainly do that, and I think technology has also raised the level of knowledge. We have body cams. Why aren’t we using body cams? But I think we’ve gotten off course, in the sense of we want to hold people accountable. But to your point, it becomes a numbers game, so I just have to keep my numbers low, but you may not be addressing the real issues. You’re just finding your numbers are okay, but nothing gets solved, and I think one of the reasons that we began the concept of Compstat was to solve issues. Say you’re in Brooklyn North and you have an issue with collaborations with the community. If you are the CO of the nine oh you don’t seem to have as much of a problem because your numbers look good, but you need to be held accountable for what’s happening there. It should be more about thinking of how we change and deal with the problem. It should be more of a learning process. There should also be a sharing of information, not a game of gotcha because you can really get anyone with something. I think that sometimes headquarters in particular has tools that are available which are so much better that patrol can end up being in a difficult situation. John Eterno: Yes, I have been to Compstat meetings. I remember some meeting where the CO was very embarrassed. Do you know Chief XXX? Chief Tobin: Sure. John Eterno: We talked about Compstat and why these things would occur. He knew how it got and he would say how it was simply that person’s turn to get embarrassed. That’s just the way it was. Chief Tobin: And it’s humiliating for the person that that happens to. John Eterno: I agree. Chief Tobin: I don’t think that’s productive. John Eterno: I agree with you, I think it’s just the numbers and then you’re not looking at people. It’s a lot of issues with that for sure. I also wanted to talk to you about the budget cuts. I know it’s hard in a short conversation, but there is a lot going on politically with the police department. It must get difficult, going through a billion dollars of cuts and so forth. What are your thoughts? Also, with respect to this, in your view, has the Black Lives Matter movement affected you? In sum, as a leader at the NYPD, how do you motivate a typical officer or a new officer? Even recruiting must be difficult.
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Chief Tobin: I really wish they had not used the words, “Defund the police.” Better is “reallocating” because really what happened was not taking away a billion dollars, but it was actually reallocated. For example, we’ve given money to the Department of Homeless Services because you’re the people that should really be addressing the homeless situation. And then you take another pot of money, and you give it over to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and say to them you’re the experts in mental health here’s money. Let’s develop teams that respond to the calls that we get for emotionally disturbed people (EDP’s). Now our problem is they did the same with street vendors. We have Consumer Affairs; they are the holders of the enforcement arm for Vending. The problem that we’re seeing is that people don’t want to do the job without some police presence. So, I think part of it is to come to that middle ground. I think people have had a really hard time in politics to say, oh, maybe we made a mistake, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to totally get the police out of the homeless situation, because we’re 24 seven. You know from your own experience, John, we never say there’s something we can’t do. We never said, like you know, remember the meetings like in 1990 how we got to count the homeless, for the census. What other agencies said is we’ll figure it out but it’s difficult. I think that it’s a tough time for recruitment. It takes so many candidates to get a few. Say, 10,000 to get 1000. We need many to take the exam, but we know that we only have one in 10 that actually make it through the process. The other piece that I think we’re taking a big hit on is, we have a lot of legacy people, and I don’t think that people commonly on the job are saying to their children it’s a great job. I think we’re losing a lot there. The number of retirements has become astronomical. It wasn’t only just the pure numbers because right now we’re down 2500 officers. Because of the headcount they kept reducing it, we didn’t hire for two classes. The other problem with that is we don’t have the resources to address everything that needs to be addressed. Furthermore, not only is it just the number but it’s the experience of walking out the door which I think that we are going to be feeling for a very long time. John Eterno: My graduate student, Allan Drew, will ask you a few questions. Allan Drew: I noticed that you have a lot of degrees and a lot of educational background. As you progress through your education, what made you want to take the next steps towards doing another masters and, then, achieving a PhD. Chief Tobin: I think one is that the police department in my case was offering the opportunity, so I think the opportunity presented itself, and I was more than willing to take advantage of it. The other piece, and I think this may be tied to being a woman and wanting to advance in leadership, is I didn’t want to be second-guessed, and I think when you have those credentials, you’re less likely to be second-guessed.
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Allan Drew: Great point, as the architect of the NYPD co-response team, what led you to do this? Chief Tobin: What led to the formation of that, and it was a collaborative initiative with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is that the criminal justice system had become the default mental health system. We were having officers be the first responders to people in mental health crises and we were not training them enough. We weren’t saying if you walk in the room, and, say, the mother is telling you that he’s on lithium that may be prescribed because he gets a frantic. We needed to train more. I think we were not forthcoming with the tools that we could have given officers in terms of training. So, we went around the country and we looked at what other departments were doing in terms of training their offices and mental health calls and then we formulated our own. So at least offices, who were responding, would have more things in their tool belt and be better equipped to handle the situation. You know, with co-response we put two offices and clinician in the car and what we do is we don’t do 911 response, but we do pre and post crisis and we have found that there is a significant. This will help decrease the interactions that those individuals have with the criminal justice system when we connect them to services. Allan Drew: What other types of collaborations are you working on? Chief Tobin: There’s tons of projects. I’m involved in gun violence reduction. There’s this very small percentage of people that are committing the vast majority of violent crime and with bail reform we are just facing unprecedented levels of people being repeatedly arrested for the same offense and I’m talking loaded firearms; I’m talking about all sorts of things. They are often released on their own reconnaissance. And there’s no consequences to their actions. We have identified shooters at scenes. One of the initial initiatives I’m involved in puts all five district attorneys, the Eastern and Southern Federal Districts, as well as probation/ parole, and the sheriff’s department. The entire City and New York State are all in the same room. We go over the people that have been arrested in the previous 24 hours and share information which surprisingly is not done on a major level. That’s an example of a huge collaboration that I’m involved in now. Allan Drew: Is there anything like this in the literature? Chief Tobin: We were the first in the country to do this and it’s funded. The height of the program is High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). You can check their website for literature. This is a commonsense approach to gun violence. Allan Drew: All of your published works that you’ve personally worked on, what messages do you want to convey?
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Chief Tobin: One is mental health because that’s near and dear to my heart, and I think that we ask offices to do a tremendous amount, without giving them the tools to do it. Working in collaboration with health departments to see how we best address issues is something that I’ve continued to do research on. John Eterno: Any final thoughts? Chief Tobin: I think that we at NYPD are in this unique situation now because we’re 24 seven and so many agencies aren’t. We can do more with affirmative outreach with other agencies. NYPD is the gorilla in the room. We can do joint operations and whether it’s street cleanups for the homeless or something else. John Eterno: I want to thank you for your time. Chief Tobin: Allan, I can send you materials if you need. Any other questions or assistance, feel free. Thank you. End of interview
Thoughts on Chief Tobin and Policing Chief Tobin is clearly a well-informed and enlightened police leader. Overall, Chief Tobin shed light on how policing could move forward in these difficult times especially for law enforcement. It has been a time of transition for police agencies. What I see happening today through leaders like Chief Tobin is a true problem-solving exercise that was a missed opportunity during the height of the community policing era of the 1980s and early 1990s. In the community policing period, there were various so-called community poling programs that simply failed and did not live up to their promises of proactive policing. The programs were poorly implemented. At NYPD these programs were so mismanaged and supervised that they were doomed to failure. For example, officers were given the power to make their own hours. Few, if any, officers decided to work when the crime was taking place – midnights and weekends in particular went woefully understaffed. While such programs had good intentions, the lack of data- driven solutions, very weak oversight, and little to no follow-up inevitably led to limited success, if any. Chief Tobin, however, has provided leadership and guidance that is not only promising but literally works. Her insights into working closely with other agencies, in particular, is precisely the fruit that the community policing era should have gathered. The gun violence reduction strategy is especially noteworthy. The utter failure of previous administrations to innovate like this is striking. The racist and unconstitutional “stop and frisk” strategy is an example of using the same old failed tactics. Simply, doubling down on such tactics that cause great community unrest and fail
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to address the problem is typical of police leaders who fail to undertake a serious review of the data. They cling closely to the same old solutions. Such programs can hardly be deemed helpful. In fact, it was well-known at the time that forcible stops were only successful in getting an exceedingly small fraction of guns off the streets – indeed, only 0.1% of stops led to a gun arrest. When the NYPD went from approximately 100,000 stops to 700,000 in a few short years, alarm bells should have been sounding loudly. Instead, more and more of the same old strategy was stubbornly insisted on. This was true even when far more successful policing efforts were well- known such as working with the federal government to stop gunrunning, intensive interrogation of suspects, use of newer technologies such as advances in gun tracing, and gun buy-back programs (Eterno et al. 2016a, b). Leaders of the past simply did not take notice of their own failed policies which ultimately led to lower morale, unconstitutional behavior by police, illegal quotas, manipulation of crime reports, bullying behavior by superior officers, and many other negative behaviors (see Eterno and Silverman 2012). Some innovative ideas did come to the forefront. Joint efforts among law enforcement and even working with community partners took on added importance directly after 9/11. Joint Task Forces were created or increased so that all levels of government could fight terror. Chief Tobin, however, has taken this to the next level. She is now not only working with law enforcement but also with various city, state, and federal agencies in dealing with numerous other issues beyond terror. In this way the NYPD is partnering and bringing all resources to the table. In Australia and some other nations, they call this a “whole of government” approach. In the past many government agencies guarded their power jealousy and would not share any of their resources in fear of losing a headline or credit for their work. The leadership of Chief Tobin, nonetheless, shows that this exercise can work. I am very impressed by the ability to problem-solve and bring to bear other agency resources and expertise on various problems such as emotionally disturbed persons. Perhaps the most refreshing response from Chief Tobin is her openness about Compstat. She is clearly concerned with the way in which Compstat was used in the past as a game of “gotch.” I have noted, especially with my colleague Dr. Eli Silverman, numerous concerns with Compstat (see, e.g., Eterno and Silverman 2006, 2010a, b, 2012; Eterno et al. 2016a, b; Eterno, Verma & Silverman, 2–16). In these and other articles and books, we have documented numerous issues with Compstat. Some of our documented issues include crime report manipulation, management by fear by superior officers, illegal stop and frisk practices (for which the NYPD is currently under a court-ordered consent agreement – see Floyd et al. v. City of New York 2013), lack of transparency, a failure to listen to communities, and much more. Even recent commentary by the Captain’s Endowment Association (the union for Captain’s through Deputy Chief) has called for the end of Compstat (Moore and McCarthy 2020). I note, however, that it is not necessarily Compstat itself but the way it is operationalized. That is, it can work if used properly. Chief Tobin recognizes this. She is clearly one who understands the literature and uses data to develop a comprehensive understanding of her leadership responsibilities.
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Democratic policing is complicated. It is meant to be that way. We must properly strike a balance between due process and crime (terror) control. Police leaders like Chief Tobin are necessary to properly strike this balance.
References Eterno, John A. 2003. Policing within the Law: A Case Study of the New York City Police Department. (Praeger: Westport, CT). Eterno, John A. 2006. “Gender and Policing: Do Women Accept Legal Restrictions More than Their Male Counterparts?” Women and Criminal Justice. 18 (1/2): 49-78. Eterno, John A. 2007. “Understanding the Law on the Front Lines: The Need for Bright-Line Rules.” Criminal Law Bulletin. 43 (5): 706-725. Eterno, John A. (2021). Police Behavior and Public Understanding: Insights and Innovations. Chapter in Eterno, John A., Ben Stickle, Diana Peterson & Dilip K. Das (eds.) (2022). Police Behavior, Hiring, and Crime Fighting: An International View [Advances in Police Theory and Practice series]. CRC; Boca Raton, FL. Eterno, John A. & Eli B. Silverman 2006. “The New York City police department’s Compstat: dream or nightmare?” International Journal of Police Science and Management. 8 (3): 218-231. Eterno, John A. & Eli B. Silverman 2010a. “NYPD’s Compstat: Compare Statistics or Compose Statistics?” International Journal of Police Science and Management. 12 (3): 426-449. Eterno, John A. & Eli B. Silverman 2010b. “Understanding Police Management: A Typology of the Underside of Compstat.” Professional Issues in Criminal Justice. 5 (2&3): 11-28. Eterno J.A. & Silverman, E.B. (2012). The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation. CRC press: Boca Raton, FL. Eterno, John A., Barrow, Christine, Silverman Eli (2016a). “Forcible Stops: Police and Citizens’ Speak Out.” Public Administration Review. Published in Early View. DOI:https://doi. org/10.1111/puar.12684 Eterno, John A., Arvind Verma & Eli B. Silverman 2016b (first published on-line in 2014). “Police Manipulation of Crime Reports.” Justice Quarterly.33 (5): 811-933 DOI: https://doi.org/1 0.1080/07418825.2014.980838. Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., 959 F. Supp. 2d 540 (2013). Iannone, N.E., Iannone, M.D., and Bernstein, J. (2009). Supervision of Police 7th edition. Uper SaddleRiver: NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Moore, T. & McCarthy (2020, June 24). NYPD captains’ union calls for end of CompStat program. New York Post. Downloaded on November 3, 2021, from https://nypost.com/2020/06/24/ nypd-captains-union-calls-for-end-of-compstat-program/ Packer, Herbert L. 1968. “Two Models of Criminal Process” In Herbert L Packer Limits of Criminal Sanction, Stanford University Press. Pp. 1-12.
Police Leadership: A Learning Experience Peter Charles Kratcoski
Introduction Leadership: What Is It? The numbers of books, articles, and discussions on leaders and leadership are too numerous to count. Leadership has been defined in terms of an art, personality characteristics, “great man” for the times, and on the basis of other traits. Day and Antonakis (2018) discuss a number of theories (schools of thought) pertaining to the predominate factors associated with leadership, including the trait school, behavioral school, contingency school, relational school, skeptics-of leadership school, information-processing school, and the neo-charismatic/transformational/ visionary school. The transformational/visionary school appears to incorporate much of the thought and research completed on leadership with a focus on leaders of organizations being able to identify coming changes in an organization and prepare for these changes. Those persons who have gained national and international recognition for their leadership are generally honored on the basis of what they accomplished. Day and Antonakis (2018) note that the Context School of Leadership has gained considerable attention. They state, “contextual factors are seen to give rise to or inhibit certain leadership behaviors or their dispositional antecedents” (ibid: 12). Liden and Antonakis (2009) contend that the contextual factors can include the leader’s position in the organizational structure, the prevailing culture of the nation in which the leader resides, the gender of the leader and the followers, and organizational characteristics, among other factors. In addition, Antonakis et al. (2003)
P. C. Kratcoski (*) Department of Criminal Justice Studies, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_3
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contend that to fully understand leadership, one must take into consideration the context in which it appears, or in which it is found. In reference to police leaders, Thiagaraua et al. (2016) make a distinction between the concepts command, leadership, and management. They state, “Command refers to the legal powers or mandate given to a commander to exact compliance from subordinates, and it is tied to a specific position or rank. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence subordinates to perform their role willingly and may not be tied to a specific rank or position (i.e., no legal powers). Management, on the other hand, refers to a leader’s ability to plan, organize, and manage resources within his/her span of control” (ibid: 67). Miller (2021) lists 25 traits of effective leaders. The majority of these traits, such as serving others, purpose-driven, problem-solver, passionate, communicative, decisive, builds leadership, influential, and builds teams, can be found in most descriptions and analyses of leadership. Several others on the list that are not always recognized are builds community, builds trusting environment, resilient, accountable, vulnerable, visualizes the future, and loves learning. These traits, while applicable to any leader, are specifically pertinent to leaders of police organizations. In a survey of police officers who were asked to rank the character traits of a police leader they perceived as most important, the officers ranked conducts self with high level of discipline, demonstrates effective thinking, demonstrates leadership by example, shows passion to lead, demonstrates respect of fellow officers, demonstrates departmental core values, demonstrates professional expertise, engages in effective response to uncertain and complex problems, remains calm and collected in the face of crises (personal, departmental, or national) and leads with resilience, and is able to communicate his/her goals to promote shared understanding to the unit/department/division (Thiagaraua et al. (2016:78). Police 1 Staff (2021: 1) compiled a list of best practices for police leaders to follow in 2021, based on the statements of prominent police leaders of the past and current leaders of police organizations. The quotes included being empathetic to personnel, never being satisfied with today, keep moving ahead, and being accountable. A quote from Theodore Roosevelt, a former Police Commissioner of New York City (Police 1 Staff 2021: 1), sums up a theme, service to the community, that runs throughout the literature on police leaders. Roosevelt stated, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” A review of some of the most notable leaders of law enforcement agencies would reveal that, while their success was based on a number of factors mentioned above, it can be summarized by a comment attributed to John Fitzgerald Kennedy who said that great leaders commit to a life of learning and growth because it benefits the organization and those it serves (Miller 2021). Criteria Used by Police Leaders in Decision-Making On important matters, those involving change in the organizational structure of the department, instituting a new policy or program, a police leader would ideally consult with his/her staff, look at all of the information and research that has been completed on the matter that is being considered that requires a decision, weigh the
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benefits and costs involved, and use one’s base of knowledge and expertise in a rational decision. However, police leaders must deal with some factors that are beyond their control that may have an effect on the decisions being made. These factors include political pressure, the media, a nonsupportive public, and lack of support from the higher levels of administration within the police organization. In some instances, for example, an unexpected disruption in the community, rioting, or a natural disaster, the police leader does not have the option of taking all of the factors into consideration before making a decision. Even, under the best of circumstances, there is always the possibility that the decision made by the police leaders did not produce the results expected. The consequences of the decision that did not produce the desired results might be the police leader is defined as being ineffective, a “loser,” and there even may be a movement to have the leader replaced. Rather than admitting that decisions made on such matters as instituting new policies in police operations or establishing new crime prevention programs were not conductive to producing the results expected, some police leaders will either try to downplay their responsibility for the decisions or downplay the results of the new policies or programs instituted. Berman and Fox (2010: 3) state, “Needless to say, there are no failure parties in criminal justice.” Criminal justice officials are rarely afforded the opportunity to engage in a trial-and-error process, partly because the consequences of failure are so immediate (people can die) and partly because the media and political environment that surround the crime issue will not let them (people get fired). “Thinking” police leaders have the knowledge and experience to plan beyond the immediate situation and to be able to analyze the possible reasons for “failure” in the new policies, organizational structure, or new programs instituted. They realize that there were some factors beyond their control, and that even if the initial decision was based on sound information and facts, there may have been factors that could account for the failure of the program or organizational changes made. Furthermore, the “thinking” police leader realizes that no decision made in regard to the welfare of the police agency being led and the community being served is likely to lead to total success or total failure. Berman and Fox (2010): 115–118) in an attempt to analyze the concept “failure” note that there are several mistakes those who have the power to make decisions that could result in major changes in the organizations they lead make in regard to failure. Included in the mistakes they mention are as follows: • ‘The failure to engage in self-reflection, that is, the failure to engage in self- analysis… including discomfort or unfamiliarity with research methodology and a natural tendency to engage in cheerleading in order to protect new ideas from external attack.’ • The tendency to define success too narrowly. For example, a crime prevention program instituted in a community might not have the manifest result of a reduction in crime, but may have several latent effects such as ‘… enhancing public trust in justice, and eliminating conflict and inefficiency among criminal justice agencies.’
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• Thinking that more research will lead to purely rational, evidence-based criminal justice policies, the authors note, ‘While research can tell us a lot, very few evaluations offer the types of simple, categorical judgments about what works and what doesn’t that policymakers crave.’ • Expecting too much from criminal justice reform efforts. • Failing to factor in local politics in a decision to institute a major change. The authors note, ‘Most innovations require government support or endorsement at some level, so criminal justice reformers constantly must grapple with the political realities of elected officials and high ranking bureaucrats.’ The thrust of this chapter is that the profession of policing is in constant change and being an effective leader of a police organization requires that the person commit to a lifelong learning experience. The analysis, grounded in the relational and context theories of leadership, illustrates and provides research findings on several of the key factors that have led to major changes in police organizations and in the roles of police leaders. The majority of the decisions made by police leaders that pertain to policing matters do nor turn out to be totally correct, nor totally wrong. In matters that pertain to maintaining the current operations of a police organization and implementing changes in the organization, the thinking police leader must be able to recognize what portions of the current organization and operations should be maintained and what portions should be changed and be willing to pursuit in making the changes even if there is opposition.
The Development of Policing as a Profession Criminal justice as a distinct discipline did not develop until the latter part of the nineteenth century. Unlike the professional fields of study, such as medicine, in which the students were required to complete one or several internships before becoming a medical doctor, those who entered the justice field of study completed their education in the formal setting of a classroom. Kratcoski and Kempt (1995) note that, during the development of police organizations in the cities in the United States during the early and mid-nineteenth century, the selection of police officers and police leaders was based on the “spoils system.” Police leaders tended to be selected on the basis of who they knew, not what they knew. Revelations of widespread corruption in the police organizations led to the era of reform in the early twentieth century. This period of development of police organizations was characterized by using a knowledge basis for the selection of police officers and higher- level police officials. Civil service examinations and the requirements of a minimum level of education were several of the reforms instituted in the selection process of police officers. During the reform era, the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, also known as the Wickersham Commission (Wright 2013), was formed. The members of the Commission were selected on the basis of their expertise in one or more areas of the criminal justice system. For example, Roscoe Pound,
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an attorney who had gained prominence in the practice of law, as well as for his writings on the law, was a member of the Commission. After several years of research, the report of this Commission listed many of the shortfalls of a criminal justice system based on local control and emphasized the possibility of creating a more professional and efficient system if the law enforcement and prosecutorial functions under local jurisdiction were to become more centralized under state jurisdiction. Although many of the recommendations were never acted on, the Commission’s work and report represent an example of a collaborative effort of criminal justice and legal professionals working together for a common goal – the improvement of the justice system. It was also during the reform period that the first academic degree program in criminology was established at the University of California at Berkley. Kratcoski and Walker (1984: 103) state, “During this period August Vollmer, chief of police in Berkeley, California, became a champion of police professionalism. In cooperation with the School of Criminology at the University of California, he developed standards for police training and performance and introduced technological innovations, including fingerprinting and crime laboratory analysis of evidence. The success of his work spurred imitation, and a movement toward better police training and discipline resulted.” The emphasis on the professionalization of the police, as well as collaboration and cooperation between the police and institutions of higher education in the United States, was enhanced by the passage of the Law Enforcement Assistance Act, which provided grants to colleges and universities to establish criminal justice degree programs and offered tuition grants to students enrolled in criminal justice programs (Kratcoski 2016a). This resulted in a significant increase in communication and collaboration between justice agency practitioners and academics in such activities as research, training, and placement of students in justice agencies as interns, co-ops, and volunteers. In addition, the criminal justice system, which consisted of the law enforcement, judicial, and corrections components, now included the victims of crime.
The Professionalism of Policing The relationship between academics, community organizations, the citizenry, and justice agency practitioners has changed dramatically since the time when these organizations and police practitioners barely communicated with each other and even tended to view each other with suspicion. Many criminal justice administrators held the position that the research and theory academics completed on crime- and justice-related topics had no practical value or use for the day-to-day operations of their agencies. In addition, the value of having a higher education degree for work in the policing and corrections components of the justice system was viewed as questionable. As a result, requests by academics to complete research on topics related to operations, selection of personnel, community relations, corruption and brutality, disciplining of personnel, and other matters were generally denied. The
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administrators of many justice agencies considered their organizations to be closed institutions, that is, whatever they did and how they did it should not be communicated to anyone outside the organization. These attitudes tended to change with the passage of the Law Enforcement Assistance Act (LEAA) in 1967. With the offering of tuition grants, many of the personnel of justice agencies embraced the opportunity to attend college. Some of them viewed a higher education degree as a way to obtain a better position with the agency where they were employed. For others, attending college motivated them to make a career change and pursue a different profession (police officer to professor, police officer to attorney and judge, correctional officer to victim service advocate). Their educational experiences provided an opportunity to learn about other components of the justice system. For example, students preparing for careers in police work, corrections, and social work had the opportunity to interact with police officers, correctional workers, and social workers in the classroom, exchange ideas, and learn about other professions (Kratcoski 2017). Cordner and Shain (2016: 52) note, “Within police agencies, training came to be regarded as a very important component of justice administration with significant impacts on individual performance and organizational change. From the outside, training was often seen as a means for correcting police misconduct and for reforming the entire police institution.” Some of the individual criminal justice agencies tended to become more complex in structure and in the personnel needed in day-to- day operations. Kratcoski (2016b: 248) states, “When one considers the complexity of the criminal justice system, it is easy to understand why there is a need for a division of labor and for the personnel working in the system to have different educational and training backgrounds and skills. For example, within policing the minimum training required for sworn officers is the completion of the basic police training. The nonsworn personnel, depending on the positions they hold, may have been educated and trained for work in a variety of occupations, including business, accounting, management, computer programming, clerical and secretarial work, communications, and counseling. Some of the work positions, such as janitor, may not require any formal education and training, while other positions, such as police psychologist, attorney, or police chaplain, require a considerable amount of prior education and training for an individual to be considered qualified for the position.” Cordner and Shain (2011: 281) note that “police education and training expanded all around the world during the twentieth century and were seen as the cornerstone of police professionalism and modernization.” The authors also note that the training of police officers has become more focused on global crime problems, with such organizations as Interpol, Europol, the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), and the International Chiefs of Police (IACP) assisting in the training of police officers in various countries around the world. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers are examples of organizations that collaborate in the training of police officers and leaders of police organizations in the United States and other countries.
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Another major change in the justice system that occurred at least partially as a result of the LEAA was that justice agencies had to become more transparent. The belief of many justice administrators that the operations of the agency were not to be disclosed to the public had to change. The justice agencies that received state or federal grants for programming, equipment, training, and research were required to submit an evaluation on how the funds were used and if there were any positive effects. As a result, the agencies had to become more transparent and open to those outside, such as the mass media, academics, and the public. Over the years, with an occasional setback, criminal justice agencies opened their doors to facilitating research by academics and even employed academically trained persons in a research capacity. Most important, in regard to experiential educating and learning, justice agencies became more open in their relations with the public and with the institutions of higher education. Professors of criminal justice were allowed to organize tours of prisons, police departments, and other justice agencies, personnel from various justice agencies were invited to speak about their work to students attending criminal justice classes, and students were given the opportunity to complete internship with justice agencies. All of these factors led to more open communications and exchanges of information between those in academia, students, and those working in the justice field. Kratcoski (2016c: 24), writing in reference to the cooperation of law enforcement agencies and academics in the areas of research, training, and program implementation, states, “Although a positive relationship between the police practitioners and private professional practitioners such as physical scientists and psychologists has existed for a long time in areas such as forensics and mental health counseling, collaboration with the general academic community, particularly in the area of research, has often been rocky and mired in suspicions about the motives of academic researchers as well as in doubts about the benefits police organizations receive from the research. However, as interaction between police administrators and academics has increased, often as a result of the police practitioners being enrolled in higher education degree programs, police administrators have gained more knowledge of the scientific research process and an appreciation of the benefits scientific research can provide to policing agencies.”
Policing: Continuity and Change A former Police Commissioner of South Australia, Mal Hyde, summed up the nature of police work (Baker 2011: 7). He stated “Policing is a profession where some things change and some things remain the same. The dynamics of policing, the problem of policing, and what policing is all about don’t change because it is a mixture of the behavior of people (innate human behavior that may vary because of different cultures) and then also the way authority interplays with the behavior.” In a further analysis of Hyde’s comments, Kratcoski (2016d: 7) states, “However, Commissioner Hyde does emphasize that some things in police work do change. He
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noted that some crime problems change. New crimes are added to the criminal code, such as those related to the internet that involve fraud, stealing, laundering money, and distribution of pornography. Laws relating to environmental crimes and various types of international crimes such as trafficking in drugs, weapons, and humans have resulted in the need for international cooperation in the enforcement of these laws as well a recognition that the techniques used by the criminals to commit these crimes have become more sophisticated. There is a need to develop and use modern technological tools to combat such crimes. In comparison with the past, the administration of a modern police agency has become more complex. To be efficient and effective, current administrators must be knowledgeable in their disciplines and must be surrounded by a staff trained in such areas as business, budgeting, personal relations, communications, strategic planning, and research.” At the present time, police leaders must deal with many of the same matters and issue that administrators of police organizations dealt with in the past. However, the characteristics of the communities, the cultures, the laws pertaining to their jurisdiction, and the methods used in finding solutions to the matters and issues may be quite different than in the past. Several of these matters, include the recruitment and retention of law enforcement officers, community relations, and combating crime.
ecruitment, Training, and Retention of Law R Enforcement Officers Crisis in Recruitment of Police Officers Police 1 Staff (2018: 1) stated, “Law enforcement is in the middle of a recruitment and retention crisis. With a strong economy and low unemployment, police agencies are struggling to fill their ranks and keep good cops.” Meade (2021: 1) states, “Asks any law enforcement executive worldwide to list the most challenging internal issue facing their respective agencies, and the vast majority will mention recruiting, selecting and retaining sworn personnel. The fact is, given the current environment of the policing profession, recruiting the next generation of police officers is more difficult than ever. With the pressures, demands, and expectations of the community, finding individuals who want to step into and stay in this uncertain and dangerous career is a daunting task.” McDonnell (2021: A1) observed, “The city of Akron is trying to hire the next generation of police officers, but it is seeing about half the interest in joining the force as just a couple of years ago. . . . It’s a sign that fewer people are interested in the profession, and it comes at a time when retirements and resignations on the force are also trending upward.” But the problem is not unique to Akron. “It’s a nationwide issue, and it’s something we are seeing across the state of Ohio,” said Sarah Shendy, Director of Ohio’s Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment.
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Although many suggestions have been offered to help solve the recruitment and retention crisis facing law enforcement agencies, especially the police departments of large cities, having flexible hours, incentive pay, state-of-the-art equipment, personnel leave for special events, and other benefits, the bottom line is that police leaders, especially the top administration, must be able to communicate to potential candidates the mission of the law enforcement agency, the goals, the major problems facing the agency, the strategies and plans being used to attempt to solve the problems, and the fact that the orientation of the entire agency from top to bottom is to providing service to the community being served. If police leaders are instrumental in making sworn officers proud of the organization in which they are employed and even willing to make personal sacrifices for the good of the organization and the community they serve, a large part of the retention problem is solved. Progressive police leaders are aware of the changes in the culture of the community, the needs of the citizenry, and that, although the primary mission of the police agency should remain to provide service to the community, the methods used to provide the service, as well as the skills and traits of the officers selected to carry out the mission of the agency, may change. The thinking police leader realizes that there is a need to constantly be aware of changes in the community needs and that to be an effective leader requires a learning process that must utilize input and collaboration with others, including academics and community leaders, in all phases of police work, particularly in the selection, training, and retention of officers. In recent years the amount of basic training for new police officer recruits has increased as well as the emphasis placed on certain aspects in the training recruits for police. Police leaders have come to realize that the basic training given to new officers must be flexible and take into consideration the changing characteristics of the communities they serve as well as the changes in crime problems affecting the communities in which they serve. In short, the thinking leader of a police organization will not only be involved in a continuous learning and training agenda, but also set up the mechanisms for the entire force and in particular those line officers who have direct contact with the citizenry, to learn and participate in new training techniques. For example, Sharp (2021) reported on a training course for police used to deescalate violate situations in the community. He states: The officers were going through a training course offered by the Police Executive Research Forum that thousands of police officers around the country are receiving this year. Officers are taught; keep a safe distance, slow things down.… The idea had its genesis in the United Kingdom, where most officers don’t carry handguns, forum director Chuck Wexler said. It’s a mix of classroom training and scenarios played out with actors to give officers time to work through what they’ve learned. (Sharp 2021: 13A)
The experiences of Dr. Mustafa Ozgular, a former high-ranking officer with the Turkey National Police and currently a researcher and educator living in the United States, illustrate how leadership in policing requires being able to adapt to change and how involvement in police work is “a lifelong” learning experience. In a recent interview (Kratcoski and Kratcoski 2021: 34–37), he summed up his impressions of his work and study experiences in the United States and his impressions of the leadership of police in the United States and in Turkey. When asked how he would rate
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his experiences in the United States, his response was, “It is not easy to separate the work components and the educational components of my experiences in the United States. During my first training time in the U.S, I traveled to some major cities, such as Chicago, Cincinnati, New York and Boston, and I visited prestigious universities, including the University of Illinois at Chicago, Harvard, MIT, and many others. It took me 8 years of research, communications with various educational institutions, planning, and development to initiate the international graduate education program for myself and many of my colleagues.” He continued, “During the eight years when I served as Graduate Program Coordinator of TNP, I worked toward the Master’s degree and Ph.D. At Kent State, I had the opportunity to interact with and observe the operations of many local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. These learning experiences would be very difficult to obtain in a classroom setting.” Further, “Most importantly, this eight-year-long experience in Ohio provided me with exceptional opportunities for observing, participating in, and studying the U.S. Criminal Justice System. I patrolled with my American colleagues, joined their security measures at sports events, drug task force operations, roll-call meetings, riot policing training sessions, court appearances, jail and detention visits, citizen police academy sessions, assessment centers, leadership training, intelligence and counter-terrorism seminars and other activities performed by police officers.”
rganizational Changes in the Personnel O of Police Organizations In the United States, there has been a gradual change in the composition of personnel employed by police organizations. For example, in 2000 (FBI 2000: 296) there were a total of 926,583 employed in 13,535 police agencies. Of these 89% were male and 70.7% were sworn police officers. In 2018 (FBI 2018, Table 74), the number of police agencies had decreased to 13,497, but the number of personnel had increased to 975,305. Of these 686,665 personnel, 70.4 were sworn police officers, with 87.4% male and 12.6% being female. The number of civilian (non-sworn) had increased from 271,982 in 2000 to 288,840 in 2018, a 9.6% increase. In contrast to the sworn officers who were predominately male, the civilian personnel were 39.7% male and 60.3% (almost 2/3) female. In addition to the changes in the composition of the personnel employed by police agencies, there are numerous changes in the roles of both the sworn officers and the civilian personnel. Some of the tasks that were completed by sworn police officers in the past, such as dispatch, are now almost exclusively completed by civilian personnel. Both sworn officers and civilians are completing such tasks as investigation of computer-related crimes that were not on the books when many seasoned police leaders first entered the policing occupation. Although the “thinking police leader” is not expected to be an expert in all of the areas of police work, nor to be
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knowledgeable of the latest technology and equipment used in the pursuit of accomplishing the goals of the police organization in which the person has a leadership role, the thinking police leaders must have some understanding of how the various parts of the organization should work if the organization is to be successful in the pursuit of its goals.
Police-Community Relationships, Including Collaboration The thinking leader of a police agency must be aware of how the goals of the police agency fit in with, and hopefully enhance, the goals of other agencies within the community. For example, having a safe environment, in which everyone can feel secure, is a goal worth striving for and perhaps other organizations in a community besides the police have set up mechanisms to work toward the accomplishment of the security goals. The thinking police leader must be aware of what others are doing and determine how the police organization can cooperate and assist in achieving goals of the community that are broader in scope than the goals of the police organization. A statement made by Stev Mylett, during the ceremony of being sworn in as the new Chief of Police of Akron, Ohio (Maretta 2021), tends to sum up the ideal police community relationships and the need for collaboration. He stated, “Together, we must find a way to end this senseless loss of human life and a way to end this gun violence.” He said, “Folks, I think we all want the same things – a safe community to raise our families, a thriving economy and job opportunities and a place where every person is treated with dignity, respect and humanity, no matter what they look like, who they love, how they worship God or how much money they have in their pocket.” The lofty goals that Chief Mylett refers to are not easy to achieve. They have to be achieved through the day-to-day portrayal of the a “persona” that reflects the image the police want to present to the public on their conscious intentions. The image the public has of the police is not developed by what the police leaders say, but more by what the citizenry sees and hear during their contacts with the police. For example, the large majority of the police departments in the United States will use some form of “To protect and serve” on their police cruisers or stations to indicate a visual message of their mission and goals. The large majority of citizens who have some interaction with the police are seeking service. The interaction between the police and the citizenry in response to calls for service may take various forms, including the police responding to crimes in which a person was victimized and interaction at public buildings, such as government buildings, courthouses, schools, parks, and street encounters. The “persona” of the police regarding service to the public is quickly picked up by the citizenry during those brief encounters. For example, municipal police officers and deputies from the county sheriff’s department provide security for the municipal and county government buildings. If a person has cause to enter a government building and is greeted by a bored-looking slovenly dressed officer who gives a command similar to that which a new military
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recruit may hear from a drill instructor, a negative impression of that officer may be generalized to the entire police department. Thus, the persona of police leader more or less represents the organization he/she leads and the thinking leader must lead by behavior as well as by words. The trend toward a more open relationship, sharing of information, and collaboration between policing organizations, academics, service agency administrators, and other community leaders can also be found in other facets of the role of police leaders. The evidence of such collaboration, in addition to research, can be found in such areas as universities providing training and educational seminars, workshops in specialized topics of the law, human relations, cultural diversity, and even the use of advanced technology. Academics have developed instruments such as a personality inventory used in the screening of applicants for positions and assessment tools used to measure police officers’ performance. In addition, through research and participation, academics have assisted in the development of new methods for policing, such as community policing, and in the development of programs for community safety, such as crime watch and others. Kratcoski, (2016a, b, c, d: 300) notes, “Currently, professionals can be found working as employees of police departments or as consultants providing such services as: • Developing and implementing standardized instruments used in the recruitment and selection of personnel • Assessing stress, burnout, and job satisfaction among officers • Providing direct counseling to officers experiencing post-traumatic stress, burnout, thought of suicide, alcohol or drug abuse problems, and other personal problems that have an effect on their performance • Assisting in the investigation of crimes through crime scene and evidence analysis • Providing medical reports on such matters as causes of death, types of wounds, and weapons used • Assisting in specialized training in areas such as domestic violence, cultural diversity, community relations, and crime prevention • Serving as advisory board members for various types of community organizations, commissions, and other agencies that are police-community related, such as civilian review boards, community crime prevention organizations, and victim protection agencies” An atmosphere of trust between justice agency administrators and academia develops with the realization that positive results can be achieved by cooperating with each other in research, programing, and other areas. Referring back to Commissioner Hyde’s comment that in the police profession some things remain the same and other things change, the thinking police leader who can be a major instrument of change in the police agency must be able to make important decisions on when and what should be changed and what should remain stable. In addition, decisions on programs, policies, and strategies that were in effect in the past, but were discarded, may have to be reexamined and, if the research on
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the current situation in the community suggests a need for the policies, programs, or organizational strategies, be reinstated. The thinking police leader does not make these decisions on the basis of “gut feelings” or pressures from political entities or community groups that may be pursuing specific interests that do not necessarily benefit the welfare of the community. The thinking police leader occasionally will have to make decisions on changes that are not popular with a large proportion of the residents of the community, as well as with large numbers of the officers who serve the agency. In essence, the thinking police leader must make decisions based on the facts, research, and input given by those who are knowledgeable of the matter on which a decision is required. An example of a decision of police leadership based on research, community and political input, and the collaborative efforts of other law enforcement and government agencies is the Group Violence Reduction Unit recently established by the Baltimore Police Department. Sullivan (2021: 1) states “About 75 of Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy partners… are to meet for the first time on Monday... The group aims to reduce gang related shootings and homicides and booster trust between communities and the Baltimore Police Department through coordinated effort between its members which include officials from BPD, the State’s Attorney Office, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and City Hall, as well as community neighborhood association groups.”
Citizen Involvement in Policing A major function of the police in democratic societies is to provide security for the citizenry. Although this may be difficult in some societies and in some communities within a society, a strong message given to a community by the police administration stating that this is one of the top priorities of the police, coupled with action programs that demonstrate that the message is not just so many promises, can lead to a feeling of confidence in the police. In addition, thinking police leaders find ways to involve the citizenry in the programs developed for crime control and security. During the latter portion of the twentieth century, there was considerable mistrust of the police by some segments of the citizenry in the United States. The feeling that the police were not able or did not care if people felt secure often resulted in the citizenry of some communities taking on the task of providing security in their communities. Numerous crime watch and community protection programs were developed for the sole purpose of preventing crime. Generally, the police did not assist nor participate in these programs and often the police leaders even resented the citizenry becoming involved in activities considered to be police work.
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ollaborative Policing in Response to Disaster Situations C and Threats to Security To be effective, the police must cooperate with public health, social services, and educational institutions, as well as the community. Deisinger (2016, pp. 80–81) suggests that, “Collaborative policing approaches share similar principles and strategies with public health approaches that emphasize multidisciplinary collaboration and problem solving to address complex health care issues.” Several models used by police agencies that are based on a collaborative policing approach include community policing, community-oriented policing, and the SARA (scanning, analysis, response, assessment) model. All of these approaches emphasize the importance of involvement by community agencies in cooperation and collaboration with police programming for community safety, responding to threats, control of crime, and man-made and natural disasters. In addition, collaborative policing using a multidisciplinary approach requires a commitment to research to determine if the outcome of a particular approach met expectations and if not, what were the factors that interfered with the predicted outcomes. Deisinger (2016: 82–83) notes that an effective multi-interdisciplinary threat management system: • Utilizes an effective and relevant multidisciplinary approach that is designed to identify and mitigate all threats • Enables centralized awareness of and response to developing concerns through active outreach programs and consultations • Facilitates a thorough and contextual assessment • Implements proactive and integrated case management strategies • Monitors, reassesses, and manages cases on a longitudinal basis • Conducts all practices in accordance with relevant laws, policies, and standards of practice • Adapts to evolving challenges and changing needs over time A thinking police leader must be able to determine (with the assistance of staff) if a given approach should be continued, perhaps with some modifications, or discontinued. This decision often is complex and requires the analysis of a number of factors, including cost, efficient use of personnel and equipment, community feelings about the program, and other factors. For example, some programs, such as community policing or mini-stations, might be continued, even though an evaluation of the programs does not show any dramatic decrease in crime in the communities, but does reveal a positive change in the residents’ attitudes toward the police and a change in their willingness to communicate and cooperate with the police. In regard to police leaders, the thinking police leader seeks to involve the citizenry and other community agencies in crime prevention, responses to natural and man-made disaster, and internal and external threats to the safety and security of the community to the extent possible. Interdisciplinary programs that require collaboration range from educational, such as the citizen police academy, to operational, such as assisting community leaders in setting up a crime watch program. The role of the
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police in providing security has expanded to the extent that specific institutions, such as the schools, use police officers (School Resource Officers) on a regular basis. The security programs instituted in the schools are generally developed jointly by the school administrators and the SROs. Thinking police leaders have involved educational institutions in the development of programs and in providing opportunities for students to engage in experiential education through internships, co-ops, field trips, and seminars with justice agencies. In addition, cooperative programs between justice agencies and higher education institutions have been structured and institutionalized. For example, the Ocean City (MD) Police program has been in operation for more than 25 years. Numerous state, federal, and local justice agencies or justice-connected agencies (police, judicial, legal, corrections, and social/ victim services) throughout the United States have developed experiential education programs with colleges and universities. The large majority of the experiential programs are internship or co-op placement programs and there is a mutual understanding or agreement, expressed in writing, of the expectations placed on the agency, the educational instructor, and the student.
Police Leadership in Crisis Situations Police Search for Missing in the Wake of Ida Flooding New York-Police went door to door in search of more possible victims and drew up lists of the missing as the death toll rose to 49 on Friday in the catastrophic flooding set off the Northeast by the remnants of Hurricane Ida. The disaster underscored with heartbreaking clarity how vulnerable the U.S. is to the extreme weather that climate change is bringing. In its wake, officials weighted far-reaching new measures to save lives in future in future storms. (Catalina and Sisak 2021: 6A)
The story above illustrates the reasons why police leaders must be futuristic in their thinking and planning in order to meet the challenges of the future, both those that are known, such as man-made threats by domestic and foreign terrorism, threats to the communications systems, and those less predictable, including natural disasters caused by hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other events. The story also illustrates the point brought out earlier in this chapter, that although change is to be expected and prepared for in police work, some aspects of police work do not change, including providing service to those in need. The thinking police leader must plan, prepare for, and lead those under his/her charge to meet the traditional as well as the new goals of the organization. A major threat to the security of a nation is cybercrime. Minnaar (2017: 122) notes, “To perpetrate various cybercrimes, cybercriminals make use of a number of strategies ranging from the e-mail scams to get your personal details and steal your identification (ID) and maybe bank account details to phishing spam expeditions. But the increasing use is made by cyber-attacks by professional hackers to access databases and steal information, which is then fraudulently used to obtain some
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form of advantage or financial benefits (i.e. cyber ransom, denial of service attack, cyber-coercion, cyberwarfare, cyberespionage, cyber fraud, theft of intellectual property, cyber-mail/extortion-a favorite of porn sites-and hacktivism).” Minnaar (2017:122) goes on to say, “The international challenge for many governments, organizations, and businesses has been to adequately provide preventive and protective cybercrime measures of information and services”. According to Minnaar (2017: 223), “Faced with increasingly sophisticated attacks from cybercriminals and foreign governments probing systems for sensitive data, threats frequently go undetected for days, weeks and even months. It is not just financial data being stolen. Terrorists and rogue governments may steal confidential data, including intelligence information, which can expose a country and its citizens to potential harm.” The typical police leader, especially if the chief officer is in a small city or suburban community, may think that to prepare for cybercrime and cyberterrorist attacks is a matter that is to be handled by the national government and federal agencies. However, the research on cybercrimes reveals that citizens, even those living in the smallest populated communities, are vulnerable to victimization by some form of cybercrime. The thinking police leader is not expected to be an expert on cybercrime, but is expected to be aware of the dimensions of the problems and employ the personnel, either sworn officers or civilians, who have the expertise to plan and prepare strategies to combat cybercrime. In addition, since cybercrime is not bound by local, state, and national bounties, the progressive police leaders must work with a number of state, federal, and even international agencies in the development of strategies to combat the criminal activity of the cybercriminals.
olice Leadership in Responding to Internal P and External Threats More than 20 years have passed since the infamous terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. During these past 20 years, there have been numerous innovations, strategies developed, and programs implemented by national and international agencies to respond to external threats to national security. To be effective, the programs require extensive communication and collaboration between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. The fact that no external terrorist attacks of any significance since 9/11 have been successful is an indication that the strategies and preventive programs are working according to plans. However, various mass shootings, street riots, and bombing and burnings of property, including churches and government buildings, would indicate that internal threats to the security of any particular police jurisdiction, as well as the nation, should be a major concern for local, state, and federal police leaders in the United States. A report on the attack by rioters on the US Capital (Tucker and Balsamo 2021: 10) reveals that a breakdown in communications by the police command helped to assist the rioters
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in the takeover of the building as well as putting Capital Police officers in extreme danger. The report indicated that Capital Police did not adequately respond to frantic calls for help from officers when they pressed panic buttons on their radios seeking immediate backup as scores of pro-Trump rioters beat officers with bats, poles, and other weapons, an inspector general’s report found. The findings on the emergency radio system are included in a “flash report” by the Capitol Police inspector general, the fifth in an ongoing series of assessments of how the agency fell short in the handling of Jan. 6 and how it can do better in the future. It follows reports on the agency’s handling of intelligence and threat assessments and that, taken together, have shown a pattern of flawed preparation for and response to the violence of that day.
Commissioner Harrison Interview1 Biosketch: Michael S. Harrison, Police Commissioner, Baltimore Police Department Michael S. Harrison joined the New Orleans Police department in 1991. During the nearly three decades he served with that department, he ascended steadily through the ranks, serving in supervisory assignments as an Assistant Commander, commander of a patrol district, and with the Specialized Investigations Division of the Public Integrity Bureau. He was appointed Superintendent of the New Orleans Police department in 2014 and held that position for more than 4 years. He was sworn in as the Baltimore Police Department’s Commissioner in 2019. Commissioner Harrison holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in criminal justice. He is a graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police, as well as Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command. In addition, he is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Executive Institute. Commissioner Harrison is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and the Police Executives Research Forum Board of Directors, an organization of which he now serves as president. Several of his non-police work activities include serving 8 years with the Louisiana Air National Guard and becoming an ordained minister at City of Love Church in New Orleans. During his many years of serving in various command positions, Commissioner Harrison has gained national prominence for his leadership in developing and implementing programs in community policing and programs that have led to an increase in partnerships and collaboration with community agencies who promote the prevention of crime and the increase of security in the community. In addition, he is recognized for his ability to work with city and state officials to forward
Electronically completed by Peter C. Kratcoski on 10/5/2021.
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progressive law enforcement legislation that promotes evidence-based crime fighting programs through the legislature. PK: I would like to discuss the current situation regarding the recruitment and retention of law enforcement officers and personnel. To what extent do you see the recruitment and retention of officers as being a problem or major concern? CH: Recruitment and retention are both problems for the Baltimore Police department, but it is also a national problem because every police department in America is struggling to seek out and find the best and brightest to join our ranks. More than looking for all of the traditional characteristics, what we often look for now that is very important is temperament, meaning people who really have a heart, mind, and the desire to serve and protect and to engage with the community because they see policing as part of community. PK: Does the department use lateral entry for higher-level positions? CH: At the moment, we do not utilize the concept of lateral hiring from other departments because of our civil service regulations and collective bargaining contractual obligations for our officers becoming assigned to patrol after graduating from the academy. Secondly, our department is under a federally mandated consent decree, so every recruit and every member of our department must undergo all of the mandated consent decree training, which is likely more extensive than departments outside of Baltimore. PK: To what extent does the department use non-sworn officers (civilians) in the day-to-day operations? CH: We have more than 500 civilians employed with the Baltimore Police department. Upon arriving to the Baltimore Police department in 2019, I created a civilianization and professionalization plan to increase the number of civilians to do professional work rather than having officers assigned to staff professional work, thereby ensuring police officers are performing policing duties and professional staff are performing the administrative and professional work. This movement was especially important because we are in such a manpower shortage. PK: In regard to communicating information, how transparent should a department be in providing information to the media and the public that pertains to intelligence, police behavior, and other sensitive matters? Has the department made recent changes in its policies regarding transparency? CH: Communications is the most important aspect of everything we do. Communicating internally to the members the mission and vision and what’s expected regularly is extremely important. Communicating externally to the community about everything we do, how we do it, and why we do it on a regular basis is equally important. Transparency is the key to true accountability and accountability without transparency is not accountability at all. One of the first objectives upon joining the Baltimore Police department was to begin conditioning our department away from the culture of secrecy and ensuring that we’re and always will be transparent, even when the issues are negative. PK: What are some of the predominate traits of a person you want to see from those appointed to serve as your assistants (staff)?
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CH: With regards to civilians, we certainly look for very specific skill sets in their disciplines, such as accounting, budgeting, organizational management, leadership, and science knowledge. With regard to sworn officers, we are looking for individuals who view policing as a service to the community and view policing as part of the community. Certainly we need bravery and physical agility, but today’s police officer needs to be able to connect to the community and be a problem solver just as much as we protect the innocent from those who wish to do harm and pursuing those who commit that harm, even when our lives are in danger PK: What has the Baltimore Police department done to improve and maintain good relationships between the citizenry and the police? CH: Our department is under a federal consent decree because of damaged community/police relations. As part of my crime reduction and departmental transformation plan, we created the first ever comprehensive community policing plan that teaches officers about engagement, how to engage, what engage mentally means in the community policing crime fighting model, and how to be a problem solver within the model. We have writing a Community Policing Manual and every officer is trained to operate under the guidelines of the model. PK: What new programs have been instituted to improve police-community relations? CH: Again, we created the first ever comprehensive community policing plan. We centralized detectives to make sure that crimes other than homicides and sexual assaults are investigated at the same district level where officers and detectives can regularly connect with the victims and the community. We created monthly mandatory commander meetings where citizens from each district are invited to their respective district’s meeting once a month and they can provide information and receive information about crime, crime trends, and everything related to their district at these meetings. The goal is to have members connected in real time directly with the commanders and officers in the district. I also created community policing or micro-policing plans which allow community members to have input on the design of the community policing approach that specifically is employed in the neighborhoods in which they are assigned. We use variable community policing designs because what works in one neighborhood may not be desirable or needed in a different neighborhood. Additionally, and equally as important, community members have real-time input in all of our policy creation, not just community policing. PK: Describe some of the ways the BPD collaborates with other law enforcement and other justice agencies in crime control and prevention. CH: Here in Baltimore, our model utilizes community members, volunteers, academics, business leaders, and faith leaders because it has been demonstrated that police deployment alone cannot totally prevent and/or eliminate crime. It really does require total community participation, so there is heavy involvement with non- policing entities for problem-solving, community policing, and day-to-day operations. PK: What do you consider to be the most critical issue (problem) facing the department at the present time?
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CH: The most critical issue facing the Baltimore Police department at the present time is a twofold issue. Historical violent crime continues to plague our city because it is a culture of violence where offenders don’t believe there are consequences or they do not fear existing consequences and they solve their problems with violence, namely, gun violence. The second part of the answer is again, we are in a federal consent decree because of past patterns and practices of unconstitutional policing, and therefore, we are in a total makeover of our department in our reform initiative called a consent decree. This is an agreement with the US Department of Justice and is overseen by a federal judge who has a monitoring team that reports directly to him on all of our reform initiatives. So, while most departments are just dealing with crime, our department is in a reform initiative and a total makeover and a reimagining of what policing should be in the twenty-first century. That makes us light-years ahead of where the rest of America’s police departments are with regards to reform as America is demanding it from all of us. PK: I would like to ask you a few questions pertaining to police leadership in crisis and threats to the security of a community. Reflecting on your current and past experiences, what do you consider to be some of the major problems encountered in trying to establish an effective approach to responding to crisis situations and threats to security? CH: Our department, like many if not most departments, works closely with our state and federal partners to have both operational and strategic plans to deal with both man-made disasters like terrorism and natural disasters. We work closely in training with all of our partners to make sure that intelligence is shared and that we can operationalize our resources to prevent attacks when we know about them and how to respond to natural disasters. PK: Has there been any recent occasion to put the plan into operation? CH: Fortunately, we have not had to deploy to any terrorist threats; however, we have deployed to help our nation’s capital with inauguration and with the most recently to ensure incidents like the January insurrection don’t reoccur. We train our members on how to response to an active shooter in mass casualty incidents in addition to civil disturbances. PK: Many experts who study crime patterns and methods to control crime contend that police organizations at all levels, local, state, and national, must devote more personnel and resources to preventing and controlling international crimes (fraud, money laundering, Internet crimes, trafficking of weapons, humans, drugs) than what was the case in the past. Has the Baltimore Police department implemented any programs specifically geared to the prevention and control of international crime? CH: Because our authority is a local authority and our jurisdiction is only within the City of Baltimore, we rely on partnerships with state and federal law enforcement agencies and we assign officers to task forces within those agencies. In addition, we can deputize our officers to have national credentials to assist in state and national investigations that require very special skill sets and authority beyond local policing.
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PK: I would like to close the interview with a general question. Many experts on police leadership would contend that to be an effective police leader one must be willing to adjust and change and be involved in a career-long learning process. Do you agree with the statement? Has your style of leadership changed in any way during your many years of experience as a police leader? CH: I absolutely agree with the statement that all police and leaders must be lifelong learners and be able to adjust to the ever-changing environment. While we usually have one appointing authority, we have many stakeholders who have sometimes competing expectations, and police leaders must be flexible and accommodating, while maintaining their ethics and what they know to be what is right. PK: What were some of the specific adjustments made in policies or operations? CH: Sometimes we make adjustments in policing and enforcement strategies because of the ever-changing environment along with the demand and expectations of our stakeholders and our community. We deal with generational differences in our organizations with our newer and younger members having a very different life view and then sometimes our older seasoned members thinking very differently because they are from a different generation. Police leaders must understand and acknowledge that in reality, everything we do is about people and how we lead them, although they may have different worldviews and different expectations from the careers we offer them. Because of the ever-changing policing environment, we often find ourselves having to unlearn bad practices, behaviors, and performance and then having to reteach and relearn new best practices to keep up with the changing environment and the demands of our community. Sometimes that’s a very hard thing to do, but every leader must be willing and able to do it in order to be effective in twenty-first-century demands on policing.
Police Leaders: Preparing for the Future It is quite clear that police leaders will have to engage in a lifelong learning process in order to keep abreast of the constant changes that occur in the nature of police work. The knowledge gained by an administrator who successfully handled major problems in the past will often not be sufficient for the solving of some of the decision-making needed for solving some police problems in the present or some that are likely to occur in the future. Lifelong learning need not require enrolling in formal education programs. However, it will require an awareness of the changes in police work and knowledge of the current and prospective problems facing police leaders, as well as knowing the who, why, when, and where of strategies that can be used in an attempt to address the issues and solve the problems facing the police agency and the community in which the police agency operates. The amount and types of collaboration between educational institutions, the business enterprise, government agencies, and justice agencies on such matters as research, programming, screening, and training of personnel and on gathering intelligence have steadily increased over the years and are expected to continue to
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increase in the future. For example, Cofan and Baloi (2017: 144) contend, “Intelligence analysis is developing as an interdisciplinary domain, using techniques and tools from sciences (mathematics, statistics, topography, social sciences, etc.), information technology, banking, finance, etc., all in response to the diversification challenges of today’s complex crime, itself multidisciplinary (cybercrime, human and drug trafficking, dual-use, military goods and technology trafficking, financial engineering and refined forms of corruption, copyright infringement and economic espionage, terrorism, etc.). The principal need to share becomes top priority and shows its superior benefits to the need to know one, with a long tradition in the policing activity.” There has been a steady increase in the number of justice personnel, including those who hold the higher administrative positions in police organizations, who joined and participated in professional organizations during the latter part of the twentieth century and continue to participate up to the present time. Both academics and practitioners join and participate in the meetings of such academic organizations as the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, American Society of Criminology, Society and of Police and Criminal Psychology and professional organizations such as the International Police Chiefs Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Organization for Victims Assistance. The members make presentations at annual meetings, as well as exchange information and even collaborate on research projects and programs. Edelbacher, a retired police chief in Vienna, Austria (Edelbacher 2016: 186–187), reflecting on his experiences and international contacts, stated, “My personal experiences with teaching in foreign countries has led to many sources of new knowledge and to contacts with other professionals and academics. Establishing these contacts would not have been possible without my being given the opportunity to teach at universities in other countries. In 1991, Professor Dilip K. Das traveled throughout Europe, including a visit to Austria. That was the first time that I learned about the new field of academic study and research referred to as criminal justice. In Austria, we did not know that academics were researching such questions as What are people expecting of police organizations in modern democracies? This was a new area for us, and we learned a great deal by comparing different police and the advantages and disadvantages of different models.” In 1991, Edelbacher was serving as chief of the Major Crimes Bureau in Vienna, Austria. During the course of his tenure as a police officer and after retirement, he has served as an international expert for the Council of Europe and the United Nations; lectured or taught courses at universities located in several different countries, including the United States; and authored or coauthored numerous books, book chapters, and journals articles. He has made many presentations at national and international professional meetings and continues to be professionally active with writing, public speaking, and teaching. In response to a question posed during an interview of Edelbacher (Kratcoski 2011: 47), in which he was asked to reflect on his career in the Federal Police of Austria, he observed: “What I have learned and understood, I acted as I did and wouldn’t change even if I would have a second chance. My weakness was not to be
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as diplomatic as I should have been, and I should have gained more political clout. Police work is connected with failures, because decisions have to happen quickly. You have to be aware that failures happen, but you have to analyze them and you have to learn by them. You cannot act without the capacity to learn steadily and try to improve. It would be wonderful to avoid failures, but this is not a realistic picture of daily police work. This is the challenge of the job.” On an international level, organizations such as the International Police Executive Symposium, the World Society of Victimology, and the European Society of Criminology have fostered collaboration between academics and justice practitioners. For example, in Eterno et al. (2017: ix), it is stated, “The aims and objectives of the IPES (International Police Executive Symposium) are to provide a forum to foster closer relationships among police researchers and practitioners on a global scale, to facilitate cross-cultural, international, and interdisciplinary exchanges for the enrichment of the law enforcement professional, and to encourage discussion, and to publish research on challenging and contemporary problems facing the policing profession.” Police Practice & Research: An International Journal was created by Dilip Das for the purpose of helping to publicize the aims and goals of IPES, as well as to facilitate the spread of information and research findings by academics and police practitioners. The titles of the articles in volume 21, number 6 (December 2020), authored by practitioners and academics, pertain to research completed on police information systems, field training of students, organizational commitment of police officers, mental health of police officers, structure of police organizations, evidence based practices in police organizations, comparative analysis of police systems, citizen neighborhood watch groups, and private policing. The research was completed in the countries of Iran, France, the Netherlands, China, Norway, Italy, Canada, Sweden, and Scotland.
Police Leaders Collaboration with Non-Policing Professionals The thinking police administrator must not only be preparing for the current and anticipated problems facing the police, but also be preparing for the recruitment and retention of the personnel who will be employed by the police organizations that will face the problems. As previously mentioned in this chapter, the luster associated with police work in the past has somewhat been tarnished by several notorious cases involving deviant behavior on the part of individual police officers. The leaders of the police organizations must be able to show the community and those who might be considering a career in police work that the policing profession has not strayed from its goal of providing service and protection to the community. This can be achieved through open communications and disclosures of the operations of the police with the public and through providing opportunities for those interested in becoming police officers to observe and even participate in some facets of police work.
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The trend toward collaboration between justice agency, academics, and non- policing public and private agencies has led to an increase in the opportunities for professors, students, and various service agency personnel to become involved in research and educational experiences and in assisting police agencies in providing direct services to the community. For example, Kratcoski et al. (2016: 149) report on a workshop course that was offered at Kent State University in which the students traveled to Toronto, Canada, and during the week of the course, in addition to hearing lectures on the Canadian Justice System by practitioners, they had an opportunity to patrol with the Toronto Police, observe court hearings, and tour both a juvenile and an adult correctional facility. Institutions of higher education in the United States, as well as those located in many countries of the world, have established programs in which students can learn about the justice systems of other nations, take part in research, and engage in experiential learning. The large majority of the students participating in such experiential programs are likely to be considering a career working with a justice agency and the experience they receive during these programs will likely have an effect on their decisions to pursue a career in public service or to move toward another direction.
olice Collaboration with the Community in Crime P Prevention Programs The thinking police leaders are not rigid or dogmatic in their approach to addressing the crime problems of the communities they lead. As noted earlier in the chapter, the characteristics of a community might change over time and a crime prevention and control method that proved to be effective in the past may no longer be as effective, given the changes in the characteristics of the community. These changes may include population size, either rapid growth or a significant decline, major changes in the economy, significant changes in the stability of the residency, changes in the economic status of the citizenry, and changes in the cultures of the residents. Police leaders have been known to be rigid and resist changes in the organization on the basis of contending that their approach had worked in the past. All too often police leaders try to implement a crime prevention and control strategy, for example, “zero-tolerance,” or community policing, that may have been found to be quite successful in one community, into the community they lead and find that it just does not work because the characteristics of the communities are quite different. In addition, police leaders are often reluctant to reinstate a program that was tried in the past and discarded, even though changes in the community might suggest that the program would now be effective. The thinking police leader, especially one who is new to the community in which he or she works, will first and foremost get to know the community and the community leaders that can be depended on to offer assistance with the crime prevention programs in existence and to be established. This is not an easy task. It is not
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accomplished through formal public relations appearances, but through actual mingling with the citizenry, listening to what they have to offer, and collaborating with groups and organizations that share the goal of the police – crime prevention. These groups may include those that focus on youth, victims of crime, and even criminal offenders and their families. Many agencies offering services to criminal offenders, their families, and victims of crime often depend on the assistance of volunteers and interns to continue to function. Many other private volunteer organizations provide a variety of services, including either a specific service such as alcohol and drug counseling, guardian-ad-litem (GAL), or help through victim services agencies. These agencies provide extensive training for volunteers to be involved in a range of services. The thinking police leader is likely to develop positive relations to the extent possible, with such public and private service organizations and again assist such organizations to the extent possible.
Problems and Issues Facing Police Leaders The trend toward the police, educational institutions, private businesses, and the community working together to provide services and to prevent crime has had occasional setbacks, and one might expect setbacks in the future. These setbacks will likely be the result of unexpected circumstances and situations that will interfere with the trend. For example, the CV-19 epidemic had a significant effect on the ability of university instructors to place students with justice and service agencies, such as the police, courts, corrections, and social service agencies. Justice agency administrators and university administrators are well aware of the dangers involved for the agency personnel and the students who would normally be accepted to complete internships, research, or volunteer work with the agency. Another factor that might affect the ability of police organizations to become involved in collaborative crime prevention programs with community organizations and academic institutions is a shortage of funds and personnel. For example, a dramatic decline in the economy is likely to have severe consequences for both public and private justice agencies. For public agencies, such as the police, courts, and corrections, a decline in the economy could lead to a reduction in the agency’s operating budget, resulting in a reduction of personnel and money for equipment and special programs. Some of the programs considered nonessential might be dropped. The agency administrators might decide that the funds and time spent on cooperative programs with universities and even with the community are nonessential. Private organizations, such as victim service agencies, that depend largely on soft money (grants, contributions, fund raising) may find that the decrease in funds during “hard times” forces them to reduce the amount of services provided. In some cases, economic recessions have led to a greater dependence on volunteers and intern students to provide the services to their clients. In the long run, this strengthens the relationship between the agency, the police, universities, and the community, even when the economic situation improves and returns to normal.
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During times when there is considerable social unrest in a community and in which a justice agency is considered to be the source of the problem, the agency might revert back to a closed-door approach to try to solve the cause of the unrest internally. This may be the situation when there is considerable criticism from the community regarding the police handling of a situation, such as a public protest or the use of excessive force. An isolated incident in one community, if the media give it extensive national and even international coverage, can damage the reputation of the entire profession, resulting in a decline in the number of applicants for employment in the occupation as well as the number of students wanting to complete internships or volunteer work in the occupation. If a police organization is under investigation for alleged criminal activity among its personnel or its administrators, or for ineffective management by a government agency, many persons who were considering a career in police work may not likely to be motived to pursue this work, since their image of policing was affected by the negative publicity. In addition, during the times when the administrators are trying to deal with situations that have resulted in an attack on their professional reputations and credibility, “outsiders” such as academic researchers and intern students are generally not welcome.
Summary The development of criminal justice degree programs in the United States, stimulated by the Law Enforcement Assistance Act (LEAA) in the latter part of the twentieth century, resulted in many changes in the policing profession. Although the goals or mission of police organizations did not change, that is, to provide service and security to the citizens of the communities they serve, the methods used to these goals did change. In addition, with the advances in communications, technological equipment, Internet crimes, and international criminal activity, changes in police organizational structures and the need for more specialized police personnel resulted in the need for police leaders to be adaptable to change while not losing sight of the basic mission of policing: to protect and to serve. Educational institutions that have degree programs in criminal justice education have contributed to the professionalization of police work and the development of “thinking police leaders” who have assumed leadership in police organizations in the United States and other parts of the world. These criminal justice programs usually offer a combination of theory courses and courses geared toward practical application. The programs also offer an opportunity for students to gain practical experience through the completion of an internship or co-opt program. A significant proportion of the personnel servicing in leadership position with law enforcement and investigative agencies in the United States and other countries of the world have earned one or more academic degrees. Many of the instructors teaching at universities that offer degrees in criminal justice were formerly employed by justice agencies resulting in more emphasis on handson experiences for the students such as field trips to justice agencies, workshops, and internships with justice agencies.
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The cooperation and collaboration of academics and justice agencies were enhanced as more justice agency practitioners enrolled in higher education degree programs, interacted with academics, attended professional associations meetings, presented papers at professional organizations meetings, and collaborated with academics on research and writing. Criminal justice professional organizations such as the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the European Society of Criminal Justice, and the International Police Executive Symposium helped developed more interest and opportunities for justice practitioners who attended the organizations’ meetings to travel to other countries to study their criminal justice systems, participate in faculty exchange programs, and collaborate in research and publications. In addition to the cooperation and collaboration of police organizations, such as the International Chiefs of Police Association, Police Executive Research Forum, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, international associations such as INTERPOL offer assistance in police training, research, and crime control. Progressive police leaders have increased their communications and cooperation with community organizations dedicated to improving community relations and assisting in crime prevention programs. In short, the thinking police leaders realize that in order to be effective in their leadership, they cannot be rigid in their thinking and in their approach to the performance of their work. They must be adaptable to change, be ready to employ new methods, and must learn from their experiences. In addition, they realize that the police cannot provide the security and service community residents expect and deserve unless they enlist cooperation and assistance from the many organizations and residents of the communities they serve.
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The Thought Police: The Need for Police Leaders as Thinkers John Coxhead
Introduction It might seem odd to have to spell out the need for police leaders as thinkers, given the enormous responsibility, scrutiny and accountability policing professionals carry in the modern world. However, the occupational working culture of policing is strong and resilient with some commentators noting the peculiarly pervasive nature of transactional command and control within policing subculture (Chan 1997). In that transactionality there are many doctrines, policies and standing orders to both guide and also marshal policing practitioners in what is in many ways a compliance model to ameliorate risk. When we talk about risk – managerially – we perhaps also refer to ‘getting it wrong’ and in policing the culture has tended to be towards blame rather than learning in response to that dreaded notion of ‘failure’. Operating within a system, as Seddon (2005) might suggest, can make you a cog in a wheel where the outcomes may seem distantly hazy compared to the dynamic energy of the tactical process. In other words, there is a kind of danger that you get caught up in just being busy, doing things on a form of autopilot. Not all policing, of course, is action. There is something of what Kahneman (2011) refers to the ‘slow’ thinking as well as the fast action in policing, but perhaps there is more of the latter than the former. For some time, in UK professional policing, the notion of the reflective practitioner as espoused by Agyris and Schon (1978) has been embedded in the policing curriculum. In principle, reflective practice should fit the national decision-making model (Maguire and John 2006) well, yet there appears to be an operational schism whereby rationale is about justification and there is less need for reflection as things are so often ‘doomed to success’. In the middle of all that J. Coxhead (*) Policing Innovation and Learning, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_4
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process and transactional action, is there any need for, or time for, thinking? There needs to be, and that is the case made out here.
What Do We Mean by Thinking in Policing? Again, do we really need to think about thinking in this sense? The reason we may need to navigate some working definition is that the term gets used a lot but can mean different things, and I would argue is not in any sense a clearly embedded or technically agreed term in professional policing. There is not, for example, a professional narrative around the term as there is around concepts such as ‘intelligence’ and how that differs from information and where several doctrinal documents exist to spell things out for policing professionals. Thinking is more of a commonly used term that does not really have a technical home in policing. Reflective practice and rationale are perhaps the nearest grassroots we could hang it to. There is also a management narrative around things like ‘strategic planning’ but again when we delve deep here there is much process to be observed utilising complex project management systems. Whilst in policing most police professionals would be able to tell you when they were last in a ‘tasking’ meeting, they may pause if you asked them when was the last time they were in a thinking meeting. The pace of transactional action makes operational policing an unnatural place for contemplation in one sense, but there are some uses of language that perhaps need assessing in order to contextualise a more accurate assessment to what extent policing is a thinking business. ‘Thinking’ as a label may have a form of literature base in disciplines such as psychology, but policing things are less well established; there are iterations of thinking sub-specialisms to be identified. Pracademic Inspector Guilfoyle (2013) makes a persuading case for a systems thinking approach, particularly because of the complex nature of policing, in that it offers an opportunity to move beyond ‘tickbox’ business to engage more with policing activity and rationale to identify more effective approaches. Concepts here bear some resemblance to Boardman and Sauser’s (2008) observations about operationally navigating through complex demands and structures. Arguably linked to Guilfoyle’s contribution is the extensive activity evident around evidence-based policing (Sherman 2013). I say linked because there is an underlying argument to draw upon processes, such as the collation of data, to help understand efficacy in policing deployment. There is also arguably some lineage with narratives on intelligence-led policing (Ratcliffe 2008) whereby a stronger emphasis on rationale and analytical data patterns are positioned to complement operational police decision-making. The notion of analysis, linked to intelligence and other applications, is more accepted within policing with a wealth of literature amassed over several years. So, is ‘analysis’ thinking? If we overlay some important work done by Read and Tilley (2000), there is again an emphasis on a systematic approach to analysis with policing
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problem-solving, ostensibly to seek to balance the sometimes impetuous nature of policing to act without extensive deliberation. The role of analysis here is in a sense to ‘put the brakes on’, to deter the activist police decision-maker deploying resources on a whim and to offer wider and deeper data to help address causes and not just apparent symptoms of a problem. As a form of thinking, analysis has an extensive role in policing and is indeed a specialist function in most policing organisations. It tends to be associated with data, whether the analysis is focused on policing operations or police demand prediction. Yet, to try and answer my own question (is analysis thinking?), I would like to now overlay concepts of decision-making to add to the consideration. The reason to make this link is that tools like the UK national decision-making model (NDM) (2011) utilise analysis as a stage within the holistic notion of decision-making. In other words, accepting analysis for now as a form of thinking process, the NDM locates this as thinking with a purpose: to make a decision.
Thinking as Decision-Making The NDM is predicated around taking an informed decision, with explicit rationale. The process starts with what do we know and what we do not that we should seek and then towards options and so forth. The tool acts as a form of guiding framework: a sense of systematic approach that appears to have some harmony with Bayesian principles (Empac 2019). Decision-making here, then, is a form of predicated structure, which a human (being the police professional) engages with. The NDM offers a form of scaffold, or safety net. The human is in a sense relegated to a participant of the system. Thompson and Thompson (2018) draw references to the influence of Donald Schon (1983) and John Dewey (1933) and to the pivotal importance of situational decision-making by the reflective practitioner aided, but not dictated to, by data and process. The argument here is a pragmatic one: that the clear path forward is more often than not absolutely informed by data, no matter how sophisticated, so it remains that a critical and intelligent decision-maker is still required.1 Within decision-making then, aided by structure and data analysis, we could assert that thinking is required. If that assertion was correct then, as there are lots of decision- making done within policing, there is a lot of thinking taking place too. However, if indeed true, the nature of that sort of decision-making (using the NDM) in the main would tend to be operational and quite transactional. Are there, or should there be, other forms of thinking in policing other than transaction deciding?
There have been experiments in logarithmic decision-making: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ uk-politics-41996422 1
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Thinking as Reflection Thompson and Thompson (2018) regard the role of the professional to be critically reflective, and that seems to me to be a sound stance for policing alongside other professions such as medicine, social work, education and teaching. The point is that simply applying theory to practice as a form of technical rationality (as a form of positivist epistemology) is overly simplistic and that a professional is needed to somehow navigate, contextualise, translate and deploy interventions. Schon (1983) explained this requiring a skilful actor to mediate between the ‘high ground’ of knowledge and the ‘swampy lowlands’ of practice demands. Our skilful actor (the policing professional), though, must be constantly reflective to both inform practice to be taken (forethought) and to inform ongoing lifelong learning (as a form of hindsight). This reflection in action as a form of praxis (Griseri 1998: 213) is both a contextualised application of knowledge and an examining, weighing and sifting of perspectives (Bandman and Bandman 1995): meaning that we can justifiably assert this as a form of thinking. If the policing professional as a reflective practitioner is, by inherent definition, a critical thinker, then again, we should be able to draw the conclusion that thinking in that sense is widespread amongst policing. Christopher (2015) suggests things are not as clear-cut as that as critical reflection may not be a policing strength, even if it is an apparent ambition. The more likely reality, Christopher (ibid.) asserts, is that the police are reactive or responsive thinkers. The implication for us here is that whilst reflective thinking may consider the long game more, reactive thinking may well take the form of short-term perspectives. Akin to Kahneman’s (2011) descriptors, policing may be busier thinking fast than it is thinking slow.
Thinking as Leadership Does it matter that policing is thinking in quick terms? After all, many policing incidents are immediate and require some form of instant intervention. Well, it may well matter a lot, particularly if examined through the lens of demand, repeat demand and the cost of effectiveness (Laufs et al. 2020). If the police leader is not thinking the long game, then who else is? Schwartz (1991) and Kotter (1996) both identify strategic, longer-term thinking as being vital roles of leadership. So, from this point forward we turn our attention towards what extent the police leader is leading by example as a thinker in modern policing. If operational policing is embedded in quick-fire reactive demand-driven judgement making then all the more reason that strategic leaders are keeping a corporate balance towards the longer view and displaying some of what Kahneman calls ‘slow thinking’. The approach taken here is to explore and test to what extent police leadership is thinking via a form of case study. A serving senior UK officer, Deputy
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Chief Constable Dr. Paul Gibson, offers us insight into their approach to modern policing leadership by way of an annotated interview reproduced below. I could never claim to represent what all and every police leader thinks about thinking in policing, so let me be clear about the necessary limitations of this approach being entirely perspective based. Nevertheless, what follows is an intriguing insight into thinking in policing: why it is underrated and why we need more of it.
Thinking About Thinking in Policing: The Interview The particular opportunity here was to explore the contemporary picture as perceived by a serving chief officer – a here and now insight – but anchored within a reflective practice outlook. Given the strongly reactive nature of policing, the refreshing alternative focus here, on thinking and practice contemplation, offers a model for how other policing leaders might be invited into such a reflective space more readily and consistently, as meta-cognitive reflection is a relatively rare entity in policing. The annotated interview is reported in two sections characterised by time zones – the first the current and the second looking towards the future. Within that first section of the current context, the initial topic of discussion concerned the contemporary state of thinking in policing leadership. The evolution and approach to police leadership is developing in the right direction, but it still has several challenges. The first thing to point to is the culture. The system is built on a historical legacy of hierarchical power, with the necessity for a degree of command and control in managing operational incidents, which by their very nature are often decisions which hugely influence the impact on victims, communities and the reputation of the police service. This means that the prevailing leadership approach has been weighted towards central control. It’s also been influenced by a number of high-profile cases illustrating graphically how accountable policing is, that has at times made policing leadership risk averse in an effort to avoid failure or being seen to fail. So, the challenges we still need to grow through are widening our diversity, utilising the vast and varied cognition and skills of our officers, staff and volunteers, embracing change faster as we evolve further away from centralised thinking.
There is an apparent illustration here of the point made by Sunstein and Hastie (2015) concerning the implicit bias danger of echo chamber cultures: group think rather than thinking as a group. The notion of seeking to please or replicate the power base also resonates with concepts raised by Edmondson (2019) where she draws out the negative implications of a lack of psychological safety. In both instances, the important aspect raised here is that a self-replicating mindset can have substantial influence over what does good look like here and now and moreover what (and who) would best enable success in the future. Such a cycle creates a powerful status quo that could easily see change or divergence as a threat rather than an opportunity. References to ‘hierarchical power’ suggest a link to Seddon (2005) observations about command and control and the inhibitions that such a culture can have over
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individualism, whilst there is a link also to Coyle (2018) over the emotional need to ‘avoid failure or avoid being seen to fail’. In that same context, what would appear to be missing in the suggested nature of policing culture is the valuing of vulnerability which Dan Coyle identifies as a critical component of high performance. Taking the point full circle, Sunstein and Hastie (2015) point to the significant danger of the replication and reinforcement of situational dynamic meaning there is an amplification of error potential because there is little to no counter-narrative. Essentially this would describe a culture where dissent was discouraged and where there was a strong leaning towards existing authority and subservience towards it. The point is reinforced in what follows, as what is described is a revolving door of leadership, with a form of code or formulaic membership access. Police leader selection and retention processes tend to be highly formulaic which tends to drive perceptions of ‘what good looks like’ and the generation of associated and aligned behaviours. The model has been built around giving evidence of past delivery, future aspiration twinned with a focus on managerial and operational competence; assessed against competency and value frameworks. Formulaic selection processes can support the notion of transparency and objectivity in assessing and appointing staff, which is entirely laudable. However, as with recruitment procedures in any organisation, sometimes people can have great talent all of their own but if the any system is too rigid it might not quite recognise them for being authentically who they are. I think great people leaders offer far more than command and control management. Great people leadership revolves around many of what are often called softer skills; building trust, showing and being alive to other’s vulnerability, listening, compassion, emotional intuition and service, which for me aren’t soft skills but critically essential skills in modern policing.
The message here seems to be that there is a sort of person being looked for in policing leadership, and you must fit it in order to be successful. The point that the authentic leader might not get recognised within the selection metrics is both disturbing and sad, suggesting authentic leaders might get through in spite of the leadership filters rather than because of them. Recruitment and assessment filters may be thorough but if they carry an inherent bias towards certain types of personality (or observable traits of such) and are administered by existing leaders with a similar mindset, police leadership recruitment may well be operating as much as a barrier as a gateway. That would amount to a form of deductive paradox where the more you looked for a thing, the more you found it, and where there could no explicit or conscious problematisation of any inherent bias in selection given its institutionalised depth. If there was such a strong notion of what good looks like (certainty and strength) any diametric of vulnerability and enquiry would automatically be relegated without even a mention. This is not a singular or isolated problem: the leader themselves has such an influence on all around them that the entire working culture then is infected towards a hierarchical way of thinking and acting: in essence reflecting what Foucault (1994) explained as a constitutional power subjectivity that moulds conduct and even identity. The implications of perceptions and processes that recruit officers and staff that fit the historical mould of the all-powerful ‘heroic’ leader is that it can deny access to the more contemporary thinker, the leader that has a diverse array of skill sets incorporating emotional
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intelligence, while retaining operational credibility. The leader who has the acumen to think and plan strategically, whilst manoeuvring fast change politics and maintaining community confidence. The leader who builds sustainable teams that operate optimally with genuinely high levels of trust, commitment, challenge and focus. In my view, the consistent nurturing for high performing teams remains elusive, but is such a competitive advantage that creates high productivity, discretional effort and teams where even the most difficult challenges are achievable. If the focus is task and transaction, then people will not thrive and grow and take wider responsibility, so the challenge here for leadership in my view is to grow more empowered teams.
The reference for more empowered teams is interesting here. Certainly, when we consider Skinner (2018), the difference between collaborative versus competitive advantage teams is stark, where the latter can often achieve less successful outcomes. There is a wider implication here too because a police unit team is still a ‘team within a (wider) police team’, and McChrystal (2019) and Lencioni (2002, 2005) indicate internal competition within any team is actually a symptom of dysfunctionality. At worst, the police teams might compete with others rather than the criminal (real) opponent. There is a hint that such a culture might exist, as next we find evidence of single dimensionalism of ownership that frames any wider context as ‘the other’ meaning it is ‘not my problem’. This anchoring of responsibility to ego-based individualism presents a major obstacle to collaborative, shared responsibility. There can be a problem with power and the focus of protecting reputation of ‘my watch’ and ‘my patch’. This can be exacerbated by a geographical policing model and a localism based political accountability mechanism that often (and understandably) seeks rapid results and a primary focus on public service within a defined County. This is not a criticism by any means, police accountability to the communities we serve is the basis of policing with the consent of the people. However, policing must evolve to keep a pace with more and more sophisticated modes of criminality. This requires thinking time, inter related planning with the wider system and community expectation; we need longer-term strategies that often outlive political and public service funding cycles. Perceptions of personal reputation amongst these arrangements may impinge on the greater good. We’ve heard that language of ‘not on my watch’ from US Presidents – but my issue with that language is it personalises it maybe too much around the leader and less about those who are led and the service we ultimately deliver to protect the public; our primary mission.
This concept of ownership also presents some problems beyond that of siloed personal reputational competitiveness, in that there can also be territorial and temporal tensions too. Here, the holistic might be sacrificed for the here and now priorities of the local and the immediate. ‘Here’ being particular territorially defined spaces of accountability, over a county geography or command unit, and ‘now’ being the temporal command responsibility of ‘whose watch’ any particular issue falls within. The traditional policing model has been built on geographical accountability, localism and in many respects immediacy. The implications of that is that things can be short-term, emphasising more the shorter-term financial & strategic planning cycles and therefore fast- time decision making, and in turn that might miss some of the opportunities to garner supporting evidence. Whilst there is a strong focus on the tactical delivery there also needs to be a balance that incorporates the long-term vision on direction and the plan to get there.
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Whether this acute sense of accountability is driven by pride or driven by a fear of blame is a moot point. There is a very powerful desire in policing, quite rightly, to get things right. It’s just too important not to - people’s lives are at stake. That desire, which is positive, can also cause a pervasive fear of getting things wrong. This is understandable given we take life and death decisions. However, intelligent failure is a must and should be encouraged, to enable the organisation and its people to learn and evolve. We need to make sure we have a balance to allow freedom to speak up and be enterprising; everyone should be encouraged to innovate and take responsibility. The authentic and consistent encouragement of the thinking leader should be for our staff to take personal responsibility, to challenge the status quo, be bold in your thinking, try new things and be prepared to get it wrong. This will only ever be successful if the thinking leader gives permission to do so and gives constant reassurance that the organisation will back you, providing decisions are made in good faith. In delivering the best service to the public, we need ultimately to be proactive, not defensive and our officers and staff should feel psychologically safe in using their initiative and creativity in thinking and delivering sustainable results for communities.
As Edmondson (2019) explains, the psychological safety culture, rather than being a place where conflict is avoided, is actually a constantly divergent one where opposing views are encouraged and arguably result in fewer instances of the amplification of errors. The positive arguing within a psychologically safe culture is illustrated by Coyle (2018) as an additionality, rather just a toleration or even embracing of opposing ideas, achievable by anchoring a focus to a common goal and emphasising collegiate demand upon offering ‘betterment’ rather than criticism. Hoffman (2017) offers further opportunities here in locating the interview context amongst wider literature in reviewing concepts of red teaming as a continual improvement and adaptation mindset. Taking a parallel stance to Edmondson and Coyle, the point here is to perceive and advocate for the counter-narrative, particularly in ‘thinking like the enemy’ and enabling a culture where identification of weakness and alternative approaches to improve are received as opportunities, rather than threats or criticism to be pushed back defensively. This notion raised in the interview about needing to be right and the need to be certain raised earlier suggests there is perhaps something here about a greater preponderance, within some aspects of historical policing culture, towards the act of ‘knowing’ than thinking. How the police leader is supposed to get to the state of knowing without thinking is a mystery and the notion of always knowing is perhaps more of simply a fallacy. The suggestion is that this is a form of cultural mythology. The leader should not be afraid to say ‘I don’t know’ when that’s the case in order to get a wider and collective view, to make the best decisions. In policing the speed of decision making is often regarded as a mark of success and being recognised as an authority; a kind of reputational currency, but we should also have a balance where at times we take a more collective approach.
Can that mean sometimes speed over deliberation? Can that mean sometimes shortcutting the collective insight opportunities and in turn often getting more of the same rather than different perspectives? Maybe, too, there are a series of (apparent) certainties that help give an illusion of control and certainty, gleaned through
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statistics and socially constructed frameworks, that provide some sort of tangible and concrete basis to offer a comforting perception of certainty about things. There are lots of areas where performance metrics drive activity. Meaningful performance frameworks which measure input, output, outcome and impact are essential in understanding all aspects of the policing business and we must continue to be forensic in understanding service, benefits and value for money. However, it is also imperative that we understand the wider and less tangible context; the qualitative understanding, the behavioural culture and the emotional intuition as to how and organisation and its people feel. The importance of improving diversity and inclusion in policing remains a consistent and important focus, which majors on attraction, retention and promotion. There is a laudable focus on statistical performance data, but for me when you unpack the numbers it’s also about people and whether they feel confident and safe to bring the authentic version of themselves to their working environment. The real benefit of diversity is that it brings abundance, but only really achieves its true potential where the difference is recognised and encouraged. So, it’s not just about chasing statistics, it’s about valuing people and creating the environment where people can genuinely flourish.
There are many signposts towards shortfalls in policing leadership then, and some of that history may, it seems, have been unduly weighted towards leaders who tell rather than leaders who listen. When we talk of the thinking police leader, we perhaps need to pick up on the point that thinking as an act should not be owned or dominated by just one – the thinking police leader, and those around them, should all be thinking and in turn listening to the collective diversity. That notion of the thinking police leader is perhaps not so much an individual act but more about the leadership enabling of thinking for all. By embedding a shared cultural agency of thinking and less of a lone actor leadership approach perhaps opportunities for more insight and better alternatives would be realised – and ironically as Sunstein and Hastie (2015) point out – a policing service that gets things right more often. Accepting that policing is an ongoing story, where are the next great opportunities to evolve? Are we seeing a shift away from the lone leader who knows best towards more collective wisdom? Is the trajectory of thinking policing leadership going in the right direction? We have faced many challenges in police leadership and sometimes not got it right. The ongoing challenge is about celebrating change and evolution, rather than preserving a hierarchical organisation where success can tend to lean towards a mirror image of the current leadership. We need to see difference and diversity as being infinite and three dimensional and create a culture that is encouraging of this. Anecdotally, I believe the culture is changing, but this will need to continue to evolve from our inherited history.
Yes is the answer and being conscious about the challenges and having explicit vision towards an evolved goal are surely evidences of the first steps already underway for thinking in policing becoming a more visible and valued quality. But we are not there yet is also the answer. So, let us now move to the second phase of the interview and explore more of the future potential for police leaders as thinkers.
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Thinking of the Future A starting point here is a form of compass of principles that we could perhaps best encapsulate as a destination for the ‘servant leader’. The signposts are pointing here towards empathy, listening, valuing, coaching and empowering. Direction, vision and mission are fully integrated yet there is not even a mention anywhere of the notion of command and control, nor any hint of the ego-driven hero leader. There is a very strong principle of leadership articulated, which, within it, operates from a position of direction without being directive, that uses thinking, and more particularly shared thinking, as its core enabler. Rather than perhaps describing the ‘thinking leader’, the image being characterised here could be more accurately described as an enabler that values thinking as its metaphorical oxygen. And one of the reasons to reframe the narrative beyond the ‘thinking leader’ is that this description conjures up a solitary and isolated figure, but the future model described here is far more of a flat team environment where the leader is almost peer-like where everyone alike is only subservient to the power of rationale and thought. The real future police leader, then, is not a noun but a verb: thought itself. My ideal leadership approach for the future is simple; to engender genuine support, high expectation and clarity of purpose. For me, the effective leader is a servant to your people, with the mission being about helping them grow and succeed. Do a thousand different things to show you have their back and that you care. Identify and show micro actions, minute by minute, day by day, to promote this cultural approach consistently. It requires memory, consistency, thinking of others, spotting opportunities to thank, care, listen. Be prepared to show your vulnerability. We are all a little broken and it is a powerful advantage to know that you have suffered and have challenges. Coach, teach, remain proximate, communicate, encourage feedback and positive conflict. Seek to develop others to be better. For me the most effective and impactive leaders take this one step further – they coach others to be better than the leader themselves.
This future focus emphasises relationships, in an explicit practice ethos that Terry O’Connell has advocated now for several years. In a recent seminar (The Police Foundation 2021) hosted by the Police Foundation, O’Connell articulated the vitality of relationships and the inevitability of interrelationship that can produce so much if nurtured and conversely, if stifled by process, siloes and competitiveness, is almost certain to cause damage and toxicity. O’Connell makes the point that the explicit focus on relationships is about engendering meaningfulness – having conversations that matter abut things that matter. That simplicity and almost purity, elevated beyond the noisy distraction of complex process and bureaucracy, offers a fresh opportunity to focus more on outcomes and impact rather than the inputs and outputs that can fuel busy-ness without critical thinking attuned to explicit purpose. The future should be more about trust. Where opportunity for growth and learning is not hampered by fear. Listening is a key skill to achieve this state.
This is quite a long way from the order giving of the commander, where the boss knows best and the subordinates are told what to do. This alternative model
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therefore opens up how this style of leadership redefines some established concepts of power that we perhaps associate with traditional police management. Some might even question if the notion of listening to others and sharing power is even a model of leadership, particularly in a transactional environment. It could perhaps be regarded as a form of self-less leadership, antipodal to Rosenthal and Pittinsky’s (2006) narcissistic leadership trait. The language here does indicate a focus upon the other rather than the self and upon shared reasoning rather than the leader’s opinion. It is, then, a form of collaborative leadership where the conjoint currency is thinking. There are, though, other dimensions to note. There is reference to valuing values, so that a form of emotional intelligence is at play – more than just a cognitive connection. I think the future leader has to recognise that to get the best out of people you value them. By creating an environment where people can enjoy their contribution, where they can cultivate pride in their work, and where the values are mutually converged on a common mission.
And there is some toughness to be seen too. That might seem surprising given the tone so far, but the position is entirely logical when the context is explored. There is that focus on mission and goals, that valuing of diverse views on how to best achieve things, and that rejection of the role of leader as hero. Building on that also is a high expectation of commitment, and the toughness of leadership becomes apparent when the mission and goal is rejected. There must be high expectation as this is by no means lassiez-faire – we are here to serve the public – we sign a contract to deliver on behalf of the organisation and should do so. That means a relentless pursuit of a clearly defined mission that is critically shaped by the people who deliver it and the recipient of the activity. That means commitment and constant focus on results and performance. There must be clarity about what the direction of travel is and how each person contributes – operationally, transitionally, thematically and culturally. Followership is important but not hero worship. Consistency of commitment to the mission is hugely important but not at the expense of allowing contribution and allowing difference to flourish. Those who do not buy into this should be appropriately and robustly managed. This must be unrelenting, there is no space for those who will not engage with this approach.
So, it seems the crux of the approach is around helping orchestrate (jointly) clear direction, but not to be overly, transactionally, directive. The focus is upon clarity, but not control. The focus upon intention, with a flexibility to devolve empowered initiative, is clearly articulated, which resonates with Argyris (1993) and his notions of ‘double-loop learning’: where goals are articulated but opportunities in how to do things are unrestricted. Clear direction is important. But let others deliver, utilising their own initiative and autonomy. This means generating an enterprise and innovation culture where continuous improvement, initiatives and efficiency is a requirement of everyone’s day job. The police thinking leader should be flexible – the environment is volatile and uncertain and you cannot control it. If we can’t nurture enterprise and adaptation to respond to evolving criminal methods, we fail to protect the public.
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This notion of a more free-flowing mentality is reminiscent of John Kao’s state of ‘jamming’ (1996) as application of business creativity, where the jazz quartet (rather than the scripted orchestra) is used as a metaphor for adaptive thinking. Thinking and knowing are subtly different. In some respects, ‘knowing’ is often related to a form of noun – a solid body of knowledge or evidence, or surety, certainty and binaries of right and wrong. There are almost ontological dimensions to this value-based position towards knowledge, yet here the interview reveals a different stance, one of more flexibility and agility where a curiosity-based mindset operates more of a form of verb: to know as a form of noun; to think as a kind of verb. There is an opportunity to do much more wider thinking that brings in more divergent views from people and organisations who are different to you. That helps break down the constraints of rigid thinking and can help challenge veneer thin vanity projects and illogical decision making. We must think beyond political and short-term financial cycles and the way we do that is to open the thinking more.
This is a form of adaptive epistemic disposition (Greene and Yu 2015), meaning a humble enquiry literacy that enables learning and constant enquiry. This intellectual humility (Porter and Schumann 2018) lives in the adaptive agility of listening more and telling less and never potentially reaching a position of certainty, just a position of what is best for now. The iterative approach, based around a strong focus and intention, is a form of Bayesian applied science (Gleason and Harris 2019) and, as such, fits well with the national decision-making model (2011) used extensively in UK policing, as it is dynamic and shifting, making it more compatible with the day- to- day realities of operational policing. There is something of a value-based approach to the thinking leader exposed next, where emotional intelligence influences. Natural leaders are rooted in authentic values. Things like compassion, service, fairness, integrity and determination. Values are the anchor and blue print to the thinking inspirational leader and there is a deep, emotional and conscious connection to them. I think a good leader reduces fear by taking a psychological and coaching approach to leadership.
A form of mindset and skills set starts to become clear through this narrative. There is the humble enquiring focus, which listens out for disparity rather than trying to corral it. There is the coach who is seeking to make others achieve more, not to maintain a distance of superiority. There is the futurist, who is looking towards ever- expanding options. There is boldness in daring to reveal vulnerability and being prepared to fail in order to learn and explore innovation through enterprise. What is described here as a thinking police leader is someone in a state of perpetual growth and encouraging growth all around them too, not someone in a position of conserving a status quo and seeking compliance towards it. There is an echo of Moses Naim (2013) in the reference to the almost rejection of singular leader- held, hierarchical power and the embracing of the collectivity of a democratised and fluid power, realised via collaborative thinking as a better way of achieving things operationally. Leaders should not feel pressure to know it all. I don’t and do not feel vulnerable to say so, even it is against the prevailing way of doing things. Have a plan, know how to get there,
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everyone bought in, hold to account but understand how to measure and assess progress. It’s OK to say I don’t know. But it’s not OK not to try.
And those words are indeed the sign of a thinking police leader – a police leader who thinks and values thinking as a core value and behaviour amongst all policing professionals around them: policing with a purpose, yet policing collectively. The thinking police leader is perhaps less about knowing lots of things but helping get things done, by utilising empowered teams and ensuring the pursuance of goals is not hindered by convention. Maybe that is what it means to think in this public service context: to change things, to use thinking as the cultural vessel to explore betterment. Maybe that is why it is important that the police leader is a thinker; because as a protector what we have now is not good enough and more must be done as a civic duty. To stop thinking would be to surrender to the initiative of the criminal and changing crime threats. To think more means that the initiative may be seized by law enforcement and not before time.
References Agyris, C., and Schon, D., 1978. Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective Addison-Wesley Argyris, C. 1993. Knowledge for Action San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass Bandman, E.L. and Bandman, B., 1995. Critical Thinking in Nursing Norwalk CT: Appleton and Lange Boardman, J. and B. Sauser, 2008. Systems Thinking: Coping with 21st Century Problems Boca Raton, FL, USA: Taylor & Francis Chan, J.B.L. 1997. Changing Police Culture, Cambridge Univ. Press Christopher, S., 2015. The Police Service Can Be a Critical Reflective Practice … If It Wants Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2015, Pages 326–339 Coyle, D. 2018. The Culture Code London: Penguin Dewey, J., 1933. How We Think Boston, MA, DC Heath Edmondson, A.C. 2019. The Fearless Organization: creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation and growth New Jersey: Wiley Empac 2019. http://www.empac.org.uk/research-mindset/ Foucault, M. 1994. Power: Essential Works of Foucault New York: The New Press Gleason, P.M., Harris, J.E. 2019. The Bayesian Approach to Decision Making and Analysis Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 119(12), 1993-2003 Elsevier Greene, J.A., Yu, S.B. 2015. Educating Critical thinkers: The Role of Epistemic Cognition Policy Insights from the Behavioural and Brain Sciences Vol. 3 (1), 45–53 Sage Griseri P. 1998. Managing Values Palgrave, London Guilfoyle, S., 2013. Intelligent Policing: How Systems Thinking Methods Eclipse Conventional Management Triarchy Hoffman, B. G. 2017. Red Teaming London: Paitkus Kahneman, D. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow Farrar, Straus and Giroux Kao, J. 1996. Jamming: the art and discipline of business creativity New York: Harper Collins Kotter, J.P. 1996. Leading Change Boston MA: Harvard Business School Press Laufs, J., Bowers, K., Birks, D., and Johnson, S.D. 2020. Understanding the concept of ‘demand’ in policing: a scoping review and resulting implications for demand management Policing and Society An International Journal of Research and Policy DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1043946 3.2020.1791862
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Lencioni, P. 2002. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team San Fransisco: Josey Bass Lencioni, P. 2005. Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team San Fransisco: Josey Bass Maguire, M., and John, T., 2006. Intelligence Led Policing, Managerialism and Community Engagement: Competing Priorities and the Role of the National Intelligence Model Policing and Society 161, 67–85, March McChrystal, S., 2019. Team of Teams London: Penguin Naim, M. 2013. The End of Power New York: Basic Porter, T., & Schumann, K. 2018. Intellectual humility and openness to the opposing view Self and Identity 17(2), 139–162 Taylor and Francis Ratcliffe, J., 2008. Intelligence-Led Policing Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing Read, T., and Tilley, N., 2000. Not Rocket Science? Problem solving and crime reduction London: Home Office Rosenthal, S. A., Pittinsky, T.L. 2006. Narcissistic leadership The Leadership Quarterly 17 617–633 Schon, D., 1983. The Reflective Practitioner: how professionals think in action New York: Basic books Schwartz, P., 1991. The Art of the Long View: strategic insights for your company New York: Doubleday Seddon, J. 2005. Freedom from Command and Control, Vanguard Press Sherman, L., 2013. The Rise of Evidence-Based Policing: Targeting, Testing and Tracking Crime and Justice Vol. 42, 377–431 Skinner, P. 2018. Collaborative Advantage London: Robinson Sunstein, C. R, Hastie, R., 2015. Wiser: getting beyond groupthink to make groups smarter Harvard Business Review Press. The Police Foundation. 2021. https://www.police-foundation.org.uk/events-programme/ policing-innovation-international-seminar-19th-may-2021-2-4pm-bst/ Thompson, S., and Thompson, N., 2018. The Critically Reflective Practitioner London: Palgrave UK National Decision-Making Model (NDM) 2011. https://www.policeprofessional.com/news/ acpo-launches-decision-model-for-all-policing/
Relational Policing at an Inflection Point: A Need for Police Leaders as Thinkers DeAnza A. Cook, Megan LePere-Schloop, Dan Silk, and Brian N. Williams
Introduction The current state of relational policing in the United States is at an inflection point. Mobile phones, viral videos, and social media platforms have allowed us to watch police officers assault law-abiding people, witness the murder of an unarmed citizen like George Floyd, and become aware of the death of Breonna Taylor – all due to the actions and inactions of police officers. These localized and isolated events are often generalized across jurisdictions, departments, and the profession. The blue suit generalization phenomenon (Williams 1998), in which the public paints all police personnel with a broad brush, has divided communities, impacted police morale, and affected public trust and confidence in law enforcement. Furthermore, as a possible consequence, retaliatory actions on the parts of residents are a reality and have resulted in the deaths of police officers like George Gonzalez, William Evans, and Dylan Harrison. These dystopian scenarios with deadly results have occurred in cities, towns, rural communities, and college campuses across the United States. As such, they reflect a clear and present danger to American democracy – the disconnect and distrust between citizens and their governing institutions. D. A. Cook Department of History, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA M. LePere-Schloop John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA D. Silk Chief of Police, University of Georgia Police Department Instructor, Criminal Justice Studies Program University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA B. N. Williams (*) Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_5
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Public opinion data after the murder of George Floyd highlighted the precarious position in which policing as a profession found itself. A survey from the Democracy Fund and UCLA Nationscape Project (Morin 2020) found in a 1-week time period that the percentage of favorable opinions of police decreased for all races represented. In particular, African American respondents went from 47% having a somewhat or very favorable view of police to 38%, while white, non-Hispanic Americans went from 72% to 61% (see Fig. 1). This decrease in favorability ratings for police resulted in an increase in unfavorable views by all American adults across racial lines (Morin 2020). Figure 2 highlights these ratings for African American adults, White American adults, Latino American adults, and Asian/Pacific Islander adults, respectively. Consequently, many Americans now question police performance, the motives of police officers, and even the need for police departments (For a World Without Police 2016; McDowell and Fernandez 2018). These issues jeopardize police department efforts to enlist residents as partners in the cocreation of policies and practices that lead to complementary action on public safety, public order, and community well-being (Williams et al. 2021). Democratic institutions, like police departments, can be fragile (Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018). Police organizations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have faced and suffered from “truth decay” (Kavanaugh and Rich 2018). This type of deterioration is the by-product of a decline in public trust, public confidence, and authority and can result in the police becoming seen as enemies in blue (Williams 2015). This perception threatens a vital institution that supports American
Fig. 1 Favorable View of Police by Race
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Fig. 2 Unfavorable View of Police by Race
democracy and therefore threatens American democracy itself. Yet, to paraphrase Albert Einstein, in the midst of this difficulty lies an opportunity – leadership. In the following pages, we identify several notable police leaders but highlight one in particular as a thinker – one who leveraged a double consciousness (Du Bois 2015) to navigate a previous inflection point with individual, professional, institutional, communal, and societal implications. The lessons learned from his experiences serve as a testimony to attract, cultivate, and motivate, a road map to guide and navigate, and a reminder to reinvigorate and refresh other police leaders as thinkers.
Looking Back to Look Ahead Rearview mirrors are practical and beneficial. They provide a much needed perspective that keep occupants in a car safe as they travel to their desired destination. As American society and its supporting democracy idle at this current relational policing inflection point, we have an opportunity to look back before proceeding ahead. The current negative state of affairs regarding race, policing, and public perception is not new. It is a recurring problem. The adage is true: without an awareness, appreciation, and acknowledgement of history, one is bound to repeat it. We look back to look and plan ahead. We do so in this chapter by leveraging their HistoryMakers Digital Archive – the United States’ largest African American video oral history archive. This resource allowed us to generate and excavate a list of leaders of police departments who were prescient in their perspectives and approaches
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to prepare, push, and position public safety departments to be more just and equitable. These black police intellectuals served as institutional reformers, but like most prophets or revelators, they were not respected for seeing, saying, and seeking to do things to benefit the public they served and, in essence, the profession of policing.
he Leadership of Black Police Intellectuals T as Institutional Reformers Leadership is a much studied topic and is often coupled with the concept of wisdom (Küpers 2007; Küpers and Statler 2008). Wise leadership is hard to define, but it is often clearly evident when it is witnessed. Theoretically, it has been conceived as the convergence of three streams or domains as expressed by Ardelt’s (2003) Three- Dimensional Wisdom model: the cognitive domain, the reflective domain, and the compassionate domain. This trinity reflects the teaming of (1) the cognitive or one’s ability to apply knowledge to a particular situation at the right moment and place in time, (2) the reflective or one’s capacity for seeing events and circumstances from multiple perspectives, and (3) the compassionate or one’s desire and determination to foster the well-being of all (Ardelt 2003, 2004). This form of leadership seems to emerge from lived experiences of being in community with others that are then shared with others who can embrace and apply it to the benefit of all. Wise leadership is valuable, as it draws upon wisdom – perhaps the pinnacle of human development – to foster the ability of individuals and institutions to navigate the challenging circumstances of life that they face. In the subsequent paragraphs, we highlight one who has brought the theoretical construct of wise leadership into practice – Dr. Lee Patrick Brown. Embedded within our case study of Dr. Brown are other wise leaders. These exemplars were critical thinkers who drew upon their lived experiences, as well as the lived experiences of others, to advance the profession of policing. In the pursuit of progress, they embraced the opportunity to bring comfort to the afflicted knowing that in doing so, not only would they be afflicted, but they would afflict the comfortable as well.
Dr. Lee Brown: A Case Study of Police Leader as Thinker Once you arrest someone...you’ve failed. So, I believe very strongly that you should do things to prevent crime from happening in the first place, rather than waiting ‘til someone is arrested…. I think that’s the major lesson I learned at UC Berkeley. – The Honorable Dr. Lee P. Brown
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Visions of life, or foresights of what can be, are filled with not only difficulties and obstacles but also opportunities. The former two may defer dreams, but embracing and taking advantage of opportunities can never deny those imaginings. This is one of the lessons that can be learned by reflecting upon the life and legacy of wise leadership of Dr. Lee Brown. The police chief of San Jose categorically denied Lee Patrick Brown’s request for time off duty when Brown decided to pursue a second master’s degree in criminology. Lee Brown was only the second African American patrolman to integrate the white male-dominated police department in 1960 and one of two San Jose police officers attending college in addition to working the beat.1 Despite ongoing federal efforts in the mid-1960s to subsidize higher education for local law enforcement officers, police education was simply “not valued at that time” by Brown’s coworkers.2 Most of his superiors did not have a college education at all. In fact, even the chief himself had only earned a GED. Nonetheless, Brown committed to pursuing higher education and the police profession concomitantly. After all, he steadfastly believed it was “the plan of the creator that I would first major in criminology; second, become a police officer.”3 On top of stomaching ridicule from white residents who did not consider a Black policeman “a real cop,” Brown endured snide taunts from some of his colleagues for daring to go to school.4 He remained undeterred, however, and climbed through the ranks to sergeant in 1966. Soon after, the US Department of Justice awarded him a fellowship to cover his tuition as a full-time graduate student at the University of
A. Francis Turner was the first African American patrolman and Dr. Lee Patrick Brown’s predecessor. Brown credits Mr. Turner for paving the way for him. “I think it’s important to mention that Francis Turner...made it easier for me,” Brown recounted in an interview. “And I’m sure it wasn’t [easy] for him, ‘cause it wasn’t easy for me being the...second black.” Out of the 30 police sergeants to receive OLEA grants in Brown’s cohort, the two San Jose police officers were the only ones not relieved from their duty to attend classes. CITE The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 9, The Honorable Lee P. Brown remembers becoming a police officer and his continued education. 2 CITE The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his PhD in criminology from the University of California, Berkeley. 3 CITE The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 9, The Honorable Lee P. Brown remembers becoming a police officer and his continued education. 4 CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his PhD in criminology from the University of California, Berkeley. 1
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California, Berkeley.5 Brown faithfully commuted back and forth to classes, over an hour away after his shifts ended in San Jose, until he successfully earned a second master’s degree in 1968. The police chief directed him in August 1966 to develop a program to ameliorate tensions between city police and Black and Latinx Hispanic residents living in San Jose’s east side. In the shadow of Black protest erupting from Harlem to Watts, riot control dominated urban law enforcement priorities during Brown’s tenure as sergeant. He and a fellow officer commissioned an area study to formulate preemptive strategies for police interventions in East San Jose. Besides advocating for more minority officer recruits and youth-oriented police programs, their findings suggested the creation of a police-community relations (PCR) unit within the department.6 With the chief’s approval for the new special force, Brown swiftly accepted the appointment as the unit commander. The PCR unit debuted a citizens’ recognition program, published a police- community relations news bulletin, and submitted policy revisions to the chief after deeming the department’s existing community complaint procedures “inadequate.”7 Brown began forging neighborhood communications channels and coordinating Brown was one of 30 police sergeants nationwide to receive a fellowship from the US Department of Justice’s Office of Law Enforcement Assistance. CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 9, The Honorable Lee P. Brown remembers becoming a police officer and his continued education. 6 Although the community policing boom at the dawn of the twenty-first century is commonly attributed to Clinton era policies enacted in the 1990s, such as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, PCR special units actually originated almost three decades earlier. Brown and his team conducted a series of interviews with East San Jose residents and proposed the following ten recommendations: (1) “The City of San Jose should immediately establish a Community Service Center in San Jose. (2) The Police Department should establish a PoliceCommunity Relations Unit within the Department. (3) The existing Youth Protection Unit should be expanded to include programs in elementary schools. (4) The Youth Protection Unit and the Police-Community Relations Unit should act as a discovery and referral agency for children with problems of a non-criminal nature. (5) The Police-Community Relations Unit, in conjunction with other local agencies, should sponsor human relations seminars. (6) Methods should be devised to recruit more minority police officers. (7) Liaison should be established between the Police Department and various homeowners associations in the city. (8) A strong in-service training program in human relations should be initiated within the Police Department. (9) Plans should be made for the future implementation of a Police Athletic League. (10) Members of the PoliceCommunity Relations Unit should participate in the planning meetings of the Police Department in order to keep the superior officers abreast of current community attitudes toward the Department.” CITE Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pgs. 146–147. 7 Brown explained, “since part of the Police-Community Relations Unit’s responsibility was to review the departmental policies as they related to community relations, the Unit reviewed the department’s complaint procedures in January of 1966 and found them inadequate. As a result, we recommended to the Police Chief that the department establish an Internal Affairs Unit.” Fortunately, the chief agreed with their assessment. CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 125. 5
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crime control crusades with participating community partners. He also established a direct line to the chief and subsequently formed a close working relationship with him that eventually inspired Brown to become a police chief himself.8 Even though Brown knew he would never be the police chief of San Jose, he still devoted considerable time to his professional and academic work because he swore that he would never let any police commander tell him that he was not “qualified for any job [he] applied for.”9 Brown experienced firsthand the ebbs and flows of PCR work in San Jose. He oversaw the implementation of a variety of initiatives explicitly designed to cultivate relationships with a variety of constituents, including civil rights groups and community councils, parent-teacher associations and professional organizations, neighborhood action groups and religious groups, civic and social clubs, and student groups.10 He instructed PCR officers to form neighborhood law enforcement committees and meet regularly with community residents and Police Community Area Councils to gain a deeper understanding of policing problems and potential social service solutions.11 PCR officers also led 15 credit hour in-service trainings focused on community and human relations at San Jose City College and acted as liaisons for residents in need of direct services.12 Beyond managing citizen referrals to relevant neighborhood service providers, the unit frequently fielded concerns about hazardous city living conditions. In one instance, when property owners refused to make much-needed repairs, Brown leveraged his contacts with the local legal aid bureau to help tenants organize a rent strike.13
Prior to his appointment, Brown explicitly requested direct access to the San Jose police chief to boost the efficacy of the PCR unit. CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 120. CITE The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 1, The Honorable Lee P. Brown recalls his fellowship from the US Department of Justice. 9 CITE The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 11, The Honorable Lee P. Brown remembers his treatment as the second African American police officer hired in San Jose, California. 10 The PCR’s primary objections, as espoused by Dr. Brown, “were to actively strive to obtain the highest degree of cooperation between citizens and the police department, and actively promote an understanding of the police function among the citizens.” Furthermore, he argued, “this can be done by building citizens’ confidence in the police department, gaining support for the police department’s programs and objectives, which would include compliance with laws, assistance in investigations and cooperation with special programs.” CITE Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 120. 11 CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 121. 12 CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 125. 13 CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 125. 8
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As a married father of two Black children, Brown believed wholeheartedly that African Americans had a place in law enforcement. “I felt I could make a difference by being inside of the organization,” Brown resolved.14 For him, higher education and “change from within” the department were the keys to reforming the American policing tradition in his own community.15 After obtaining a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees in sociology and criminal justice, Brown almost assuredly became the first African American police sergeant in the world to earn a PhD in criminology in 1970.16 Similarly, his doctoral dissertation on the efficacy of urban police community relations programs was among the first rigorous evaluations of its kind.17 Brown deduced in 1970 that “little has been written...to identify specific criteria for police-community relations component analysis.”18 His groundbreaking research on urban police department-sponsored PCR initiatives in San Jose, St. Louis, New Orleans, and numerous other localities introduced a general framework for scrutinizing a program’s fidelity and productivity. By the 1970s, police officials overwhelmingly relied on statistical data to legitimize extant community relations programs designed to curb police misconduct, inner-city violence trends, and citizen distrust in majority-minority communities.19 At the expense of methodical evaluation and training, the vast majority of PCR programs lacked any meaningful criteria for analyzing the citizen attitudes toward the police and relationships with
CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 3, The Honorable Lee P. Brown reflects upon the African American presence in police departments and the criminal justice system. 15 CITE The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 3, The Honorable Lee P. Brown reflects upon the African American presence in police departments and the criminal justice system. 16 CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his PhD in criminology from University of California, Berkeley. 17 CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970. 18 CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 202. 19 “Presently,” Brown ascertained in 1970, “police departments are evaluating their community relations programs in the same manner they evaluate other police functions, vis-a-vis, the computation of statistics.” Furthermore, he elaborated, “our research has shown that, in general, the police have not gone beyond this traditional reliance on statistical data for evaluating (and justifying) their community relations programs.” CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 200. 14
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local law enforcement officers and public safety officials.20 Thinking beyond conventional cost-benefit analyses, Brown offered general guidelines for measuring PCR program efficiency with “quantifiable police-community relations goals and... objectives.”21 “For a police-community relations program to be effective,” he underscored, “it must involve the community.”22 Above all, critical engagement with community residents at each stage of program development and careful scrutiny of every element involved in the execution of a PCR program was essential for comprehensively determining its effectiveness or lack thereof. In addition to spotlighting key criteria for measuring success, Brown shed light on major setbacks for PCR special units in the aftermath of civil rights protests and urban rebellions across the country. “The police are anthropomorphic representatives of societal control,” he forthrightly contended, “caught in the middle of two opposing forces, those who demand change and those who seek to maintain the status quo.”23 Furthermore, he stressed, “unfortunately, we find that many cities are willing to spend large sums of money on riot control equipment, but not on police- community relations training.”24 Brown envisioned a comprehensive PCR curriculum customized for patrolmen and their supervisors and wholly dedicated to wrestling with “human problems— not just police problems.”25 Robust police (re)education in his mind required sustained investment and involvement from all ranks within a participating law According to Brown, “the criteria for determining the effectiveness of a police-community relations program must be directly related to the goals of the program.” In order to address the “criteria problem and attempt to identify a meaningful means of evaluation that will stimulate additional efforts on the part of those concerned with the analytical side of police-community relations,” he argued, “we must stress the point that considerably more effort must be addressed to the problem of program analyses of individual police community relations components.” CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pgs. 202, 220. 21 Brown proposed a three-pronged process for PCR program evaluation in 1970: (A) Describe the problem which the program is designed to attack, (B) establish quantifiable police-community relations goals and quantitative objectives of the various program components established to achieve the goals, and (C) determine the goal achievement by assessing the program results. CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 223. 22 CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 226. 23 CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 1. 24 CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 213. 25 CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 214. 20
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enforcement agency. Brown described the mission of PCR training as both educational and behavioral. Most notably, he believed that historical education could be a vital antidote to poisonous police traditions and a catalyst for crystallizing a police officer’s consciousness of “the inequities in the criminal justice process.”26 Brown proposed that “[providing] police officers with an understanding of the history of law enforcement” would clarify “the reasons certain enclaves within the society are demanding changes.”27 More specifically, Brown suggested the implementation of PCR training programs specializing in “Black History,” “Police Officers Role in the Black Community,” and “Community Power and the Politics of Leadership.”28 In contrast to standard public relations strategies rooted in “selling” the public “a false image” of police, he distinguished PCR work as “a sincere effort on the part of the police to develop a mutual understanding” and cultivate “an atmosphere conducive
Brown offered a 13-point list of objectives for PCR training programs. “Some of the objectives of a police-community relations training program should be: (1) To develop in police officers an awareness of citizens as people not symbols. (2) To provide police officers with the mechanism whereby they become sensitive to the problems, needs, and attitudes of the community. (3) To develop in police officers an appreciation and respect for the rights of individuals. (4) To develop in police officers an understanding and appreciation for the history and culture of minority groups and their contribution to the development of American society. (5) To develop in police officers an understanding of the vast dimensions of human life so they can conduct themselves in the manner dictated by the courts, the legislature and the people. (6) To develop in police officers an understanding of the philosophy of dissent and why conflict is generally necessary to bring about change. (7) To provide police officers with an understanding of the history of law enforcement and the reasons certain enclaves within the society are demanding changes. (8) To provide police officers with an understanding of the behavioral effects of prejudice. (9) To develop in police officers an understanding of how their words and actions can trigger a negative response from others. (10) To develop in police officers the capability of coping with stressful situations without over-reacting. (11) To develop in police officers an understanding of the police mission, with emphasis being placed on community service as the legitimate police mission. (12) To develop in police officers an understanding of the inequities in the criminal justice process and how a double standard of enforcement of the law serves to destroy respect for law and law enforcement officers. (13) To develop in police officers an appreciation of the need for good relationships with the community, especially the minority communities.” CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pgs. 215–216. 27 CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pgs. 215–216. 28 Brown’s dissertation included an outline of a particular PCR program that he crafted for an unnamed “municipal police agency with a large Black community.” Most notably, his outline featured course content on the Civil Rights Movement; Black and white militancy; the NAACP, Urban League, Black Panthers, and Nation of Islam; Race and Crime; the Psychology of Human Development; Mechanism of Prejudice; Professionalism and Ethics; and Practical Police Problems. CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pgs. 216–218. 26
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to a good day-to-day relationship between the police and the community.”29 “If the community relations [are] not good,” Brown warned, “then public relations is not the answer.”30 Brown was convinced PCR reform could only be achieved by rethinking police work in its totality.31 Following the passage of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, federal funds for police research and development fueled the ascendance of criminal justice academic programs and financed police field research studies in major and mid-size municipalities.32 From the 1970s onward, Black criminologists produced seminal scholarship on urban crime prevention and police brutality, as well as systemic abuses in criminal justice administration against minority youth, adults, and families. Yet, the vast majority of African American criminological perspectives on the etiology of crime and violence in low-income communities of color remained largely excluded from elite law enforcement circles in both the academy and government.33 As a trained criminologist, Dr. Lee P. Brown was an extraordinary exception. His intellectual and professional expertise would eventually propel him to the highest echelons of national criminal justice policy making and urban police management. By the mid-1970s, Brown had moved on from San Jose and advanced his career as sheriff and director of criminal justice services in Multnomah County, Oregon.34 During his time in Oregon, he maintained personal ties with national police experts based in Washington, DC, and nurtured professional relationships with the Law According to Brown, “public relations can be likened to a one-way street whereby the police department attempts to project a good image to the public. It carries with it the inherent hazard of becoming a ‘selling job’ that may sometimes reflect to the public a false image. Police-community relations, on the other hand, is like a telephone, not a broadcasting system — it is a means for twoway communication.” CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICECOMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 21. 30 “Public relations, from the standpoint of private enterprise, is a method of selling a product,” Brown explained. “From the standpoint of police, public relations is a method of selling the police image. Consequently, it is logical to assume that anything the police do from a public relations standpoint will be done to enhance their image.” CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 21. 31 For Brown, the ultimate goal ought to be the full integration of “total community relations in all aspects of police work.” CITE Ibid. Lee Patrick Brown, “EVALUATION OF POLICECOMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMS,” University of California, Berkeley, Doctorate in Criminology Dissertation, 1970, pg. 213. 32 CITE Elizabeth Hinton and DeAnza Cook, “The Mass Criminalization of Black Americans: A Historical Overview,” Annual Review of Criminology, July 2020. 33 CITE Anne T. Sulton, Ph.D., J.D., Ed., African American Perspectives On: Crime Causation, Criminal Justice Administration, and Crime Prevention, (Sulton Books: Englewood, CO), 1994, pgs. 1–14. 34 Before becoming a sheriff in Multnomah County, Oregon, Brown moved to Portland in 1968. There, he worked at Portland State University to develop their Department of Administration of Justice. In 1972, he joined the faculty at Howard University as a professor of public administration and the director of criminal justice programs in Washington, DC. 29
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Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) and the US Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service. One afternoon during his visit to the nation’s capital city, he met with his contacts, Peggy Triplett and Bob Lamb, at a restaurant and bar spot in Georgetown.35 “Wouldn’t it be nice to have an organization for black police executives so they can talk to each other and be supportive of each other,” they contemplated together.36 The biggest barrier to the formation of such an organization, however, was financial. Fortunately, Peggy Triplett worked with the LEAA and agreed to contact her former boss, Pat Murphy, at the National Police Foundation (NPF) to inquire about grant funding options.37 Eager to put their nascent idea into motion, Brown drafted a proposal to secure a foundation grant as seed money for a national symposium to bring Black police executives together. He assured grantors that Black criminal justice professionals would provide indispensable knowledge about the state of Black crime prevention. After some deliberation and negotiation, Brown sealed the deal with an agreement that “would fly” with national benefactors.38 In early September 1976, Brown and at least 59 other Black police practitioners congregated at the Marriott Hotel near Reagan National Airport for an unprecedented three-day criminal justice symposium in Arlington, Virginia.39 From smaller municipalities, such as Roanoke, Virginia, to major metropolises like Seattle, Washington, Black police commanders hailed “from 55 cities in 24 states, [with] over 43 percent of the U.S. black population.”40 Symposium sponsors – namely, the LEAA, the NPF, the US Department of Justice’s National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (later renamed the National Institute of Justice, or NIJ), and the Joint Center for Political Studies – officially summoned career Black law enforcement executives, and several Black academic scholars, to
CITE The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his affiliation with law enforcement organizations. 36 CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his affiliation with law enforcement organizations. 37 CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his affiliation with law enforcement organizations. 38 CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his affiliation with law enforcement organizations. 39 The symposium dates were September 7th–9th, 1976. CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his affiliation with law enforcement organizations. 40 CITE Herrington J. Bryce, Ed., Black Crime: A Police View, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, United States Department of Justice (October 1977), pg. 1. 35
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confront a nationwide “Black-on-Black crime” crisis.41 This sensationalized American dilemma-dominated news narratives and consumed contemporary criminal justice debates over the fate of urban crime control policies in the shadow of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. For the first time en masse, federal agencies and private foundations empowered Black police personnel to investigate insidious plagues of urban violence in Black American communities and offer concrete policy solutions for a plethora of problems for African Americans and law enforcement: most notably, “the problem of crime in the black community, community crime-control, police-community relations, and the problems of the black police executive.”42 During the symposium, Black policemen reiterated major concerns about the dearth of effective personnel practices to hire Black police personnel and the pervasiveness of workplace discrimination for Black police officers aspiring for promotion within their ranks. Their foremost concerns fixated on the socioeconomic conditions of crime and violence, the prevalence of high reported crime rates in Black urban neighborhoods, and the state of protracted struggles for community crime control that engrossed Black police officers. After several sessions, attendees assented to the constitution of a brand-new institutional arm exclusively designed for premier Black police executives. As intended, the inaugural conference galvanized scores of Black police managers and chiefs to seize the opportunity to transfigure their lived experiences as Black law enforcement professionals into a unified political voice on the federal stage. Under the distinctive banner of Black law enforcement expertise, at the twilight of the bicentennial year of the Declaration of Independence on December 7th, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) was born.43 Alongside Black big-city police chiefs Burtell Jefferson and Hubert Williams, Brown was one of 60 founders of the pioneering Black police professional organization.44 NOBLE’s founding marked a pivotal turning point in longstanding battles over African American leadership in law enforcement. Indeed, it exemplified a burgeoning zeitgeist among Black criminal justice practitioners who progressively engaged in – what historian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham described Other participating organizations included the Center for Minority Group Mental Health Programs of the National Institute of Mental Health, the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Social Programs, the National Urban League, the Community Relations Service of the US Department of Justice, the National Urban Coalition, and the United Planning Organization. CITE Ibid. Herrington J. Bryce, Ed., Black Crime: A Police View, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, United States Department of Justice (October 1977), pgs. 163–167. 42 CITE Ibid. Herrington J. Bryce, Ed., Black Crime: A Police View, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, United States Department of Justice (October 1977), pg. 1. 43 CITE Justice By Action, National Black Law Enforcement Executives History Book, Turner Publishing Company (1998), pg. 8. 44 Ibid. CITE Justice By Action, National Black Law Enforcement Executives History Book, Turner Publishing Company (1998), pg. 16. 41
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as – “knowledge-oriented scholar activism” during the Black Power era.45 From the 1970s onward, Black police executives situated themselves as not only advocates for reforming the American police tradition, but also criminal justice experts in their own right. For Black police professionals determined to rebrand blue power for Black law enforcement communities, knowledge production begot political prestige. Throughout the late twentieth century, educated Black policemen and policewomen leveraged their research to disseminate minority perspectives on law enforcement prerogatives and push for institutional changes in police policy and practice. NOBLE’s constituency of Black high-ranking police officers was uniquely concerned with “[ensuring] equity in the administration of justice in the provision of public service to all communities of law enforcement by being committed to justice for all.”46 In contrast to NOBLE’s contemporaries, mainly the newly established Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and the long-lived International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Black police executives consciously prioritized professional development and career advancement opportunities for Black police supervisors.47 Likewise, NOBLE founders erected a platform for minority command-level officers to share concerns and exchange information and consequently boost minority recruitment “in all levels of law enforcement employment,” particularly with respect to community-involved interventions.48 Above all, NOBLE members aspired to eliminate racism in police agencies and criminal justice institutions nationwide through research, reform, and political advocacy. NOBLE’s guiding mission unsurprisingly mirrored the demands of forerunning Black urban police associations in the 1960s and 1970s. Brown was a close associate and consultant for one of the most influential Afro-American Patrolmen’s Leagues (AAPL) in the country based in Chicago in the late 1960s. He bonded with Chicago AAPL president Renault Robinson and his members, spoke regularly at Black patrolmen’s conferences, and even assisted the group with grant writing to raise money for their collective efforts.49 NOBLE’s blue collar predecessor, the CITE Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: History of African Americans, 10th Edition, Preface. 46 CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 58. 47 Brown was intimately involved in all three police executive organizations: NOBLE, PERF, and the IACP. During an interview, he shared that he was one of the founders of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in 1976. He also served as the first Black president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) from 1990 to 1991. CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his affiliation with law enforcement organizations. 48 Ibid. CITE Justice By Action, National Black Law Enforcement Executives History Book, Turner Publishing Company (1998), pg. 15. 49 CITE Ibid. The Honorable Lee P. Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.226), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 4, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, The Honorable Lee P. Brown describes his affiliation with law enforcement organizations. 45
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National Black Police Association (NBPA), convened an assortment of Black policemen to attend a regional conference in St. Louis in 1972.50 Regardless of rank, Black law enforcement workers pursued institution building strategies intended to broaden conventional perspectives on police-community relations, social and economic policies, and crime prevention programs at all levels of government. Black police historians regard NBPA’s founding as “the culmination of four decades of work toward equality for blacks in police departments.”51 And with the advent of NOBLE, a constellation of local, regional, and national Black law enforcement organizations operating concurrently in full force set the stage for augmenting the role of Black police in exclusive criminal justice policy making circles. Unlike the NBPA and Chicago’s AAPL, however, NOBLE affiliates explicitly set out to “conduct and publish criminal justice research,” an organizational objective emblematic of the order maintenance revolution that engrossed law enforcement scholars and police executives alike during this period.52 One year later, symposium participants published an edited essay collection titled Black Crime: A Police View in October 1977. It featured detailed quantitative and qualitative analyses of crime and violence in Black American communities, as well as a list of recommendations for combatting nationwide crime control problems and bettering the plight of Black police executives. Their expansive proposals ranged from “a redefinition of the police role [to] emphasize service rather than control” to “[ending] federal funding in police departments which do not have affirmative action.”53 NOBLE’s ideas, however, were not universally progressive or revolutionary by any means. In fact, several of their suggestions echoed similar law enforcement calls to action in the late 1970s, including their recommendation for mandatory minimum sentencing requirements and “a nationwide war on drugs, with sanctions against Turkey, Mexico, etc. for failure to prosecute offenders.”54 Nevertheless, Black The NBPA’s organizational plan enumerated five goals for its newfound members: (1) to improve the relationship between the Black community and the police department; (2) to improve the professional status of black policemen, individually and collectively; (3) to encourage more Black citizens to actively apply for employment with law enforcement agencies; (4) to assist in reducing causes of crime; and (5) to encourage the further development of law enforcement as a profession. Ibid. CITE Justice By Action, National Black Law Enforcement Executives History Book, Turner Publishing Company (1998), pg. 13. 51 Ibid. CITE Justice By Action, National Black Law Enforcement Executives History Book, Turner Publishing Company (1998), pg. 13. 52 Ibid. CITE Justice By Action, National Black Law Enforcement Executives History Book, Turner Publishing Company (1998), pg. 15. 53 Their recommendations fell under four main categories: (1) causes of crime, (2) crime control, (3) police-community relations, and (4) the role of the Black police executive. Representative John Conyers Jr. authored the bill, H.R. 13636, about federal funding for police departments without affirmative action. CITE Ibid. Herrington J. Bryce, Ed., Black Crime: A Police View, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, United States Department of Justice (October 1977), pgs. 157–159. 54 CITE Ibid. Herrington J. Bryce, Ed., Black Crime: A Police View, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, United States Department of Justice (October 1977), pg. 157. 50
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Crime: A Police View served as a blueprint for well-connected Black police intellectuals who desired to capitalize on the convening power of federal sponsors and private donors in order to disseminate Black law enforcement perspectives on American criminal justice. The federal government’s support of new initiatives, like the National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, was essential for solidifying the salience of Black police scholar-activism in the post-civil rights era. Before President Clinton tapped Lee Brown to serve as “Drug Czar” and Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Police in the 1990s, Brown spent over a decade tracking the exponential growth of criminal justice inequities for Black, Latinx, Asian, and Native Americans and tracing the evolution of community-involved policing practices in municipalities nationwide. In 1982, he chaired the multiracial/multiethnic National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, an auxiliary advisory committee to the US Department of Justice’s LEAA.55 That same year, the council published “the most comprehensive study of crime and criminal justice ever conducted from a minority perspective.”56 It was indeed the first time in American history that minority consultants were impaneled to proffer their criminal justice expertise in the national policy making arena. Minority law enforcement experts spent 4 years aggregating and analyzing accessible data on the human costs of prolonged urban drug-gang wars and criminal law enforcement campaigns waged in neighborhoods across the country with a particular emphasis on police, the courts, and corrections.57 Pressing political problems Created on June 18, 1976, “the Council’s mandate [was] to provide guidance, direction, and recommendations to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Its membership [was] representative of the nation’s four majority groups: blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and Asian-Americans. Its members [came] from all geographic sectors of the country, and their expertise [encompassed] various elements within the law enforcement system, including police, criminal justice policy leaders, community advocates, corrections, and the law.” CITE Lee P. Brown, Chairman, and Raymond S. Blanks, Executive Editor, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community,” National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, January 1982, Washington, D.C., Preface, pg. 11. 56 Contrary to previous studies, the council’s report “[incorporated] the opinions of diverse minority people, along with the results of the Council’s research activities. To assess the impact on crime and each element of the criminal justice system on minorities across the nation, the Council (1) reviewed past and current criminal justice literature, (2) sponsored numerous public hearings around the nation, (3) solicited input from consultants and experts on specific issues, (4) conducted field studies and interviews with selected minority criminal justice leaders and public officials, and (5) critically analyzed criminal justice policies and programs at various governmental levels.” CITE Ibid. Lee P. Brown, Chairman, and Raymond S. Blanks, Executive Editor, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community,” National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, January 1982, Washington, D.C., Preface, pg. 12. 57 Reportedly, “prior to the creation of the Council, no process for minority input to the criminal justice issues existed on the federal level.” CITE Ibid. Lee P. Brown, Chairman, and Raymond S. Blanks, Executive Editor, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community,” National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, January 1982, Washington, D.C., Preface, pg. 11. 55
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stemming from the revival of Ku Klux Klan rampages and the resurgence of racial violence during desegregation in cities, like Boston, on top of the arrival of thousands of refugees and immigrant families from Cuba, Haiti, and Southeast Asia, also preoccupied council researchers. In the midst of recurrent prison protests against inhumane living conditions, councilors scrutinized the persistence of overt racism toward low-income and incarcerated minorities and assessed minority perspectives on prison abuses, as well as institutional alternatives to imprisonment. The council’s culminating report, The Inequality of Justice, foregrounded American criminal justice dilemmas in 1982 as a direct consequence of “the heavy- handed use of state and private power to control minorities and suppress their continuing opposition to the influence of white racist ideology.”58 Harkening back to condemnations originally echoed by the Kerner Commission of 1968, minority law enforcement researchers unapologetically denounced the “air of hypocrisy...about freedom” in America when in reality “the essential social levels of opportunity— education, jobs, housing, and political power—are kept out of the reach of the masses of minorities.”59 More importantly, the council sounded national alarm about the looming threat of mass incarceration increasingly fueled by the predominance of underserved, hyper-policed people of color funneled through the throes of an incompetent and convoluted criminal legal system.60 The council presented a variety of reform recommendations regarding policy, including the divestment of federal funding for police departments proven to maintain high rates of reported racial violence and the formation of a federal task force empowered to combat police brutality through criminal and civil punishment.61 The wealth of information compiled by the council, however, failed to reach most
CITE Ibid. Lee P. Brown, Chairman, and Raymond S. Blanks, Executive Editor, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community,” National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, January 1982, Washington, D.C., Executive Summary, pg. 15. 59 CITE Ibid. Lee P. Brown, Chairman, and Raymond S. Blanks, Executive Editor, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community,” National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, January 1982, Washington, D.C., Executive Summary, pg. 15. 60 The council’s primary conclusions were threefold: (1) “race is an important factor in the operation of the criminal justice system which seems to discriminate against minority racial/ethnic groups; (2) incarceration is applied primarily to the poor and minorities, while diversion, restitution, and other alternative programs are considered more appropriate for whites; (3) although minorities are more often victims of crime than white, their involvement in the criminal justice system is disproportional to their numbers in population, and they have been virtually excluded from participation in policy-making activities against crime.” CITE Ibid. Lee P. Brown, Chairman, and Raymond S. Blanks, Executive Editor, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community,” National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, January 1982, Washington, D.C., Abstract. 61 CITE Ibid. Lee P. Brown, Chairman, and Raymond S. Blanks, Executive Editor, “The Inequality of Justice: A Report on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community,” National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice, January 1982, Washington, D.C., pg. 425. 58
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federal, state, and local law enforcement organizations, given that the US government publishing office reportedly never printed The Inequality of Justice. Instead, LEAA officials simply circulated a handful of copies to council members and their colleagues.62 Despite limited successes in the federal landscape, Brown’s leadership profile steadily blossomed after serving on the minority criminal justice commission. His substantial knowledge of systemic inequities in criminal justice administration, coupled with his position as the first African American police chief in Houston, garnered him national acclaim among law enforcement executives for his community policing expertise and intensive field experience. At the backdrop of Reagan era crime control campaigns, which aggressively supplanted social policy spending in the 1980s with public-private investment in tough-on-crime counterinsurgency tactics in the name of law and order, Brown unveiled a practical applications guide for law enforcement focused exclusively on the promise of community policing in 1989.63 The seminal essay “Community Policing: A Practical Guide for Police Officials,” considered by contemporary Black criminologists as a classic text, was a product of the first Executive Session on policing hosted by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. With financial backing from the National Institute of Justice along with several private foundations, the Harvard Executive Session comprised a confidential working group of select leading law enforcement officials and academic scholars, who met privately and periodically over a multiyear period to devise actionable strategies for addressing the nation’s most dire policing problems in the late 1980s and early 1990s.64 Brown’s participation in the Harvard Executive Session bolstered his status as one of America’s top Black cop criminologists. Many of Dr. Lee P. Brown’s colleagues affectionately refer to him as the “father of community policing,” a comprehensive law enforcement concept and operational philosophy that Brown sought to institutionalize during his time in Atlanta, Houston,
Brown recalled that “the final report of the Commission was never printed by the government’s printing office. Rather, a limited number of copies were duplicated by LEAA and distributed mainly to members of the Commission.” CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 48. 63 Brown began experimenting with community policing frameworks in Houston in 1982. Phase one of city police reform efforts centered on amplifying community problem-solving and crime prevention capacities through targeted police programming. He famously jumpstarted Houston’s novel Directed Area Responsibility Team program, also known as DART, in order to revamp the department’s personnel deployment strategies, crime analysis techniques, and community engagement protocols. With a dual goal of improving organizational efficiency and nurturing productive relationships between patrol officers and community residents, Houston’s DART program emerged as a national model for transforming an entire police district into a conduit for community-involved policing at the neighborhood level. CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. 166. 64 CITE Hartmann and Moore, “Executive Session,” White Paper, 1989. 62
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and New York City.65 Brown believed that community policing strategies went far beyond police-community relations programs. And throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he advocated for law enforcement workers across the country to embrace an “articulation of policing values” that authentically empowered “citizen involvement in matters that directly affect the safety and quality of neighborhood life.”66 Moreover, he underscored the significance of actualizing “legitimate” partnerships between law enforcement decision makers and local residents through power sharing police-community practices.67 As Black policemen, and later Black policewomen, increasingly transgressed law enforcement leadership barriers, police power sharing remained a quintessential ingredient for transforming age-old American policing traditions rooted in social control over marginalized minorities. For Lee Brown and his peers, rethinking police business and public safety in an ever-evolving and diverse democratic society at the dawn of the twenty-first century ultimately required rigorous research, sustainable resources, and unparalleled contributions from Black American intellectuals. Lee Brown Biographical Timeline 1937 • Born in Wewoka, Oklahoma, on October 4th to Andrew and Zelma Brown, farming sharecroppers who moved to California during the second wave of the Great Migration with their five sons and one daughter 1960 • Hired as a patrolman at the San Jose Police Department • Earned BS degree in criminology from Fresno State University 1964 • Earned MA degree in sociology from San Jose State University 1966 • Promoted to sergeant at the San Jose Police Department Brown published his magnum opus on the past, present, and future of American policing in 2012. CITE Ibid. Dr. Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, (Author House: Bloomington, IL), 2012, pg. xvii. 66 CITE Lee P. Brown, “Community Policing: A Practical Guide for Police Officials,” Perspectives on Policing, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, and the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, No. 12, September 1989, pg. 5. 67 Brown noted that “power sharing means that the community is allowed to participate in the decision-making process unless the law specially grants that authority to the police alone.” CITE Ibid. Lee P. Brown, “Community Policing: A Practical Guide for Police Officials,” Perspectives on Policing, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, and the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, No. 12, September 1989, pg. 5. 65
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• Received a fellowship award from the US Department of Justice’s Office of Law Enforcement Assistance (LEAA) 1968 • Earned MA degree in criminology from the University of California, Berkeley • Served as chairman and professor of the Department of Administration of Justice at Portland State University 1970 • Earned PhD in criminology from the University of California, Berkeley 1972 • Hired as associate director of the Institute for Urban Affairs and Research at Howard University 1974/1975 • Appointed sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon 1976 • Appointed as director of justice services in Multnomah County • Co-founded the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) • Co-founded the National Organization of Black Law Executives (NOBLE)
Enforcement
1978 • Appointed Public Safety Commissioner of Atlanta, Georgia (4-year tenure) 1982 • Hired as Chief of Police in Houston, Texas (8-year tenure).68 1990 • Hired as Police Commissioner of New York City (2.5-year tenure) • Elected to serve as president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (1-year tenure) 1991 • Named “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Committee
As Houston Police Chief, Brown ran for president of the International Association for Chiefs of Police (IACP) and won. He was the first African American police executive to hold the position. 68
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1993 • Named by President William “Bill” Jefferson Clinton as “Drug Czar,” Cabinet- level Director of the White House Office of National Drug Policy and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in June (3-year tenure).69 1994 • Inducted into the National Forum for Black Public Administrators Hall of Fame.70 1998 • Elected as Mayor of Houston, Texas, in 1997 (6-year tenure)
here Do We Go from Here? Implications for Research W and Practice In the preceding sections of this chapter, we have discussed the need for police leaders that thoughtfully engage with community members and their shifting environment. We have highlighted examples of sworn officers that have effectively led changes in policing practice and organizations both from the top-down and the bottom-up. Here, we address the implications of these ideas for future research and practice.
Research We highlight two models for understanding leadership that may be particularly helpful: those of shared or collective leadership and adaptive leadership. In their edited book, Shared Leadership, Pearce and Conger (2003) argue that the conceptualization of leadership as a top-down phenomenon that can be understood by examining the traits and behaviors of individuals is inaccurate. They define an alternative model, shared leadership, as “a dynamic, interactive influence process among individuals in groups for which the objective is to lead one another to the achievement of group or organizational goals or both. This influence process often involves peer, or lateral, influence and at other times involves upward or downward hierarchical influence” (Pearce and Conger 2003: 1). The shared or collaborative leadership model has both empirical and normative potential for future research in the context of relational policing. Empirically, it may help illuminate the dynamics of change implementation. For example, while we might expect change, such as the Before his service at ONDCP, Brown was a distinguished professor at Texas Southern University and the director of the Black Male Initiative Program. After his service at ONDCP, he worked as a Radoslav A. Tsanoff Professor of Public Affairs in the Department of Sociology at Rice University and became a James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Scholar. 70 In 1993, Brown was inducted into the Gallup Hall of Fame by Gallup, Inc., and he was also named the “Who’s Who in America” in 2004. 69
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adoption of community-oriented policing (COP), to be easier to implement in police organizations with strong command-and-control cultures, research suggests the opposite (Adams et al. 2002; see also Tyler 2014). Adams and coauthors (2002) found that officers from departments perceived as having a more participatory management style are more likely to be both satisfied with their jobs and positive about COP. The shared leadership model offers a comprehensive framework for untangling the relational dynamics and thought leadership at all levels of organizational hierarchy, which shape organizational change outcomes. The model could be used, for example, to address research questions such as the following: How do officers and engaged citizens understand their shared leadership role in organizational change/police reform? How do top-down, bottom-up, and/or lateral leadership around organizational change shape police reform outcomes? Normatively, the shared leadership model may serve as an important component of leadership training that aligns with the values and practices of relational policing because it foregrounds the contribution of many different leaders with various levels of formal authority. By explicitly priming officers to view leadership as shared, what difference does the model make in shaping officer perspectives of citizen leaders and relational policing? Research suggests that professional development pedagogy based on the shared leadership model must be strategically designed to effectively teach collaborative leadership (Getha-Taylor and Morse 2013). What design elements support the effective incorporation of shared leadership in police training? The adaptive leadership model of Heifetz and coauthors may also be useful in future research and practice. The model recognizes leadership as a role that can be assumed by individuals throughout an organization who are oriented toward change, experimentation, and innovation to handle challenges and adapt to an evolving environment (Heifetz and Heifetz 1994). The model makes an important distinction between technical and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges can be solved using routine processes and existing knowledge, while adaptive challenges require solutions that lie outside of current ways of operating, stakeholder engagement, and collective learning. In the face of adaptive challenges, Heifetz emphasizes the role leaders in public organizations should play in mobilizing public deliberation and debate about the “normative value of the goals toward which leadership energy is directed” (Heifetz 2003, p. 73). The model could be used to address research questions including the following: How do police leaders at all organizational levels distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges facing their organization? How do police leaders understand their role in mobilizing public deliberation and debate in identifying and implementing solutions in the face of adaptive challenges? A recent book by Heifetz and coauthors (2009) translates this research into exercises geared toward practitioners that might be useful for officer training. Promoting ideas of police leadership that prioritize open-mindedness, creativity, and socially engaged problem-solving underlines the importance of acknowledging factors endemic to the profession that can hinder such efforts, which must be understood and addressed. External challenges to change in policing abound, whether they are legal (e.g., Harmon 2017) or cultural (Tyler 2021). Very importantly, and at
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perhaps the most basic level, police executives must contend with personal, social, and psychological barriers that can affect their leadership efforts. Like Dr. Brown, future police leader-thinkers must be open to diverse sources of information and organically include the input of community stakeholders in seeking solutions to criminal justice challenges – but this does not happen in a cognitive vacuum. It is well established that policing and police leadership are exceptionally stressful endeavors (Violanti et al. 2017; Hartley et al. 2011; Ward et al. 2018; Crank et al. 1995) “and include increased levels of psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder” (Hartley et al. 2011: 2). However, research suggests that high stress can negatively affect creativity (Vartanian et al. 2020; Byron et al. 2010), and verbal communication (Arble, Daugherty, & Arnetz 2019). High cognitive loads can make individuals more likely to make inappropriate or impulsive decisions (Kleider et al. 2010), use biased heuristics in their legal system decisions (see the review in Kleider-Offutt et al. 2016), and become less prosocial (see the range of related discussions in Sapolsky 2017: 344). In each instance above, internal processes associated with stress and load have the potential to negatively affect the innovation and human connection needed in police leaders. How did leaders such as Brown and his contemporaries wrestle with similar challenges? What can research tell us about the way forward for modern police leaders who face similar difficulties?
Conclusion This chapter used the Latin phrase, Respice Adspice Prospice (examine the past, present, and future), as a framework. This perspective allowed us to examine the past, to understand the present in order to plan for the future. This approach, coupled with making use of an underutilized resource, the HistoryMakers Digital Archive, was able to bring to light a beacon of light that is needed during these dark times. Dr. Lee Brown is a prime example of a police leader as thinker. His legacy provides a stark contrast to past and present efforts of police leaders who might act almost exclusively as managers – efforts that result in shortsighted, shallow, and superficial change. This tepid approach to “change” addresses, in best-case scenarios, the symptoms of the problem and not the problem itself. In worst cases, the efforts of police leaders as managers can create optical illusions. Dr. Brown embodied the essence of a police leader as thinker. As the personification of wise leadership, he leveraged the cognitive, the reflective, and the compassionate as supporting pillars to improve the profession of policing at a critical inflection point. He took advantage of opportunities to bridge and bond with others. He coupled institutional and professional know-how with communal learn-how and leveraged personal and professional experiences. This intentional amalgamation allowed him to actuate and operate from a sense of double consciousness – to appreciate both the faults and failures as well as the positive and progressive potential of policing. As a thinker, he was able to implement substantive and fundamental
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changes that attacked the problem and not just its symptoms. This approach to reform had a positive impact on the individual officer, the police department, the profession of policing, and the all-inclusive public the profession serves. In the midst of difficulty, Dr. Brown took advantage of the opportunity to advance policing as a profession to support American democracy – to advance efforts to form a more perfect union or partnership between the public and the police.
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The Contribution of the “Super Evidence Cop”; Key Role of Police Leaders in Advancing Evidence-Based Policing Simon Perry, Badi Hasisi, and David Weisburd
Introduction There is considerable evidence that scientific knowledge can contribute to police work and that evidence-based policing (EBP) can aid the police in becoming more effective in responding to crime and improving relationships with communities (Weisburd and Majmundar 2018). At the same time, although EBP can offer substantial enhancements to core objectives in policing, the path to EBP is complex and its introduction has often been met with considerable opposition (Weisburd and Hasisi 2018; Lum and Koper 2017). This is due, at least in part, to its alleged conflict with policing cultures that attribute substantial value to personal experience (Jonathan-Zamir et al. 2019; Lum et al. 2012; Perry and Wolfowicz 2022; Sherman 1984, 1998; Weisburd and Hasisi 2018). To overcome the obstacles in instituting EBP, Sherman (1998) suggested the role of the “evidence cop” who can facilitate translation of research into practice. According to Sherman, the evidence cop, whether a sworn officer or an outside academic, is assigned responsibility for overseeing the integration of science into practice. But others have argued that such figures often are perceived within policing as an outsider who should be viewed with suspicion (Perry and Wolfowicz 2022). In this context, Perry and Wolfowicz argue that only when the evidence cop S. Perry Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, Jerusalem, Israel B. Hasisi Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel D. Weisburd (*) Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_6
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is a key leader in the agency, fully committed to science in policing (Weisburd and Neyroud 2011), will the police organization accomplish substantial success in the EBP reform. But even then, the chief of police will be faced with significant organizational cultural and structural barriers. Therefore, the chief must be highly motivated, committed, and command sufficient influence and authority to succeed in generating the organizational changes needed to effectively implement EBP (Neyroud and Weisburd 2014; Telep and Weisburd 2014). Neyroud and Weisburd (2014) contend that in order to promote EBP, the police as an organization must take ownership over the science of EBP. Because policing is ordinarily organized as a strict hierarchical organization, for evidence-based policing to succeed, the head of the organization/the commissioner must take upon him- or herself ownership of EBP, becoming what Perry and Wolfowicz (2022) call the “super evidence cop.” This chapter identifies three such super evidence cops. They are police chiefs who have championed EBP from three different countries: former Commissioner Alsheich from Israel, Commissioner Hyde from Australia, and former Chief James Bueermann from the United States. Our article will demonstrate how these three commissioners acted as “super evidence cops” and were successful in implementing evidence-based policing in their organizations. The next section describes the role of the evidence cop and presents the concept of the “super evidence cop.” The following section presents the three Commissioners’ EBP reforms, while the final section discusses the fundamental innovations they introduced into their organizations by taking the role of the super evidence cop in introducing and implementing EBP.
The Super Evidence Cop EBP is an organizational philosophy that is founded upon the belief that policing practices should be based on scientific evidence about “what works best” (Sherman 1998: 2). EBP generates scientific research that informs decision-making, at both the strategic and tactical levels (Sherman 1984, 1998). Neyroud and Weisburd (2014) argue that giving police ownership over science helps to disseminate EBP and leads to its successful adoption. According to Piza et al. (2020), there are three possible categories of individuals who may lead the police organizational reform toward EBP: embedded criminologists (in police agencies), police pracademics (people who combine real experience in policing with scientific training), and crime analysts. The last two groups could take on the role of what Sherman (1998) referred to as an “evidence cop,” though embedded criminologists must be given real authority in police organization to take on this role. This individual would be knowledgeable in the area of EBP research and be able to communicate it to those responsible for both policy and practice decision-making in the organization (Sherman 1998, 2002; Walsh 2006). The evidence cop would preferably be someone who has extensive experience, who is
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highly respected within the police culture and could hopefully help to overcome some of the potential reluctance/resistance among the rank and file (Willis et al. 2010). It is more likely that the evidence cop will be effective when possessing a certain level of responsibility and authority over the organizational area that is most likely going to be affected by the implementation of EBP (Rojek et al. 2015). One of the main challenges is the institutionalization of EBP in these police agencies. The commitment of police officers in the field to EBP is not sufficient to ensure an optimal implementation of EBP. There is a major role for police leadership in advancing and institutionalizing EBP. As mentioned above, in order to promote EBP, police managers must take ownership over the science of EBP. Taking ownership means [a] the police leader must “appreciate” science and its prospective contributions to police performance and conform to the norms and procedures of science, [b] the police leader must have knowledge about the scientific enterprise, and [c] the police leader must take a leadership role in the science of EBP which requires involvement and activity (Neyroud and Weisburd 2014). As Sherman (2015) argues the existence of an evidence cop does not ensure an effective implementation of EBP even when the organization is headed by a motivated police chief. Though, when these two components come together, there is an increased likelihood that a police organization will move toward an EBP orientation and approach. Perry and Wolfowicz (2022) contend that the Israeli case is demonstrative of this hypothesis as the arrival of a highly motivated police chief in the 1990s steered the Israel Police toward EBP in many areas. Unfortunately, however, his reforms did not establish deep roots within the Israel Police (IP) and for the most part were undone by his successors, pointing out the failure of his attempts to institutionalize the EBP change. Perry and Wolfowicz (2022) suggest that policing organizations are most likely to become successful in implementing “total EBP” when the commissioner him- or herself becomes the evidence cop, a combination they call the “super evidence- cop.” Such a chief engages in a methodical and effective strategy of creating the foundations and circumstances needed for complete institutionalization of EBP into the police force, which will continue after their departure. Institutionalization can be said to have been achieved when “an entire system of technology, policies, procedures, training, and resources” are able to be “sustained through the police hierarchical structure, through formal accountability, and informally through the organizational culture” (Santos and Santos 2019: 12). The advantages of the chief of police being the evidence cop are clear and include the ability to overcome many of the obstacles related to the organization culture, in addition to having the authority to make changes to official policy (Goldstein 2003). The super evidence cop can achieve Sherman’s (2015) call for promotion of EBP through greater cooperation with academia, both in terms of research and the education, and training of officers, thus promoting sustainability. Therefore, when the chief, who manifests a strong and stable leadership, takes ownership over science and is the driving force behind EBP, the probability of the organization successfully implementing EBP increases considerably.
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Police reforms require challenging previous practices, and this could raise concerns and pressures not just from the police agency but also from politician and policy makers to avoid the reform. Hence, super evidence cop needs to be independent and on (EBP) target in order to advance the reforms. Commissioner Hyde said in this context: I am concerned about how, in some jurisdictions, police leaders are becoming more political in the way they are managing the relationship with governments of the day. That is really fraught with danger and can cause them trouble. (Baker 2010: 11)
Through three case studies presented below, we illustrate the importance of the super evidence-based cop and how that role can facilitate successful implementation of evidence-based policing.
ormer Commissioner Alsheich from Israel F and the “EMUN” Reform The Israel Police (IP) is headed by the commissioner, whose appointment is based on the recommendation of the Minister of Public Security. Unlike most other Western countries, the IP is a single organization of approximately 32,000 sworn officers which is responsible for policing the entire country. Despite the differences (mostly structural) between the IP and police agencies in other Western democracies, there are important similarities (Perry and Jonathan- Zamir 2015). When it comes to EBP, the IP is like other policing organizations around the world in terms of the organizational, institutional, and cultural barriers toward EBP. A recent study found that the IP is similar to other countries in that its senior officers are often split between support and respect for the ideas of evidence- based policing and a proclivity toward basing decisions on personal experience (Jonathan-Zamir et al. 2019). As we describe below, the experience of evidence- based policing in the IP has traversed the familiar rocky road of barriers to evidence- based policing (Weisburd and Hasisi 2018). These similarities, we believe, allow for a careful application of the conclusions from the Israeli experience presented in this chapter to police agencies in other Western democracies. In 2015, Israel’s Minister of Public Security was criticized when he appointed Roni Alsheich to be the new commissioner of the Israeli Police. Unlike his predecessors, Alsheich had not been a senior police officer. Rather, he had been the deputy director of Israel’s Security Agency (ISA) (comparable to the British MI-5 in terms of mandate and function). Alsheich was chosen in order to implement substantial reforms at a time when the police force was criticized for inefficiency and ineffectiveness and when police-community relations were strained (Saunders et al. 2014). Upon taking over the leadership of the IP, Alsheich began working on the development and implementation of the “EMUN” strategy. The EMUN program (“Strategies for Prevention and Managerial Focus,” the acronym spells the word
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“trust” in Hebrew) was initiated in 2016 to institutionalize problem-oriented policing in the IP. Alsheich had previously studied Criminology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which included courses on evidence-based policing (taught by this chapter’s first author). In his recent Hebrew language book “Police Commissioner at the Forefront in Defense of Values,” Alsheich (2020) credits his time in the program as providing the foundations for his approach: The second element that was extremely helpful was the Hebrew University, where I previously studied and learned everything, I know about criminology ... I asked for the most up-to-date studies on police innovations .... I was sent a “short” presentation of several hundred slides, which was exceptionally beneficial and enabled me to highlight and focus on key criminological anchors which are policing practices that have gained research validity in the literature…. (p 28)
The degree to which Alsheich’s studies influenced his ideas and subsequent approach went beyond mere familiarization with EBP, as he continues: …It is not possible that anyone who had the opportunity to attend the Institute of Criminology at the Hebrew University, would not have an appreciation of research, especially quantitative studies ... It was clear to me that I had to strive for evidence-based policing, as part of my responsibility to perform my duties professionally. (p 66)
Striving for EBP was perceived by Alsheich as part of his responsibility when leading the police reform in Israel. Alscheich believed that introducing EBP was essential to his policing strategy and strongly felt that he needed to take ownership over the science of EBP. Alsheich immediately began establishing cooperation with the Israeli academia. He even instituted the use of academic terminology as official police terminology, which enabled common, shared language. Similar to the former chief of the Metro Police in the United Kingdom, Peter Neyroud (2017), Alsheich established an academic advisory board which was led by Prof. David Weisburd from the Hebrew University and included the head of the Institute of Criminology, Prof. Hasisi, Prof. Perry, and other leading researchers from across the country. As stated, he was not satisfied only with the implementation of the EBP in the field but went further in instructing the Police Strategic Planning Division’s Research Department to lead research and collaboration with university scholars in order to develop and evaluate his new (EMUN) strategy. The EMUN strategy focused on four primary policing practices: (1) problem- oriented policing, (2) situational crime prevention, (3) hot spot policing, and (4) community policing, all the while emphasizing the key importance of decentralization. Furthermore, EMUN sought to institutionalize all four steps of the POP model (SARA) and was embedded into the systems of practice through standards, policies, procedures, and tools (Weisburd et al. 2020). The reform was also based on ideas such as the following: (1) Law-abiding citizens are the primary “customer” of the police and the police needs to address crime problems which are the central focus of society. (2) The police will treat citizens with fairness, courtesy, and respect. (3) The police are unable to successfully carry out their functions without a high degree of public legitimacy. (4) Policing will be comprised of three central functions: providing police services to the citizens
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according to their needs as well as the needs of the communities in which they live (low policing), sophisticated enforcement of complex crimes (high policing), and effective treatment of all offenses that harm quality of life (Israel Police 2017). Decentralization was envisioned as being key to the success of EMUN (Weisburd et al. 2020). Under this model, EMUN focused on innovations at the station level, whereby stations and their officers were responsible for engaging in problem- oriented policing (Laufman-Gavri and Hasisi 2017). As detailed by Weisburd et al. (2020), the tool that facilitated this was a domestically developed version of COMPSTAT which was given the same name as the EMUN reform. This new approach was computerized in a cutting-edge data management and visualization system, providing an automated, user-friendly system. Importantly, the system was implemented in a way that provided access to all sworn officers, effectively enabling all of them to engage in at least some of the functions of crime analysts (Weisburd et al. 2020). The decentralization also increased the flexibility of the police station to identify the problems and implement the solutions as part of the problem-solving approach. This decision also reflects on the nature of the commissioner: his ability to give up control, power, and discretion (to the field) for the sake of better policing. Additional examples of police-led research and cooperation between the police and academia characterized Alsheich’s term as commissioner (2015–2018). The EMUN program assessment revealed immediate and short-term successes. In an evaluation of the EMUN program published in Criminology and Public Policy, it was found to have significant impacts on crime. Furthermore, while trust and legitimacy in the police had reached a new low by 2016, the years of 2017 and 2018 saw significant improvements (Perry and Wolfowicz 2022). Also, among the Arab minority communities, improvements were found across virtually every category pertaining to police legitimacy and perceived police performance (Israel Police 2019). It is important to emphasize that, over a short period of time, Alsheich introduced significant changes in almost all areas of police activity: policing methods, priority changes, transferring responsibility and authority to field units/police stations, introducing technological means, computing processes, improving promotion tracks, training, as well as in changing some of the police jargon. Introducing changes into the organizational culture and overcoming natural opposition were necessary when introducing such fundamental changes in a hierarchical organization such as the police. Alsheich, as the super evidence cop, successfully facilitated implementation of such changes.
Commissioner Mal Hyde of South Australia Police (SAPOL)1 South Australia Police (SAPOL) is the police force of the Australian State of South Australia. SAPOL is headed by the Commissioner of Police, who reports to the Minister for Police. It has approximately 5000 sworn officers as well as This paragraph is primarily based on the Mazerolle et al.’s (2013) study.
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approximately 900 civilian staff operating across 28 metropolitan and 110 regional police stations. Commissioner Mal Hyde, after fulfilling various roles in the Victorian State Police, was appointed police commissioner of SAPOL in 1997. Hyde was the longest serving police commissioner in the history of SAPOL, and according to Baker (2010) he is considered to be one of the most proactive leaders within Australian policing. Hyde’s leadership is characterized by his strong commitment to reform from the top down and bottom up within SAPOL which at the time was an organization serving a population of approximately 1,600,000 with 4596 sworn officers and 1055 support staff (Mazerolle et al. 2010). Commissioner Hyde is our second example of the super evidence cop. In June 2002 Commissioner Hyde launched his problem-solving model (PSM) reform as a major program of SAPOL. This reform was based on evidence-based policing strategies, “…mainly targeting problems, targeting patterns of crime, targeting hotspots, targeting times of crimes and types of crime and targeting repeat offenders” (Baker 2010: 12). Hyde demonstrated leadership that, according to Goldstein (2003), is critical for the successful implementation of POP programs. The objective of Hyde’s PSM was to control crime, decrease fear of crime, and improve police service by guiding the organization’s strategic management as well as by influencing activities across SAPOL’s 13 local service areas (LSAs). Hyde reformed the organization focusing upon problem solving as well as the best available police innovations throughout his tenure (Mazerolle et al. 2010). SAPOL’s PSM used Goldstein’s SARA (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment) approach to POP. Mazerolle et al. (2010) characterize Hyde’s strong managerial and leadership skills as focusing on planning, administrating risk management, reviews, and evaluating outcomes. In an interview Commissioner Hyde gave to Baker (2010), he emphasized that he felt fortunate to have had the opportunity to initiate and lead a reform program for more than a decade. This reform has immensely changed the way police carry out their job to one which became much more professional, accountable, and proactive with the goal of solving problems. Hyde described the role of a police leader: The biggest achievement of any leader or manager is to change the way people think, because ultimately that is what leadership is about. If you can change the thinking into the direction that you want to go as an organization, you can overcome all sorts of challenges. (p 14)
According to Hyde in order to carry out such a reform and attain a cultural change in policing performance, the leader must change the way people think. This can be done by a leader who has a vision in which he or she seeks change, innovation, and a path that people can understand. The leader also empowers senior executives to resolve problems independently instead of presenting the problems to the commissioner expecting answers. Similarly, to the COMPSTAT meetings, the SAPOL PORs presented a significant forum for the commissioner to sustain the PSM reform. Commissioner Hyde supervised the reform himself, rather than assigning the task of POP to line-level
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officers. While removing obstacles along the way, he kept SAPOL engaged in problem solving. He also had to enlist ministerial support for his reforms and gain approval for an anticipated increase in reports of public order offenses. Commissioner Hyde’s leadership was highlighted by interviews with the executive team of SAPOL in 2009 which emphasized his unique influence on SAPOL in the late 1990s and into the next decade (Mazerolle et al. 2010). Commissioner Hyde had an academic background in business and marketing, and similar to Alsheich, this has affected his orientation on the value of evidence and science while advancing police reforms: …DB: Where do you go for theory and research about policing? MH: We look at what others do, at what works, and what doesn’t work. I am not in favor of doing things that don’t work. We take a concept and say, “All right, is that actually going to work?” and we look and analyze it. (Baker 2010: 17)
A paper by Mazerolle et al. (2013) details Hyde’s role as a super evidence cop. There was a strong link between Hyde’s solid commitment and strong leadership in policing, his vision for POP, and how his vision was then transformed into widespread implementation and the success of PSM. Mazerolle et al. found successful adoption and implementation of PSM under the strong leadership of Commissioner Hyde. His role as a super evidence cop was a major factor in enabling him to supervise one of the major reforms within his police organization resulting in reduced property crime and overall crime rates (Mazerolle et al. 2013).
ormer Chief Jim Bueermann: Redlands (CA) Police F Department (RPD) The Redlands Police Department is a small to mid-sized agency in California, with about 100 sworn officers. Though not a large police agency, it was to become one of the preeminent models for evidence-based policing in the United States. Like most other US police agencies, there is tremendous local control of policing practices and goals. This independence provided Bueermann with tremendous flexibility in advancing innovative policing approaches. As a young police executive in the RPD (captain) Bueermann told the police chief he thought there must be a better way to control a high number of violent crimes involving juveniles. He thought science would be useful in formulating a strategy. He convinced his chief to allow him to work on a strategy that focused on reducing risk factors and enhancing protective factors. They named this innovative community policing strategy, Risk Focused Policing (RFP). In developing RFP, they reengineered the structure and purpose of the department. They convinced the City Council to consolidate housing, recreation, and senior services into the police department to give them more organizational tools with which they could reduce risk factors. Soon after this, the city added code enforcement responsibilities to the plan. They gained national attention for their
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efforts, and when Bueermann presented his strategy around the country, it gained tremendous community support. Shortly after this consolidation, the chief retired and Bueermann was appointed as the Chief of Police and Director of Housing, Recreation, and Senior Services. As time passed, and they experienced significant success in engaging the community and promoting a different view of policing in Redlands, he continued to increase his knowledge about the science of policing and crime control. Bueermann discovered the work of David Weisburd and Larry Sherman and realized there was so much more that could be done to promote the use of science in policing. This led to multiple evidence-based policing/organizational development changes. Some of the most noteworthy were: • All promotional processes were re-worked to include testing on the concepts of evidence-based policing and specific science-based approaches to policing. • A partnership was developed with Cambridge University’s Institute of Criminology so that RPD officers could attend (at department’s expense) its program in Cambridge, England. • The RPD hired a full-time criminologist who became a member of the executive staff to help further the organizational understanding of science. • The department eliminated a 100-year-old patrol “beat” strategy and replacing it with a “hot spot” approach that meant the focus areas for patrol officers were determined weekly through crime analysis. • Collaboration with researchers on five randomized controlled trials (RCTs). • A significant emphasis on evaluating multiple aspects of the organization using scientific methods. Commissioner Bueermann was aware about the gap between the police and the implementation of science. Academic researchers often don’t have a clear answer to the requirement of police agencies. In this context, Commissioner Bueermann argued: “…incomplete answers about crime should not keep police departments from using the best available science to inform their strategies. Mayors and police chiefs should embrace the potential of science and add it to the toolbox they use to solve crime problems” (Bueermann 2012).2 While there was a good deal of initial evidence that the Risk Focused Policing initiative was having positive impact in Redlands, Chief Bueermann believed the innovation should be evaluated using scientific methods. He worked with a team of researchers to develop a rigorous randomized trial for a specific part of the program that focused on delinquency. However, the experiment suggested that the program was not leading to many of its goals (Weisburd et al. 2008). Chief Bueermann’s response reflected his ownership of science and his acceptance of the values of science. Sometimes science shows that what we thought would work doesn’t and demands rethinking of programs or practices. Bueermann argued that the force’s strategy must maintain, or change, based on science and the
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evaluation of the strategies the chief introduces and employs. Accordingly, when the evaluation of RFP did not show the expected benefits for juvenile crime, he altered the approach and stopped putting substantial resources into it. This was a difficult decision because he had so much personal, organizational, and political currency invested in this approach. Yet he trusted the science and the researchers so that the decisions he needed to make were clear – not easy by any means, but clear, nonetheless. This is an example of the super evidence cop. After this experiment Bueermann supported a series of rigorous experimental evaluations of police practices and policies. In 2007–2008 the RPD experienced a severe reduction in personnel as a result of the national recession. The department lost a third of its sworn positions. To mitigate the impact of this massive reduction of resources, Bueermann focused on four strategies he believed would allow them to maintain an acceptable level of service. He focused RPD on the following: (1) increasing volunteers, (2) enhancing the use of technology, (3) expanding collaborative partnerships, and (4) increasing reliance on the science of policing and crime control. This last point really anchored an evidence-based approach to the culture of the department and demonstrated that they could utilize the scientific framework that was developed to control crime and apply it to other aspects of the police organizational life (e.g., recruiting, technology, and employee wellness) even when resources were cut. Many police leaders have looked to evidence-based policing as something that could be implemented only when departments were resource rich. As opposed to “cutting science” when resources decline, Bueermann doubled down on the commitment to science in order to deal with reduced resources. This suggests that the role of the super evidence cop is equally important in resource-rich and resource-poor periods in policing.
Discussion The advantage of the chief of police being the “evidence cop,” or what Perry and Wolfowicz (2022) suggest calling the “super evidence cop,” is that the entire organization is required to focus on and to be committed to the EBP message. As Mastrofski (2015) recommends, for such a significant EBP transition to succeed, a substantial commitment must be implanted in the wider leadership structure. When the chief of police, as we have seen in the three cases presented in this chapter, is the science and EBP advocate, he or she has the necessary authority to ensure that the entire organization adopts the changes and carries out compliance-related functions overcoming many of the cultural and organizational related barriers. This is in comparison to the reforms led by evidence cops who are not organizationally central leaders (whether a police officer, pracademic, crime analyst) where they are likely to encounter opposition from others with higher or equivalent ranks. Their opposition often results from feelings of competition, suspicion, jealousy, non-acceptance of authority, fear of change, etc. Those colleagues, whose support for the success of
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the EBP is most required, are unfortunately, at times, more threatened by the messenger (evidence cop) than by the EBP message itself. The prospect of successful implementation increases significantly when the chief is the driving force leading EBP, putting in place the needed structures as Goldstein (2003) recommends, which protect against competing demands that may disrupt the work. In such cases, the likelihood that the reform will spread in the organization and endure after he/she is gone increases significantly as well. As mentioned above, even the chief of police is not free from constraints and obstacles when attempting to introduce changes into the organizational culture, structure, strategies, and tactics. The three chiefs mentioned herein took ownership of science and demonstrated extraordinary commitment, influence, and immense leadership ability. This is what allowed them to bring about the type of organizational change that was needed to effectively implement EBP. The first and foremost similarity between the three chiefs’ reforms was that they were the primary champions of EBP. That is, rather than being tasked with implementing reforms decided upon at the political level, it was the three chiefs’ appreciation for EBP that led to its implementation. The three chiefs took ownership over the science of EBP. This also meant that they incorporated into the organization the “values” of science and its potential contributions to practice. They assigned EBP objectives and targets to officers and demanded involvement and ongoing activity. By reviewing the three commissioners we could identify the main characteristics of the super evidence cop. Science and evidence should be the compass which lead the decision-making and the reform of the police. The tendency to rely on experience is quite common and had major benefits in police organizations. Yet, the leadership of the super evidence cop involves standing up against the organization intuitions when needed and bringing forward the scientific evidence, especially when implementing old practices does not solve the problems. All three commissioners expressed a coherent vision, not merely encouraging incremental changes but rather advocating for major revisions in the way police work and the role of science in advancing EBP. All three commissioners value the strategic relationship between the police and academia as a core practice of EBP.
Conclusion The road to evidence-based policing is often a rocky one (McKenna 2018; Weisburd and Hasisi 2018). Cultural shifts are extremely difficult in police organizations, and many reforms around the world have failed or at least succeeded only partially. The ups and downs are often the result of poor implementation and failure to effectively institutionalize reforms. The three chiefs presented in this chapter were able to achieve considerable success in implementing substantial EBP reforms in the police force, leading to improved outcome for their agencies. They proactively instituted changes in the culture and practices of their force and brought about the conditions
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needed for a wide-scale implementation of EBP. Since they took upon themselves to take over science and institutionalizing EBP both culturally and operationally, we believe it is appropriate to refer to these three chiefs as super evidence cops.
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eds., THE FUTURE OF EVIDENCE-BASED POLICING (contract signed with Cambridge University Press, expected 2022). Piza, E. L., Szkola, J., & Blount-Hill, K. L. (2020). How can embedded criminologists, police pracademics, and crime analysts help increase police-led program evaluations? A survey of authors cited in the evidence-based policing matrix. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 1–15. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paaa019 Rojek, J., Martin, P., & Alpert, G. P. (2015). The literature and research on police–research partnerships in the USA. In J. Rojek, P. Martin & G. P. Alpert (Eds.), Developing and maintaining police-researcher partnerships to facilitate research use (pp. 27–44). Springer. doi: https://doi. org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2056-3 Santos, R. G., & Santos, R. B. (2019). A four-phase process for translating research into police practice. Police practice and research, 20(6), 585–602. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1561426 3.2019.1657629 Saunders, J.M. et al. (2014). Effective policing for 21st-century Israel. RAND (In Hebrew). https:// www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR200/RR287z1/RAND_RR287z1. hebrew.pdf Sherman, L. W. (1984). Experiments in Police Discretion: Scientific Boon or Dangerous Knowledge. Law & Contemporary Problems, 47(4), 61–82. Sherman, L. W. (1998). Evidence-based policing. Police Foundation. Sherman, L. W. (2002). Evidence-based policing: Social organization of information for social control. In E. J. Waring & D. Weisburd (Eds.), Crime and social organization (2nd ed., pp. 217–248), Transaction Publishers Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395082.013.0017 Sherman, L. W. (2015). A tipping point for “totally evidenced policing” ten ideas for building an evidence-based police agency. International criminal justice review, 25(1), 11–29. doi: https:// doi.org/10.1177/1057567715574372 Telep, C. W., & Weisburd, D. (2014). Generating knowledge: a case study of the National Policing Improvement Agency program on systematic reviews in policing. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), 371–398. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-014-9206-7 Walsh, B. (2006). Evidence-based policing for crime prevention, In D. Weisburd & A. A. Braga (Eds.), Prospects and Problems in Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives (pp. 305–321). Cambridge University Press. Weisburd, D., & Hasisi, B. (2018). The Winding Road to Evidence-Based Policy in Corrections: A Case Study of the Israel Prison Service. Israel Law Review, 51(1), 111–125. doi: https://doi. org/10.1017/S0021223717000218 Weisburd, D., Hasisi, B., Litmanovitz, Y., Carmel, T., & Tshuva, S. (2020). Institutionalizing problem-oriented policing: An evaluation of the EMUN reform in Israel. Criminology & Public Policy, 19(3), 941–964. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12516 Weisburd, D., & Majmundar, M.K. (eds.). (2018). Proactive policing: Effects on crime and communities. Committee on proactive policing: Effects on crime, communities, and civil liberties. Committee on law and justice, division of behavioral and social sciences and education. The National Academies Press. Weisburd, D., Morris, N. A., & Ready, J. (2008). Risk-focused policing at places: An experimental evaluation. Justice Quarterly, 25(1), 163–200. Weisburd, D., & Neyroud, P. (2011). Police science: Toward a new paradigm. In New perspectives in policing (pp. 1–24). National Institutes of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. https://www. ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/228922.pdf Willis, J. J., Mastrofski, S. D., & Kochel, T. R. (2010). Maximizing the benefits of reform: Integrating Compstat and community policing in America. US Department of Justice. http://www.cops. usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e051131361_FirstLine-Supervsn-Compstat_508.pdf.
Interview with [Former] General Commissioner of the Israel Police – Roni Alsheich Badi Hasisi and Simon Perry
Badi: Roni:
Roni, let’s start with a few questions. If you can, tell us a little bit about your background and how you became interested in police work. And how did you wind up as the number one police officer in Israel? Well, I served for 27 years in the Israel Security Agency [ISA, formerly known as the Shin Bet]. Before that, I was in the military for 8 years. That’s less relevant. But I spent 27 years in the ISA, starting in a primary field position and gradually becoming Deputy Director. Along the way, I was lucky enough to be able to lead a change in perception. And, basically, because of that change, all the work plans of the subdivisions engaged in counterterrorism had to become outcome-oriented. I’ll describe my experience there a little: I became the head of a counterterrorism subdivision, which basically includes all the professions. It’s a top-down division, with different professional departments, and it covers a large geographic area in which it has to carry out counterterrorism activity. At the peak of the Second Intifada, I came to the Samaria subdivision and discovered that all the heavy resources and technology of the larger organization were invested in this subdivision’s area. All the attention was there – the operational units had all their attention there. In every parameter of productivity, that division is in the lead, it’s number one. The Samaria subdivision has the most arrests, the most targeted killings, the most thwarts, the most cases, the most detainees, inputs, intelligence – you’re “in heaven.” But the outcomes are the same all the time. Nothing changes on the terrorism curve. I asked the people in management:
B. Hasisi (*) ∙ S. Perry Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_7
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Doesn’t it bother you? Doesn’t it bother you that it’s like this? And they said: “Do you know what would have happened if we hadn’t done what we’re doing?” I told them: You’re right, obviously these efforts have some kind of effect. But if we don’t provide good service to the customer, and our customers are the citizens of Israel who want to be shot at less, blown up less, etc., if we don’t show them that we’re breaking that curve, then we’re not providing our service. They said: “But we’re working 24 hours a day.” So, it meant having to think differently about what we should do.… It’s self-evident. Before I even knew what to call it, I knew intuitively what needed to be done, but it was completely obvious to me. At the end of the day, we can’t be in this position, unable to stop the curve of such an unreasonable level of terror, even though we are clearly the number one subdivision in terms of our level of results. But does it help the citizens? The citizens don’t care how many I’ve arrested; they don’t care about indictments; they don’t care about any of that. They care whether or not I provide them with this service; am I lowering the level of terror or not. That’s the dialogue we began. I’ll try to be brief. We also carried out internal processes on how to build a work plan that’s integrative for everyone, to develop goals from the bottom up by understanding the needs and then prioritizing those goals. You have to prioritize the outcomes you want, because you can’t say, for example, “Next year there will be no suicide bombings.” It’s like saying nothing. If there are 26 attacks, then saying zero is like not saying anything. We need to start breaking it down. Let’s say zero attacks by Hamas, up to four attacks by Tanzim. Why? Because a Tanzim attack kills one or two people, while a Hamas attack kills between 10 and 15. So what does that change do? It helps with decisions along the line, because once we’re outcome-oriented, that will be given priority in investigations, in interceptions, etc. Ultimately, you want to create a goal where the people at the bottom know how to figure out what to do from it; deduce something from it. You set the outcome goal, and everyone starts to get in sync. It was already your job in the ISA, you…. That was my job in the ISA, the head of the subdivision at that stage. I actually set up my subdivision in the initial phase. I did it this way, because I wanted to emphasize other areas. Basically, we shifted gears to focus on the headquarters that sends out terrorists, rather than performing risk management on squads on their way to carry out attacks. It wasn’t easy, because there is a genuine risk. Everyone’s banging on the table all day saying: you take unreasonable risks, you’re crazy, etc. But there’s an elusive threat that you don’t see, so no one considers it. In fact, as long as you don’t address the foundations, it keeps generating terror squads. You’re fighting a machine that keeps shooting balls at you. That takes control away from you. Roni, just an anecdote; this reminds those of us who work in policing of Goldstein’s distinction between “ends” and “means.” Organizations tend
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to focus on means and forget the purpose and end goal of the work, which, as you said, is protecting the citizens, not necessarily meeting preset goals. Right! So, what happened? First of all, of course, there were terrific results, real achievements. It created synergy and synchronization among all the professional players, because they were all viewing the same results, instead of one person bringing these results and another bringing those results, each one on their own. Instead, there was a dynamic synergy. The most important thing was that it became a common language spoken by all the counterterrorism subdivisions. It was passed on to all the geographical areas and adopted by them. It became the language of the whole organization, even in headquarters. What would you say the outcomes are for a headquarters unit? Headquarters has the role of drawing conclusions, assimilating lessons, conveying professional knowledge, maintaining its competence in field formations. How do you measure its outcomes? We would brainstorm. For example, we determined that one of the outcomes of a professional body or a professional array is how many recurring faults there are in the field – meaning attacks. If you know how to reduce the recurring faults, it’s an indication that you’re effective. Those are the outcomes that are expected of you. We went to every corner of the organization and thought about the right way to be outcome-oriented. This really created a revolution. Of course, this approach is very similar to the managerial notion of “lean management.” It addresses the theories of evidence-based policing. What is the weakness of the ISA? Its weakness is that it rarely documents its undercover activity, the actions of our forces, because this requires tremendous investment and is considered a waste of resources. It wants to deal with the threats. When I got to the police force, I discovered that the police force intensely documents itself, even its “blue” activity, because it is legally obligated to document everything. But it doesn’t do anything with it. I told them: You have a gold mine here that no one else has. It doesn’t matter if you got it because the legal process requires it, you have a gold mine. We can start to see which activity results in which desirable outcome. What affects what? What is the dependent variable? What is the independent variable? Let’s start with correlations, the most basic statistics in the world, correlations between the dependent and independent variables. If we say we are outcome-oriented, and the dependent variable is the “red,” then let’s look at which “blue” leads to which “red.” What creates the effect? This is something I was not able to do much at the ISA. At the ISA, we could see cumulative data on what we did, but I couldn’t follow the line of what contributed along the way. We only knew we were outcome-oriented. What’s the advantage of being outcome-oriented? If the outcome is not achieved, then everyone becomes eager to change the plan and add new inputs so that we can achieve the goal. Once I’m satisfied that we are achieving what we wanted to, then I can draw
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conclusions about the work. It’s a list of hypotheses. These are the hypotheses of independent variables that you’re supposed to infer from the dependent variable. If I don’t know how to measure whether I have indeed ended up there, then I have to identify the variable that creates the most impact. Once I can measure each line because it’s documented on a daily level, and I treat it as an actual sample, then I have enough. Because they [the police] are constantly documenting, I can arrive at a model of how to look at the “blue” and the “red” and the connections between them. You can start doing things, and forget about tests and all that… The most basic thing is evidence-based policing at the exploratory research level. Even if it hasn’t gone through all the formal tests – so you can’t write an academic paper about it – you have an indication that is very important at the field level, the level of your ability to consider and evaluate it. I should add that before taking my position with the police, I was studying for my MA, and because I had some extra time, so I studied criminology at the Hebrew University, even though my MA was in a different area. So I had enough intuition before I came into the office to try and realign. Roni, tell us about the contribution of your criminology studies. First of all it was dramatic, because when you learn the basics, you can tell what deterrence is, what works and what doesn’t. For example, you come to the police and they tell you about the “balloon effect,” which is a popular term for the displacement model (refers to the theory that if police make an effort to deter crime in one area the criminals will move to another area). You can respond according to what studies have found. It doesn’t take you a year and a half to find out that this balloon is just a balloon; that’s nonsense. You can say that someone received an award for discovering that displacement doesn’t really exist in crime, or that it’s only partial. You understand the logic of this finding in criminology. You come with a toolbox that may be basic …you are not a criminology researcher, but you come with a basic set of insights into criminology. In your initial contact with the materials, you know the language, and the basic insights taught in criminology on the most fundamental level. So that’s the first level. Second, it gave me the idea to contact someone at the Hebrew University, in this case, Simon. I asked him, “Simon, send me the most up-to-date papers.” That way, I’d know what’s been happening in criminology since I stopped reading about it systematically. Simon told me: “It’s impractical to bombard you with papers, here’s one concise presentation.” It contained hundreds of slides but I studied it to see the essence of the latest valid and up-to-date criminological insights before I met with the police, so I could tell them what criminology has to say about what they’re doing. Since crime is one of the most researched topics, there is plenty of data, a lot of knowledge. I can’t ignore it and just ask the police
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officers what works and what doesn’t. You bring knowledge from the world. There are better police departments and ones that are not as good, but there is accumulated knowledge that is very useful. I knew I didn’t have much time, I had a total of 1 month to learn before I had to take command of the organization. It was crazy, but that was the situation. I decided that within 10 days I would come up with some idea of how to approach this. So, during those 10 days, I read the materials Simon sent me. Second, I met with the senior officers and asked questions so I would know how they work, what their perceptions were, and how far removed they were from what criminology says. I had vast experience with leading outcomeoriented policy, which can be related to the police. For me, the language of being outcome-oriented is important. Checking yourself against the results. Do you ultimately solve problems or not? In the case of the ISA, the result is preventing terrorist attacks. No matter what, it’s about experience, how to work, how to create a work plan. There are lots of skills and thinking that comes from already having dealt with the issues from many angles, along with being familiar with the various kinds of attacks, having knowledge of criminology, and being aware of what you encounter within the police force. I quickly realized that the model had to be based on everything I’d learned so far. First, what has the research found and verified? Second, how to take that and turn it into an organizationally practical model? Third, what IT support is needed so that it can work and not be cumbersome, not feed-intensive? What information sources do the police manage? Where are they located? At what resolution? It wasn’t very complicated because I already knew what I was looking for. I consulted with an external board that I set up for myself. We would meet every 2 days and “spar.” I’d throw my ideas at them and get some feedback. At the end of the 10 days, I found myself sitting face-to-face with the deputy commissioners. I introduced them to my organizational ideas and heard their reactions. I was expecting an argument. I expected them to tell me, “You don’t understand, but this, but that…” That didn’t happen. They looked at me and said: “Wow, interesting.” I didn’t feel like someone was fighting me and telling me: “You don’t understand anything, it doesn’t work like that, it’s irrelevant, it’s relevant, etc.” Another thing I found to be beneficial is that the entire Israel Police – including the armed police – is under one command axis. Moreover, the Israel Police has one IT unit that provides service to the entire police force. This means that you can easily create one “desktop” that everyone works on. You then are able to make one rapid reform across the whole police force. You can use all the data about what happens at each of the stations in a single “data day” and learn quickly. It doesn’t take years. You don’t have to wait until an article comes out and then assimilate the information, which can take 4 years, and by then the General Commissioner has long since retired. You can produce something that can be learned quickly across the entire police force. For that to happen, without going
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through years of implementation, I decided that a police station would be assessed only according to this method [of studying the daily organizational data]. Period. That means a police station that wants to excel must excel in its outcomes. It must be defined as evidence-based policing. There was one thing I was hesitant about. People told me: “That sounds interesting, but it’s already December 2015, it’s impossible to start the 2016 work year already using this method. Let’s start learning in 2016, get everyone into this mindset, and then start working this way from 2017 onwards.” But I remembered from the presentation that Simon sent me that had to do with all the problems related to the police, the treatments and solutions derived, the outputs and the inputs you invest to make it happen – everything is at an extremely elementary level. It still works…. Simon: It’s better than nothing. Roni: Right, it’s better than nothing. Then I said to myself, let’s not waste this year. It’s precious in the term of a General Commissioner. Let’s not waste this year. We assume that this year the results will be partial, but this year will be an experiment. It’s not that complicated to explain to people. We have plans that are not so sophisticated, and we can already start the learning process. So, there will be brilliant stations that will do amazing things, there will be mediocre stations, there will be weak stations, but overall, the organization will produce better results than it did last year. I said to myself: If the research supports it, let’s try it. Badi: Roni, moving forward, we know your work from up close, but maybe you can give some background to people who are not familiar with what you have done. You’re describing how you began to implement all sorts of things. What did the police do before that? Roni: Before, the police force measured success based on the idea that the most important thing is apprehending an offender. The General Commissioner fought a war to uphold this perception, even against the President of the Supreme Court, who told him that this approach wasn’t legally sound. But in fact, that’s the approach in the police force, and the police believe in it. There is a whole system managed according to this idea. There is a consulting firm being paid a lot of money that accompanies this process. Even though there had been no General Commissioner for 6 months, there was an acting General Commissioner, and they were still working under the old approach. Badi: If I understood from you correctly, they didn’t follow evidence-based policing as you suggested…. Roni: The opposite. Badi: They didn’t work according to the cutting edge in criminology and policing, correct? Roni: Just the opposite. One, there was no connection with academia. What they were doing, in my humble opinion, was the antithesis of what the academic world says. Two, I felt morally uncomfortable, from a legal point of view, on this matter. Let me give you an example. An ultraOrthodox applicant for military service from Bnei Brak wrote to me: “Mr.
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General Commissioner, I visited Jerusalem when terrorism was at its peak. I felt unsafe, so I spoke with friends, and I was told to buy brass knuckles. I bought brass knuckles and went to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I went up to the security guard and innocently showed my keys, phone and brass knuckles at the security check. The security guard asked, ‘What’s with the brass knuckles?’ I told him, ‘I bought it because of the wave of terrorism.’ The security guard called a police officer, and the police officer opened a case against me for possession of a knife, an assault weapon. That’s why the IDF won’t enlist me.” That’s the letter I received. Simon: It’s a good thing he wasn’t detained until sentencing because…. Roni: Hold on, hold on. So, I tell my assistant: “Do me a favor and check whether this is some violent bully who beats up immodest women in Bnei Brak. Check this guy out and let’s see what his story is.” He gets back to me and tells me that there is nothing in the person’s file, no incidents, no record, no search by the police. But an indictment was filed against him. I said: “What???” He says: “Yes, an indictment was filed.” Now, I can say from what I know of the system, that after 3, 4 months the case would have been closed and the indictment thrown out, and that’s it. There was no evidence and no defense either; I won’t get into the legal issue. But the police officer had met his quota. He could put a check mark by it, get a record of having made an easy indictment on his metrics regarding apprehending offenders …. Why have they determined that they want to press charges for possession of a knife? Because there is violence. So someone thought that indictments for possession of a knife would lead to results. But if you ask the officer who handled it: “Tell me, what does this have to do with anything?” Theoretically, I understand that possession of a knife is relevant, but how does this specific event serve the desired outcome? It has already been forgotten. Why? Because he [the policeman] is being measured by the output. And when you measure him by the output, it moves away from the model quickly, in a nanosecond. Because when you talk statistics with the police, every police officer can outsmart the statistics, and everyone knows how to ultimately bring in the numbers; you can influence it directly (inputs or outputs). Badi: You are saying that, in effect, police officers are not given any discretion, but are target-oriented, that’s the direction? Roni: Correct. So in the end, where does he go? He goes to places where no lawyer will chase him. This creates over-policing among vulnerable populations, riff-disadvantaged who have no money to pay a lawyer or anything, and you make your police officers get involved with things like that. It’s like going at 2 a.m. to a stop sign in an industrial area and issuing tickets for running the stop sign. It has nothing to do with road accidents. True, this citizen has broken the law, and the ticket is legal, but it serves no purpose. There is no problem in wasting police resources and issuing tickets on something that does not reduce road accidents, it happens automatically, if you assess police officers by the number of tickets they
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issue…. Let’s make an analogy to the pandemic. You enforce wearing masks. If you measure based on COVID tickets, what you get is a ticket issued to someone who came downstairs at 2 a.m. to the sidewalk 2 meters from his house, threw the trash out, and went home without putting his mask on. How does that serve the fight against COVID? It doesn’t. But the officer issued a ticket, and the ticket is legit. It easily gets away from you, when you deal with such outputs. That’s the police force I found. A great belief in catching offenders. And this is the same police force that ended up, during the pandemic, without a General Commissioner to lead them with a better philosophy. What can we do? It wasn’t the first time I’ve come across that. It wasn’t my first experience of encountering a system that deals with outputs and is satisfied with that. In the end, you have to show them that you are not generating desirable results. Citizens want you to provide them with lower danger of criminal offenses; that’s what they want from you. They don’t want break-ins. They want to be robbed less often, violently attacked less often, hear excessively loud noise less often, have their street blocked less often. Whether these are normative offenses or criminal offenses, people want to be exposed to fewer offenses. That’s your job as the police force. So it was relatively easy to convince the police officers to change for two reasons: One, ultimately, it makes sense, if you’re open-minded and you see the data on the real results, the kind of service you’re providing to the citizens. Two, it gives a lot of power to those at the bottom. It flattens the organization without taking anything away from the formal ranks. It flattens the organization because suddenly the goals don’t come from above and drop onto the station commander, who now has to show [outputs relating to] violence even if there is no violence, so he has to bring indictments for possession of a knife. He will find where to get [outputs]. But why did these targets come from the top? Because on top, they see violence, so you divide it up…. No sir, at the police station, you are the king, you are the station commander. I can help you do surveys, hear what the citizens say, and that’s fine. You can conduct interviews and meet with influencers, and meet with Sheikhs, and meet with community center directors, whoever is relevant. Then you will tell me: Here’s what I suggest addressing according to a prioritization that provides a true service to citizens, and you’ll prioritize: 1, 2, 3, that’s what I’m addressing. So he feels like a king, not only because I tell him: You choose what to do and we’ll approve it, but [because] he initiated it. I tell him: Once we have determined what outcome achievements you are striving for, the plan is entirely flexible. You discover that a specific line of action is irrelevant? Delete it. You don’t have to tell me anything. You want to add another line to the work plan that you hadn’t thought of before but you saw it was working for someone else? Then pick up the phone to whoever manages the files and ask them to add this line to your work plan. From the moment you do that, you are the king, you are the police. You want to do third-party [beneficiaries] because you have a rich municipality? Do it. If you have a
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municipality with no resources and need to invent something else? I will not dictate to you from above what to do and what not to do. You have a crazy partner? A great community center director that you can get on board? Get them on board. There’s a social counselor on your streets, I don’t know what, get them on board; you’re the king. Just generate the outcome. That is what I want from you. Simon: I think we often see – and Roni tell me if this is the way it is – when you ask police officers what their job is, they say to catch criminals. But they forget that under the police ordinance, their first purpose is crime prevention. They forget about crime prevention. So this is exactly what you are describing. They hardly engage in prevention – they just want to catch offenders. What you are saying is that the goal is prevention, first and foremost. Roni: Right. And I presented that concept [of crime prevention] from the beginning. I entered office on Thursday, and on Sunday there was already a conference attended by 500 officers, chief superintendents, and higherups, and I presented that concept. I hadn’t named it EMUN yet [note: acronym for Hebrew term: Logistics Operations and Assets Division]. There was no system in place yet, but I presented the concept, how it relates to public trust, how it relates to police officer values, the overall perspective. And I called it the “perception of police operations,” because I didn’t want to call it “a new perception of the role of police,” because it seemed a little rude that, during my first week as a chief of police who came from outside the system, I would come and tell them what the police’s role is. When I finished the presentation, which was about 2 hours long, we went outside. Two officers approached me and told me: “Sir, you presented a different perception of the role of the police.” I told them: You’re right. They understood that it would change the whole setup of the police officers’ mindset and, therefore, that of the police force. You don’t know the end of your journey as a General Commissioner, but you want to dramatically improve the chance that police officers who are out there at 2 a.m. with no commander nearby, and certainly not the General Commissioner, will know what they’re doing and will do the right thing. If a police officer is assessed by the criteria that he thinks he should he be assessed by, then there’s a better chance that the officer will do the right thing. Because if I need to watch over someone, which tickets he gave and where…. Let’s say we thought that a particular offense causes road accidents. If I have to constantly put a police officer out there to watch over another police officer, we’d get nowhere. If the police officer knows that he has no chance of advancing unless he has reduced the bottom-line number of car accidents, then he’ll always be looking for ways to do that. Then the relevant commander is constantly watching: Did it work? Didn’t it work? Let’s do it this way, let’s do it that way, He is always looking at the outcomes. He can’t just sit there and say: What a terrific plan we’ve put together, we’ve passed it, now let’s just follow the lines of the plan. Because if, in the end, there is no result, it’s a waste of time.
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Here’s a great example – one of the most annoying offenses is theft of cellphones at the beach. No one goes into the sea with their cellphone, so they hide it in a towel and all kinds of other tricks. Then the offender comes, takes everything, and disappears. How many police officers can you put on something like that? A station commander asks one thing: Am I being evaluated by the outcome? Do I have a rich municipality? He goes to the Tel Aviv municipality and asks to install lockers with a camera. In response, they put up a gazebo where people can complain or contact a police officer without going to the police station. One police officer sits there during the day in beach season, we have a deal. [You can] put up a sign [saying] “joint venture with the Israel Police” because the mayor also wants [in on it], no problem. So, that’s what he does. In a situation when he is evaluated by the outputs, he brings pictures of the lockers to the annual Zoom meeting to show how good he is, how he installed lockers, look at that, video images, and everything. But in a situation where the organization measures results, he knows that the images won’t be enough. They want to see fewer cellphones were stolen, that’s what they want, nothing else. He understands that if his hypothesis is that lockers will reduce thefts, it needs to be proven. So, first thing after he installs the lockers, he goes down to the beach and he finds out half of the lockers are not in use although the beach is full. He asks people: “Why don’t you use the lockers?” And they say because the municipality takes five shekels every time a locker is opened and closed. The station commander understands that this is his responsibility. He wants to succeed. So he goes to the municipality and puts up a fight and tells them: with all due respect, we didn’t install the lockers so you can make money, we installed them to serve the citizens. They reach an agreement that the first 3 hours will cost five shekels, and after that every time you open and close the locker, it costs five shekels. He realizes that this won’t do him any good either if it doesn’t lead to a drop in thefts. It’s pointless to tell stories. It’s all nice and creative, but it’s not worth anything if it doesn’t lead to a drop in thefts at the beach. So this dynamic produces a different kind of police officer who is looking at completely different things and is aware that he is constantly being watched and evaluated. He can tell you what the situation is today compared to this time last year. It isn’t over, you don’t win in a day, you’re always at war. To reach, let’s say, the 40% drop in thefts we want, you have to work at it all the time. But it’s interesting, you are also king as station commander. We have given you an exceptional level of decentralization. In the end, the citizens benefit from this. Roni, we started talking about the EMUN reform without giving an introduction. What are the foundations of this EMUN reform that you created? We’ve integrated all the proven research insights into it. First, it’s the story of problem-solving policing, which is outcome-oriented. Second, it’s hot spots, location-oriented policing. We realized we didn’t believe in displacement, so instead, we talk about hot spots. You target them and
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cool them off, you get results. True, it’s an endless chase, because no one knows how to make crime triggers vanish, but, in the end, you have to gain in this chase. You need to be constantly focused on the hot spots, because your resources are scarce and need to be focused. So there you have it, location-oriented policing. Third is situational prevention (stopping crime before it occurs). This touches on other things, but it is a topic that was d eveloped on a theoretical level and stands on its own. We have created a situation whereby situational prevention will be the mindset of the entire organization, not just in the local mindset. I’ll explain. It could be that lockers on the beach are situational prevention. But cellphones are stolen in all sorts of other situations. We wanted the whole organization to try to contribute to this situational prevention mindset. So, I appoint an officer whose job it is to generate organizational tools for situational prevention. We realize that we ultimately needed to address both sides, demand as well as supply. If you want to lower the number of cellphone thefts, then a stolen cellphone must be less attractive. So, after a struggle that lasted an entire year with the Ministry of Communications, we convinced the Director General that as soon as someone reports the loss or theft of a cellphone, their provider must disconnect both the SIM number and the IMEI number [serial number of the phone itself], inform the other phone companies that it is a stolen or lost IMEI, and then they must also disconnect the IMEI. Then, a cellphone that costs 3500 shekels new, that was once worth 900 shekels after it was stolen, now becomes worth only 50 shekels. That means that we reduced theft at the macro level and not only at the location level. Situational prevention is a kind of organizational perception that constantly seeks to attack major offenses, not only at the location but in a broad view.… Every Thursday we would go over the offenses, looking at how many cellphones were stolen that week. Someone would say that the weekly number across the entire country now was once the weekly number in the city of Bat Yam. So, ultimately, situational prevention goes beyond this focused model of EMUN. It is a perception that says: Let’s create lateral prevention. I’ll give you another example. Let’s say we suddenly saw that, at the national level, and especially in the Tel Aviv area, date-rape drugs are being used a lot or are suspected in many cases. That means that girls wake up in all sorts of places, not knowing how they got there, and the use of date-rape drugs is suspected. They evaporate very quickly from the body and cannot be proven. We said we will not wait for this to reach Eilat or the alcohol district in Zebulon. Trends that start in Tel Aviv later spread everywhere. So on New Year’s Eve, we set up stations. First, we tested kits for testing date-rape drugs. We checked with forensics to see what really works. We checked a kit, converted it into a reliable one that passed forensics, translated the instructions into Hebrew. You dip your finger in the glass and put your finger on the dot on the envelope. You have two opportunities on each page. If it turns blue, call the police. We handed out these kits for
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free in all the clubs and launched an educational campaign with videos. Because we control the licensing of the clubs, they had to show the videos about the date-rape prevention kits. For many months, we did not have a single complaint about suspected use of date-rape drugs. Because basically, what did we tell the criminals? The incredible ease with which this offense could be committed at a club – I just took that away from you. Because you might not know who to get a kit from, the mother took one, friends took one, so we handed them out for free. It was much cheaper than to handle cases later, after the fact. So, here’s an example of something that isn’t just a location. But when we talk about situational prevention, then, of course, it’s on the local level, but we’ve also gone up to broader levels to solve problems on a more widespread scale, to help the station commanders, each in their own area, generate the result. What other element? We said situational prevention, we said problem-solving, location-oriented…. The community matter…. Right, of course, community policing. So, in research on community policing, there are some positive indications, at least according to the presentations, and I believe it hasn’t changed dramatically since then. But it’s unfounded because one study says one thing, and another says another. Why did we put it community policing into the model, then? For several reasons. First, it is important for public trust. So even if it doesn’t directly affect the outcome, it is important because when I ask the citizens what they want, community policing builds public trust in the police. Second, when I talk about value to the customer, I want to consult with the community, so here, the community has third-party policing resources that they can use. And it is proven in studies that this input ultimately generates the result. That is why we said: Let’s take it as a component, also for problem selection. Before I decide what outcomes I am currently striving for, or what problems I’m striving to solve, to use criminological jargon. In terms of the inclusion of the community throughout [the process], and the division of the work on assignments, between community policing and this, we have reached a point where the station commanders tell me – and in my opinion this is a very important accomplishment – that one good community police officer is worth two special patrol units. If that is what a station commander tells you, then he understands what community policing is. He understands its value if he makes such a statement. Because everyone keeps telling me: Give me a special patrol unit, give him a special patrol unit. But ultimately, when he tells you a community police officer is worth two special patrol units, it’s an indication that he has started to know how to work with it. And we added the community into the mix, we said: Let’s integrate it. Suppose I take all these elements that the research says works. In that case, you say: Let’s build a single model, a single work process that will be the core of classic policing. Basically, it is a process that embodies each of these research insights and integrates them into something coherent. Then we said: Each station will
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choose the problems it will solve. How will it do that? First, we provide a statistical survey for it. Then every commander involves the entire relevant community. Because each has a different kind of community. We live in a diverse country. An ultra-Orthodox person is unlike an Arab, an Arab is unlike a Jew in north Tel Aviv. Dimona is not Hadera, Hadera is not a Bedouin village in the Negev, and so on. Each has its own complexities. You say: Focus on your own station. It’s incredible to see. For instance, in the first session of the program’s classes, a police station commander said: We want to solve the noise problems in Caesarea. I asked: What noise problems are there in Caesarea? I was told there was gunfire at Jiser al-Zarqa that was creating noise in Caesarea. I said: Excuse me? Maybe we should solve the gunfire problem there, it is killing people, whereas in Caesarea, maybe someone can’t fall asleep…. Simon: It’s important to emphasize that it is the same station. Roni: I insisted on facilitating flexibility. For example, there’s something that was initiated by one of the commissioners, a few commissioners ago, that is called Nahshol (the Wave). What’s Nahshol? You bring the entire force of a station together, all the motor-cops, from across the station area at the beginning of every shift. “Here we are.” Excellent. Now some people were great believers in it. To me, it seemed terribly wasteful in terms of resources, impossible, because it does not allow you to regulate your resources according to the development of crime during the shift, at the most relevant and less relevant hours, for all sorts of reasons Simon: When I was a young officer in the police force they called it, “drops of sweat.” Roni: I was told it was called Nahshol. So I said: Look, I don’t believe in this, but I am not an experienced police officer. No problem, put it in the program. If someone believes in it, put it in. Because ultimately, you will get feedback from the system on whether or not it correlates with the outcome. I’m convinced you’re intelligent enough that as soon as you see that there is no correlation with the outcome, you will take this resource and move it to a different and more effective line. That is why we didn’t come and say: Gentlemen, this is dumb, don’t do it, I am the General Commissioner, I decide. You believe in it? Put it in. But just know that to be an outstanding station you need to drop 40% here, 35% here, 40% there, good luck. Do you believe in your plan? Good luck. As long as you work legally, go and good luck. You have complete flexibility. Moreover, once we build a system where I can see everything, I can see maps of the entire police force’s effectiveness across each of the offenses. So I look at who is the best outside the polygon (focused treated area), inside the polygon [representing the hot spot]. I look and say: Who is similar to me as a station? Urban or not urban? I will not copy someone whose structure is different. I’m in Hadera, they’re in Netanya. Let’s check, let’s go into my colleague’s plan and see what they have, check whether I have these kinds of resources. Maybe I do not have this partner, maybe I do not have these
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resources at the station, my station is poor. Anything is possible. If I do [have the resources]? Excellent. Check if it works. What is its correlation is with the outcome? Suddenly, you see a rapid rate of learning. Why? Because instead of bringing to everyone’s attention this works and that doesn’t, and they won’t remember half of it, they have all the information in front of them. They know if something isn’t working. They remember that it doesn’t work. When they try to solve a particular problem, they will check it in the organization. Now, it’s true that when they embark on the planning, the strategy department helps them. Do you have noise issues? From our experience, this works, this doesn’t work. That’s how it is in the police force. Forget research from around the world for a moment…. Badi: There’s experience, sure. Roni: This is our experience. It may be that our geographical area is unlike anything else, but just know that this is our experience; the macro statistics never lie. Then they [station commanders] set off with what they found. They are constantly looking. They don’t need permission from anybody. Everything is transparent. They are allowed to copy. It is entirely legal. There’s no competition over who copied more lines or fewer lines. There’s competition over the outcome. They know that, in the end, you cannot excel and be an outstanding station without generating the outcome. So, they are constantly going crazy for the outcome. Badi: I want to summarize before we continue, what you’ve built is a science- based plan, based on facts, on proven strategies. You’ve built a plan that measures with transparency. It is user-friendly for the people, the commanders in the field. It has also helped you as the chief of police to see the big picture and make decisions according to the results. That’s what happened, right? Roni: Correct. And it also allows you to see deeply. You are visiting the station, you look into the system for a moment, you can see if, for example, they’re getting resources for something that’s not working. You can see whether they’re thinking correctly or not. You don’t want to run the station for them, but they already know that during your visit, you will ask all kinds of questions. What is happening? They ask each other what happened during the visit, what did he ask about, what was he interested in. You push the learning with tremendous speed because everyone wants to come off okay. To come off okay, they have to devote time to thinking, so that they don’t suddenly show that they’re reaching 100% on some line that has long since been proven to do nothing. Badi: The beauty of this plan is that officers can look at their colleagues’ plans, they have ongoing information. You are constantly learning about what worked, and that’s a wonderful program. Simon: I wanted to continue from this point. Badi started by saying there was this concept of the evidence-based cop. This refers to a practitioner or person appointed by the General Commissioner as the person responsible for introducing evidence-based policing to the police force. Based on that,
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the police force attempts to create an evidence-based revolution. What Badi started to tell you was that in our report, we analyzed your case and concluded that there is a different situation here, since the evidence-based cop is actually you, the General Commissioner. That’s a whole different story. Why? Because when the General Commissioner is the ultimate evidence-based cop, then, as you’ve just explained, the learning process is different. It is not someone the General Commissioner has appointed; it is the General Commissioner himself! And as you’ve said, because they know you’ll be paying a visit to the police station and asking questions, they already carry out this whole process. Could you elaborate on the experience of the General Commissioner being the one who’s responsible for the reform and the process of evidence-based policing, compared to what happens when the General Commissioner is not the one who leads, but supports the process, bringing in people to carry out the process, bringing in consultants, criminologists, police officers? … When it’s the chief of police’s own baby… If you could say a few words about that. I’ll give you an example. Every year, some stations excel and naturally want to put up a fight: besides the outcomes, we want to leverage being the most “creative” station, we want to leverage being the most “communal” station…. The second you deviate from the model, not because you decided you don’t want evidence-based policing, but because there is something other than evidence-based policing, you could lose the whole battle. When you are leading a revolution, you don’t want it to come off the table for a single moment. If the General Commissioner isn’t leading it, there is no end. They can make a decision, the General Commissioner will approve it, and from that moment on, the organizational relationship is diverted. Alternatively, there were regional and district targets, which, of course, competed with the stations’ targets. You have to say: If I move away from evidence-based policing, I will produce something that is peripheral to the organization. I must make sure this doesn’t happen. The regional commander is evaluated by the average of its stations’ achievements. Moreover, the General Commissioner allocates special time for discussion of EMUN around the table with the most senior [commanders]. Every status discussion increases the competition between the districts, according to the graphs. If I see that as a district commander, I am the fourth or fifth district in terms of my averages, I start to tell myself, go home. I have to do something, because no one wants to be in last place. Once it’s the General Commissioner, there’s no angle you can look at it from that lets this escape. It gets their attention. Because, at the end of the day, it’s your baby. You understand, it’s giving appreciation to the police. It’s difficult to make you deviate. If there is some kind of advisor, the General Commissioner can make a pretty reasonable decision regarding [awarding them for being] a communal station, creative station, etc. I agreed, in the second year, to do that, but I said that only stations that got 100% on all goals can compete. Once someone has gotten 100% on all
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goals, I am willing to give them an award for creativity. But if they haven’t generated the outcomes, they are out of the competition for being creative or communal. Because creativity doesn’t lead to results, thank you. We are in customer service. The fact is, you know how to maintain it properly because you are leading it. It’s terribly hard to hide something that contradicts the plan from the General Commissioner. A dynamic state of competition is created between the area commanders on how to integrate within trust-building. All of a sudden, you come to visit the area, and the regional commander has to be ready; what are their inputs? There are regional commanders who said, “I was approving plans when I saw that a location-oriented polygon was chosen to deal with a problem, but it is too close to another polygon of a different station, and we basically are wasting resources. I want this station to take this polygon, another will choose another polygon somewhere else that is also a hot spot. It may be a bit less important than this polygon, but let this polygon get a free outcome, and in the end, I integrate my entire area.” So, where do I stand, as an area commander? How do I understand the stations’ EMUN plans and integrate them? If an area commander is busy with something else, the first thing they do is take resources from the station to achieve their goals. Each of them is busy with something else, and the station is alone in facing the General Commissioner, or the consultant, or who developed this plan. Once you keep in mind all the implications and realize that a good police force is one that does evidence-based policing, you don’t let anything threaten this model. It’s more than that. There is high-level policing. How do you synchronize between high-level policing and classic policing? They “talk” to each other. High-level policing talks about the offenders, classic policing talks about the offenses. So what’s the tool that synchronizes them? You have to keep everything in mind, so each consultant doesn’t deal with something else without connecting or integrating. When you look at the big picture, you can say: I am now making a change in the area of high-level policing and there is no contradiction; on the contrary, it synchronizes with the policing at the bottom – great. Can we say that it’s always possible to produce such a result? I don’t know. It is possible to create situations in which a General Commissioner will be the one who went through this process. It could be that if we educate [future] generations so that everyone will study criminology, and no one comes here without an MA in criminology, then I assume it can be achieved. There’s no doubt that it has value. You just can’t be sold on it. Everything the strategy department offers must fit into these strategic directions. You can see the big picture from your desk, you don’t need anyone’s help. You just look for a moment and see how things are. You see who’s doing the work and who isn’t. If you see someone investing resources in something that isn’t working, you know they don’t understand the model. And you see the joyful creativity this produces…. It’s unbelievable.
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Do you know the story about the benches? There were two benches in front of three buildings, and there would be between 10 and 15 calls about disturbing the peace every evening. Police cars were constantly sent about it. Noise, broken bottles, drunks, even a stabbing incident once. The station commander said: “Wait, am I referring to the outcome of these disturbances?” Intuitively, I’d say let’s remove the benches. But the benches aren’t hers; they belong to the municipality, so she can do thirdparty policing before she goes to the municipality. She said: “Let’s take a moment to look at what’s going on at these benches during the day.” The patrol returned and told her that senior citizens sit on the benches and enjoy the garden in the morning. Should we take the benches away from them? For 3 weeks, the benches were disassembled every evening and reassembled every morning. Of course, that is investment-intensive. During those 3 weeks, they developed a mechanism that doesn’t allow people to sit on the benches at night, but in the morning, by turning a key, it unfolds, and people can sit on the bench. Then she asked: “Am I being assessed based on noise nuisance offenses? These young people need to make some noise. Noise is more of an issue than displacement, than crime. Young people make noise; if they don’t make noise here, they will make it there. I need to allow noise someplace that it doesn’t disturb the citizens, because it is not as if I have resolved the problem here.” She was looking at the macro level on situational prevention. She took it up with the municipality. She didn’t go to the General Commissioner. She did everything. That’s the mechanism that was created. She brought in an acoustic engineer to analyze the park, marked an area inside it where no noise reaches the nearby buildings. During the summer, they even brought beanbag chairs, a counselor, music, etc. She went the extra distance, because she realized that she was being measured by outcomes and service to the citizens. Do you understand what satisfaction that produces for this station? What a feeling it is to actually provide a service, not only to those who aren’t bothered by the noise now but to those who deserve to give their vocal cords a bit of a workout so they can later become MKs. So, she allows them to make noise without breaking the law. That’s the kind of thing where you say: No one can sit at HQ and invent it. Only those who are at the bottom know what they’ve got and what they haven’t got and how to utilize their resources, thanks to the fact that they are measured only by the outcome. Simon: Unfortunately, your appointment ended after 3 years. So what happens after an evidence-based cop leaves? That’s the tricky question. The first thing you did was to create a learning process. Now anyone who attends the Command and Staff course or the officer training course must come to the Criminology Institute to learn. As a result, they are already learning evidence-based policing. But we’ll have to see how much control there is after the evidence-based cop leaves the organization. What remains, what
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doesn’t? What needs to happen so that as much of your experience as possible will remain after you’ve left? Simon, perhaps as an introduction to this question, did everything you just told us about work, Roni? It worked amazingly. Look at how we measured it. We took each of the offenses and put it on the graph. We put each station on the graph. We put the organizational averages on the graph. In other words, what is the average score that the Israel Police receives for noise nuisance offenses? All this is according to the EMUN system. What is the average score that the Israel Police receives for burglary offenses, and so on? We put everything on the graph, outside the polygon and inside the polygon. And you actually see [gestures with his hand an upward trend over the years]. That’s what we had in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Clearly the improvement between 2016 and 2017 was more significant, but the improvement from 2017 to 2018 was still an improvement. Now, this is an organizational average that includes those who don’t succeed or are partially successful, or only a little. And the organizational average is an improvement of over 100% inside and outside the polygon. That means some stations achieved 150% and some less. The average is above 100%. So, if we need a 40% drop in noise, then they delivered that 40%. They delivered what was required outside the polygon. And the average of the whole organization in 2018 reached over 100%. That means it works. Not only does it work, you see consistent learning. There is no offense for which we haven’t seen this dynamic. Are we done? Of course not. We need to continue to raise the bar. Now let’s talk about the crisis. Unfortunately, there was no General Commissioner after me. The deputy commissioners saw that the acting chief of police was trying, with no evil intention, to implement an input that contradicted the model. They fought him. But after he leaves, and after another five or six deputy commissioners leave, and the organizational knowledge is lost, I can’t say that the model can be preserved at the same level of insight. I don’t know to what extent, but I guess you can’t, because the model hasn’t been around for enough years to have station commanders sit around the table and have it made permanent. So far, that isn’t happening. I will give you an example. I know that during his first year, the acting chief of police said: Let’s go back to assessing by indictments. We will not break the EMUN model, but let’s measure indictments. Someone should have told him: Do you understand that you have abandoned the model if you are measuring indictments? You can’t measure them within the model. It’s either one or the other. It’s anti. Exactly. It is the opposite of the insights from criminology. Some people jumped on him for that. If today there would be people who would contradict a General Commissioner, who would say: Come on, the chances of offenders being caught, indictments… a police force full of fighters. I’m not sure there is enough deep knowledge around the table that people
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will know how to contradict him and say: the moment you introduce such a thing, you’ve broken the evidence-based policing model. To say that, it really has to have become an organizational language. We have to get to the point where station commanders know the language. That takes at least 10 years. So maybe we will move on to Simon’s question. Earlier you described in detail how you institutionalized the reform in the Israel Police. You got to a point where there were some 70 police stations, including districts and areas, that understand your vision and implemented it. You did this based on a computerized, transparent, evidence-based system and a valid, logical plan. Wonderful. This was the big vision, the ultimate implementation, with impressive results, some of which we will talk about soon. But then there is the question of the day after. For you, as former General Commissioner, this is the story of concretizing the work. Your response, it seems, is that no matter how successful you are, once your term in office is over, even though the institutionalization on the daily level deserves respect, the concretization of the ideology and philosophy is in doubt. It’s true. Had it not been for that situation in which there was no General Commissioner for 2 years, had some normal continuity been created, then far fewer people would have left the discussion about language. Continuity is maintained, even if it is only 80% maintained. It is a pity, but in this case, for a year and a half, 2 years, there was no General Commissioner. Then people left again; someone was finally appointed after 2.5 years. I don’t think you can draw conclusions from this, but for every reform that is carried out, even in a healthy organizational situation with no improper involvement, and so on, because it is obvious that …. if someone leads something, it later fades. Let me give you an example. I carried out this reform in the ISA, and it remains to this day. In the farewell meeting held at the ISA when I left to become General Commissioner, they presented the status of each of the reforms I had led in the ISA, and how far these reforms had come by that time… When I left, they were at much less advanced stages than they are today. Why? Because basically, the organization had continuity. It wasn’t in any crisis. People believed in what we had started. Also, we’re not talking about a year or two. Say we started something in 2003 and I left the ISA in 2015, so some of the reforms had been running for good few years. Bottom line, this an example of what they decided to present. In a healthy organization that is not undergoing crises, could something still fade, something that is less ideologically strong? For example, some officers met me last year and said: Do you remember you did administrative work for some reform in 2010? Now we are launching it. It was ahead of its time. Perhaps if I had stayed in the organization, it would have happened earlier. But in a healthy organization, reforms that are not a flop in 1 year but have been going for several years, their 80% [maintenance] isn’t harmed. It becomes part of the organizational culture. In our case, unfortunately, this is an unusual example.
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To summarize this insight, as successful as evidence-based policing may be, if it is threatened by instability and inconsistency, if the theory isn’t passed down from one generation to the next, it will erode. This is true for many organizations, and one example is the Israel Police. Roni, you said earlier that from your own analysis and that of the people who are in charge of the data [in the police force], you saw that, ostensibly, the reform seems to be successful. But you chose to order an external evaluation by people outside the police force to tell you whether or not this reform was working. Can you tell us why you did that? When a person talks about a reform as short as 3 years, it may be that we are congratulating ourselves on initial results. We don’t recognize why it works better in one place and not as well in another, and so on. The research tools that are able to isolate the data and produce something that meets academic standards are no substitute for the exploratory research we do and the “ongoing” where we follow ourselves and the data that we analyze to make decisions. Neither one replaces the other. First, you want to make your system more sophisticated. It does very basic statistical analyses. It doesn’t even run a regression model. It checks correlations, does very basic things, but it isn’t validated by ongoing research. You want the research validation to learn what your “ongoing” doesn’t teach you. Second, in my opinion, when an academic study is published finding that the police reform has been validated, that is part of what creates public trust in the police force. With all due respect to what the General Commissioner or police reporters say, when a criminology institute publishes a paper and researchers, professionals, and Stockholm Prize winners give it their blessing, this is important to creating public trust in the police force. Now, obviously, there’s a risk; academic research might say it was a flop. Something specific wasn’t successful, doesn’t work, or only works partially. Everything has its risk. But if you based your model on the findings of criminology research, so it is not so risky…. When [criminologist] David Weisburd went to the Commissioner of Police in New York City to ask him to conduct a rigorous evaluation of Compstat, the Commissioner declined – saying “David, you can only bring me bad news.” You need courage. You need to see that what you are doing is really based on research, that you didn’t just make it up. You took the research insights and managerially integrated them and performed IT integration and statistics. You rely on articles and studies that have academic validity. If you are convinced that what you’ve done is in good faith and was established, to the best of your ability, on the research, then the chances of something catastrophic coming out of it is probably not high. So you ask, what can I learn from it? Obviously, there is a risk. If someone writes a paper with reservations on page 8, then someone else can take that reservation and make it the main point. That’s true. But if you have confidence in what you do and believe in what you do, then, that’s part of the deal. Today, when everything about the organization is transparent anyway, that only brings you power. I can’t hide the annual statistical report published by
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the police. Whoever wants to can see the data. So, if the data is good, it’s good; if it’s bad, then it’s bad. What good will it do me to hide it? That’s why, at the end of the day, when everyone understands that there is transparency and there is an advisory board, and that academics from all the universities hear it and criticize, it is only beneficial in the end. Roni, to clarify what you just said – not only did you order an external academic study that examined the police force’s work and open it to review by an external party, but you also built a national advisory board and a national academic advisory forum. You invited academics to consult with you on general and specific issues in your work. You saw the connection with the academic community as important and strategic. Of course! First of all, the brains aren’t only in the field, although there are plenty of brains in the field. Sometimes academia’s problem is getting data and information from the field. It’s not that they lack intelligence; they lack information. If you want to progress, you have to be open. You can’t hold your cards close to your chest and still enjoy the intelligent input of others who have experience in police forces around the world and everything that has been written about them. You can’t eat your cake and have it whole, too. I realized that. It does come with a price. There are no free lunches. But I think it served its purpose. I felt much safer… Let’s say we are going into policing in the Arab sector, and I see a paper on the fit between the EMUN model’s perspective and the need for policing or for more appropriate policing in the Arab sector. Now I’m on more solid ground than just my intuition that it would work in the Arab sector as well. That’s why I say there are no free lunches. I’ve always believed in academia. When I was in the ISA, I put a lot of effort into making the connection, even in things I was not responsible for. Simon knows all the adventures of our attempts to connect with academia regarding much more sensitive information than data on crime … I believe in it. Everyone has their strong points, and this connection between the offline and online is a power multiplier. Last question Roni. We are in this unique chapter, and we want to ask whether you have a message or recommendations for chiefs of police around the world who want to be like you, evidence-based police. What would you tell them? What is your credo? What dos and don’ts would you offer to a new General Commissioner? I think you should resist intuitive insights if they contradict academic research. That’s hard work, because police officers with 30 years of experience have intuitive insights, passed on from one to another, that are often the absolute antithesis of the research. It is terribly difficult to break away from them. Once a person says: I’ve decided that if studies say the opposite, then I won’t follow my intuition for any reason, then I think that person has opened the door to accepting intelligence that is founded on knowledge and has a chance to achieve evidence-based policing. How did I come to this conclusion? After all, I wasn’t a cop for 30 years. But if you hear four police officers with 30 years of experience, and each of them
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says something else, you realize something’s wrong. They can’t all be right, if each of the four say different things. That’s why you need to step away from it for a moment and realize that, in your 30 years, you have worked in eight geographical areas. Now take the whole world full of people. Social sciences have proven that a person is a person is a person. Now take all the minds in the world and at least listen to them. At least try to see what you can learn from them. Later, in terms of how it works in a specific culture, I believe there are variations. But let’s start at the macro level. The first thing is to resist intuitive beliefs. It is unbelievable what a full-fledged war people are fighting for their beliefs. I couldn’t just tell them: Guys, you are talking nonsense. I couldn’t tell then to throw away 30 years just like that. I could only say: this contradicts what research from around the world is showing. I was most comfortable when a couple of people were sparring at the table, each saying the opposite, and each coming with their 30 years of experience, and I would tell them: Listen to me for a moment, you each have 30 years of experience, but you’re saying the opposite. Let’s see what the research says. It would turn out that there was something for them to learn. Badi: Very nice. Roni, this has been a fascinating conversation, as always. We had the great privilege of being with you and following some of your activities. Unfortunately, we’re looking at it with great longing and nostalgia. There hasn’t been an academic forum or academic study in recent years, not since you left the police force. I very much hope that the Israel Police will return to the path that you paved. It is a revolutionary path, by any measure. I hope that, from this interview and the paper that will come out of it, some inspiration will also be provided for policing, for commissioners and police officers around the world, who will hear about your experience and the reforms you’ve led and learn from it. Thank you!
Darrel Stephens: An American Police Leader with Vision Gary Cordner and Clifford Shearing
Police Leadership At any given time, there are over 20,000 police chief executive officers (CEOs) in place, 18,000 in the United States plus a few thousand in the world’s other 194 countries, where police systems are more centralized. Most of these police chiefs, commissioners, superintendents, sheriffs, and generals are unknown beyond the boundaries of their own jurisdictions. They are judged, typically, on how well they manage their police organizations and how well they control crime and disorder. In autocratic countries they also have the top priority of regime protection, whereas in democratic countries they are expected to police in a way that is fair, lawful, and responsive to the needs of the public. Police CEOs are leaders by definition, since they have positional authority that they can use in setting policies, hiring and firing, organizing and reorganizing, and so forth. In addition, many police executives have some degree of power and influence based on their knowledge and experience, their connections, their ability to distribute rewards and punishments, their charismatic personality, and even their physical stature (Cordner 2019: 284–288).
G. Cordner (*) Education & Training Section, Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore, MD, USA C. Shearing Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa School of Criminology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Faculty of Law and Justice, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_8
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The success that police CEOs have in leading depends on how they use their authority and influence, as well as on situational factors. In the current era of reimagining policing, of rethinking who the police are and what they should do, police CEOs are being encouraged to adopt the transformational style of leadership, which is aimed at winning over members of the organization to new ways of carrying out the policing function (Magny 2022: 321–322; Schafer and Myers 2022: 16). The servant leadership style is also recommended, emphasizing the police leader as someone with humility who works for officers and the public, as opposed to someone with a big ego and an entourage who hovers over them (Schafer et al. 2012: 299–301). The transformational and servant styles contrast with more bureaucratic or transactional leadership styles that mainly focus on getting officers to adhere to rules, procedures, and policies (Haberfeld 2012). In many democratic countries, police CEOs have the particular challenge of “walking a tightrope” (Reese 2005). This refers to the need to satisfy three constituencies – the political officials who appoint the CEO, the members of the police organization, and the public (Fischer 2009: 70; see also Bayley and Stenning 2016). The relative influence of each of these constituencies varies from place to place, but in general, a police CEO who falls out of favor with any one of them loses some degree of power and authority and risks losing their job. Part of what makes this so challenging is that what police officers want from their leader often conflicts with what the public or political officials want. Officers want a CEO who sticks up for them, but politicians may want a chief who defers to them and does whatever it takes to help them get re-elected, while the public may want a police executive who is ruthless in tackling corruption and misconduct. Also, “the public” is not usually monolithic, but rather is made up of people and groups who themselves have different values and experiences and therefore want different things from their police. The purpose of this brief discussion of police leadership is to point out that police CEOs have their hands full trying to run their organizations efficiently, and trying to control crime and disorder, while juggling competing demands from multiple constituencies. Being a police leader is a full-time job. One attribute that is not ordinarily associated with the role is being a strategic thinker. Of course, it goes without saying that a police CEO needs to think about how best to manage their organization, reduce crime, and satisfy their constituencies. But being a big thinker, a deep thinker, or a creative thinker is not likely to be found in police executive job descriptions. The theme of this book, “police leaders as thinkers,” highlights more than just being thoughtful about carrying out police executive responsibilities. It recognizes that the policing function is broad and consequential, especially in democratic societies where the police are potentially both protectors and abusers of human rights, and in which both political life and commerce, along with the everyday well-being of citizens, depend on a foundational level of safety and security (Isenberg 2010). The phrase “police leaders as thinkers” also shifts our attention to a higher level, that of the police institution/industry and the larger “web of policing” (Brodeur
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2010). The police field writ large needs leaders who are actively thinking about policing and whose thinking influences that of others in the profession, and in the general public, about how policing can be further developed and improved.
Brief Overview of Darrel Stephens’ Career Darrel Stephens came into prominence in the 1980s as an American police leader with vision. He attained chief executive positions in significant police organizations and was recognized as an agent of change. He was an early and strong proponent of police-research partnership, what we now call evidence-based policing. He was a deep thinker about the role and function of police and the challenging task of providing effective policing in multicultural societies. He came to recognize the wider “safety and security web,” the distinction between police and policing, and the importance of collaboration between police and private security. Along with serving as chief executive of four different police departments and executive director of two major national associations, he authored or co-authored over 30 reports, articles, and books and advised Congress and several presidential administrations on matters related to policing and homeland security. Darrel Stephens joined the police department in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1968. He did not have family members in policing, but recalls: I started thinking about policing in the 9th grade in high school. I had to write a paper on what I thought I might do for a career. The teacher had assembled a wide range of material that was available to students on a table in the back of the room. I found some brochures about policing and a recruiting brochure from the Kansas City PD. They portrayed an exciting and interesting job.
Darrel completed 2 years of college after high school while working part-time as a railroad switchman. Once he was old enough he applied to Kansas City PD and was hired. (He later completed both his bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.) His father thought he was crazy because he took a significant pay cut to join the police. Forty years later, in 2008, he retired as Chief of Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, an agency with 2100 members, which was his fourth police chief position. In the middle of his 40-year policing career, he spent 6 years as Executive Director of the Police Executive Research Forum, an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1976, that provides management services, technical assistance, executive- level education, and research. Then, after retiring in 2008, he served for another 7 years as Executive Director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. As of this writing, in 2022, he remains very active as a consultant and adviser to police departments and US government agencies. He also now serves as Co-Director of a new institute at Florida State University focused on policing, security technology, and private security research and policy.
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At the start of his career, Darrel served as a police officer, sergeant, and unit commander in the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) for 8 years. He described his early experiences this way: Academy training was 12 weeks long (480 hours). Except for firearms, almost all of it was in the classroom and predominately lecture. We did make visits to places like the jail, the morgue and watched an autopsy. The training was pretty good for the time. It did not include any physical training at all - the facility was a 2-classroom building with no gym. During the academy you were expected to do at least two ride-along each weekend to expose you to what it was like on the street so that added another 80 hours. There was a field training program - two weeks with an experienced officer. It was not a program that included daily evaluations - at the end if the field training officer (FTO) said you were ready to go you were on your own. My FTO was an African American officer that had been on the department 5 or 6 years. He was excellent and well respected by officers on the shift. He helped me learn how to treat people in a respectful and firm manner. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend that time with him. I worked in high poverty, high crime, 100% African American areas of Kansas City on patrol on the 4–12 shift. We were in one officer units so you ended up making calls with a lot of other officers on the shift and through that process demonstrated you could handle yourself. After a couple of years, I had the opportunity to go the Special Operations Division which exclusively worked high crime areas of the city. I was very much into the idea that aggressive policing and arrests were the most effective way to deal with crime.
These recollections show that the first few years of Darrel’s career were typical and traditional, though he thinks that KCPD was well ahead of its time in many ways and notes, in regard to police culture, “I did not encounter any deviant peer pressure.” After those first years, though, his career became anything but typical. We list a chronology below, postponing discussion of the significance of several of his experiences to later sections. 1968–1976 Officer, Sergeant, Commander, KCPD 1976–1979 Assistant Chief, Lawrence Police Department (Kansas) 1979–1983 Chief, Largo Police Department (Florida) 1983–1986 Chief, Newport News Police Department (Virginia) 1986–1992 Executive Director, Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) 1992–1997 Chief, St. Petersburg Police Department (Florida) 1997–1999 City Administrator, St. Petersburg, Florida 1999–2008 Chief, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (North Carolina) 2008–2013 Instructor, Public Safety Leadership Program, Johns Hopkins University 2010–2017 Executive Director, Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) 2013–present Coordinator, MCCA Police Executive Leadership Institute 2021–present Co-Director, Policing, Security Technology, and Private Security Policy & Research Institute
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A Uniquely American Police Career The United States has approximately 18,000 separate law enforcement agencies. Of these, roughly 2000 are federal, state, or special jurisdiction agencies, 3000 are sheriff’s departments, and about 13,000 are municipal police departments. The system is very fragmented, mostly local, and the majority of the agencies are small – half have ten or fewer staff with police authority. Thus, there are a lot of police CEOs (18,000), although most are in charge of rather small organizations. Darrel’s police career followed a pattern that is not uncommon for those aspiring to police chief positions in the United States. He started as a police officer in a large municipal agency serving a city with 500,000 residents (Kansas City) and then moved to a higher-ranking position (Assistant Chief) in a police department in a smaller city (Lawrence, Kansas with 50,000 residents). From there he moved up to a Chief position in a similar-sized city (Largo, Florida) and then as Chief to a city about three times larger (Newport News, Virginia). After serving as PERF’s Executive Director, he returned to a police department as Chief in St. Petersburg, Florida (almost 250,000 residents), and then finally served as Chief in Charlotte, North Carolina, a fast-growing city that grew to over 650,000 residents. One feature of Darrel’s early police career was unusual. He was a mere 28 years old when appointed Assistant Chief in Lawrence, Kansas. He recalls being “the youngest person in the department above corporal” which meant he had older supervisors and commanders reporting to him. Similarly, he was just 31 when appointed Chief in Largo, Florida. In Largo, he thinks his youth “worked in my favor because the majority of the officers were very young and unhappy with the former chief.” In the United States, it would not be too surprising to find a 30-year-old Assistant Chief or Chief in a town with 5000 residents, but definitely unusual in a city of 50,000. That Darrel’s police executive career got off to such a quick start in relatively larger agencies separated him from the vast majority of his contemporaries. Darrel Stephens had two formative experiences early in his career, another in mid-career, plus he held two non-police-chief positions that certainly contributed to his professional development. He describes the first of the experiences below. After I had been in the Special Operations Division (SOD) a little over a year, I had an opportunity that had an enormous impact on me and changed the way I thought about policing. I became a member of the SOD Task Force as part of a Police Foundation project in the KCPD that focused on developing and testing ideas that would improve the effectiveness of patrol. I ended up supervising a project that created a street crime intelligence center and tested the impact of focusing on high crime areas and on highly active career criminals. In this process I had the opportunity to meet people from around the country, consultants that supported our work and provided guidance and visit other police agencies to view projects they were involved with. These visits included Detroit, Cincinnati, New York, and others. The experience helped me understand that we knew very little about what worked in policing. It caused me to ask questions that a year before would have never entered my mind. So exposure to people who thought differently and had different ideas about policing pulled me away from the culture of policing.
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A second opportunity also came along not much later. I had a chance to become a police fellow at the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice which later became the National Institute of Justice [the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice]. I spent 10 months working there on a wide variety of projects. Again – I met a lot of people with a wide variety of views on policing and visited even more police departments. On my return to Kansas City, I was assigned to the Operations Resource Unit which was a multi-disciplinary team that managed various projects and was sort of an in-house consulting group. The unit was about half sworn and half non-sworn. The first project I was involved in was to develop a police patrol strategy based on what we had learned from the various Police Foundation projects and what other agencies were doing at the time.
These two early experiences help explain how Darrel managed to become an Assistant Chief in a city of 50,000 residents at age 28 and then Chief of Police in Largo, also 50,000 residents, at age 31. Despite his youth and relative lack of experience, he was already on the cutting edge of changes that were starting to happen in American policing in the middle to late 1970s. In keeping with these early experiences, Darrel has remained, throughout his entire career, a police practitioner who was frequently involved in research and special projects, both locally and nationally. In mid-career, starting in 1986, one particularly significant experience was serving as a member of the Executive Sessions on Policing, sponsored by the US National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and organized by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Participants in those sessions included highly respected police executives, professors, researchers, and others. The sessions are credited with focusing the attention of police and policy makers on a policing strategy that was just starting to get serious attention – community policing. The papers produced by the sessions were widely distributed, read, and cited over the next couple of decades, both inside and outside the policing world. During the same years of the Executive Sessions (1986–1992), Darrel served as Executive Director of the Police Executive Research Forum. PERF is a not-for- profit association of police executives, originally created to give chiefs who were progressive and from larger agencies a voice and a network independent of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), which had traditionally been somewhat conservative and dominated by chiefs from smaller agencies. Also, PERF explicitly supports research as an important vehicle for improving policing. Darrel offered these reflections on how the PERF experience furthered his professional development. The transition was difficult in several areas. First, I didn’t know anything about running a nonprofit organization. I had to learn - I took several classes on association management and finance. Second, I was surrounded by very smart energetic people and I wasn’t sure I was up to the task of providing the kind of leadership they needed. Third, working in DC and on the Hill [Capitol Hill, where the U.S. Congress meets] was a bit intimidating - it took a couple of years for me to become comfortable in the role. And fourth, I was relatively young at the time - 39 when I went there - and most of the PERF members were older more experienced chiefs. So I had to figure that out as well.
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My first meeting as Executive Director they were considering a resolution on apartheid - it didn’t pass and several chiefs walked out and resigned. I thought I was done before I got started - turned out okay and they all came back. Attendance at the next meeting was doubled. It took 2–3 years for me to become comfortable in the role. I enjoyed the job and the people. I thought we were making a difference in policing. But I never lost the desire to return to being a police chief. I continued to believe that demonstrating that the work could be done more effectively was the best way to influence others to change.
Darrel went on to be Chief in St. Petersburg and Charlotte after his time at PERF. Then, a similar opportunity came along after his retirement from Charlotte, and he served as Executive Director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) for 7 years. Even more than PERF, MCCA represents the largest police agencies in the United States (and Canada), helps them share information, and provides advice to Congress and the federal government on matters that affect policing. MCCA also offers a Police Executive Leadership Institute that Darrel had a big hand in developing and that he still coordinates. What all these experiences added up to, for Darrel Stephens, over a period of nearly 50 years, is that he was invariably in the middle of the latest developments undertaken by police in the United States, frequently influencing them and always able to incorporate them into his leadership as a police chief and as a leader in the larger police profession.
The Police Leader as Thinker Darrel Stephens was clearly a thinker from about his fourth year in policing, when his involvement in research and development projects within his own agency in Kansas City led him “to ask questions that a year before would have never entered my mind.” Certainly, timing was everything – the US federal government’s Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) was funding police improvement projects all around the country, groups like the US Police Foundation were designing the first ever rigorous studies of such traditional police practices as motorized patrol and rapid response, and KCPD was happy to collaborate with researchers. Early on, Darrel recognized that “we knew very little about what worked in policing.” While still with KCPD, he helped design and carry out a field test of two patrol strategies, one focused on high-crime areas and the other on highly active offenders. Today, using patrol to implement hot-spot and offender-focused strategies is well understood, but that was not true in the 1970s. Just a year or two later, he was involved in carrying out another patrol study in Kansas City that was well ahead of its time: The strategy included a deployment approach (40% of their time available for directed activities) where officers worked as teams in their sector and focused on problems as well as retaining the responsibility for calls for service. The sergeants had the authority on any given shift to assign officers to work on specific problems, relieving them of call for service
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responsibilities. They were supported with workload projections and maps to help them with crime analysis and decision making. We also implemented telephone reporting and call management practices, so the sergeants had more ability to manage resources. The strategy was tested in one of the department’s patrol divisions.
Later, when Darrel was chief in Newport News, Virginia, his agency was the site for one of the very first field tests of problem-oriented policing (POP). He co-authored the published report of that study (Eck et al. 1987) and remained a leading proponent of POP throughout his career. This was certainly fitting since the problem-oriented approach depends on thinking – thinking analytically about crime and disorder problems including what is causing them, thinking creatively about responses that might be implemented, thinking carefully about how to assess whether the responses worked, and thinking broadly about how to incorporate systematic problem solving throughout police work. One of the most visible indicators of Darrel as a thinking police leader is his publication record. Besides the POP evaluation noted above, here are ten of his publications from a much longer list: • Co-author of a book focused on drug abuse among police officers (Carter and Stephens 1988) • Co-author of a book focused on the state of police education (Carter et al. 1989) • Co-author of a book focused on strategic management of police organizations (Moore and Stephens 1991) • Co-editor of the 4th edition of a leading text on police administration (Geller and Stephens 2003), including author of the chapter on organization and management (Stephens 2003) • Author of a book chapter on the future of community policing (Stephens 2004) • Author of a journal article on police-researcher partnerships (Stephens 2010) • Author of an Executive Sessions article on police discipline (Stephens 2011) • Co-author of a monograph on strategic communications for police agencies (Stephens et al. 2011) • Co-author of an Executive Sessions article on policing and wrongful convictions (Batts et al. 2014) • Co-author of a monograph on civilian oversight of police (Stephens et al. 2018) In addition to publishing important ideas and insights about modern developments in policing, Darrel saw the need to contribute directly to the education of current and future police leaders. Following his retirement from Charlotte, he served as one of the main instructors in the graduate-level police executive leadership program at Johns Hopkins University. For about 15 years, that program served cohorts of police commanders in the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area working toward master’s degrees heavily focused of leadership and ethics. The program was delivered in a unique Friday-Saturday format – every few weeks, officers attended on Fridays on their employers’ time, then on Saturdays on their own time. Capstone projects required the students to analyze an organizational problem in their own agency, culminating in a briefing and report to their agency’s top leadership.
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Programs like the one at Johns Hopkins, with an explicit focus on police leadership within a higher education context, are rare in the United States. In fact, the Johns Hopkins program was not sustainable. When asked how well the United States does in developing police chief executives, Darrel’s assessment was as follows: In the US we do not do a good job at all in developing police leaders or police chiefs. It is largely a process where the individual takes responsibility for their own development and pursues training and education on their own. There are some national and state-level programs lasting 3–12 weeks, and a few larger departments have implemented command leadership training in recent years. Some of these are good programs but they are all different, so there is no consistency or commitment to mastering a common knowledge base. What should be done is the hard question. There is clearly a need for a training and education program aimed at leadership development and chief executive preparation. But the obstacles are formidable because of the U.S. policing structure that is state and local based.
During his tenure as Executive Director of MCCA, Darrel was able to establish a Police Executive Leadership Institute specifically designed to prepare second-level and third-level police commanders in large agencies for the big step up to being a chief executive. Among its first 135 graduates between 2013 and 2021, 53 had become police CEOs as of early 2022. Of those chiefs, 17% are women and 58% are non-white, far exceeding the degree of demographic representation found among all US police chiefs and sheriffs.
Why Darrel? Darrel Stephens was the right person, in the right place, at the right time. At the start of his police career in 1968, by his own admission, his view of the police role was very traditional. But within 3–4 years, his police agency was collaborating with researchers from the newly created Police Foundation (now the National Policing Institute), testing different police strategies and programs. Researchers and police were questioning “the presumed effects of a capacity” (Kelling 1978): Did police patrolling in cars prevent crime? Did it make more sense to target chronic crime locations or chronic offenders? Was responding immediately to every reported crime effective? Did follow-up investigations of every reported crime result in more cases being solved? This was the very start of an evidence-based approach to policing in the United States, major studies were going on right in the Kansas City Police Department, and as a young officer Darrel was in the middle of it. Darrel credits the Kansas City chief at the time, Clarence Kelley, with creating an open and inquisitive climate within the police department, something that was far from typical in the early 1970s. I had experiences that few other patrol officers had the opportunity to experience. Most departments wouldn’t send officers on those trips to visit other agencies - it was supervisors and command people with a lot more experience. I even had the opportunity to testify before the House Select Committee on Crime about the Police Foundation project I was
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working on. There were 3 other officers from Kansas City on that panel - all of the other panels representing other police agencies were Chiefs and Deputy/Assistant Chiefs. Clarence Kelley believed that we could tell our story much more effectively than he could.
According to Darrel, the impact of these early experiences was “to ask questions that a year before would have never entered my mind.” He started thinking about policing more analytically, critically, and deeply. Among those he encountered while still in Kansas City were George Kelling, Bob Wasserman, and Tom Sweeney. Not much later he was working with Herman Goldstein, John Eck, and Bill Spelman in Newport News and subsequently at PERF, where he also worked with Bill Geller and Sheldon Greenberg. In addition, during his PERF tenure he collaborated with the likes of Mark Moore and Malcolm Sparrow of Harvard. The result of these and other influences was that, by the 1980s, he was one of the leading figures in strategic, smarter policing. At that time, most of the recognizable names associated with problem-oriented, community-oriented, and strategic policing were researchers and academics, whereas Darrel was in and of the police. He was already a “police leader as thinker.” Besides having been in the right place at the right time, Darrel was clearly a leader who continued to learn and grow throughout his career. He learned from others, read widely, reflected on his own experiences, and continued the habit of asking questions. He was exposed early on to problem solving and the problem-oriented approach to policing, which depends on asking why – why is this problem occurring, why now, why here, why not somewhere else? Of equal significance, who could and would work with the police to help resolve the problem? After overseeing one of the first implementations of POP as police chief in Newport News, he took that same mindset with him to a national stage at PERF: PERF was fun. It was exciting. The staff was young with a high level of energy and a shared sense of purpose. We advanced problem-oriented policing through work in several pilot projects that served as a launching pad for hundreds of departments to follow. The POP conference was initiated in a partnership with San Diego (one of the pilots) and is now into its 30th year. Many of the staff that I worked with went on to make important contributions to policing as they pursued careers in academia, the federal government, and police agencies.
Darrel’s longest-tenured chief position was his last one in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina. By that point in his career, he was very seasoned and well-rounded. He took over a department that was already in good shape. He had the wisdom to recognize that the department did not need a reformer bent on dramatic change, but rather a leader who could guide them through further stages of development. The way he describes his experience in Charlotte reflects his thoughtful, strategic approach. Clearly the most satisfying and fun job as a police chief was in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. I was more prepared for that job than any other department that I led. It was a good department with incredibly talented and dedicated people. They had a strong sense of pride and there were no significant problems that had to be addressed immediately. The greatest challenge throughout my time was managing the rapid growth of the community. In almost 9 years as chief the City/County population grew by over 100,000 people and another 25,000
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to 30,000 undocumented residents. So, immigration was an issue along with the responsibilities that the 9/11 terrorist attacks brought to a city that was the second largest financial center in America. But the job was fun. In part because we accomplished so much. We developed a strong culture of community problem-oriented policing in Charlotte- Mecklenburg. I replaced Dennis Nowicki who introduced the concept to the department over the 5 years he served as chief. I continued that philosophy and expanded it. By the time I left they experienced 14 years of the same approach to policing and 50 to 60% of the department had never policed in any other way. By the time I left I had promoted all but 1 person at the ranks of Captain and above. We had revised promotions, training, performance evaluations, mission statement, technology systems, and rewards systems to reflect problem-oriented policing. Independent research confirmed that we had institutionalized a positive, problem-oriented culture in the department (Ikerd and Walker 2010).
Conclusion Darrel Stephens was a “police leader as thinker” throughout his career, as reflected in projects he instigated and directed, in his wide range of publications, in the progressive practices he implemented as CEO in four different police departments, and in his visionary leadership of two major police executive associations, PERF and MCCA. Today, after over 50 years in policing, he continues to make valuable contributions as coordinator of the Police Executive Leadership Institute and as Co-Director of the Policing, Security Technology, and Private Security Policy and Research Institute at Florida State University. Because of his ideas, his passion, and the respect he earned throughout the policing profession, he was (and still is) regularly consulted by those in Washington who are in a position to initiate and fund police projects and policing research. By his actions as a very visible police chief, by serving as a mentor to other chiefs and future chiefs, and through a wide range of ancillary activities, he has contributed as much as anyone to the improvement of American policing over the period 1980 to the present. He did so as both a thinker and a doer.
References Batts, A., deLone, M., and Stephens, D. 2014. “Policing and Wrongful Convictions.” New Perspectives in Policing. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice. Bayley, D. and Stenning, P. 2016. Governing the Police: Experience in Six Democracies. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Brodeur, J.-P. 2010. The Policing Web. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carter, D. and Stephens, D. 1988. Drug Abuse by Police Officers: An Analysis of Critical Policy Issues. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas. Carter, D., Sapp, A. and Stephens, D. 1989. The State of Police Education: Policy Direction for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum. Cordner, G. 2019. Police Administration, 10th edition. New York: Routledge.
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Eck, J., Spellman, W., Hill, D., Stephens, D., and Murphy. G. 1987. Problem Solving: Problem Oriented Policing in Newport News. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum. Fischer, C. 2009. Leadership Matters: Police Chiefs Talk About Their Careers. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum. Geller, W. and Stephens, D., eds. 2003. Local Government Police Management, 4th ed. Washington, DC: International City Management Association Haberfeld, M. 2012. Police Leadership: Organizational and Managerial Decision Making Process, 2nd edition. New York: Pearson. Ikerd, T. & Walker, S. 2010. Making Police Reforms Endure: The Keys for Success. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Isenberg, J. 2010. Police Leadership in a Democracy: Conversations with America’s Police Chiefs. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Kelling, G. 1978. “Police Field Services and Crime: The Presumed Effects of a Capacity.” Crime and Delinquency 24, 2: 173-184. Magny, O. 2022. “Emotional Intelligence and the Future of Police Personnel.” In J. Schafer and R. Myers, eds., Rethinking and Reforming American Policing: Leadership Challenges and Future Opportunities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 311-336. Moore, M. and Stephens, D. 1991. Beyond Command and Control: The Strategic Management of Police Departments. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum. Reese, R. 2005. Leadership in the LAPD: Walking the Tightrope. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Schafer, J., Buerger, M., Myers, R., Jensen, C. and Levin, B. 2012. The Future of Policing: A Practical Guide or Police Managers and Leaders. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Schafer, J. and Myers, R. 2022. “Thinking About Police Crisis and Reform.” In J. Schafer and R. Myers, eds., Rethinking and Reforming American Policing: Leadership Challenges and Future Opportunities. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-29. Stephens, D. 2003. “Organization and Management.” In W. Geller and D. Stephens, eds., Local Government Police Management, 4th ed. Washington, DC: International City Management Association, pp. 27-65. ———. 2004. “The Challenges to the Future of Community Policing.” In L. Fridell and M. Wycoff, eds., Community Policing: The Past, Present and Future. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, pp. 193-208. ———. 2010. “Enhancing the Impact of Research on Police Practice.” Police Practice and Research: An International Journal 11,2: 150-154. ———. 2011. “Police Discipline: A Case for Change.” New Perspectives in Policing. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice. _____, Hill, J., and Greenberg, S. 2011. Strategic Communication Practices: A Toolkit for Police Executives. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. _____, Scrivner, E., and Cambareri, J. 2018. Civilian Oversight of the Police in Major Cities. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
Thinking Police Leader in India: Case Study of Dr. Pradnya Saravade, IPS Deepika Suri and Arvind Verma
Introduction Policing India has always been difficult. From the Mauryan dynasty two millennium ago to the present, the large country with its extraordinary diversity has challenged the rulers to establish order, safety, and security. A country with all the major religions of the world, where its people speak in 28 different languages and in more than 5000 dialects and where tradition exists side by side with modernity and inequalities abound, the task of policing such communities is unparalleled and unmatched. Yet, the Indian police, in which citizen-police ratio is one of the lowest in the world, have served democratic India in a commendable manner. The fact that more than 1.35 billion people, representing a civilization spanning more than 4000 years, enjoy the protection of constitutional rights and elect their representatives in a free and fair manner is a modest tribute to the functioning of the country’s police. Providing leadership to the police, roughly comprising 2.5 million, supervising its varied functions, and managing its personnel and resources are conducted by members of the Indian Police Service (IPS). A continuation of the British-period Indian Police (IP), approximately 4100 IPS officers are responsible for managing senior leadership positions in police administration at the center and all the states of the country. Recognized as one of the three All India Services under Article 312 of the Indian Constitution, the IPS has played a crucial role in various aspects of nation-building in the country. It has adapted itself to face challenges of a democratic post-colonial society. It made much more than nomenclatural transitions of D. Suri IPS, IG, MP Police, Bhopal, India A. Verma (*) Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_9
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“Superior,” “Imperial,” or just “Indian” of colonial India to actually becoming a “Service” in Independent India. Becoming increasingly appreciative of the democratic context, it has also sought to specialize in the fields of intelligence including technical intel, cross-state or federal investigation, paramilitary forces, VIP security, national and internal security, disaster management, and in combating terrorism.
IPS Cadre The IPS is a unique cadre that has some extraordinary characteristics. It enjoys high status and reputation in the country and attracts the best talent to compete in the national examination for selection. IPS officers are recruited through the most- competitive Civil Services Examination which attracts a large number of well- qualified applicants. A constitutional body, known for its impartiality and independence, the Union Public Service Commission, tests them through three phases of examinations – Preliminary, Mains, and Interview. Each stage in the examination is a strong process of elimination. On an average, about 500,000 candidates (UPSC Report) appear for the preliminary examination. They have to clear several graduate level papers and also face a grueling interview board comprising scholars and public officials from various fields. About a hundred among the top 300 who are academically the best and most tenacious opt for and are allotted this service. There is no comparable selection of police leadership as difficult and challenging as one to the IPS. No wonder, every IPS officer is highly qualified, many with doctorates and professional degrees and with a stellar school-college academic record. David Bayley (1969) tellingly writes that interacting with an IPS officer immediately makes it clear that one is talking to an educated person. The following diagram shows the educational backgrounds and representativeness of 137 officer trainees of the batch [2020] of IPS. Academic backgrounds of 73rd RR (IPS batch 2020). (Source: National Police Academy, Hyderabad)
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Training Those selected for IPS undergo an orientation course lasting 4 months along with the officer trainees of more than 20 other services such as civil administration, foreign service, revenue, audit and accounts, and postal services mostly in the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. This helps to develop l’esprit de corps between trainees of different services. Based on interactions in these months, officers of the same cohort often reach out to each other through the course of their career to seek cooperation across vast regions and organizations. The major part of the training of IPS officers (of approximately 9 months) takes place at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, which provides inputs in law, crime investigation, crime scene exercises through simulation, management, ethics, forensic science, order maintenance, and counterterrorism. However, what makes the training of IPS officers stand apart from that of the other services is the rigor and exposure to diverse skills and team building afforded by its outdoor activities. Officer trainees are divided into squads, and their squad mates become their permanent companions through sweat, scare, demands, and challenges of horse riding, rock climbing, swimming, weapon training, field craft and tactics, shooting, unarmed combat, yoga, cross-country, and drill for the long training period. Some IPS officers have further excelled into having various achievements to their credit. One outstanding example is Aparna Kumar (India Today 2019) who has scaled the highest peaks in all the seven continents, including Mount Everest, and also been part of the expeditions to the North and South poles. Besides the skills, this training instills an attitude of perseverance, playing as a team and being prepared for all small and big challenges, physical, mental, and situational. After successful completion of the training, officers are posted as Assistant Superintendent of Police and after 5–7 years of service take charge as District Superintendent of Police [SP]. The SP is the fulcrum around which the policing is done in roughly 750 districts of the country. In this position, they command a force of roughly 1000–1500 officers and are responsible for supervision of their functions, investigation and prevention of crimes including of organized and cybercrimes, enforcement of laws and maintenance of order, as well as collection of intelligence and training of their officers. They must regularly interact with the media and the citizens and pay special attention to crimes against women and children as well as the historically discriminated communities spread across the country. In these challenging field assignments, many of these police officers have gone on to innovate and institutionalize practices for involving communities in policing, setting up model police stations, specialized cells, and desks for prompt and effective response to cybercrimes.
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Challenges of Policing India The developing economy, historical inequalities, deep religiosity of the people, communal tensions between the Hindu majority and Muslim minority (still the second largest Muslim population in the world comprising 200 million people), caste conflicts, and threats of terrorism ranging from the left-wing Maoists and secessionists to Islamic jihadis sponsored by hostile Pakistan confront the SPs and the local police, among others, in most parts of the country. As a democratic society, India conducts regular elections to the national Parliament, State Assemblies, and local Municipalities as also Village Panchayats (Councils). The National Elections of 2019 involved more than 750 million enrolled voters of which around 63% actually voted. Starting from the first elections in 1952, the people have voted freely in more than a hundred elections. It is a mammoth task for Indian police to maintain public order during the elections, given the mobilization of a large number of political workers and emotive campaigns. These regular elections have led to changes in the governments and representatives which is a testimony to the fairness of the process and faith of the people in democracy. There is little doubt that the strength and robustness of Indian democracy owes in large part to the police that are involved in ensuring the right to vote freely in any election. Democracy entails a variety of rights to the citizens, including, but not limited to, freedom of speech, assembly, and movement to any part of the country. These rights are enshrined in the Constitution and strictly enforced by an independent judiciary. The police are answerable for their actions to the judiciary and must follow the due process of law in discharge of their functions. The Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 governs police functions and is based upon the extraordinary restriction of Section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872 that has made confession before a police officer inadmissible as evidence. Nevertheless, the police act professionally to prosecute a large number of criminals and keep India a country of low crime rates. One of the major and recurring challenges before the police arises in handling public protests, processions, and assemblage of large crowds. The deep religiosity has led to a peculiar situation where pilgrimage is a must to a dozen or more holy places. Local places of pilgrimage also attract large crowds on festivals, important days, and through events hosted as per the religious calendar. All communities, ranging from Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs to even Buddhists, take out colorful processions and celebrate festivals in unusually large numbers. The Rath Yatra (Chariot procession), the annual pilgrimages to important shrines, and most significantly the assemblage at Kumbh Melas bring together millions of people at a large number of holy sites spread across the country. In the Kumbh Mela of Prayagraj celebrated in 2019, an estimated 223 million pilgrims came to take the ritualist bath, in an area of few square kilometers at the confluence of rivers Ganga and Yamuna. Policing of such large assemblies and management of crowds is unparalleled globally and highlights the extraordinary achievements of Indian police.
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Role of IPS Leadership IPS officers are promoted after spending around 10 years at the rank of SP to manage special units like the Criminal Investigation Department, the Special Branch, various armed units, and state training centers. They are also deputed to the central government police organizations like the para-military units; the Central Bureau of Investigation (akin to the FBI); Railway police and domestic and foreign intelligence units. As such, IPS officers in their span of 30–35 years of career acquire extraordinary experience of commanding regular local police, special units; supervising investigation of crime ranging from property to body to cyber offenses; policy, procedure, and process inputs through data analysis of crime statistics in various branches at police headquarters; intelligence work and leading armed units in safeguarding borders; as well as combating insurgents. As middle managers they play a major role in strengthening organizational capacities, planning and implementing criminal justice policies, and enhancing the professional competence of state and central government police forces. IPS officers are by default leaders of men and event managers handling massive crowds – a local procession to large crowd management events like Kumbh Melas and national elections involving hundreds of millions. In the field assignments, many officers in their attempts to address the root problems have incubated ideas on community policing. “Bhiwandi experiment” in Maharashtra was one that helped to prevent or address communal violence (Yui 2015); Student Police Cadet developed as an initiative by an IPS officer, P Vijayan helped ensure involvement of school- based youth in evolving “as future leaders of a democratic society” (see https:// www.studentpolicecadet.org/). These like many other efforts by police leadership have been scaled up and replicated all over the country. This is not to totally dismiss criticisms and impressions of IPS officers (Verma 2012; Sarangi and Kumar 2017; Raghavan 2017) where it is felt that some factors stifle problem solving approach in the policing structure. One may be the sense of “entitlement” that inflicts some who have the sense of having “arrived” into the service with no further desire for either professional or personal growth. Also some other bright officers with promising vision and academic credentials are seen to get co-opted into the organizational subculture. Police hierarchy may hamper their ability to debate and brainstorm new solutions, or unhealthy careerism may take precedence over lateral thinking for institutional reform. Field assignments continue to be over-valued and sought after as compared to policy making and headquarters. Bollywood (mainstream movies like Dabang, Singham, Shool) and public perception of “deserving illegal actions” (Telegraph, India 2019) also adulate the testosterone-rich aggressive, savior hero of a police officer, who circumvents law and procedure to deliver. In such a context, evidence-based policing as an organizational value is still at the stage of striking roots. Notwithstanding these, the IPS officers have acquitted themselves well. They have been heads of newly formed organizations whether it be the border guarding Border Security Force (BSF), research-oriented Bureau of Police Research and
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Development (BPRD), statistics and data-based National Crime and Records Bureau (NCRB), and terrorism investigation leading National Investigation Agency (NIA) and have provided the genetic codes and strong templates along which these and many other organizations have developed. Within the state, they provide leadership to diverse verticals including telecom, railway security, women safety, vigilance, intelligence, anti-terrorism, cyber cells, State Crime Records Bureau, and Economic Offences Wing. Coordination is made possible across states in all these areas through formal and informal channels between officers of the service. Many IPS officers are armed with the experience of working at both the state and the federal levels. Additionally, the experience gained through working at the district level where they are involved in direct delivery and routine day-to-day police administration gives them the appreciation of the challenges faced in policing. This has resulted in them providing continuous inputs on police administration at the national and state levels. Policing a multicultural aspirational society, facing challenges ranging from congregations to COVID, trafficking to terrorism, dynamically responding to technology and economic liberalization, with assertions ranging from caste to gender, is a formidable challenge. It provides the Indian police with opportunities and exposure large in size and varied in nature. Consequently, many officers of the Indian Police Service have acquitted themselves well in investigation, large-scale event management, research, and community policing initiatives. Efforts by various police officers have been responsible for changing the manner in which investigation in specialized areas, for instance, trafficking (Nair 2011), is conducted. Various IPS officers have been instrumental in being the beacon of police reform at the national level. The Public Interest Litigation filed in 1996 by two retired Chiefs of Police, Shri Prakash Singh and Shri NK Singh, led to the Supreme Court in 2006 to pass directions to the center and state governments for implementation of police reforms (Singh 2022). A large number of IPS officers have penned their memoirs (Sharma 2019; Maria 2020; Raghavan 2020; Raman 2013), academic books (Belur 2010; Verma & Sharma 2018; Verma 2022), fiction (Lodha 2018; Kumar 2019), and poetry (Daruwalla 2013) and directed films (Srinivasan 2021), and many write regular columns for various newspapers and magazines (Ribeiro 2021 and Jagat 2021 are columnists for the newspaper Tribune). Frequently, IPS officers such as Mahesh Bhagwat (Deccan Chronicle, 2021) are profiled by various media outlets for handling difficult problems and for designing creative responses to deal with myriad challenges confronting the Indian society.
Dr Pradnya Saravade Among such a gallery of stalwarts, there remains a reason to recognize some particular officers, not merely for the sake of highlighting their successful career, but for the sake of the system, a community of police thinkers. These police officers are
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zealous about problem solving, not concerned just with the concerns of the present but more importantly about the direction the organization should move in. Such officers, with a spanner and a stethoscope in hand, ensure that they keep working to improve the total health of the system. One such senior officer profiled here, at the rank of Additional Director General, Dr Pradnya Saravade, is one of the most accomplished, experienced, and nationally renowned police officers of the country. She exemplifies the theme of this book – police leader as a thinker through a range of police functions that she has undertaken in her more than 30 years of police career. She comes through as a precise healer (she has a degree in surgery!) and who in her blogs describes herself as a person interested in looking at “root cause.” She is “a pattern spotting person,” “has a strong prevention mindset,” and is “wary of person-based solutions to hard problems.” What marks her off from others is her orientation – a perceptive observer, keen learner, and the ability to be stimulated by just about anything for lessons in policing. Guided by her own sense of exploration, she gravitated towards specialized roles like investigation of bank and securities scams, in the premier investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation; as head of investigation and chief vigilance officer with India’s capital and security market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI); and as vigilance officer for perhaps India’s richest government corporation, Maharashtra’s City and Industrial Development Corporation, CIDCO. Police officers are risk managers for society. She welcomed these opportunities of excelling not only in response but also the prevention aspects of large impact economic crimes and corruption. While in charge of the Administration wing of the Maharashtra Police Directorate, she designed and executed the introduction of technological solutions to improve crime records and administrative records’ data availability and quality of decision-making through analytical dashboards, using innovative technologies like Geographical Information Systems and data visualization. In her most self-effacing way, she states, “I have found myself a job wherever I have been posted.” When asked who her role models in the police are, she names Kiran Bedi who “is very original in what she says and the things she does.” Another inspiring police leader with whom she has worked is MN Singh, Commissioner of Police (CP) Mumbai (May 2000–December 2002) when she was posted as DCP in Mumbai city. In a political case where some goons had been arrested, a Minister asked her to let them go and to come and brief him. When she referred these directions to CP Mr. Singh, he told her in categorical terms that she was not to go and it is he who would do the briefing. A police thinker can be no less a doer than a thinker and is also a person who allows the junior person, who is doing the job, to go on doing it and is willing to take the brunt for a job done right. Another exemplar for her is Julio Ribeiro who is one person to look up to, who is respected and who is fearless in speaking his mind out. A police thinker is also one who has a process orientation and encourages police personnel to develop problem-solving skills. “The problems faced by police are local. The capability of the individual police officers should not end at managing situations or conflicts. They should contribute to lasting solutions”. A police thinker
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has also to be a personnel manager and a leader who “knows everyone’s worth,” whether his juniors or colleagues, and hence is one who does her best to mentor and sponsor them in their professional development. A thinking police officer is also an operations person. One who looks at patterns and standardizes rather than reinventing the wheel every time. Hence as a police officer managing procurements and purchases, the aim should be to standardize the unit’s requirements, for example, of a bomb disposal squad. The organization can be encouraged to have more police thinkers if every position in the organization contributes to the organization’s output, not only the much more visible field assignments, the system of postings is made more aptitude and ability oriented and the right people are posted to the right jobs, and when policy making, standardization and problem solving are made more part of and respected as core police work and processes. Asked if women police officers have the special ability at being police thinkers, she remarked that, “women are creative in their own way.” There are a handful of spectacular examples of women police officers in Indian police, but the organization being large and the number of women officers disproportionately low, the impact of women officers has still not been enough to change the “organizational psyche.” Diversity brings a lot to the table but that power is yet to be freed.
Policing as Public Service A graduate in Medicine and Surgery (1981–1986) and post-graduate in General Surgery (1986–1989) from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, Dr Pradnya veered away from being a full-fledged medical professional to being in public service. The capacity of the government “to do good” “affect lives of people favorably” and the desire to be part of that “governance structure” in which people “intuitively” place “trust” attracted her to a career in government service. She has enjoyed orienting the police towards the public, developing innovative ideas and programs. To address issues of trust between police and public, she feels there is a need ‘to understand more deeply the nuances in good policy making and the challenges in implementation” to do the job better and more effectively. Few police officers would venture into long-term thinking required for strategy; it is not considered what she described in her conversations as “glamorous” as compared to field assignments that are played out in the public arena. “Policy proposals may also take years to fructify, demotivating police officers from committing themselves to a sustained role in policy making” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview). But throughout her career, she has looked for areas to address issues of process changes, behavior modelling, policy making, and creative problem solving. Her focus has been on preventive policing, improving police professionalism and devising processes wherein police as an organization is respected. “While public order maintenance places police in a position of being feared, the focus on crime investigation, prevention and community relations helps it earn respect” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview).
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For her, all assignments are opportunities for institutional changes and focusing on long-term projection. As DCP Mumbai Port Zone in the years 2000–2003, she was instrumental in spearheading the Mohalla Panchayats for problem solving in slum areas which became a template for effective policing across the entire city. While on secondment from the Government to the Securities’ and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India’s Capital Markets Regulator, she headed the market regulator’s Investigations department and also functioned as Chief Vigilance Officer of the organization. Drawing from her law enforcement experience, she introduced newer investigative techniques to collect evidence for market frauds to enable initiation of proceedings against errant market functionaries and a system of post-investigation analysis of issues, to detect and report on regulatory loopholes which required to be fixed. Thus, there developed a feedback loop between the Investigation Department and Policy Departments, creating a valuable improvement mechanism. As Inspector General of Police (Provisions) where the position was responsible for planning and centralized purchases of weaponry, vehicles, and equipment and where she handled a budget of about INR 4 billion (USD 73 million), she focused on evolving strategy formulation for the standard annual purchases and the newer technology and operational requirements to cover the entire gamut of policing activities like street policing, investigations, anti-insurgency, and anti-terror operations. To improve the credibility of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and to gain the trust of citizenry to come forward and report, she engaged with a voluntary organization Karmayog and drew up an awareness-raising program, M-PAC (Mumbai-Pact Against Corruption). Besides, she sought to standardize procedures at the Maharashtra State Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Mumbai, so that investigators in corruption cases had clear guidance and there was more reliance of digital evidence gathering and there were no “doubts and discretion” in the investigative process. Her efforts yielded results when the conviction rate in her unit of ACB rose from 12 percent to 51 percent. While analyzing the issue of juvenile delinquency, which she did while she was Additional Director General of Police Administration and also looking after the charge of Prevention of Crimes against Women and Children, her analysis led her to understand that a third of the crimes committed by juveniles are heinous and that they are involved more in body than property offenses. Since the involvement of juveniles in underage and drunken driving leading to motor accidents was a significant proportion of crimes committed by youngsters, she suggested various policy interventions involving amendments for underage and drunken driving in Motor Vehicles Act. To prevent victimization of children in trafficking, the following were done: stricter checks on local hotels and issue of advisory to lodges on the issue of human trafficking, patrolling of bus stops and railway premises, and identification of hotspots of victimization of children across the state, raising awareness about underage and drunken driving and getting other stakeholders like NGOs and UNICEF involved.
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Policing Perspectives of Pradnya We learn about the significance of policing and her perspectives about the challenges that confront the Indian police leadership from her blogs that tell us a lot about her thinking. Her twitter account of @pravaasi started in 2009 is without any photo of herself. She introduces herself as “an Indian Police service Officer from Maharashtra. 1989 Batch.” She started blogging (https://pradnyanblog.wordpress. com/) in 2013 where she states that her blog will be her “Pensieve” for thoughts on policing. It is meant for discussing “solutions on the problems in policing in India.” These blogs are not exaggerated musings for self-promotion. They are engagements with the problems plaguing policing. One can sense a mind continuously at work. Her reflections are triggered by varied inputs and observations – an article she has read, a Reserve Bank circular, an unauthorized transaction on her credit card, an official visit or inspection, observations of an officer about to retire, flooding in Mumbai, the stresses created by the spread of the pandemic, experiences at her current assignment, and the like. And a police thinker who not merely thinks but also speaks and communicates, these blogs provide directions and solutions or simply stimulate the readers encouraging exploration of solutions outside the box. To give an example, few police officers would have thought that one of the policy options of dealing with the sand mafia is giving a policy proposal that makes it mandatory to use alternatives for river sand and soil bricks in construction material especially in government works in order to cut the financial incentive for illegal dredging of river beds. These blogs cover a range of topics. These range from suggestions for police action during COVID to research in policing. While dealing with police action during disasters, when “people look to the government for proper information and relief” she suggests that Mumbai police could provide “informative images” from the 4700 CCTV cameras on its twitter handle. Additionally, GIS maps integrated with CCTV networks could not only “periodically update and inform road users of the state of road and traffic condition” but also provide aggregated information about voluntary aid in food/drinking water/shelter. Some recurring themes in her blogs relate to creating a mindset of trusteeship among public servants, training police officers from police stations onward towards problem solving, encouraging research in issues related to policing, and using technology for transparent person-agnostic solutions to corruption in government. While dealing with the question of corruption, one can see her time and again dealing with the issue of addressing the problem through dealing with the root causes rather than the symptoms. In the backdrop of Arab Spring, which was triggered by self-immolation of Sidi Bouzid of Tunisia protesting “small ticket but widespread” corruption of police, she being a person who believes in preventive strategies emphasizes that the aim in anti-corruption should not be merely to catch crooks. It should rather be on ensuring transparency through e-governance projects and a periodic review of laws which ascribe “criminality to various deviant acts in the laws enforced by the civic and police authorities.” Emphasizing on preventive vigilance, she suggests bringing greater clarity to functions and processes in the organization, “lessening paper in government offices, moving towards electronic
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data,” removing “all unnecessary points of public contact including FIR recorded on calls, licenses issued online by the public official.” At City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) where she worked as the vigilance officer, various experiments were introduced – obtaining a numerical grade of feedback of the service given by the public employee, “mystery shopping” and public viewing of all complaints masking identifying information over CIDCO e-complaints portal “dakshata.” [The advantage of the reputation monitor was also that where reputation grading was poor for most of the employees in a particular department, it would red-flag organizational intervention to improve the specific rules/procedures.] Another subject that one can see concerns her in a lot of her writings are making police a learning organization with emphasis on problem solving and transformational leadership. Instead of tiding over the present situation, professional policemen should be taught problem-solving at all ranks. Our training institutions have to start building a culture for this. Police need to think like a problem solver using the “prevention” hat to make a lasting and genuine impact on the problems of crime and public disorder. She states in her blog: Police stations could be asked to send their problematic concerns, especially their major crime challenges, to training institutions. All levels of trainees, from the police constable to the IPS officers, can be trained on such modules, and their performance on this subject could be given a significant influence on their overall grades. Focusing on developing the right mindsets through training will result in a truly professional, decentralised and yet disciplined police organisation – where the boots on the ground will have acquired the ability to reduce and solve some problems, and also suggest practise-based solutions for long term resolution of issues, rather than merely manage them temporarily. (Training for Problem Solving, September 13, 2018)
This enterprise is closely connected to ensuring greater delegation and making constabulary effective first responders in crime and complaints’ handling at the local level. As more constables with higher educational qualifications join police, there is also a “case for developing the constabulary cadre into crime investigation officials for certain types of crimes.” Since the problems of policing are local, there is a greater need of thinking and creative problem solving among constabulary. However, it is not encouraged in a hierarchical organization where a sense of ownership is not shared, where we remain focused on managing situations and conflicts, and where all discussions on problem solving are pushed upward. Any change in this orientation would require a lot of reorientation and creativity beginning from the training of our policemen. Police protect the democratic values of the country. A very interesting point made is that social crimes like crimes against women should not be seen merely as law enforcement issues but from the “angle of public health” as they affect “the physical and mental health of our nation’s next generation.” One can see her championing recurring Crime Victimization Surveys to ensure proper feedback on safety and security provided by police stations and to improve accountability of the police stations on public service, for better resource allocation and incentivizing police for work on crime prevention. These would periodically “measure actual victimization due to crime and map safety perceptions of the
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people.” These would capture gaps in crime registration and actual crime discouraging burking and be a “self-correcting measure” in encouraging police to both record and investigate all reported crimes to reduce gap in subsequent surveys. These are also seen as vehicles for sensitizing and encouraging politicians to think on a continued basis about police reforms as they would become an important stakeholder in ensuring reforms in policing by feeling the pinch of public feedback on police working when such surveys become election issues (see CHRI 2015 and IDFC 2017).
Setting Up of Mohalla Panchayats She started her career in the state of West Bengal and after her field assignment in 24 Pargana district worked in intelligence branch and airport security in Kolkata. After a few years in the eastern part of the country, followed by a stint in the Central Bureau of Investigation, in Mumbai, she joined the state of Maharashtra on the west coast. As Deputy Commissioner of Police Mumbai Port Zone in 2000–2003, she was largely policing an area with a large slum population. People from all over the country, especially South India, came to the port area for work and settled there in the areas of Sewri and Wadala. “The jurisdiction was affected by a large number of non-cognizable offence reports of small fights and disputes, issues of slums unauthorizedly occupying government land and festering law and order issues due to the same” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview). The typical response of the police was to ignore the peoples’ complaints asking them to seek redressal in courts. Their mediating in issues of minor scuffles would usually lead to allegations of corruption, highhandedness, and dissatisfaction at the public end. A system of Mohalla Panchayats was devised wherein the model of village panchayat was replicated. People without any previous police records and a Sub Inspector were made a part of the local mohalla panchayat which would meet once a month, look into the non- cognizable disputes reported at the police station, call both affected parties, and try to arrive at a solution that was also legally right. It helped to cut out frictions in the slum population. Additionally, with the open police engagement in the community, there was more trust in the police and there was better communication between the police and the community. “It aided in handling law and order situations and obtaining intelligence from the land area and also of the happenings in the Sea” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview). The system was found to be very effective and the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, replicated it across the megapolis.
Setting Up of Mumbai Cyber Lab, 2004 Pradnya displays the example of a thinking police leader by her initiative in setting up an extraordinary cybercrime prevention system for Maharashtra police. In 2004, as Deputy Commissioner of Police (Enforcement), she collaborated with the Indian
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IT industry association (NASSCOM) to hold two annual cybersecurity public awareness campaigns for the first time in India. Out of the surplus funds raised by the IT industry for the campaign, the idea of setting up a permanent training facility on cyber literacy for police investigators came up. Pradnya supervised the project of setting up of the Mumbai Cyber Lab, in Mumbai, with the vision To create a multi- disciplinary Centre of Excellence for enhancing Cyber Security in the megapolis. It was a joint initiative of Mumbai Police and NASSCOM. The lab, inaugurated on by the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, sought to “promote collaboration among Mumbai Police, Information Technology industry, academia and concerned citizens to address cybercrime and its related issues” through standardizing investigation procedures, developing cybercrime tools for criminal investigation, and conducting industry-wide survey to find out trends in cybercrime, to develop “proactive strategies for anticipating trends in cybercrime,” to formulate technical and legal responses for cybercrime prevention, to develop cyber forensic tools for criminal investigation, and to increase cyber awareness and information security in Mumbai city in general. The project was worked in detail with provision of specific hardware and formulation of the course for police training, deciding on scope and modalities of incident survey and eliciting cooperation of industry segments and developing a library of investigative tools. It also sought to hold a roundtable of the legal fraternity to evolve suggestions for new legislation. The specific timelines along with tasks to be accomplished at the time of its inception speak of a planner at work. Her co-authored article on this innovation was published by Police Chief Magazine (Saravade and Saravade 2007).
Securities and Exchange Board of India [SEBI] Joining SEBI in 2012 as an officer on special duty after SEBI decided to separate its investigation and adjudication departments (Business Standard, 2013), she handled many cases of stock market manipulation. Among the various cases that she dealt with was one related to insider trading in the shares of Pyramid Saimira. On the basis of bank account transactions, call data record analysis, and trading data from the stock exchanges, her team was able to establish the manipulation in share price of the project. This led to barring Pyramid Saimira’s promoters Nirmal Kotecha and P S Saminathan, along with 228 others, from the securities market. Her tenure with the capital market regulatory body demonstrated the right acumen for investigating economic crimes. Earlier during her stint with the premier investigative agency of the country, the CBI, she had handled both the investigation and trial of the highprofile 1992 securities scam. As another police officer and a former colleague Rajnish Seth reported to the Business Standard (2013), “She has the right aptitude for detection of economic offences and her previous postings have helped her gain sound knowledge to deal with economic crimes.”
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Strategy Support System for Police Decision-Makers The headlines of a Mumbai newspaper in Feb 2020 read, “Maharashtra Police to counter crime pattern with Strategy Support System” (Hitvada Feb 2020). This is an advanced version of decision support system for senior formations conceived, developed, and earlier implemented by Dr Pradnya Saravade in 2016 in her capacity as Additional Director General of Police (Administration). The system is based on certain key principles. Primarily, as Pradnya states that, “the Police Headquarters has to be involved in the strategic level of decision-making rather than day to day ground policing. The headquarters should also have with itself real time data and be able to grasp the big picture.” This would aid in providing specific meaningful interventions by top decision-makers making for greater operational efficiency on ground. It would help to nudge the operational units into focusing on priorities. The project involved setting up of the GIS system, development of software, integration of the system with Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network System (CCTNS), and implementation of the project with their concomitant organizational and behavioral change. The implementation of the project did not begin and end with software development. Part of this ambitious project was delineating the boundaries of more than a 1000 police stations. “In the development of the project, I took assistance of MRSAC (Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre) for the GIS System Development in addition to software engineers who were attached to Police Headquarters as Fellows as part of a government scheme.” At present, the police jurisdiction map tools of the system show all the police department units including headquarters, police stations, and range offices on GIS map. The system also shows location-based offenses with the name of police stations and First Information Report numbers. The dashboard developed by her with the assistance of software interns provides “graphical and structural analysis” of various police department subjects. These include crime trends, expenditure, base maps, daily crime report, departmental inquiries, health care, training, stocks of arms and ammunition, patrolling of vehicles, etc. – all available at the click of a button for the whole state or even a particular district or city on GIS. The advantage of the system is that decisions are supported with various kinds of numerical and geographic data and understanding of various variables. Integrity of the data is ensured and the same data is available at headquarters and district level. “The need to call for reams of reports from field units has been obviated. The system has helped to rule out discrepancies in data, aided in standardizing decision making variables and ensuring objectivity” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview). As an example, under motor vehicle module, information on fleet age, expenditure and repair per vehicle, monthly average fuel consumption per vehicle, and monthly average running per vehicle is graphically available. This data when placed alongside the number of FIRs registered, the number of police stations, and the total number of vehicles in any zone or district selected helps visualize the efficiency, or
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lack thereof, of the district’s police fleet. There are drill down options regarding year and vehicle type. This data also helps an officer sitting in headquarters to decide where newly procured vehicles are required to be given based on fleet age, mileage efficiency, present availability, and workload of the district. Analysis can also be made of where vehicles are being run more efficiently for crime control or where the average running of a vehicle was low despite relatively high crime. Additionally, one would not have to wait for annual physical inspections to call for corrective measures since the data is readily available anytime to ensure self-corrective measures for the unit and proper supervisory instructions and interventions by senior formations. Similarly, the expenditure of various units under various heads on a real-time basis can be monitored. Under the budget and expenditure review tool, the graph of the funds utilized against the sanctioned amount in each financial year is available. The system automatically updates the balance as funds get utilized. Here too, superimposing spending data against crime levels or manpower availability of a district helps direct outcome-based monitoring of spending. The system also has a disciplinary actions module. This provides a unit-wise count of police personnel found under disciplinary actions on GIS map along with date of review. This helps to take necessary actions against delinquents in time. The system helps to provide new insights and patterns about origins of maximum number of defaults. Hence an analysis brought out that a third of disciplinary inquiries are for administrative reasons, another third for corruption while the remaining third for police participating in crime. The revealing picture can help to look into issues in geographical areas where indiscipline on account of these three concerns is high. Units can be provided with pointed and specific feedback based on facts and figures to look into areas of administrative change, reform, areas of remedial action, or change of personnel based on delinquency patterns of personnel. Similarly, Maharashtra police has a large welfare fund and the manner in which it is spent was previously left to field units. But based on the GIS system, many welfare schemes were drawn out so that constabulary could actually benefit, for instance, promoting girl child education and preventing early marriages of girls. Monitoring the money spent on each of the welfare schemes would help to monitor how the money was spent at the end of every month, and nudges were provided from headquarters to streamline more meaningful expenditure and to move expenditure in a certain type of direction. With crime data pulled twice daily from the CCTNS system, it has become easier to analyze crime patterns, for example, incidence of sexual offenses against children. This helps to show hotspots, make for meaningful interventions, and ensure more focused conversation and systematic evaluation of the field units. During Dr Pradnya’s time as ADG Administration, one state level crime conference was also held based on data drawn from the system. A major challenge was implementing the project, getting it into practice, and ensuring that it became an important decision-making support tool at headquarters and jurisdictional jurisdictions of districts. “There was an initial inertia and inherent resistance to adoption of technology which may bring in more accountability”
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(Pradnya Saravade, Interview). However, the system has now become an efficient management and technological support tool. In December 2018, the project was handed over to Maharashtra Police Wireless Department for maintenance and upgradation with all unit commanders being given unique user ID and password. As Additional Director General of Railways, she has been monitoring and suggesting measures to improve public security in railway jurisdictions. Recently when the crime of rape of a 14 year old came to notice during a review at Ulhasnagar railway station, she took it up with the railway authorities to ensure that several dilapidated, unused structures and sheds along the railway premises will not be misused for criminal activities. She has introduced ‘Beyond the Call of Duty Program’ in her current assignment of heading a force of 5000 railway policemen and women, wherein acts of humaneness and rendering help by the railway police to railway users’ is ‘specially acknowledged’ and ‘handsomely rewarded.’ (Saravade, blog). As Julio Ribeiro (2022) writes, ‘There are those who approach the track to commit suicide. Young girls and boys who have run away from home after fights and young girls forced or lured into the flesh trade. All these victims of circumstances can be helped by railway police personnel who are fired by a conscience and motivated by a caring leader, like Pradnya.’ During the course of her career, given her probity, integrity, and professionalism, she has been handpicked for a number of inquiries. The Bombay High Court appointed her to lead a probe into an interstate prostitution racket which had allegedly links outside the country. There are visionaries in the police service who understand where the system needs to move. There are vanguards in the service who have called out where police or political actions have jeopardized police functioning, principles, professionalism, and practices for larger good. There are officers who have used technology to revolutionize policing practices, investigation, and service delivery. There are healers in the system that have built bridges across to the community. There are professionals who have made the police functioning more objective. There are reformers who call for larger changes in the system. Police thinkers are all of these – visionaries, vanguards, healers, professionals, and more. They have a larger long-term vision, and they have a short-term plan. They know the possibilities and also the limitations of technology. They understand the role of police in society, understand their mandate, make use of each career assignment to look for patterns, reform, institutionalize, and deliver. Dr Pradnya Saravade, a pattern seeker by habit and perceptive analyst, has used all her career assignments to provide systemic solutions to policing problems to ensure public trust and professional delivery. In each of her assignments in SEBI, CIDCO, anti-corruption, field assignments, and part of police headquarters, she has been able to ensure institutional reforms and greater transparency. Her decision support system in the state of Maharashtra, a state with a population larger than Canada, has helped to bring the bigger picture in view for heads of units and headquarters. She has reached out to public in calling for a creative problem-solver constabulary and victimization surveys. She has in her blogs invited people to understand challenges of policing, provided innovative solutions to policing problems, and provided a unique way of looking into issues related to policing. She is a police thinker par excellence. The Indian Police Service by its recruitment, training, provision of
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career opportunities, nature of leadership positions, relative political insularity to pressures, and increasing emphasis on research-based and evidence-based policing provides a very fertile ground for police thinkers. And may their breed in the Indian Police Service grow.
References Belur, Jyoti. 2010. Permission to Shoot? London: Springer. Business Standard Jan 19, 2013 https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/backstagechipping-away-at-the-pyramid-109042700061_1.html . CHRI [Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative] 2015. Crime victimization and Safety Perception: A Public Survey of Delhi and Mumbai, Delhi https://www.humanrightsinitiative. org/download/1461662128Crime%20Victimisation_Soft%20File_distribution.pdf Daruwalla, Keki N. 2013. Fire Altar: Poems on the Persians and the Greeks, Delhi: HarperCollins. David Bayley. 1969. Police and Political Development in India, Berkeley: Univ of Cal Press Deccan Chronicle. 2021. People’s trust in police rising significantly: Bhagwat; Dec 28 < https:// www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/crime/281221/peoples-trust-in-police-rising-significantly- bhagwat.html> IDFC Institute. 2017. Safety Trends and reporting of Crime, Mumbai https://www.idfcinstitute. org/site/assets/files/12318/satarc_april272017.pdf India Today. 2019. IPS officer Aparna Kumar scales highest peak in North America, June 30 Jagat, Gurbachan. 2021. Peaceful conflict resolution, The Tribune, Dec 26 < https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/peaceful-conflict-resolution-354510> Kumar, Neeraj. 2019. Khaki Files: Inside Stories of Police Mission, Delhi: Penguin India. Lodha, Amit. 2018. Bihar Diaries: The True Story of How Bihar's Most Dangerous Criminal Was Caught, Delhi: Penguin. Maria, Rakesh. 2020. Let me say it now, Bengaluru: Westland. Nair, PM. 2011. Human Trafficking Delhi: Konark Publishing. Raghavan, RK. 2017. Like NYPD, How About a ‘Sentiment Meter’ for the Indian Police? Quint, May 13. Raghavan, RK. 2020. A Road well-travelled, Bengaluru: Westland. Raman, B. 2013. The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane, Delhi: Lancer Publishers. Ribeiro, Julio. 2021. Tale of an adventure, the Tribune, Dec 10 Ribeiro, Julio. 2022. A few good officers, The Tribune, April 8 Sarangi, Sudhanshu and Kumar, Abhinav. 2017. ‘The IPS needs reforms, but it must go beyond the debate sparked by the BSF constable's viral videos’, Scroll.in Feb 13. Saravade, Pradnya and Saravade, Nandkumar. 2007. Broken Windows in Cyberspace, Police Chief Magazine, July 4 Sharma, Ajai Raj. 2019. Biting the Bullet: Memoirs of a police officer, New Delhi: Rupa Publications. Singh, Prakash. 2022. The Struggle for police reforms in India: Ruler’s Police to People’s Police, New Delhi: Rupa Publications. Srininavas, Kuchanna. 2021. Eradu Saavirada Ippattu Gopikeyaru (A Film in Kannada) Date of theatrical release: December 10. TelegraphIndia 2019 NHRC begins probe into Hyderabad encounter killings Dec 7, .
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Verma, Arvind. 2012. “Assessing the Role of Police in Containing Mob Violence” Economic and Political Weekly, XLVII No 36: 65–73. Verma, Arvind. 2022. “She Must Not Die”: Extraordinary Tales of Policing India- My Life in the Service, Bengaluru: Thompson Reuters India. Verma, Arvind Sharma, Ramesh. 2018. Combating Corruption in India, New Delhi: Cambridge Univ. Press. Yui, Miharu. 2015. Effectiveness of Riot Prevention through Community Policing in India: The Practices of the Mohalla Committees, International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 5(10): 865–871
Hirofumi Ichise: A Japanese Thinker Police Leader Naoko Yoshida
Introduction This chapter examines the contributions of Hirofumi Ichise, a senior police leader from Japan who brought many new changes and reforms to the police organization. In order to assess his contributions and to understand how he is considered a “thinker police leader,” a short description of the police system in Japan is given below. Additionally, many of the challenges confronting the Japanese society are also illustrated in order to suggest to the reader the challenges confronting the police department. Together, these provide the foundations to examine and analyze the role played by Hirofumi in ushering reforms into the police organization.
Structure and Power of Japanese Police Organization Japanese Police and Its Regulatory Organizations The Japanese police consists of one national agency, the National Police Agency (Keisatsu-Cho, hereinafter referred to as “NPA”), and 47 prefectural police forces including Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The NPA is a regulatory agency which “formulates police systems and also conducts police operations regarding cases involving national public safety, undertakes administration of matters which form the foundation of police activities such as police education and training, police communications, and criminal identification as well as coordination of police administration.” NPA’s regulatory power is limited to administrative matters, and it N. Yoshida (*) Institute of Law and Social Sciences, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_10
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has no legal power to interfere with operational matters. No law enforcement power is conferred upon the NPA (Imperial Guard stationed within Imperial Palaces is affiliated with the NPA; however, when the NPA is referred in academic writings we focus on its administrative function as a part of national executive organ), while prefectural police forces enjoy full law enforcement power. There is little budget control from the NPA over prefectural police forces either. Prefectural police forces are mostly (approx. 98%) funded from prefectural budgets. In the fiscal year of 2018–2019, the budget of the NPA was 316 billion yen of which 72 billion yen was allocated to prefectural police forces to fund their basic equipment such as police cars, network appliances, and police radio equipment. The total budget for 47 prefectural police forces from prefectural budget is 3373 billion yen, which makes the contribution from the NPA a miniscule one. However, the mutual control between the NPA and prefectural police forces through personnel secondment should not be overlooked. Traditional discussion mostly focuses on the NPA’s control over personnel transfer from the NPA to the upper echelon of prefectural police force. However, the number of transfers from prefectural police forces to the NPA tremendously outnumbers that of the other way round. Although they fill rather lower tier of the NPA’s rank structure that consists of mostly Inspector and above, their unique position as the source of latest insider information on prefectural security situation and operation should not be underestimated. This will be discussed below. All the police organizations are accountable to the public safety commissions at respective levels, the NPA is to the NPSC (hereinafter referred to as NPSC), and the prefectural police forces to the Prefectural Public Safety Commissions (hereinafter referred to as PPSC). The public safety commission system was established in 1948 and has been in current shape since 1954 when new Police Law was enacted. In 1954, all the short-lived municipal police forces were congregated into 47 prefectural forces. The municipal police force system was renounced by municipal referendums mostly for financial reasons. The purpose of the public safety commission is a little odd juxtaposition of democratic control over police and maintenance of political neutrality of police. The NPSC consists of six members. Its members are appointed by prime minister with consents from both upper and lower diets. The tenure of the NPSC members is 5 years, and they can be reappointed only once. The NPSC is headed by a cabinet minister, who is appointed by prime minister. The PPSC comprises five members in the prefecture with ordinance-designated cities (cities with more than half million population that are conferred with wider administrative power by a cabinet order) and three in those without. The tenure of prefectural commission is 3 years, and they shall be reappointed no more than twice. The PPSC members are mostly appointed by a prefectural governor with consent from prefectural assembly. In the prefectures with ordinance-designated cities, a prefectural governor appoints committee members, some of which with consents from unicameral prefectural assembly and the rest from ordinance-designated city council. The PPSCs’ heads are not elected officials. The public safety commissions are convened regularly, mostly weekly, and receive reports from heads of prefectural police forces or the NPA as well as directors of departments. The focus of
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committee scrutiny is on organizational management including internal audit and its general policy but not on everyday operation such as criminal investigations. For example, the minute from the NPSC meeting held on 5th August 2021 shows that the day’s agenda included the transfer of authorized strength as well as tasks of the NPA to the Digital Agency to supplement its digital data and information protection function, the draft of cabinet order concerning enforcement orders of Law on Proscribing Stalking Behavior and Assisting Victims, and opinions and requests from citizens. All the committee members were present, and the director-general of the NPA and eight department heads or equivalent were summoned (National Public Security Commission 2021). The minute from the Tokyo PPSC dated on 3rd September 2021 shows that its agenda included something more operational such as reports on the handling of criminal incidents that received intensive media coverage and the termination of the request of temporal relocation of police officers from the prefectural police forces to Tokyo for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games as well as the progress of internal audit concerning potential officers’ misconducts (Tokyo Metropolitan Public Security Commission 2019). Again, all the committee members were present, and the head of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, all the subdepartment heads, and the head of internal audit division were summoned. One thing to note is that although there has not been a change in legal stipulation concerning public safety commission and its purpose and power in Police Law, there was a significant transition of power to the public safety commissions in the 2000s. A series of mishandling of criminal cases and cover-ups of police misconducts since the 1990s such as an organizational cover-up of police officer’s substance abuse, a murder of stalking victim who sought the police protection to no avail (to be fair to the police there was not an established legal framework to charge or process DV or stalking that does not amount to crime at that time), etc., provoked a storm of criticism among the Japanese public. It shook to the core of the prefectural police forces’ autonomy over which PPSCs had traditionally exercised nominal control. The police reform panel was set up in 2000 and the NPSC actively participated in its advisory panel. The panel raised and examined many issues and their root causes including inadequate and insufficient police power and police workforce shortage as well as a lack of decent control over prefectural police forces. Since then, it is said that the PPSC’s role as a regulator of police forces has been strengthened and substantiated. As observed in the PPSC meeting minutes, it has become common to describe what used to be mere “opinion” or “suggestion” as “instructions from the PPSC to the prefectural police force.”
Ranks The Japanese police hierarchy consists of ten ranks, from the lowest, Police Officer, Senior Police Officer, Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent, Assistant Commissioner, Commissioner (a head of small prefectural police force or
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department/bureau of a large prefectural police force), Senior Commissioner (a head of large prefectural police force), Superintendent General (a head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department), and Commissioner General (a head of NPA). The second lowest rank, Senior Police Officer, is an internal rank stipulated only in the NPSC regulation but not in the Police Law. Thus, from a legal perspective, the Japanese police has nine (9) ranks and Senior Police Officer rank is included in Police Officer rank (Miyazono 1993: 151). Approximately Police Officer and Senior Police Officer make 30% of the authorized strength, Sergeant 30%, Inspector 30%, and Chief Inspector and above make 10%. This “bell-shape” rank structure is allegedly unique to the Japanese police and was once argued to be a good measure to elevate officers’ morale without a huge monetary spending. However, it is not a viable structure to pursue an organizational efficiency, and some prefectural police forces allocate more than 30% of its strength to the lowest rank. From Assistant Commissioner and above, the officers are national government officials irrespective of the organizations they belong to. If one is recruited by a prefectural police force as a local public officer and reaches Assistant Commissioner rank, his local public officer status will be adjusted to a national one. The officers who hold the rank of Assistant Commissioner and above and are stationed within prefectural police forces are called Chiho (Prefectural) Keimu (Police Matters) Kan (Official). If one who is recruited by a prefectural police force is to be promoted to Assistant Commissioner and above, one is virtually required to have been seconded to the NPA for at least 2 years. This secondment to the NPA will be discussed below. They are the police leaders, the thinker-leaders such as Hirofumi Ichise.
Authorized Strength The strength of the NPA is 8031 among which 940 are Imperial Guards, and another 2190 officials hold police ranks but are not conferred law enforcement power (Keisatsu-Cho 2021). A total of 259,093 fully sworn police officers is working at local level for approximately 125 million Japanese citizens, meaning that one police officer serves 486 citizens. Respective authorized strengths of prefectural police forces vary significantly, in proportion to the size of the prefectural population they serve. The highest number is 46,581 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department among which 43,566 are sworn police officers serving its local population of approximately 14 million (Keishi-Cho 2019). The lowest is 1459 in the Tottori Prefectural Police among which 1239 are sworn police officers serving approx. 0.6 million local population (Tottori Prefectural Government 2021). The average number of sworn police officers per local force is approximately 5500, while there are nine prefectural forces with more than 10,000 sworn officers.
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Organizational Charts The NPA is headed by the Commissioner General, an unelected official, and consists of six bureaus: the Commissioner General’s Secretariat, the Community Safety Bureau, the Criminal Affairs Bureau, the Traffic Bureau, the Security Bureau, and the Info-Communication Bureau. The Community Safety Bureau oversees crime prevention, community policing, and criminal statistics. The bureau views the social fabric as the most important crime prevention tool and promotes a “society in which crimes hardly occur.” With this understanding the bureau designs the policy concerning Koban (a small police box where three to five police officers work on shifts) and Chuzai-sho (a small police box attached with a residence where a police officer will live with his/her family). There are approximately 6300 Koban and 6300 Chuzai-sho in Japan. The Criminal Affairs Bureau oversees the policy over criminal investigation. It consolidates its policing resources and cultivating the networks with relevant ministries and public offices to combat seamlessly against crimes. One of the recent phenomenal changes in criminal investigation policy would be the introduction of a monetary remuneration for an informant from a national government budget, the Special Reward System, in 2007. It offers monetary reward up to 3 million yen (equivalent to 25,000 US dollars) or up to 10 million (equivalent to 80,000 US dollars) when deemed especially necessary for a piece of information that might lead to or facilitate the solving of crimes. The NPA designates the cases it deems appropriate to offer reward for. Some prefectural police forces are following the lead. The Ibaraki prefectural police force established the first-ever prefectural level Special Reward System in 2021 although the amount of reward is limited to 50,000 yen (equivalent to 500 US dollars). The Traffic Bureau oversees the policy concerning traffic control and accidents. As traffic accidents kill by far more people (2839 in 2020) than murder (929 in 2020) does, the prevention of serious traffic accidents is of paramount importance to the Japanese police forces. The number of fatalities caused by traffic accident is on steady decrease from around 9000 in 2000 to 2839 in 2020. The Security Bureau oversees the policies concerning riot police, special protection for Imperial Household and foreign dignitaries, as well as information gathering both on domestic and foreign affairs. It coordinates rescue operations in disaster affected areas by riot police and gathers intelligence on extremist groups such as the Japanese Communist Party who has not yet denied the possibility of the recourse to violence as well as radical environmentalist groups. Info-Communication Bureau operates and maintains the police info- communications infrastructure. All the prefectural police forces share similar structure with slight differences contingent on respective prefectural criminal climate.
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Current Issues New Crime Trends According to police crime statistics, Japan has become a safer place. The number of penal code offenses known to police peaked at 3.7 million in 2002. Since then, the number has been on a steady downward trend. It fell to 1.5 million in 2011 and then to 0.6 million in 2020. During this period, roughly 70% of known offenses are theft. Although the number of cleared cases decreased from 0.46 million to 0.28 million, the clearance rate increased 30.8% to 45.5% during the same period. In 2019, there were approximately 900 murder cases and 1500 cases of burglary with bodily harm, down from 1094 and 4512 in 2009, respectively (Keisatsu-Cho 2012, 2021). However, the situation may be less promising than it appears. According to Haley (1991: 129), “by almost any standard criminal justice in Japan is extraordinarily lenient.” Further, there are indisputable and unprecedented surges in new crime areas, including violence in cyberspace and intimate relationships. Unfortunately, the Japanese police lag behind this trend. The number of cybercrimes rose from 5741 in 2011 to 9875 in 2020. Minors are increasingly victimized, bullied, or exploited in cyberspace, with the number of young victims in cyberspace rising from 1085 in 2011 to 2082 in 2019 (Keisatsu-Cho 2021). Being in an intimate relationship can be an abusive experience for many citizens in Japan. Violence from an intimate partner has garnered significant attention and led to the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims Act in 2001. The Act enabled the issuance of restraining orders and evacuation orders. It also obligates police officers to devise comprehensive prevention measures against violence from an intimate partner and chief of the prefectural police force to provide information and assistance on self-protection at the victim’s request. In 2013, the scope of this law was widened to include not legally married, cohabiting partners. To receive the protection stipulated in the Act, a victim is required to seek assistance from police or their designated municipal office. The number of consultation requests (not a formal crime report) to the police on possible violence from an intimate partner is on an acute rise from 34,329 in 2011 to 82,643 in 2020. The number of cleared cases stayed around 9000, although it more than trebled from 2424 in 2011. As for stalking, the Stalker Regulation Law that stipulates a warning by a prefectural police force chief or police station, or a restraining order by a prefectural public safety commission, was initially enacted in 2000. The subsequent change in 2016 to the law made stalking a crime prosecutable without a complaint from the victim. However, there have been slight improvements. The number of consultation requests on possible stalking recorded by the police showed a drastic rise that has since plateaued. The figure has been over 20,000 since 2013 when it rose to 21,089. The number of cleared stalking cases has been small, hovering a little over 1500 since 2012 (Keisatsu-Cho 2022). The focus of the Stalker Regulation Law is limited to what is called “intimate partner stalking” and “stranger stalking with romantic intention.”
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Child abuse and neglect are also grave social problems in Japan, and the police are one of the key players in prevention and countermeasures. The Act on the Prevention of Child Abuse came into effect in 2000, replacing the Child Welfare Act of 1947. The Act mostly prescribes child protection frameworks and endeavors by non-law-enforcement institutions such as child guidance centers, local health centers, schools, hospitals, and lawyers and the general population’s obligation to notify relevant municipal offices of possible abuse. The Act does not preclude police involvement in child abuse prevention when cases might amount to criminal charges. In addition, Article 10 of the Act stipulates that a director of a child guidance center can seek police assistance “promptly and appropriately” when deemed necessary to “confirm the safety of the child or take temporary custody of the child.” Upon receiving the request, a police station chief shall dispatch officers accordingly. The legal framework renders the police a fairly minor role in child abuse prevention, but being on-call 24/7 attracts numerous worried calls from citizens. The number of notifications or case referrals by the police to the children’s welfare department (including neglect, maltreatment, emotional/psychological abuse such as witnessing violence in intimate relationships as well as physical and sexual abuse) increased from 11,536 in 2011 to 106,991 in 2020. Physical or sexual abuse is suspected is around 20% of cases. The total number of clearance cases is small but steadily rising, with 2133 in 2020 (1756 physical abuse, 299 sexual abuse, 32 neglect, 46 psychological abuse), up from 421 in 2011 (Keisatsu-Cho Seikatsu Anzen Kyoku 2021). To consolidate its policing resources and cultivate networks with relevant ministries and public offices to seamlessly combat intimate partner violence and child abuse, many prefectural police forces second their officers to child guidance centers or relevant prefectural governments’ departments or divisions.
Retention and Promotion of Female Police Officers As the policing profession is regarded as stable and respectable in Japan, police recruitment does not face many challenges. The applicant-to-hire ratio fluctuates between four and seven, depending mostly on the economic climate. Applicants must finish high school and have no history of participating in groups or parties that aim to change or destruct the constitution or government by violent means. They sit written exams and interviews. On average, prefectural police forces allocate 70% of openings to university graduates and the rest to non-graduates. One of the rare challenges concerning recruitment and retention the Japanese police face is the exceedingly male-dominant gender balance among its officers. Japan’s first female officer was recruited shortly after WW2 in Tokyo. However, they were usually traffic wardens and chaperons to delinquent youths rather than fully sworn police officers. In 1972, a quarter-century after the end of WW2, the number of female officers stood at 1844, just 1% of the 0.18 million-strong force. Indeed, Japanese women tended to work with the police as police staff in the back office. In 1986 the Equal Employment Law was enacted, and a systemic effort to
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increase female intake started. In 1991, 33 out of 47 prefectural police forces were already recruiting female police officers, and the number rose to 47 in 1993, although women were still overwhelmingly working as police staff. In 1996 there were 12,700 female police staff and 7100 female police officers. Three years later, in 1999, the Gender Equal Society Law was enacted, and this further promoted the hiring of female police officers. In 2006, the number of female police officers (12,100) surpassed that of female police staff (11,900). However, the sex ratio was still exceedingly male dominant, and the female police officer proportion was as little as 5% in 2006. Nevertheless, this trend qualitatively has changed the standing of females in the police force. In 2002, 30% of female officers were assigned to the traffic section and 19% to the patrol and community policing section. A decade later, female assignment to the traffic section decreased to 19%, and assignment to the patrol section rose to 27%. It was a shift toward gender-neutral assignment and atoned the historically traffic-heavy assignment of female police officers. In 2011, the National Police Agency (NPA) set a target figure for female representation among police forces as 10% in 2023, and the cabinet office is closely monitoring this process. The figure stood at 8.2% in 2015 and rose to 9.8% in 2019. Female representation in higher ranks has also strengthened. In 2002, Japan had 53 female police officers in Inspector rank, which rose to 447 in 2017 (Keisatsu-Cho 2021). Japan welcomed the first female Assistant Commissioner in 2021. However, the proportion of females is still very much skewed, and it could be safely argued that female police officers are feeling alienated. A survey conducted in one metropolitan prefectural police force in 2018 found that while 19.3% of male officers had considered leaving the force, as much as 51.9% of female officers did (Yoshida 2021). The most common reason was workplace harassment for both sexes. Females continue to take the burden of childrearing and cite it as the second most common reason for considering voluntary retirement, while very few males refer to it.
Japanese Police Career Path Police Training System The police training system in Japan is intensive and copious. Police organizations solely run it and there is no private police training course in Japan. There is one National Police Academy, seven regional police schools, and 47 prefectural police schools. The National Police Academy is for officers promoted to Inspector or above. The regional police schools mostly offer courses tailored to specific policing techniques and needs or local security conditions. It also caters to middle ranks. The prefectural police schools are largely for recruits and lower ranks. When joining the prefectural police forces, a trainee enrolls in a prefectural police school for approximately 6 to 12 months, depending on educational background. A university graduate is most likely to train for 6 months and non-graduates for 12 months. The initial training consists of four aspects: general education, relevant laws, police practice,
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and martial arts. Police recruits learn work ethics, criminal psychology, local history, and current affairs as general education; constitution, civil law, criminal law, code of criminal procedure, and police administration as relevant laws; community policing, criminal investigation, traffic control, security, and intelligence in police practice; and judo or kendo, police arrest technique, and shooting as physical training and martial arts. After completing initial training, recruits receive on-site training as a Koban trainee for several months and then return to police school to complete their initial training. Japanese police officers receive training at each of their career milestones. They go back to prefectural and sometimes regional police schools when promoted to an upper rank. The police schools and the National Police Academy offer language courses, special forensic technique courses, special policing training courses to tackle new crimes such as financial crimes or cybercrimes, and tactical policing training to handle extreme cases involving terrorists, hostage- taking, or mass destruction devices. When an officer passes the promotional exam for Chief Inspector, they are sent to the National Police Academy in Tokyo for 4 to 6 months. The rationale behind this is the legal power the rank of Inspector and above possess. Chief Inspector and above ranks are conferred the power to request a judge to issue an arrest warrant by Article 199 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This is the legal foundation and reason why newly promoted Chief Inspectors receive nationally standardized training. Aside from extensive legal training on criminal procedures, this monthlong training camp exposes officers to academic and the most up-to-date discussion, lectured by university professors, polemicists, and national government officials from the NPA and other ministries and agencies. They also forge strong bonds with course mates beyond prefectures and regions, facilitating future inter-prefectural criminal investigations or policy cooperation. However, this obligatory training course at the National Police Academy seems to work as a glass ceiling for officers, especially female officers, in prefectural police forces distant from Tokyo. Being far away from family in the academy’s dormitory without long holidays inflicts a financial and emotional burden on officers. It is especially so for those with significant domestic responsibilities, such as the primary child or elderly career, who are still overwhelmingly females in Japan. The author suspects that predicting the difficulties in balancing and juggling their professional and domestic lives, some officers, especially female officers, shy away from or even avoid being promoted to Chief Inspector. As discussed in this chapter, the small number of female Chief Inspectors corroborate this claim.
Secondment to the NPA On joining the prefectural police force, every officer starts from Police Officer rank, regardless of educational background. To be promoted to an upper rank, Japanese officers must pass a promotional examination and finish the ensuing training course, as discussed above. Examination eligibility includes having served for the required
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number of years and recommendations from supervisors. The standard requirement for serving years is as follows, although it varies slightly among prefectures. Non- graduates are generally required to have served longer than graduates while in lower ranks. To be qualified for a promotion to Sergeant rank, an officer must have served for 2 to 4 years. The same number of years are required for promotion to Inspector, a further 4 years to Chief Inspector and 10 years to Superintendent. It takes another 10 years to be eligible for promotion to Assistant Commissioner rank, becoming Chiho-Keimu-Kan, a national government official. This Assistant Commissioner rank is the “brass ceiling” for police officers recruited at the prefectural level. Most Assistant Commissioners serve as the department/bureau head of a prefectural police headquarters or chief of a police station whose precinct covers a prefectural capital. They will not rise beyond Assistant Commissioner (although with few precedents who rose to Police Commissioner) or to a chief of a prefectural police force. Virtually all the prefectural police force chiefs are Police Commissioners and above seconded from the NPA. However, the position of a prefectural police chief is a revolving door. The duration of secondment from the NPA is usually less than 2 years. This leaves considerable room for non-NPA Assistant Commissioners’ leadership. If an officer aspires to reach the rank of Assistant Commissioner, apart from the required serving years, they need to have certain professional experiences. The author conducted a questionnaire survey among 108 Superintendents (one rank below Assistant Commissioner) in the National Police Academy in 2010 (Yoshida 2013). The survey result showed that future Assistant Commissioners’ professional experiences share two things: weighted experiences in the human resources (HR) and policy division and secondment to the NPA. There is also a widely shared understanding among upper ranks that to become Assistant Commissioner, you must be seconded to the NPA. As to the former, the career path of those who reached Superintendent rank before aged 45 (hereafter pre45 Superintendent) provides certain insights (Yoshida 2013). If officers rise to Superintendent rank at 45 years old or younger, they can reach Assistant Commissioner rank. This is because the retirement age for police officers is 60 years old, and they need to serve a minimum of 10 years in Superintendent rank before ascending to Assistant Commissioner rank. Accordingly, the age threshold for promotion to Assistant Commissioner is 45 years old at the time of promotion to Superintendent. The result of the survey conducted in the NPA leadership course for superintendents shows that on average, pre45 Superintendents serve disproportionately longer in the human resources, policy planning, and intelligence departments and less in criminal investigations. On average, Superintendents in this sample (n = 108) spent 20% of their serving years in the HR and policy division, 22% in the intelligence division, and 25% in the criminal investigation division, while pre45 Superintendents (n = 12) spent 33%, 28%, and 11%, respectively. HR and policy experience is obviously necessary. The service in the intelligence department is less evident. The rationale behind longer service in the intelligence department is easily understood with Bourdieu’s argument on “field” and “habitus.” According to one Assistant Commissioner, when he transferred to the intelligence
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department, he immediately sensed he was in new “field” and had to acquire appropriate “habitus” to survive. Upon arrival, his new boss told him to do the rounds of courtesy calls with a frown on his face, blatantly pointing out that his shoes look dreadful and not properly laced. He even referred to his taste in ties and demeanor. He was incessantly reminded that he should read voraciously left and right, classics and contemporary, liberal arts, and how-to books. All the instructions, otherwise nugatory in police frontline work, nevertheless helped him assimilate himself in a higher echelon of local community constitutive of university lecturers, corporate bosses, lawyers, local dignitaries, or labor union leaders. This Assistant Commissioner recalled this conversation as the most educational one in his professional life that molded him into a future police leader. The other de facto requirement for future Assistant Commissioner is secondment to the NPA (Yoshida 2013). While 58% of pre45 Superintendents (n = 12) had been transferred to the NPA and 42% to other public institutions (such as prefectural government or state school board), only 33% of all Superintendents were sent to the NPA, 47% to other public institutions, and 20% never worked outside prefectural police forces. Thus, it is concluded that work experience outside the police force— especially within the NPA—matters greatly in the making of police leaders in Japan. It could also be argued that prefectural police leaders and leaders-in-the-making play a far greater role in national policymaking than previously thought. The NPA is legally a regulatory agency of prefectural police forces; however, a strange picture emerges when you investigate who works there. According to the Cabinet Secretariat statistics as of October 2020, there are 1788 secondments from 25 national government agencies, including 1158 to prefectural government and 630 municipal offices. The flow the other way around is 3032, including 2448 from prefectural government and 584 from municipal offices. Focusing on the secondments between national and prefectural police organizations reveals an astonishing imbalance. While the NPA sends out 435 personnel, it welcomes 1693 officers from prefectural police forces (Cabinet Secretariat 2021). The NPA seconds and receives undoubtedly more officers than any other national government agency. Ironically, without the secondees from prefectural police forces, the NPA would not be able to function properly as a regulatory agency over the prefectural police forces. Obviously, the NPA benefits from this personnel exchange, but what is the merit for the prefectural forces secondees other than accreditation as future Assistant Commissioner candidates? According to the officers seconded to the NPA, there are four main benefits. First, they can earn accolades from their counterparts in prefectural government and members of prefectural assemblies as someone who has been on an equal footing with national government officials. Prefectural governments also second personnel to their national counterparts, albeit on a much smaller scale. Therefore, they know how demanding the environment would be and respect those who have returned from the NPA and their proposals and fiscal demands. Second, they can build professional networks with national government officials, members of parliament with a strong interest in national security matters, and members of the government advisory panel, which can last for years. They also develop a deep network with officers from other prefectural police forces. Third, they acquire
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sophisticated legal and administrative debating skills as they immerse themselves in more partisan and theoretical debates and negotiations among national diets and executive organs. Fourth, they can influence national policy and lawmaking processes at the preliminary stages. One of the prefectural police officers’ biggest concerns is that some critical security issues can be overlooked or trivialized in national legislative debate, which tends to be polarized and sometimes biased by sensational broadcasts of isolated crimes or problems. To avoid this, they try to promote subjacent but critical agendas by slipping them into nonchalant, everyday conversations with national government officials. Some prefectural police forces even lobby the NPA to take more secondees from them, especially in the General Commissioner’s Secretariat, a central policymaking organ of the NPA. Academic and political debates tend to propose that the NPA exercises absolute control over prefectural police forces by its ordinances and personnel secondment into the managerial echelon of prefectural police forces. However, today, the power balance between the NPA and prefectural police forces is delicate. It is not the one- way dominance or control from one to the other; rather, between the NPA and prefectural police forces is a mutual control. The NPA’s dependence on prefectural police forces as a source of a valuable workforce and the increase of new recruits with university degrees in prefectural police forces has shifted the balance.
Discussions on Police Leadership in Japan There are several academic writings on Japanese police; however, they focus mostly on frontline police work. They discuss operational command lines rather in the lower-tier police hierarchy. Miyazawa elaborates on decision-making processes in the criminal investigation division (Miyazawa 1985), Murayama (1990) and Bayley (1991) in Koban. We could understand from those writings how frontline leadership works in Japan. Some former prefectural police officers’ and NPA officers’ writings shed light on their understandings of qualities or qualifications that police leaders should possess. The most dated writing would be by Kawaji Toshiyoshi, the first Chief of Metropolitan Police Force. His oral biography was published in 1879 (Kasano 1989, in modern Japanese language). His argument was largely anecdotal but insightful. He contended that the head of any organization should be impartial. A man of public duties should be indifferent to personal praise or censure. As a public official, one should take care of citizens as parents care for their offspring. People raise their offspring to be self-sufficient and independent, and the government does the same. In addition to these qualities, he argues, a police chief should be most talented, competent, and dignified among his peers and subordinates. He should always fulfill his duty and be content to do so. He should be most industrious and diligent but should not accuse his subordinates of not being so. As it was prevalent practice to appoint someone according to their connections rather than merit during the early years of Meiji era, Kawaji paid much attention to the desired character of
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a police chief. This set the undercurrent tone of later arguments on police leadership. However, the Meiji government shortly adopted meritocracy in hiring and promotion public officials. The comprehensive analysis on the rise of meritocracy in hiring and promoting a prefectural police chief is “Meiji-jidai no Keisatsu Bucho [Police Chief in Meiji Era]” by Yuzai Takahashi (1976). A prefectural police chief was “Sonin-kan” in the Meiji era, a position that required an emperor’s approval on appointment. To be appointed as “Sonin-kan,” an internal regulation set in 1887 by the first Japanese prime minister, Hirofumi Ito, stipulates that (1) appointments of high-ranking public officials should be based on merits and (2) an appointee should preferably but not exhaustively either have passed a rigorous senior civil service exam, hold a doctoral degree in literature or law, served as a senior law clerk in court for longer than 3 years, or taught at university as a professor for longer than 3 years (Takahashi 1976: 26–37). One exception is senior military officers, who could be appointed without any of the above qualifications. However, too stringent requirements make it unfeasible to fill all the Sonin-kan positions with eligible people. The police alone had 75 prefectural police chief positions, yet the number of people who passed the senior civil service exam was as low as four in 1889 and 50 in 1896. The number of law graduates was 11 in 1887 and 78 in 1893. Thus, adherence to Hirofumi Ito’s internal regulations was impractical. Subsequently, this shortage of qualified candidates led to a call for a special appointment practice for police chiefs, and arguments arose over the qualifications or qualities police chiefs should possess. One salient argument was whether academic qualification or military service was indispensable. It was argued that an academic education equips graduates with legal knowledge and courtroom debating skills but not worldly wisdom or operational experiences and the confidence that comes with it, and a police chief should have both. A person who served in the military might obey senior ranks, even obsequiously, but they also may disparage junior ranks, which is unacceptable among civil, law-abiding police officers. Thus, they could dispense with either qualification. Based on these arguments, an imperial edict was issued in 1897 stating that a person who served as an Inspector (today’s Superintendent equivalent as there were only five ranks around 1900) for 5 years can be appointed as a prefectural police chief with consent from the senior civil service exam committee. This aligned with the report from Prussian Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm Höhn, a civil police force advisor, on his inspection visits to several prefectural police forces. Although the installation was short-lived, its emphasis on practicality and operational experiences was shared with many high-ranking police officers and survives today (Takahashi 1976: 26–37). Another characteristic of Japanese thought is that the chief/leader of a certain division or police force’s tenure is approximately 2 years or less (Keisatsu Daigakkou (National Police Academy) 1997: 6). Therefore, a leader should always be aware that their leadership is located within a thin slice of a large, lasting current of the times. It may sound oxymoronic, but the NPA tells Japanese police leaders that they are safekeepers of positions, and their duty is to intertwine with their predecessors and cultivate a good environment for their successors in this current. If a leader has
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a conviction that there is something to improve, this endeavor should be completed within their tenure. They say, “one footprint during one assignment.” Overtly conspicuous and charismatic leadership is met with suspicion, as it might lead to deviation from the law. This skepticism toward charisma seems to be shared in some countries, such as the United Kingdom (Adlam and Villiers 2003: 30–31). Consequently, the theoretical framework to discuss police leadership has not been well developed in Japan. A substantial number of police officers are sent overseas for training and exposed to academic and political arguments on policing or police leadership. Nevertheless, they seem to find the arguments deeply ingrained in criminal and social environments distant from their own and not workable in a Japanese environment.
Commissioner Hirofumi Ichise Path to Assistant Commissioner Hirofumi retired as Commissioner—the highest rank a prefectural police officer can be promoted to—after serving as head of the social security bureau and head of the criminal investigation bureau in the Fukuoka Prefectural Police Force. It is exceedingly rare for a locally recruited officer to fill more than one bureau head position in prefectural police force and retire. He now teaches a law enforcement course at a local university. Commemorating his retirement, he published a memoir, “Kizuki no Fusen [Memos on Everyday Revelation]” (Ichise 2019), which was well received locally. His motto is “fueki-ryuko,” from Basho Matsuo, a famous Japanese Haiku poet, meaning “prepare to be fluid and transitional while keeping in mind that something is immutable.” Hirofumi Ichise joined a large prefectural police force in Fukuoka prefecture in Kyushu region after graduating from university with a degree in economics. He was born to a father who works for a traditional Japanese textile Hakata-ori company as an engineer and a mother who took up various jobs. He has two younger siblings. He took care of his siblings, did housekeeping, and ran errands to help his parents. He was a politically precocious boy. He was elected as a student president in his middle school and advocated for amending a school rule over boys’ hair being trimmed short. He amassed information about other schools’ rules and interviewed barbers on their perception of a standard and acceptable hairstyle for his peers. His conviction that boys’ mildly long hair is socially acceptable was fortified by his research results. By presenting his arguments based on the research results, he won the approval of teachers and the Parent-Teacher Association. While he was rather liberal and rebellious as a young adolescent, Hirofumi always appreciated a certain degree of discipline and had no qualms over protesting against overstepping boundaries. In the 1970s, when the teachers’ union in Japan was quite politicized, several teachers at his middle school engaged intensively in union activities. The teachers
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wore slogan badges and walked out, leaving students on their own in classrooms. He found it unforgivable and abhorrent that teachers brought politics into classrooms. One day when teachers were out on strike, he summoned all students to the school gym to throw a school party. He even asked his school principal to approve his plan. The school principal contested his decision initially but reluctantly agreed to give an opening speech. Hirofumi persuaded him by arguing that teachers neglected their duties and were in no better position than the students who gathered in the gym to have some fun. His budding propensity for discipline and impartiality was already evident. Further, his belief in the power of face-to-face negotiation, even with people of higher social or professional standing, was formed in his youth. After graduating university while working night jobs, he joined the police, although it was not his initial plan. He had a successful job interview with a company based in Tokyo and received an invitation to its headquarters for a getting-to- know-you recruitment gathering. Upon arrival, he was told to wait in a room on the fifth floor. He nervously approached the lifts, overhearing more students arriving and telling the receptionists they were from Tokyo University, one of the best and brightest universities in Japan. The receptionists overtook Hirofumi and ushered those students into the lift. Hirofumi managed to join them. They got out of the lift on the third floor, and Hirofumi sneaked a peek. Students on the third floor were leisurely sipping coffee on cosy sofas in a thickly carpeted reception room. He decided to turn down the offer in a tasteless gray-walled room on the fifth floor seated on a folding chair. He never regretted his decision to join a prefectural police force. Neither had he felt that his expectations for equal treatment regardless of alma mater and for promotion based purely on merit and professional accomplishments were betrayed. There were several unforgettable moments during his career. One was the war against organized crime, the so-called “Yakuza.” The prefectures in Japan where the Yakuza has strongholds are Hyogo and Fukuoka. Another memorable moment is the secondment to the NPA. He experienced 26 positions and worked in 14 places in his professional life, including the NPA and prefectural police headquarters. On graduating from the prefectural police academy as a police officer, Hirofumi was first stationed in Koban. He then worked as a police cell guard and subsequently as a detective in the white-collar crime division. After promotion to Sergeant, Hirofumi Ichise spent several years in riot police and was briefly sent overseas for short-term training. He visited eight countries and their police forces, and some left strong impressions on him. Austria was among them for its inter-organizational collaboration between police and military over domestic security. He was also astonished that the Austrian police was armed with assault weapons and in charge of resident registration. Some academics argue that Japanese Koban has encyclopedic records of residents in its precinct. However, it is not a legal obligation to report household information to Koban and police house visits seldom occur in metropolitan areas. Hirofumi was also surprised at the frequent use of judicial bargaining in those countries, especially Italy. The Italian police commissioner told the story of the war against Red Brigades and how a terror suspect would be released on bail in exchange for disclosing the whereabouts and
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other information on five unknown members. This was beyond imagination for Hirofumi, largely because Japan had no legal framework of judicial bargaining at that time. Such cooperation might be interpreted as extenuating circumstances in a court ruling but was primarily within a judge’s discretion at that time. As an Inspector, Hirofumi Ichise filled the positions of crime prevention division chief in a small police station, international criminal investigation liaison officer in prefectural police headquarters, and assistant legal adviser on criminal investigations. Upon promotion to Chief Inspector, he worked as a criminal investigation department chief in a police station and an instructor in a regional police school. He was also a vice chief legal adviser on criminal investigations, vice chief of the promotion exam division, and vice chief of the human resource division for improvement of working terms and conditions. As Superintendent, Hirofumi worked as a chief of criminal investigations in a large police station and vice chief of the criminal investigation department in prefectural police headquarters before being seconded to the NPA as a vice director of the organized crime division. In this position, he coordinated inter-agency efforts to eradicate organized crime. On returning to the prefectural police force as vice chief of the organized crime division, he continued his effort at the prefectural level, as detailed in the next section. Then he became an internal auditor and subsequently an internal auditor with special assignment, chief of a large police station, and chief of the organized crime division. His last assignment as Superintendent was to drive another nail into the coffin of Yakuza as vice chief of the organized crime control department. As Assistant Commissioner, he served as chief of the largest police station in his prefecture, chief of the community safety department, and chief of the criminal investigation department.
Crackdown on the Yakuza Hirofumi was deeply involved in the battle against the Yakuza at the policy level rather than operationally as vice director of the organized crime division in the NPA and subsequently as vice chief of the organized crime division. He found a comprehensive, holistic, inter-agency approach was useful at both levels. The transversal and seamless approach worked practically and sent a clear signal to the Yakuza and society that the whole government wages war against it. Acting reactively to crimes committed by the Yakuza within the criminal procedural framework is important but not good enough to eradicate it. Ultimately, the Yakuza needs money to maintain its organization, and Hirofumi set out to wipe out every source of money for the Yakuza through concerted efforts with other agencies. He was determined during his secondment to the NPA in the mid-2000s to build the network with other agencies to terminate money flow, especially government money into front companies controlled by the Yakuza. Hirofumi Ichise set his sights on two sources. The first was government infrastructure projects and their
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subcontractors. At that time, prime contractors were already scrutinized for possible connection to the Yakuza but not subcontractors. Many of the subcontractors were suspected to be Yakuza front companies. The second Yakuza income source was government welfare. These two government monies directly funded Yakuza, but the police had no control over them. Regarding government project subcontractors, Hirofumi networked with mandarins in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). His goal was for them to understand the depth and breadth of Yakuza involvement in government projects and commit to eliminating Yakuza front companies from government projects. Hirofumi’s initial targets included the MLIT and incorporated administrative agencies such as Japan Water Agencies in charge of managing and developing water resources and the Urban Renaissance Agency in charge of urban development. The problem he faced was the incomprehension among MLIT mandarins of the magnitude of the Yakuza’s penetration and toxic business practices to which some parts of Japanese society had grown accustomed. Although Hirofumi’s counterpart in the MLIT agreed on the importance of a united front of the MLIT and the NPA, the commitment was superficial, reflecting the MLIT’s sentiment. Hirofumi started communication with his counterpart on the contents of the NPA’s request to the MLIT and corresponding ministerial ordinances by the MLIT. He also issued memos on communications between them. Hirofumi’s purpose was for the MLIT to issue an ordinance requesting all private construction corporations report any degree of Yakuza front companies’ involvement in government projects and harassments or unreasonable demands from the Yakuza to police forces. However, some MLIT mandarins considered the Yakuza’s involvement as subcontractors in government projects a necessary evil. Some argued that excluding Yakuza front companies from the bidding procedure would suffice, as prime contractors’ subcontracting should be viewed according to the principle of freedom of contract, thus within their discretion. Hirofumi left no stone unturned and refuted all counterarguments to the MLIT’s cooperation with the NPA’s request. However, the process stagnated for a while. Hirofumi felt his counterpart was simply shirking his duty with trivial excuses such as time-consuming internal consensus building or minor inconsistencies in postpositional particles in memos. As a firm believer in face-to- face negotiation, he visited his counterpart in his MLIT office day and night and asked to update him on progress as a way to break the impasse. At the same time, one newspaper launched a series of anti-Yakuza articles based on the information provided by the organized crime division, focusing on the Yakuza’s exploitation in every sphere of society. The articles reported that Yakuza rented public housing for a small amount of money, swindled private investment by setting up get-rich-quick Ponzi schemes, and exploited government construction projects disguising subcontractors or building material suppliers. The report was scandalous enough that the cabinet ministers summoned high-ranking officials for detailed examinations. As anticipated, Hirofumi was flooded with calls from officials of concerned ministries and agencies. They appeared extremely eager to commit to the inter-agency crackdown effort against the Yakuza and in-depth information exchange. Hirofumi and his colleagues suspected this enthusiasm to fade once they
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got through question time in the Diet with perfunctory remarks such as the agenda being under thorough discussion with the NPA. They did not let this opportunity slip away and had it materialized in the ministerial ordinances by the MLIT and the Ministry of Finance. The ordinances requested private corporations to consult the police on their subcontractors’ possible link with the Yakuza and cut ties with them if there are any. If the Yakuza harass or retaliate against private citizens or corporations for refusing to sign contracts, they are obliged to report it to the police. Now Yakuza-controlled private corporations would be excluded from many areas of government- related economic activities. This was an epoch-making success. However, Hirofumi knew he had not followed through. The ordinance advises private corporations to cite “comprehensive, thorough consideration of its own” as a reason for refusal but not police advice. From Hirofumi’s experiences, police involvement is immediately obvious to the Yakuza and citing police advice as a reason would maximize deterrence effect. Another predicament was that if the police did not guarantee special protection or extra patrols in the vicinity for a whistle-blower, this measure would be too little too late. Hirofumi Ichise continued his efforts to make the anti-Yakuza scheme truly comprehensive. The next target was public assistance for citizens in poverty. This government welfare money had been untouchable as it is a pillar of support for “equality before the law” and “the right to life” even though it was increasingly apparent to many that the Yakuza was milking the system for huge sums of money. Fortunately, someone seconded from the NPA to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) reached out to Hirofumi. With close collaboration, the ordinance was issued in the name of MHLW to order its lower offices to reject applications for public assistance from the Yakuza. The ordinance also clarified that MHLW offices could cite police information as a reason for the decision. Further, extra patrol or special protection would be provided by police when considered appropriate. Again, this was a singular ordinance that the then NPA chief personally informed the then prime minister of this exceptional accomplishment. Fearing a “ploughing the field and forgetting the seeds” situation, Hirofumi ensured the ordinance was reflected in practice. He and his colleagues lobbied relevant government agencies and prefectural police forces to communicate closely. After returning to the Fukuoka prefecture, Hirofumi remained central to the war against the Yakuza as vice chief and later chief of the organized crime division. Yakuza in Fukuoka, Kudo-kai, had become a national agenda. The NPA assigned an extra 100 officers to Fukuoka. Other prefectural police forces sent a total of tens of thousands of their riot police and criminal investigators. Bulletproof police cars were allocated, and surveillance cameras were installed in Fukuoka with the NPA’s budget. In deep appreciation of the improved workforce and equipment, Hirofumi tried to corner the Yakuza with his favorite modus operandi—networking with relevant institutions. This time, it was with the regional prosecutor’s and tax offices. This effort coincided with the reorganization of internal criminal investigation teams headed by respective Detective Inspectors, who seldom share information, even when incidents they separately investigate are closely related. After reorganizing, organic investigations into all Yakuza-related cases were accelerated. Further,
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the new appointment of a prosecutor solely in charge of Yakuza-related cases in a regional prosecutor’s office offered an added tailwind. Hirofumi kept all the concerned parties informed of the progress when possible and let them take ownership. His efforts bore fruit. Hirofumi and his officers successfully arrested a Yakuza head—not a tail or agent—for tax evasion for the first time in Japanese police history. His firm belief in a holistic approach yielded unprecedented success. Hirofumi Ichise attributed his success during the combat against the Yakuza to his accommodating and lateral leadership style. He always tried to let people realize what they could contribute and take ownership. He believed in the words on leadership from Isoroku Yamamoto, a naval marshal widely tipped as one of the most enlightening leaders in Japan. The most well-known first sentence is “you show them how to do it, explain them how to do it, let them try to do it, tell them how proud you are with them otherwise they would never commit.” For Hirofumi, the ensuing sentences are more vital: “You discuss with them, listen to them, accept them, leave the work to them otherwise they would never progress … You keep watching the progress they make with appreciation and trust, otherwise they would never fully mature.” While never belittling the importance of conventional vertical leadership whereby leaders inspire their people, Hirofumi always appreciated the power of lateral leadership and a holistic approach with networking beyond institutional boundaries.
References Adlam, R., & Villiers, P. (2003). Police Leadership in the Twenty-first Century Philosophy, Doctrine and Developments. Waterside Press. Bayley, D. H. (1991). Forces of Order: Policing Modern Japan. University of California Press. Cabinet Secretariat. (2021). Kuni to Chiho Koukyou Dantai tono Aida no Jinji Kouryu no Jisshi Joukyou (Report on Personnel Secondment between National Government and Local Public Agencies). Haley, J. O. (1991). Authority Without Power. Oxford University Press. Ichise, Hirofumi. (2019). Kiduki no Fusen. Haruyoshi Shobo. Kasano, T. (1989). Chukai Keisatsu Shugan. Tachibana Shobo. Keisatsu-Cho. (2012). Keisatsu-Hakusho (White Paper on Police). Keisatsu-Cho. (2021). Keisatsu-Hakusho (White Paper on Police). Keisatsu-Cho Seikatsu Anzen Kyoku (National Police Agency Community Safety Bureau). (2021). Reiwa 2 Nen ni Okeru Shonen Hikou, Jidou Gyakutai oyobi Kodomo no Sei-Higai no Joukyou (Report on Juvenile Delinquency, Child Abuse and Sexual Victimization of Minors). Keisatsu-Cho. (2022). Reiwa 3 Nen ni Okeru Suto-ka-Jian Oyobi Haigu-Sha kara no Bouryoku Jian he no Taiou Joukyou ni Tsuite (Report on Stalking Cases and Domestic Violences). Keisatsu Daigakkou (National Police Academy). (1997). Keisatsu Shocho Ron・Keisatsu Sho Kaku Kacho Ron (Discussion on Desired Qualities of Police Station Chief and its Commanders). Tachibana Shobo. Keishi-Cho. (2019). Keishi-Cho no Toukei (Statistics by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department). Keishi-Cho. Kokka Kouan Iin-Kai (National Public Security Commission). (2021). Teirei Iin-kai no Kaisai Jokyo (The reports on regular committee meetings). Miyazawa, S. (1985). Hanzai Sosa wo Meguru Dai Issen Keiji no Ishiki to Kodo. Seibun Do.
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Miyazono, T. (1993). Keisatsu Kan no Kaikyu Seido ni tsuite. In Nihon no Keisatsu (pp. 151-165). Tachibana Shobo. Murayama, M. (1990). Keira Keisatsu no Kenkyu. Seibun Do. Takahashi, Y. (1976). Meiji Nendai no Keisatsu Bucho - Meiji Keisatsu Shi Kenkyu. Ryosho Fukyu Kai. Tokyo-to Kouan Iin-Kai (Tokyo Metropolitan Public Security Commission). (2019). Teirei Kaigi no Kaisai Jokyo (The reports on regular meetings). Tottori Prefectural Government. (As of December 2021) Prefectural Ordinance on Authorised Strength of Tottori Prefectural Police Force. Yoshida, N. (2013). Todofuken keisatsu kanbu no ikusei gourika to sono gan'i. In S. O. al, Shakai no Anzen to Hou (pp. 291-313). Tachibana Shobo. Yoshida, N. (2021). Josei Keisatsu Kan wa Keisatsu wo Kaeru ka. Hou Shakai Gaku, 250-276.
Police, Race, Crime, and Leadership: Interview with William J. Bratton Vincent E. Henry
Introduction William J. “Bill” Bratton is America’s best-known and most experienced police leader, having served in leadership positions and as chief executive of numerous major police departments over his more than 50-year career in law enforcement. Bill Bratton’s law enforcement career began with his service as a US Army Military Police officer during the Vietnam War, and upon returning from Vietnam he joined the Boston Police Department in 1970. Bratton rose quickly through the ranks with promotion to Sergeant in 1975 and Lieutenant in 1978. In 1975, Bratton earned the Schroeder Brothers Medal, the Boston Police Department’s highest award for bravery. In 1980, at the age of 32, Bill Bratton became the youngest-ever Executive Superintendent of the Boston Police. Bratton was Chief of Police for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority between 1983 and 1986, and from 1986 to 1990 he was Superintendent of the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission Police. In 1990, William Bratton was appointed Chief of the New York City Transit Police, where he achieved dramatic reductions in crime on the city’s rapid transit system, and he served in that capacity until his return to the Boston Police Department in 1992 to serve as its Superintendent in Chief. In 1993, he became the Boston Police Department’s 34th Police Commissioner. In January 1994, William J. Bratton was appointed Police Commissioner of the New York City Police Department by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and he served in that capacity through late 1996. Under Bratton’s leadership, the NYPD created and implemented the Compstat management model and along with an agency-wide reengineering of policies, practices, strategies, and tactics as well. Based on the application of a “Broken Windows” approach, the NYPD reversed decades of increasing crime and disorder, leading to unprecedented declines in crime and V. E. Henry (*) Homeland Security and Terrorism Institute, Long Island University, Brookville, NY, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0_11
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improvements in the quality of life enjoyed by New York City’s residents. The Compstat management model and other management processes Bratton introduced have been widely adopted by police and law enforcement agencies across the United States and around the world. After working as a consultant to police and law enforcement agencies around the world, William Bratton served as Independent Monitor of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) until 2002, when he was appointed to a 5-year term as the 54th Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. He was reappointed to that position in 2007 and served as LAPD’s Chief until he rejoined the private sector as a police consultant in 2009. In 2013, Bratton was reappointed as Police Commissioner of the New York City Police Department and he served in that capacity through late 2016. He is the only police leader to serve as chief executive of both of the nation’s two largest police agencies. In 2010, Bill Bratton was appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, an advisory component of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and in 2011 he was named the Council’s Vice Chair. He assumed the office of Chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council in 2010 and remains in that position. Among Bratton’s many honors and awards is the honorary title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire bestowed by Queen Elizabeth in 2009 for his contributions to policing in the United Kingdom. A graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute and the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard University, Bratton holds a Bachelor of Science degree in law enforcement from Boston State College. He is currently Executive Chairman of Teneo Risk Holdings and serves on a variety of corporate boards. William Bratton is the author of three books on policing and police leadership. His first book, Turnaround: How America’s Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic (1998), focuses on his leadership of the NYPD during his first term as Police Commissioner (1994–1996) and how, under that transformative leadership, the agency achieved unprecedented reductions in crime and improvements in quality of life in America’s largest city. Bratton’s next book, Collaborate or Perish!: Reaching Across Boundaries in a Networked World (2012), draws on Bratton’s own career experiences as well as case studies from businesses and other dynamic organizations to illuminate the critical need for collaborative leadership to achieve success. His most recent book, The Profession: A Memoir of Community, Race and the Arc of Policing in America (2021), details Bratton’s career and experiences in the agencies he served and led, along with the insights he gained on the changing nature of police work, crime, race, politics, and society and the challenges of police leadership in the contemporary environment. In March 2022 William Bratton sat with Vincent Henry, a retired NYPD officer and former aide to Bratton during his first tenure as NYPD Police Commissioner, for this interview on police, race, crime, and leadership. Vincent Henry: To begin, I want to thank you for the interview and for your time. This is for a forthcoming book – essentially a collection of interviews with police leaders around the world on leadership and their perspective on the current state of policing nationally, inter-
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nationally, and in their own agencies. Basically the theme is “police leaders who think and what do they think.” I thought it would be a great opportunity to give you a venue to express your ideas and your experiences, to discuss your latest book, and to convey your perspective on policing in America, past, present, and future. I did prepare some questions, but I thought of this more as a free form discussion than as a formally structured Q&A style interview. We can talk about some issues and then, if time allows, just chat a little bit. William Bratton: Okay. That’s fine. Vincent Henry: Under your leadership, beginning in 1994, the NYPD achieved truly unprecedented declines in crime and improvements in the quality of life in New York City. For the first time in decades of New York City’s history, overall crime decreased. It declined substantially, and it declined quickly. Along with that decline in crime was a related dramatic improvement in the quality of life experienced by New Yorkers. This combination of declining crime and improving quality of life established a kind of trajectory that continued through several decades of crime declines and quality of life improvements, not only in New York City, but because other agencies across the country emulated the crime management model and implemented the kind of crime control policies and strategies established under your tenure, crime declined and quality of life improved in towns and cities across the country that followed the policies and practices you and your team established. Clearly, that trajectory changed in the past 2 or 3 years, and, for the first time in more than two decades, crime rates have increased across the nation, and those increases were not insubstantial. That upward trend continues and in many jurisdictions those crime increases, along with the disorder that accompanies them, are accelerating. Why? William Bratton: My own perspective on it is that we have a movement that developed in the country that was accelerated by the events surrounding the murder of George Floyd, but it began a number of years before. In 2013 and 2014, the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson, Missouri, and here in New York City, the death of Eric Garner – a number of incidents of minorities being killed at the hands of the police. Oftentimes, those deaths were determined to be justified under the law. In any event, the activist community, particularly what we now describe as the Progressive Left or some would describe it as the “Progressive Woke Left,” a new term that’s been out the last several years, began to gain momentum. Because we were now in an era when something happening in a small town like Ferguson,
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because of social media, would not be a 2-minute story on the evening news one night and then the evening news would move onto the next incident. It would be captured on social media and kept alive. Vincent Henry: I see. William Bratton: But we also had the growth of the cable news networks such as CNN and Fox. There was a lot more ability to take what would have been, in the past, an isolated incident and keep it alive, if you will, to add fuel to the fire. This was assisted greatly by the increasing availability of video. The change I’m talking about, starting around 2013 and the 2014 events in Ferguson that accelerated process, began before that. In 2012, there was the death of a young African American man, Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a self-appointed security guard who followed him into an apartment complex and ended up shooting him. Vincent Henry: Mm-hmm. Yes, he was shot by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted at trial. That controversial incident attracted tremendous media coverage for more than a year. The coverage certainly attracted the attention of the American people. William Bratton: The changes can be traced back, actually, to 2006 and 2007, with the advent of the smartphone. The smartphone effectively put a camera in the hands of every person in America that had a phone. So we had this great expansion of availability of videos that showed things that we had never seen before in graphic detail. Those graphic images would be repeated now thousands upon thousands of times on the various loops. We also saw the whole social media explosion with Facebook coming on. Facebook, back in 2006 and 2007, a couple of hundred million users. They have 3 billion now. Social media exploded, technology exploded, and we now had this ability to share information more easily, but we also created the opportunity to share disinformation. Increasingly, disinformation often takes precedence over actual information. Then the political climate began growing in the United States. We once thought of the mainstream media as the legitimate media, where the three or four networks and our local newspapers were seen as tellers of the truth. Well, with social media now, a lot of people are no longer reading or watching the mainstream media, but are now watching these alternative sites. These alternative sites were oftentimes vehicles just to express opinions and to spread vitriol, and in many instances it unfortunately spread hate. We in the policing world began to lose the confidence of many because of the explosion of apparent police abuses. There had
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always been police abuses, but now they were magnified by the sheer impact of social media and the ability of anyone to basically get on a bully pulpit and spread their ideas and spread their anger, spread their dissatisfaction. Vincent Henry: Mm-hmm (affirmative). William Bratton: Moving further into the twenty-first century, we also have compounded the police mission by, in most instances, the focus on crime intervention – Sir Robert Peel, 1829. The secret of the success achieved in New York and in many other places in the 1990s was that we returned to the concept of Community Policing, so we were focusing not only on crime in a more significant way, but the belief that we could prevent crime by turning to neighborhoods with the idea that they could respond to it. One of the things that I led the charge on was focusing also on the second half of Sir Robert Peel’s philosophy: disorder, crime, and disorder. Why disorder? Because that’s what people saw every day. A lot of that disorder involved so-called victimless crimes, and the victimless crimes were thought to be, “Well, why should police pay attention to those? They should try and stay focused on the serious crime.” Well, we did focus on it but we focused on our response to it, not on the prevention of it; thus appreciating that by focusing on disorder, we could prevent a lot of that more serious crime from developing in a more permissive atmosphere. The success of New York in the 1990s was also the embrace of new technologies that allowed us to gather crime information much more quickly, analyze it more intelligently, and respond to it more quickly so we could break a pattern after two or three events rather than waiting until there were 20 or 30 events before we even identified it. Vincent Henry: Mm-hmm (affirmative). William Bratton: But the linkage with disorder, even at the worst time in New York history, 1990, with 500,000 reported serious crimes in a city of seven and half million people, your chances of being the victim of a crime were still relatively low. But what did people become victimized by every day? The signs of disorder, of natural disorder, the aggressive beggar, the homeless encampments everywhere, the homeless living in the subways. Five thousand, I think, were living in the subways. Times Square and the prostitution, the Three-Card Monty con games. In the late 1980s, we saw the development of the so-called “wolf pack” gangs roving around, assaulting people and robbing them, and graffiti was everywhere. In the mid-1970s, every subway car was covered with it, inside and out.
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Vincent Henry: That’s a great description of the conditions in New York City back then. William Bratton: This sense that nuisance behaviors were not being controlled by the police, it was an “anything goes” atmosphere. Even the police were very demoralized in many places. The number of police declined rapidly in the 1970s and that began a trend that continued into the 1980s with layoffs, with reduced numbers of officers, and with police just feeling that they were not being supported. To really understand the seeds of what has happened over the last couple of years, you literally have to go back and understand the history, going back to the 1960s, 1970, 1980s, 1990s, and to understand how did we turn it around in the 1990s after the horrors of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Fast forwarding to 2018 and 2019, we had a new generation of legislative leaders, in Albany in our case in New York, and with the City Council. They were much younger, and many of them weren’t even alive in the 1980s and 1990s to see how bad it was then or to experience what could turn crime around. They were now growing up in an environment in which the issues of race were exploding and with the idea of disproportionate impact on minorities and criminal justice policies and procedures. There was no denying that, but why was there disproportionate impact on minorities and minority neighborhoods? Because there was a disproportionate amount of crime and disorder in those communities. That’s always been one of the sad features about life in America: that the poor neighborhoods, the minority neighborhoods – for a whole variety of reasons – experience more violence and more disorder. Who has to deal with that? The police. Vincent Henry: You write and speak about some basic principles that define your approach to policing and to police leadership. William Bratton: Oftentimes, the police were not appropriately trained; they were not basically policing consistently and compassionately and constitutionally. They were not policing in a collaborative fashion by working with the communities. That’s why Community Policing had such a profound influence in changing policing practices. A number of practices of policing, the four seeds basically, are the “Three P’s,” as we call it – Partnership, Problem-solving, and Prevention – but they’re assisted by the new phrase we have is this idea of Trust. The police need to regain the trust of the community. To do that, to get the police to successfully do Community Policing in partnership in the community, focusing on the problems they want us to focus on but doing it with an eye toward preventing it rather than just reducing it. Well, it requires that
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policing is the legitimate policing they want now, and to achieve that, that’s where that idea that you have to police constitutionally, that you can’t break the law to enforce it. You have to police consistently so that there may be more police in the poor minority neighborhoods because there’s more crime there, but you want the police to be policing constitutionally. You want them to be policing compassionately. You don’t want them to be more abrasive and cruder in the minority neighborhoods than they are in the White neighborhoods. Vincent Henry: Sure. William Bratton: We want consistency of policing, that if police could be in there all the time, you’re not just in there to deal with crises. That allows for the development of the fourth element, the fourth C, which is basically collaboration, that people know the police and they get to interact with them. What we lost in the 1980s all across America is we mobilized and put officers in cars that speed up the response to the new 911 systems. We lost that connectivity with the officer on the beat, the officer on the ground. We got air conditioning to roll the windows up in the car, so we lost more connection with the community. I gave you a long-winded answer to bring you to 2018. To understand 2018 and 2019 and what happened then and afterward, you have to understand the previous 50 years. Vincent Henry: You’ve written a great deal about your experiences over your 50 years in policing and law enforcement, both in articles and books. William Bratton: In my most recent book, The Profession, I tried to lay down the law with my 50 years of experience, and there were many people who were interviewed in the book. In my second book, Collaborate or Perish, it was around the idea of the lessons learned that I spoke about in my first book, Turnaround. To have successful policing, you needed collaboration. You would appreciate this, being a member of the NYPD. What was one of the most significant things we did in the 1990s in the NYPD? We created opportunities and common ground for collaboration, whether it was in the tenseness of Compstat, what were we collaborating on at Compstat? Crime. From the Police Commissioner on down to some of the detectives working in precincts. We attempted to effectively, in the 1990s, collaborate more with Community Policing with the communities and let them have a voice on what they wanted done in their neighborhoods. No two neighborhoods in New York City, of the 246 neighborhoods that make up New York City, are alike. It’s like a doctor
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seeing 15 patients. All 15 patients, they’re all human beings, but they all have different conditions. Well, we have what? Seventy- seven precincts in New York, and every one of them is different. We may look geographically similar or roughly the same size, but they’re different. The lessons we learned in the 1990s led to that reduced crime and disorder for 25 years – to the extent that New York in 2018 was the safest it’s ever been. Everything that people were advocating for – better training, bringing cops back to the neighborhood, fewer people being arrested, fewer people being stopped, certainly fewer people being stopped, questioned, and frisked – it was all there. Some of it was forced upon the police, some because of the monitorships. A lot of it, I think, as you saw, was very enlightened leadership. I can speak to the leadership I surrounded myself with, those who I was fortunate to work with in my collaboration with the Timoneys, the Maples, and the Millers (1). You were there for that. I had that again in 2014. Ray Kelly (2) had, in many respects, a very different style of management than I practiced, but he was somebody who was also focused on trying to do the right thing to reduce crime. That’s where he and I were different in that he really felt for the longest time, in order to keep crime going down he needed to “keep the pedal to the metal.” Times were different for him: he was losing 6000 cops, so he had to make up for that loss. He instituted Operation Impact (3), which had some impact, both good and bad. I think it was more bad than good. That’s for scholars in the future to basically figure out. I’ve got my own opinion about it. With that as a foundation, I’ll let you do a little talking for a bit here and steer me in the direction that you want me to go. Vincent Henry: Well, I think that’s a fabulous answer. You really covered a lot of ground there and addressed a lot of the issues that I had questions about and that police leaders as well as concerned members of the public care about and can all learn from. William Bratton: They’re all linked. Vincent Henry: Yes, I can see that. William Bratton: They’re all linked, and one of the reasons our criminal justice system is such a mess is that the system was designed to be linked, with each link strengthening the rest of the chain. Right now, we have a lot of weak links and missing links in the criminal justice system. That’s part of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in. Vincent Henry: There’s always been a degree of disorder and confusion in our criminal justice system, but how does the current state of affairs and the current social and political context of American policing compare to the past?
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William Bratton: I’ve never seen a time when there’s been such disorganization. Some of it can certainly be blamed on COVID, but a lot of it can blamed on the progressive initiatives, of course, building toward the police, and a lot of it can be blamed on the police themselves. Sometimes we were not at our best with, but for the most part I think we do a pretty good job with the police considering all what we’re up against. It’s like these two young men that were just murdered (4). The question or expression that you always hear is “How come it’s only the good guys that get killed?” It seems like every time an officer gets killed, it turns out they were great people. I think it was Jack Maple who would say the reason that so many of the good guys get killed is because there are so many good guys. Vincent Henry: Yes. There certainly are more good guys, and those officers were the good guys. The complexity of policing and all of these diverse factors that come into play, I don’t think are really well understood, certainly by the public, but also by the political structure. It’s also missing, to a very great extent, in academia. That kind of complexity and the factors and variables that are so often overlooked or ignored is one of the things I have written about and spoken about and taught over the years. There is a tendency in the academic world and in public and political discourse to overlook that complexity – the subtleties and nuances that may take place behind the scenes but have such a powerful influence in policing. A good example is Compstat, which a great deal of the academic writing and academic research tends to regard as little more than an intense meeting supported by crime analysis. The vast majority of articles that have been written about the great turnaround that resulted in the crime declines of the mid1990s in New York and elsewhere attribute that revolution in policing solely to Compstat and to the Compstat meeting. They largely ignore the development and implementation of new strategies and new policies and the agency-wide reengineering that took place within NYPD at that time. From what I see there really is little understanding of the fact that in 1994, 1995, and 1996, under your leadership, NYPD did a complete reengineering, that policies and practices were changed, that people were moved at the management and executive levels, and that a host of other things took place in the background. Many academics and many agencies don’t understand that it’s not enough to hold a meeting about crime every Tuesday morning. They’re not changing their own structure, they’re not dealing with internal dysfunctions or dysfunctional relationships with other criminal justice agencies.
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William Bratton: You can’t put a Band-Aid on a major wound and expect it to heal. In some ways, with Compstat, you can’t apply Compstat to an organization that’s dysfunctional and expect that it’s going to get better. Vincent Henry: Compstat, along with the other changes you instituted, was one of the factors that changed policing in New York City and ultimately across the landscape of policing in Americas – and in many cases, overseas as well. Compstat was not merely an innovative meeting with innovative crime analysis, it was an innovation in police leadership. William Bratton: Compstat, as you know because you lived through it, was only part of a much larger reengineering process. Reengineering was the core business practice we were using in the reorganization. This is where the leadership that you’re interested in comes in – this idea that there are all types of leaders. I think of myself as a leader, and many times, you might think, a successful leader. Every organization I’ve gone into, I believe, was better for my time being there and particularly for the people I surrounded myself with. One of the strengths that you want in a leader is the ability of that person to, as Jim Collins wrote in the book Good to Great, find the right people to get on the bus with you, that want to go in the direction you want to go (5). Get them into the right suits as quickly as you can. Identify those who need to get off the bus. Then, I think, another strength of a leader, and I’ll speak specifically for myself, is to surround yourself with people who you feel are capable, at some point in time, and desirous of driving the bus. In my case, my style of leadership is turnaround. I walked into a dysfunctional organization and turned it around and then moved on. To turn it around successfully, you need to identify like-minded people that you need really mine deeply into the organization and find talent from the outside, always with the idea that I’m going to leave in a couple of years and I want the legacy of my time there to be that I had a bus full of people who were like-minded, but are not clones. They have their own ideas, they have their own thoughts, and that they have the ability to basically load up their own bus. Vincent Henry: Diversity of ideas, approaches, experiences, but all focused on achieving the core mission. And if a police chief executive does not do that? William Bratton: Otherwise, you get stagnancy. Everything I’ve always thought to do as a leader is to encourage creativity and to take risks. Compstat was intended to be an opportunity for the bright and the risk takers to raise their hand, to get noticed. How often did you get a
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chance to get in front of the Police Commissioner or the Chief of Department and get in front of the Chief of Detectives? It was risky. You could fall flat your face and basically be bounced on your ass, but it brought out the best. I very seldom talked in Compstat other than giving remarks at the beginning or the end. It was just literally my practice to sit and observe and watch who was working well with each other and who was not. The beauty of Compstat, and you wrote an excellent book about Compstat – The Compstat Paradigm (6)– was that it was not just a meeting. It was an engine that was driving the organization, but it was also, apart from helping to identify the goals and were we achieving them, an accountability system, first and foremost, to hold people accountable for strategies and the tactics they practiced and for achieving the mission of the department. If they were not capable of it, then find something else for them to do. Not everybody was going to be a crime fighter like Louis Anemone or Jack Maple. But boy, some people could really get out off the line for the bus. They might not all be crime fighters, but you don’t need 38,000 crime fighters, you need a lot more diversity. Vincent Henry: Well, many of the folks that you motivated to get on the bus with you at NYPD certainly went on to lead agencies across the country and they had a tremendous impact on those agencies and on the crime and quality of life in the cities they served. So many agencies now across the country are led by NYPD alumni who learned their craft during that era and beyond. William Bratton: Part of it also, Vincent, is that I oftentimes use medical analogies, medical comparisons. I describe myself in some respects as much as a physician as a police leader, with the idea that no two cities are alike. No two patients that a d octor sees are alike. You can have a whole array of prescriptions on the shelf, but the success of the doctor is in the diagnosis and then his or her treatment. How much of this, how much of that, and what combination. Vincent Henry: That’s an interesting analogy. William Bratton: Police leaders, in many respects, need to be physicians. They need to have the skill to go to different patients. The beauty of American policing today is that Chiefs move around and they benefit from looking at a lot of different patients. I think some of the significance of my success was that I led so many different departments and consulted with so many and was constantly scanning to see who was doing what and who was doing it better, and could it be applied to my patients? Going into New York in 1994, with one set of diagnosis, I used the reengineering process as a way of basically doing a kind of CAT scan over the organization. What are all the issues and what
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are all the illnesses in the agency and then doing a CAT scan over the city; what is creating fear in the city, what is creating crime? That’s where those eight strategies developed (7). Within those eight strategies, how do we begin in this department to ensure that we are successfully meeting each of them, and meeting each of them successfully? Because if one of those intervention strategies is not hitting it, or is not hitting correctly, then it’s just not going to cure the illness. As a leader, what you are looking for is someone who has the capability, both in themselves, but also the capability to surround themselves with others. It’s basically like running an ICU. It’s not just the lead physician, it’s all of those other people that are working on different things, the anesthesiologist, the nurse – the team approach, if you will. No organization is ever led by just one person. You’re not going to be successful, it basically has to be truly collaborative and a team effort. Vincent Henry: Well, certainly no successful agency or organization has ever been led by one person. I think the leaders who try to be the only leader are ultimately not successful. We’ve seen that in many police agencies. William Bratton: They’re doomed to fail. Vincent Henry: You’ve been the chief executive of numerous police agencies, of different sizes and different roles – transit policing, city policing, different mandates, and certainly different geographic regions. You came into each of them as an outsider. As we discussed, each of these agencies is different but we often talk about the police culture as if there is a universal police culture – a single ethos or system of beliefs and attitudes. In reality, though, each agency has its own culture. William Bratton: There is no such thing as a police culture, you’re correct. Each agency has its own culture. A lot of what I do, a good part of what I do is influenced by John Linder. John basically copyrighted the term “cultural diagnostic.” He examines the culture of the agency and then lines it up against, in my case as a leader, where did I want the agency to go? What was the culture I wanted the agency to embrace? Did I have to change a lot about the old culture, or was it a lot of building blocks from the old culture that would accelerate the cultural change and achievement that I wanted? The culture of the NYPD, and you were there and you experienced it and can appreciate this, in 1994 was one of “stay out of harm’s way.” It was very reactionary. Don’t get noticed, don’t take risks, and it was one that also really questioned its own ability to achieve significant success and relied very heavily on the idea of, “We’re the biggest and the best, so we don’t have to see
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what everybody else is doing.” I think that was one of Ray Kelly’s deficiencies. Ray really felt that if it wasn’t developed in New York, it’s not worth looking at. What we brought into the organization was this idea that we can do more. I use the example of when I sat down with the existing “Super Chiefs” (8) and asked them, “What do you think we can do for crime reduction next year?” A bunch of them said, “The number one priority is listening to Mayor Giuliani. Based on their success on the previous couple of years, we’ll achieve maybe 2% or 3% reduction.” I said to them, “Well, I think we can do 10% or 15%.” They were aghast; the culture of the organization was such that they were not willing to take big risks. The people I ended up putting into place – John Timoney, Mike Julian, and Jack Maple – really my whole leadership team, all believed that the department had been underutilized, that it had been never allowed to put the pedal to the metal, and they wanted to try it out. The cultural diagnostic that John Linder was able to do for me revealed that the cops, they wanted to do more, but they felt they were being held back. The culture was “do as little as possible.” “Don’t get noticed, stay out of harm’s way.” When we did the analysis, we found many that were willing to eventually come over to the culture I was trying to create – a culture of proactivity in the sense that more could be done, that had a vision that we could prevent crime. We could prevent disorder by going after disorder and not just be reacting to things or ignoring them which is the case of disorder. We effectively just ignored disorder for 30 years. Vincent Henry: I think you also had an advantage coming in at that time, believe it or not, due to the layoffs in the late 1970s because in addition to the loss of officers due to the layoffs there was essentially a break in hiring of new cops for about 5 or 6 years. There were no new cops hired in the police department and there was tremendous attrition. Then, beginning in 1980 and 1981, a new cadre came into the department and that cadre was very, very different from that of previous cops coming into the department. They were better educated, they were a bit more worldly. They had a different worldview and they brought that to the department. And, there were very, very many of them. Forty years ago, I was hired as a part of a class of over 3000 recruits. Yesterday would have been my 40th year in the department. A lot of those people, by the time you became Commissioner in 1994, had advanced to middle management but there were also Sergeants and Lieutenants and senior Police Officers who were very, very influential. They were frustrated precisely because, as you said, they were being held back. They wanted to do the right
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thing, they wanted to be good cops, they wanted to go out there and fight crime and save lives, and they knew they could if the organization permitted them to. But the organization and the organizational culture was still holding them back. When you and the new team came in, they rose to the occasion and many of them got right on the bus. It wasn’t just the leadership team, and I’m not diminishing the importance of the leadership team, but those other cops were also animated by the new-found opportunity to make a difference – “Yes, this is what I became a cop to do.” From my perspective, then and now, they had a tremendous impact on the success of the department at that time. William Bratton: I think you’re right, Vincent. I also experienced the layoff situation. The layoffs in Boston impacted that department for the next 20 years because the officers who were laid off were basically those who had been hired in the last 10 years in the early 1970s and into 1980. Their disillusionment, their bitterness, their anger, it took years to dissipate. Many of them lost their homes. I was personally aware of that because many of them were close friends who were on the job with me and I had to lay them off. I would do pizza klatches out at my house, I’d have a dozen of them out to the house just to see how it was going for them, particularly when we started hiring them back. The impact of that, the way that they looked at it, they had been screwed by the city and the department, so, “Why should I do anything for the city other than just do what I had to do?” It took a long time to get them turned around and get them energized again. Vincent Henry: That kind of attitude prevailed among a lot of the more senior cops at NYPD in the early 1990s. Many of the folks who had been laid off in the 1970s and were hired back, others who just narrowly missed being laid off, and there was a great deal of resentment and a great deal of bitterness. I was certainly exposed to a lot of those older, bitter, and cynical cops when I came on in the early 1980s. Fortunately, though, there was also that new younger cadre that came in behind them. There were cultural divides between the old timers and the new blood but ultimately – and somewhat ironically – it worked out favorably. Back in 2000, you and I sat down for an interview (8) and you predicted at that time that race was going to be the defining issue for police and police executives going into the new millennium. Your most recent book, The Profession, is subtitled, A Memoir of Community, Race and the Arc of Policing in America. Your experiences with race issues figure very prominently in the book. When did you first come to recognize the role and the impact that
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race plays in policing? Do you have any ideas on how that role has changed or evolved over the years? William Bratton: I’m going to circle back to my opening comments. Race is the issue that’s driving so much of what’s interfering, if you will, with being able to keep cities safe. I can talk a bit more on that. Vincent Henry: Have your ideas and views about the role of race in policing and public safety evolved over the years? William Bratton: Well actually, growing up, as I described in the book there was the segregated Boston school system and coming into what was a segregated department. There were three minorities in my class of 150, and the city at that time was 25% Black and Brown. My earliest assignments were in an all-Black district that had been, 3 years before, an all Jewish district. We were seeing that redlining in Boston that basically chased the Jewish community out and put in the Blacks who did not have the fiscal capabilities to maintain the properties. I viewed the deterioration of that neighborhood from a very safe, middle-class Jewish enclave to a very poor, largely Black, distressed area of high crime and disorder. Understanding a lot of the Blacks’ anger began early for me in the sense of the question “Why is there so much anger?” That oftentimes is not understood or appreciated by Whites or by cops. If you think about it, realtors are supported by banks, driving out the Jewish population, the Blacks are coming and the area is going to become unsafe. Then knowingly giving mortgages to individuals that they knew would not be able to afford keeping up with those mortgages, keeping up with the property, with the idea that they would then go into default and the bank would move in and take the property back. Americans understood that after a period of time. I listened to a set of remarks the other day by a leading African professor at Harvard about Black anger towards society and towards police and the unfairness of the American system. I never thought of this in terms of “where does so much of the wealth in America come from for Whites?” I, myself, am a beneficiary of this, but where I am in life at this time, a lot of it has to do with certainly, I think, hard work, but it’s also property investment – buying a house that grows in value and then selling the house. My net worth is the value of my homes versus what I paid for them. Vincent Henry: That probably defines the net worth of most Americans. William Bratton: The professor said that through much of history, Blacks could not participate in that kind of property acquisition. Because of Jim Crow in the 1940s and 1950s, they couldn’t buy in better neighborhoods. They did not have the opportunity to acquire wealth to the extent that the average White person could acquire it.
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I just bought a piece of property, a condominium, and within 2 days of buying it I received offers of several hundred thousand dollars than I just paid for it. Vincent Henry: Sure. William Bratton: Talk about quick wealth acquisition. That kind of wealth acquisition was denied to Blacks because they couldn’t get mortgages, and they were purposely redlined, and even when they could buy something, they would be charged such egregious rates. The Black anger is something I was exposed to very early on in life, and in substandard schools, and the school desegregation started to influence Boston. In The Profession I wrote about talking with Sweet Alice (9) and the expression she used: “Why we like you so much is you see us, you really see us.” I think many on the Black Progressive Left think that I’m the Devil incarnate. I’m Broken Windows Policing, Compstat, putting all these young Black kids in jail. It frustrates me because they don’t see me. They just see this image of a tough cop who was basically getting crime down by putting all these Black kids in jail. A lot of those kids need to be jail because, unfortunately, due to the circumstances they grew up under they basically almost had no other option. And that’s why Blacks are so angry at the system. We, the police, are the most visible sign of “the system” and we are the entity that actually puts their kids in jail. The rest of society denies them loans, denies them educational opportunity, but the taking away of their actual freedom, that’s us. My comments to you way back then about the issue of race, the comment in my first book, I talked about that. It’s come home to roost, hasn’t it? Vincent Henry: It sure has. Race has become the fault line for so many institutions and for society as a whole. William Bratton: If you think about it, what is driving so much in our state and in our country at the moment particularly exploded with George Floyd. That pent-up frustration and you have Progressive liberal Whites who want to do the right thing but in some respects, they are doing that by almost patronizing the Blacks. You notice that in that tension between Blacks and the patronizing Whites. What the Whites are trying to do with Blacks is not fully appreciating, in many instances, Progressive Whites who don’t want cops in the neighborhoods, the Blacks who live in those neighborhoods who are victimized by crime want to have more cops in their neighborhoods. They want cops who police consistently, compassionately, and constitutionally. Meanwhile the Whites don’t want cops at all. The Whites are going to say that the cops are worse than some of the Blacks.
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If you look at leadership in today’s paper alone, you see they’re not in favor of reforming bail reform or criminal justice reform because they’re concern that it would have disproportionate impact on young Brown and Black men and the idea of putting them in jail again. We have this resistance now. Even if somebody who’s carrying a gun and arrested carrying a gun, that even if it’s used in a crime, the DA doesn’t want to put them in jail. Under the frustration of race and the history of race, we’re trying these new initiatives. In the old days, it would have been described as soft on crime. My prediction is that it’s not going to work because it’s not being balanced with this idea that unfortunately some of these kids have to go to jail. It’s like raising your own child: if you don’t correct the child, they’re going to just do it again, but then do it worse the next time. That’s where Broken Windows comes in. The issue of our time is race. In the political world, why is Trump so successful? He’s basically struck a nerve in the White population, and it’s not just the poor working-class Whites. There are many that are worried exactly what’s going on in New York with Black leadership in the legislature, Black leadership in the city, Black leadership in the city council, that we’re in this permissive area where crime is predominantly Black again. While Whites are fearful, those that are the most impacted by crime are the Blacks and Browns themselves. Vincent Henry: There’s an irony there. William Bratton: It is ironic that in the effort in the part of the legislature to give them a fairer shake, they’re effectively creating more havoc. That’s the frustration. It’s the dilemma of our times. Believe or not, ProPublica (10) did a piece on analyzing red light cameras around the country and finding that they disproportionately impacted on Blacks in poorer neighborhoods. Never once mentioned the fact that a red light camera can’t see Black and White, it just sees the violation. ProPublica’s point is that, “Well, the population that can least afford these tickets is the one being most penalized, that they’re getting more tickets.” Why are they getting more tickets? Because they’re going through more red lights. The idea is to take these cameras out so we can reduce the disproportionate impact, but that doesn’t change the behavior of running through the red lights and then running over some kid who is in the pedestrian crossing. Vincent Henry: Sure. William Bratton: That’s the argument of the racial disproportionality issue that drives me crazy, that they just refuse to recognize that aspect. Even the public activists in New York, they’re concerned that
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even now with the NYPD doing about 10,000 Stop, Question, and Frisks, there’s still disproportionate impact in that 90% of those being stopped are Black and Latino. Well, let’s see what’s going to happen now when [New York City Mayor] Eric Adams puts those Anti-Crime units in those 30 precincts. When you look at the map of those 30 precincts, what are they? All Black and Brown. Vincent Henry: Stop, Question, and Frisk practices, as they’re known in New York, or police stops permissible under Terry v. Ohio, as they’re perhaps more properly known, are a controversial issue. They are certainly controversial in New York City but in a larger sense there is a lot of concern about police stops in jurisdictions across the country. William Bratton: The Stop, Question, and Frisk disproportionality, you and I aren’t roaming through those neighborhoods doing anything that’s going to get us stopped. That disproportionality of stops is going to go through the roof and then they’ll all scream bloody murder. Eric Adams, in some respects, I have to give him credit, he’s got balls. But I can guarantee what’s going to happen in a few months – they’re going to be screaming bloody murder. I’m on the board of directors at ShotSpotter, the gunshot protection system. It’s very successful in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere. The company is spending a fortune now going after that Vice channel (10) that put out a report based on a study done by some half-assed institution that ShotSpotter is bad in minority neighborhoods. Why? Because it brings the police into the neighborhood in large numbers. It brings them in to respond to gunshots and they’re there looking for people carrying guns, so that they rush into the neighborhood and they stop every Black kid they can find. They want to take the gunshot protection systems out. How are you going to stop gun violence? With a system that let’s you know when 80% of the gunshots are never reported to the police anyway. Because of the disproportionality of who’s being stopped, where are gunshot protection systems placed? In neighborhoods where there are gunshots. Where is that? In Black and Brown neighborhoods. We find ourselves in an incredible conundrum, this dilemma, where we are not seeing each other, we’re not seeing beyond each other. I did an interview this morning about Eric Adams’ proposal [to repeal or amend New York’s controversial bail reform law] and the objection noted by [State Senate and Assembly leaders] up in Albany. I said, “It reminds me of World War I.” I said, “Eric’s in one trench, they’re in the other trench and you got the new Manhattan DA in No Man’s Land, trying to figure out which trench he’s going to hop into. Meanwhile, because they’re in a
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trench, they can’t see each other. They’re just lobbing grenades back and forth.” Eric’s got his work cut out for him because the population that he’s trying to help is being represented by leadership that thinks they’re helping. Sure, they’re keeping a lot of Black and Brown kids out of jail, but what’s happening to them? They’re being shot, they’re being murdered, they’re being mugged. These are issues that have been going on… I’m up on a soapbox here, so excuse that, but it goes to this issue of leadership and what is so important. We are going to have to watch Eric Adams very closely, because I describe him as a Progressive. But he also carries great gravitas because of his life experience, but he’s a centrist. He′s not being pulled to the far Left and he’s not being pulled to the far Right, he’s in the center. I used to describe myself as a Progressive until it became a dirty word and now I basically side myself with the centrists because Progressive associated with the Left. Vincent Henry: Mm-hmm (affirmative). William Bratton: The Left represents so much of what I have problems with, these permissive DAs in charge. We’re in a tough place. It was much easier, Vincent, when we were policing in the 1990s to get things done because we didn’t have the social media world, we didn’t have the ability for any Tom, Dick, or Harry to inflame with their various thoughts, et cetera. This issue of race is something that’s plagued America and probably the world from day one. It plagued America and it led to the Civil War, it led to Jim Crow. Well, you’ve got a gamble right now going on in New York State, unfortunately, because of the tolerance of these changed norms and behavior. We don’t penalize for not paying on your fare, we don’t penalize defecating or urinating the streets, we don’t penalize dealing drugs on the streets, we don’t penalize prostitution – all because of the disproportionate amount that occurs in the minority community. If it’s enforced, it impacts, they would argue, unfairly in that community. But with that attitude, there’s no resolution to this. It’s just going to get worse over time. What I’d say for me is that I’m the eternal optimist. I came into New York, the New York City Transit Police for the subways knowing what could be done there. Then I got to NYPD in 1994 when nobody thought we could do anything about crime except {Mayor Rudy] Giuliani. Even working with [Mayor Bill] DeBlasio, DeBlasio was very good to work for in 2014 and 2015 and 2016. My optimism was supported, but the optimism is really tempered by a lot of issues that create a lot of pessimists at the
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moment. I don’t see any of these issues being easily resolved. I think if anybody can do it, it has to be somebody like Eric Adams. It has to be somebody who’s Black, somebody who has the ability to rally Whites as well as Blacks. It will be very interesting to see if he is successful in reducing crime, and if he is, how he does it. If he is not successful at reducing it, he’s going to lose the Whites and he’s going to lose a lot of Blacks and we’re right back where we started. That was the promise of [former New York City Mayor] David Dinkins. The Progressive Whites felt, “Well, we’ll have a Black mayor, so it’ll keep racial peace,” and we ended up with the Crown Heights riots, we ended up with more crime and disorder. It’s similar with Eric Adams. I think Eric’s a very different individual than Dinkins, with very different ideas. I’ve been describing him and I’m very supportive in my comment that he is the right man at the right time as far as these issues with the life experiences. We’ll see how it goes going forward. Vincent Henry: Yes, I certainly hope so for the sake of the city and public safety. This has been a great discussion and your experiences and insights certainly illuminate the issues surrounding race and the challenges they pose for policing. I do appreciate the time spent sharing your thoughts – I know how busy you are and I really do appreciate it. You’ve given me as well as the police leaders who read the interview a lot to think about, and you’ve also pointed us in the direction to try to do something about the problems and issues we discussed. William Bratton: My pleasure. I like getting up on my soapbox. It gets my thoughts together, too, in different ways of trying to present those ideas and thoughts. It was great talking with you. Vincent Henry: Thanks, Bill.
Notes 1. Respectively, Chief of Patrol and, later, Chief of Department John Timoney; Deputy Commissioner – Crime Control Strategies Jack Maple; and Deputy Commissioner – Public Information John Miller. 2. Raymond Kelly preceded Bratton as Police Commissioner twice. Kelly served as Commissioner from October 1992 to January 1994, when Bratton began his first term as Commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani and again from January 2002 to December 2013, when Bratton returned as Police Commissioner under Mayor Bill DeBlasio. 3. NYPD’s Operation Impact involved the deployment of officers to high-crime “hot spots” that were identified through geographic and statistical analyses and
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known as “Impact Zones.” To a large extent the deployment involved saturating high-crime areas with officers (often recent Police Academy graduates) assigned to foot patrol. 4. Bratton is referring to the recent murders of NYPD officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, who were shot to death while responding to a domestic violence call a few days prior to our interview. 5. Collins, Jim (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t. New York: Harper Business. 6. Henry, Vincent E. (2002). The Compstat Paradigm: Management Accountability in Policing, Business and the Public Sector. Flushing, NY: Looseleaf Law Publishers. 7. Under Bratton’s leadership the NYPD developed and implemented eight core Crime Control and Quality of Life Strategies, each prescribing a comprehensive set of policies, practices, and tactics to successfully address a core crime or quality of life issue confronting the department and the City of New York. The Strategies, distributed and mandated throughout the agency, were a synthesis of best practices and rigorous analysis of the factors underlying the crime or quality of life problem they were intended to address. They were Getting Guns Off the Streets of New York, Breaking the Cycle of Domestic Violence, Reclaiming the Public Spaces of New York City, Reducing Auto-Related Crime in New York, Rooting Out Corruption: Building Organizational Integrity in the New York City Police Department, and Reclaiming the Roads of New York. Two additional strategies, Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect and Bringing Fugitives to Justice, were developed under Bratton’s tenure and introduced by his successor, Howard Safir. 8. In the NYPD vernacular, the so-called Super Chiefs are the agencies top uniformed executives – at that time the “Super Chiefs” were considered the Chief of Department, the Chief of Patrol, the Chief of Organized Crime Control, the Chief of Detectives, and the Chief of Internal Affairs. 9. Henry, Vincent E. (2000). “A Conversation with William J. Bratton.” Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 2, (4); pp. 559–580. 10. Hopkins, Emily and Melissa Sanchez (2022, January 11). Chicago’s “Race Neutral” Traffic Cameras Ticket Black and Latino Drivers the Most. ProPublica. (https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras- ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most). 11. Feathers, Todd (2021, July 19). “Gunshot-Detecting Tech is Summoning Armed Police to Black Neighborhoods.” Vice. (https://www.vice.com/en/article/88nd3z/ gunshot-detecting-tech-is-summoning-armed-police-to-black-neighborhoods).
Conclusion
So who is a thinking police leader and what are his or her characteristics that earn this epithet? The authors of this book, who are eminent scholars have identified many significant traits that thinking leaders must exhibit. They have also supplemented their conceptualization by providing case studies of police leaders who have displayed by personal example, variety of paths that exemplify this ideation. We summarize them here and also share examples of work done by these officers to suggest the nature of work done by thinking leaders.
Thinking Leader In very large organizations, whether in the public or private sector, the need for a thinking leader is obvious. All organizations struggle to survive, compete, and excel, and this involves dealing with current challenges, past mistakes, and emerging threats. The organization needs a vision and examination of its basic values to meet the challenges. The organizational leader must accordingly, not only understand the nature of problems but also promote a team that can push new ideas and strengthen or improve the organizational culture suitably. As a team leader, the CEO of a private sector company or the Chief of Police of a large law enforcement unit must lead by example and mold the organization to address current problems and prepare for the emerging tests. Bonchek and Steele (2015) argue that in every organization the requirement is to make the team work together in seeking the objectives. However, technologies are changing so fast that people’s ability to learn to use them invariably falls behind. A manager tends to assemble the team and allot responsibilities based upon their skills, areas of expertise, and talents. The attempt is to see how each can contribute in achieving the organizational goals or specific projects set for the team. Their roles are determined upon what they can do but for a thinking leader the approach is to see how teams can think together to determine © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0
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their performance and output. Bonchek and Steele (2015) suggest that rather than assigning team members roles for doing something, there should also be thinking roles. By knowing how team members and organization think everyone can be more energized, engaged, be more creative, and more productive. The process for changing the team into one of thinkers is to focus upon the priority and to set the orientation toward the micro or the macro tasks keeping in mind the details of the project or the big picture for the organization. The next step is to combine them and see the thinking style at work in the context or setting chosen by the leader. “Understanding collaboration through the lens of thinking rather than doing is a practical and powerful step forward” (Bonchek and Steele 2015). Patel (2018) adds to this by suggesting that critical thinking is crucial for a leader who is focused on constantly upgrading his or her knowledge, and engaging in independent self-learning. Such a leader exhibits several features. Careful observation to document details and to collect data is a primary one that can lead to insight and a deeper understanding of the organizational challenges. Curiosity is another trait since being constantly inquisitive makes the leader wonder why something is the way it is. Furthermore, a thinking leader is one who remains objective and focused upon the facts. Scientific evaluation of the information and results are hallmark of such a leader. Such a leader promotes introspection and awareness of his own alertness and biases – a kind of self-reflection to maintain equanimity. A thinking leader is one devoted to analytical thinking, the ability to “break information down to its component parts and evaluate how well those parts function together and separately” (Patel 2018). However, it is necessary to also determine what information is relevant and meaningful for the task at hand. An important characteristic for such a leader is to have empathy and compassion. A leader must keep in mind that he is not dealing with data and information but with people and so must have concern for others and value their welfare. Another significant characteristic of a thinking leader is to have humility, the willingness to accept one’s shortcomings and mistakes and be ready to change tracks. Yet, this does not mean to not continue along the path and question the status quo. Bringing a change is to reform the existing system of working and being ready to overcome obstacles. For this they must be creative and think outside the prevailing paradigms. Finally, a thinking leader is a good communicator who can relay his ideas in a persuasive manner and take into account the responses of others.
Police Leader as Thinker The “Police Leader as Thinker” is a practitioner who thinks comprehensively for the organization to forge a new path of serving the society. Given the enormous responsibilities, discretion, and challenges that officers face, it is clear that a police leader cannot but be a reflective practitioner as stated by Coxhead (2023) in his chapter. As this book illustrates, a leader who is a thinker must combine a large number of qualities that takes the police organization to a new reformatory path. Coxhead, for
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example, adds that “analysis” based upon data patterns and “intelligence led” policing focused upon policing operations are “basic factors of a thinking leader.” He argues that the UK National Decision-Making Model deems thinking with a purpose – to make an informed decision “aided by structure and data analysis.” Accordingly, the thinking leader must be a police officer who is a professional by training and experience. Such a leader displays the ability to navigate unchartered problems that confront the police on a daily basis. He must also contextualize and translate the nature of problem in terms of legal boundaries that may have been breached. Citizen anger against an officer for violating the rights in a stop and frisk action needs understanding and restraint in shaping the organizational response. Such a subsequent response by the police needs to be supplemented by adequate resources and considerate deployment of interventions, “a form of praxis” to mitigate the community anger (Coxhead 2023). This UK model also asserts that the notion of a thinking police leader is perhaps not so much of an individual act but more about the leadership enabling of thinking for all. This is a significant insight into our conceptualization of the police leader as a thinker. The leader heads a team and has to marshal vast resources to ensure that the police organization truly serves the community. This cannot be an individual endeavor but a team effort where everyone must pull in the same direction. The leader not only lays down the vision and mission for the organization but selects the best person for the specific job and ensures that adequate resources are provided in accomplishing the task. This is not a simple managerial allocation but a careful evaluation of the challenges and more importantly, finding the best person to undertake the responsibility. This is aptly conceptualized by emphasizing that the “thinking leader” is more accurately described as “an enabler that values thinking as its metaphorical oxygen” (Coxhead 2023). This suggests that a thinking police leader is someone who is seeking to address the emerging problems by preparing and growing the organization constantly. Further, this has to be achieved by encouraging all the team members and the personnel to contribute fully and enhancing their own capabilities to meet these challenges. Additionally, the thinking leader is also cognizant of the future for his or her organization. Accordingly, such a leader will consider the recruitment and retention of the subordinate personnel who will be leading the police organization in coming years and will face the problems. Coxhead (2023) puts this eloquently stating “The real future police leader, then, is not a noun but a verb: thought itself.” It is interesting to note that almost all the famous police leaders from the past, Robert Peel, Edgar Hoover to Kiran Bedi (Verma 2008), whose actions are remembered even today were essentially thinkers first. Their actions exhibit deep understanding of human relations, excellent communication proficiencies, organizational skills, and knowledge of theories of public administration. Their actions symbolized creative strategies supported by personnel and other resources that they shepherded to handle the unexpected problems. The police confront new challenges and problems every day and, accordingly, these leaders showed that they learned to find thoughtful responses from experiences itself. Moreover, these leaders develop the capability of becoming cognizant of emerging issues and proactively
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strengthening the organization to prepare, equip the personnel, and be ready to meet the problems. In these preparations, the leader as a thinker would go out of the organization to solicit assistance and support of scholars, people with expertise in related fields and also concerned citizens who can cooperate with the police in diffusing the situation. The examples of various police leaders described above suggest that the thinking leader asks significant questions and demands answers with an independent mind. The thinker anticipates obstacles that may occur and accordingly prepares contingency plans. The thinker also invests in prevention and avoidance of disastrous events. The case studies from Israel, India, and the USA all suggest that the ability to comprehend emerging problems and ensure that the organization is well prepared is the hallmark of thinking leaders who devote their life to studying and acquiring knowledge to do their job excellently. Keeping themselves updated with new knowledge and research findings are essential characteristics because these empower the organization and help the community served by the police. Further, as Bratton (Henry 2023) has argued such a leader is not one who deals with emerging situations but foresees possibilities in the future and go beyond the immediate problems. Alsheich’s example suggests that (Perry, Hasisi and Weisburd 2023) a thinking leader is also constantly learning from the past and, in particular, the failures that may have occurred. His efforts to equip the organization and prepare for new challenges involve considering policy changes, tinkering with the personnel deployment, and creating new programs will provide the experience and knowhow to deal with the future challenges. Pradnya (Suri and Verma 2023) exemplifies how thoughtful programs build trust with the community and promote an environment that involves the community as co-producers of their security. An important characteristic is to have the courage to see what is not working and should be changed while retaining what continues to be promising. Kratcoski (2023) cites Chief Harrison of Baltimore who said “[we have] to unlearn bad practices, behaviors and performance.” Edelbacher [A Police Chief from Austria] also reiterates that “It would be wonderful to avoid failures, but this is not a realistic picture of daily police work” (quoted by Kratcoski 2023). This may not be easy and could evoke considerable opposition even from the team members. However, a thinking leader utilizes his knowledge and acumen to prevail over the opposition and take the right decision even if it is unpopular. This situation need not be one where there is a threat of violence but even situations of natural disaster, crime, and insecurity of the community are significant for the leader and the organization. The thinking police leader is open to external inputs and, in particular, seeks to involve the research institutions in designing specific programs for various problems. This is not limited to renowned scholars but also researchers and students. This engagement has involved specific projects, internships, ride along, field excursions, and public discussions in terms of conferences and seminars. However, as seen from the case studies, a thinking leader conceptualizes and implements major long-term research projects too. An important objective of this engagement is not only to involve the wider community but also to develop a system of mutual learning. A form of evidence-based policing guided by research and experimentation is
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the aim of this partnership. Kratcoski (2023) adds that a thinking leader does not give up and would continue to search for an effective solution for as long as it takes. It is important to realize that thinking is reflective and must not be confused with knowledge. It constitutes “softer skills” such as ability to listen to others, emotional intuition, concern for others, and capability to reach out to strengthen trust with the constituents. Coxhead (2023) asserts that a thinking leader is one who should not be afraid to say “I don’t know” in order to get the best advice and to make the best decisions. This is significant for the leader is not acting alone but representing thinking of the collective. Accordingly, a thinking leader is one who enables and promotes thinking of all around him. The case studies of successful thinking police leaders suggest that thinking and knowing are distinct from one other. The thinking leader is one who shuns status quo and encourages everyone in the organization to grow and contribute to the best of their ability. The thinking leader aims at reform and building resources to meet current and possible future challenges. Yet, the leadership is one where the work load is shared and done collectively. Coxhead (2023) says clearly that the thinking leader enables “to change things” and “to use thinking as the cultural vessel to explore betterment.” Griffiths and Dubord (2023) point that while there are mandated responsibilities for the police department defined by local, state, and federal laws, the police also have to undertake assumed responsibilities. These emerge due to the expectations of the citizens and limitations of other service providers as also the focus upon quality- of-life issues that have become integral to all public services. This requires thinking leaders to not only stress new skills among the police personnel but also initiate changes in the organizational culture that motivates officers to pursue new paths and become part of the changes being pushed by the leader. Such “police thinkers know that it is important to first prepare the head for change, and then the feet” (Griffiths and Dubord 2023). Perry, Hasisi and Weisburd (2023) add a new dimension to the conceptualization of a thinking leader. They assert that such a leader is a “super evidence cop” subscribing to the perspective that all police functions need to be based upon strong scientific evidence. For them, an important issue is to understand “what works best” and then to implement it successfully in the organization. The significance of scientific evidence is that it helps lead to well-considered decisions, at the operational levels as also for strategic policies. To develop an organization that follows the evidence-based policing model, they recommend inducting criminologists, police pracademics, and crime analysts so that scientific expertise can be combined with real practical police practices. This can happen only when the police leader is ready to accept scientifically sound proofs in police functions. This implies that the leader must have good understanding of science and promote involvement of science in police functions by taking a leadership position on this issue. Rather than simply talking about its significance, the leader finds ways to develop mechanisms that can lay the foundations of evidence-based policing and institutionalize in a systematic manner. As mentioned, an important characteristic of the thinking leader is the close proximity with the citizens and evolving a system that makes them co-producers of
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their own safety and security. Alsheich (Chief Israeli Police described by Perry, Hasisi and Weisburd 2023) promoted the idea that citizens abiding by the law are primary customers, and the police must focus upon crime-related problems as its primary focus. Interacting with the citizens fairly, respectfully, and with courtesy was the way to make change visible to everyone. The perspective compromised low and high policing (Brodeur 1983) and focusing upon quality-of-life issues. All these changes were promoted by induction of modern data management and visualization system that could involve all the personnel in a coherent effective manner. Perry, Hasisi and Weisburd (2023) point out that a thinking leader changes the way people think toward the direction the organization needs to take and “Alsheich introduced significant changes in almost all areas of police activity.” A similar sentiment was expressed by Chief Tobin of NYPD in her interview (Eterno 2023). She identified an important trait of a thinking leader to be one who is able to communicate effectively and let the subordinates know why they are being asked to do a particular task. “They are more likely to do what you want when they see the work will be fruitful” was her clear message. Another characteristic that we find in all thinking leaders is their ability to continuously educate themselves and build their skills and knowledge. Chief Tobin states that her association with a major university helps in understanding “what’s new, what’s innovative, what’s working, and what research has recently been done.” More significantly, academic association helps build collaboration and opportunity to know what new research is informing about police functions. She also emphasized that simple interactions are insufficient so she makes it a point to attend conferences and even roundtable seminars at local colleges. Learning is a continuous process and one which is essential for a thinking leader. An important consequence benefit of learning by association is the dividends it pays in policing functions. We illustrate this idea when describing many significant changes brought by thinking leaders in the case studies given below. Chief Tobin’s thoughts illustrate some important characteristics of a thinking police leader. The leader must undertake frequent appraisal of on-going projects and assess them using appropriate data. Trying to use the same old solutions generally does not work and needs thorough evaluation to evolve new strategies. Eterno (2023) points out that NYPD’s famous “stop and frisk” operations were “only successful in getting an exceedingly small fraction of guns off the streets” despite the department increasing these operations by more than 700 hundred percentage. Chief Tobin broke out of this mindset by working with a variety of city, state, and federal agencies and expanding the scope from simply seizing of guns to other issues related to culture of gun in the community. She symbolizes the thinking police leader as “one who understands the literature and uses data to develop a comprehensive understanding of leadership responsibilities.” Democratic police have to strike a balance between the due process and crime control functions, and this is the function of a thinking leader. Adding on to the traits of thinking leaders, Cook et al. (2023) argue that thinking leadership exhibits three streams comprising the following:
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• Cognitive domain: ability apply knowledge to particular situation at the right moment and place in time • Reflective domain: capacity for seeing events and circumstances from multiple perspectives • Compassionate domain: desire and determination to foster the well-being of all These traits are necessary “to foster the ability of individuals and institutions to navigate the challenging circumstances of life that they face.” Based on the case study of Lee Brown, an eminent Black Chief of Police in the USA, Cook et al. describe the thinking leader as one who “thoughtfully engages with community members and their shifting environment.” One such example comes from his efforts to go beyond “managing citizen referrals to relevant neighborhood service providers [by] frequently fielding concerns about hazardous city living conditions.” In an instance, when property owners refused to make necessary repairs, Brown mobilized his contacts with the local legal aid bureau to help tenants organize a rent strike and forced property owners to take action. It is noteworthy that Brown’s doctoral thesis “on the efficacy of urban police community relations programs was among the first rigorous evaluations of its kind” displaying the characteristics of a thinking leader that we have identified above. A major initiative was creation of “a comprehensive PCR curriculum customized for patrolmen and their supervisors and wholly dedicated to wrestling with human problems, not just police problems.” The objectives of this revision were both educational and behavioral, and so the training involved lessons in Black history; police role in Black communities and Community power and politics of leadership. These were meant to help officers sincerely understand the problems and develop good relations with the Black community. Brown pursued this innovation with the conviction that “reform could only be achieved by rethinking police work in its totality.” Lee Brown’s career symbolizes efforts of a thinking leader who brings together rigorous research, sustainable resources, and contributions from intellectuals to rethink policing of an ever evolving and diverse democratic society. Cook et al. (2023) argue that this presents two models for understanding the thinking leader – those of shared or collective leadership, and adaptive leadership. The shared leadership can help illuminate the dynamics of change implementation and understand ways in which officers and engaged citizens bring organizational change and police reform. The adaptive leaders are “oriented towards change, experimentation, and innovation to handle challenges and adapt to an evolving environment.” The thinking leadership prioritizes open-mindedness, creativity, and socially engaged problem solving and must be open to various inputs to include community stakeholders in addressing the emerging problems. Cook et al. (2023) argue that the Latin phrase, Respice Adspice Prospice (examine the past, the present, and future), serves as a framework for assessing the role of a thinking leader. In this regard, Lee Brown “coupled institutional and professional know-how with communal learn-how and leveraged personal and professional experiences.” As a thinking leader, he was able to bring about significant and lasting changes that not only addressed the problems but went deeper to treat the symptoms also.
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William Bratton in his fascinating interview with Henry (2023) asserts the significance of this theme of community policing and argues that it had a profound impact upon changing police practices. He adds that to the Three Ps’ of policing – Partnership, Problem-solving, and Prevention – community policing brought another important concept of Trust which the police must earn from the community. Bratton further points out that not only the police must act constitutionally but also compassionately. Henry (2023) brings to light that Bratton’s Compstat was not simply a regular crime analysis meeting but it symbolized “a complete re-engineering.” Bratton changed the continuing policies and practices moved officers at the management and executive levels, and brought a new culture to address the grave problems of crime and disorder of New York city. An important characteristic of the thinking leader identified by Bratton is building the team to usher the reforms. “One of the strengths that you want in a leader is the ability of that person to find the right people to get on the bus with you, that want to go in the direction you want to go.” Equally important is to “Identify those who need to get off the bus”! Significantly, these team members should be those who “have their own ideas, they have their own thoughts and that they have the ability to basically load up their own bus.” Another important characteristic of a leader is “to encourage creativity and to take risks” and this was undertaken by the Compstat process. The Indian Police Service by its system of recruitment, extensive training, nature of leadership positions, and increasing emphasis on research-based and evidence- based policing serves as a very fertile ground for police thinkers (Suri and Verma 2023). Pradnya Saravade, is a “natural” thinking police leader from India. She belongs to this Indian Police Service cadre, one which provides police leadership to all police units in the country and enjoys extraordinary status and reputation in the society. The selection to the IPS is a difficult and challenging process; just about 100 officers from a pool of more than one million aspirants are selected. The candidates must compete in a rigorous national examination in which the top graduates from various universities compete. Every IPS officer is highly qualified, many with doctorates and professional degrees. David Bayley (1969) calls IPS officer an “educated” person. IPS officers undergo rigorous training at the national academy and then in field settings before serving as district superintendent of police. “As middle managers they play a major role in strengthening organizational capacities, planning and implementing criminal justice policies and enhancing the professional competence of state & central government police forces.” These police officers have done extraordinarily well in investigation, large-scale event management, research, and community policing initiatives. “IPS officers are [regularly] profiled by various media outlets for handling difficult problems and for designing creative responses to deal with myriad challenges confronting the Indian society” (Suri and Verma 2023). Among this gallery of thinking officers, Dr. Pradnya Saravade is “one of the most accomplished, experienced and nationally renowned police officers of the country” (Suri and Verma 2023). She displays the characteristics of being a perceptive observer who continues to learn and educate herself. In her long career of 30 years, she has taken specialized roles like investigation of bank and securities scams: as
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head of investigation and chief vigilance officer with India’s Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and as vigilance officer for perhaps India’s richest government corporation, Maharashtra’s City and Industrial Development Corporation. In every position, she has won laurels and introduced innovations that stand out. Her blog is the “Pensieve” for thoughts on policing, which is meant for discussing “solutions on the problems of policing in India.” As the chief administrator for the Maharashtra Police Directorate, she designed and executed technological solutions to reform crime and administrative records data. Her innovations included analytical dashboards incorporating Geographical Information Systems and data visualization. This dashboard enabled real-time data structured in terms of crime trends, base maps, daily crime report, vigilance enquiries, health care, training, stocks of arms and ammunition, patrolling of vehicles and budgetary expenditure, etc. – all available at the click of a button for the whole state or even a particular district or city on GIS. This system enabled decisions based on numerical and geographic data, and combination of various variables. Pradnya symbolizes that a police thinker is also a doer and one who allows the subordinates to make mistakes and give them credit for a job done right. A major responsibility of such a leader is to encourage personnel to develop problem-solving skills and to bring new ideas to the job. More importantly, a thinker’s philosophy should incorporate an effective operations manager who can discern patterns and standardize the operations. As Pradnya illustrates, the focus must be on preventive policing, enhancing professionalism, and designing procedures to mitigate problems faced by the citizens. The thinking leader should continue to look for areas to address issues of “process changes, behavior modelling, policy making and creative problem solving” (Suri and Verma 2023). Cordner and Shearing (2023) argue that a police leader is like a CEO of an organization. Generally, police leaders are judged by their ability to “control crime and disorder” and to provide policing “that is fair, lawful, and responsive to the needs of the public.” They exercise considerable authority, and their ability to “distribute rewards and punishments” are means through which they can bring changes to the organization. The thinking leader adopts a “transformational style of leadership,” seeking to convince his officers “to new ways of carrying out the policing function” rather than merely following rules and procedures. Another important characteristic is humility, which implies an implicit quality of accepting responsibilities and willingness to change course. The police leader is appointed by the political executive and is additionally responsible to members of the organization as well as the citizens of the community. Any change must be addressed to all the three constituents, and failure to carry them could lead to loss of command. While these challenges keep all CEOs of police organizations busy and involved, a thinking leader must keep in mind the vision for policing and who strives to influence the three components to share this vision. All case studies of thinking leaders suggest that they are not merely thinking creatively but also speaking and communicating to provide directions, solutions, or simply stimulate the personnel to explore solutions outside the box. They are visionaries who understand where the organization needs to move and use technology to
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revolutionize policing practices, investigation, and service delivery. Moreover, they are vanguards of the organization who have the integrity and confidence to call out where police or political actions have jeopardized police functioning, principles, professionalism, and practices for public good. Thinking leaders are “healers in the system that have built bridges across to the community” (Suri and Verma 2023). More significantly, they are crusaders who call for institutional changes rather than remain satisfied with ad hoc measures. Police thinkers are all of these – visionaries, vanguards, healers, reformers, and professionals. They maintain long-term vision and operate through short-term plans. At every stage, they develop and promote scientific evaluation methods to measure what is being achieved and be ready to go back to the drawing boards if needed. “They know the possibilities and also the limitations of technology. They understand the role of police in society, understand their mandate, make use of each career assignment to look for patterns, reform, institutionalize, and deliver” (Suri and Verma 2023).
Case Studies of Thinking Police Leader Each chapter provides detailed case study of a remarkable police leader who exemplifies a thinking leader. Apart from displaying the characteristics mentioned above, they also have brought about major changes in their organization and institutionalized their reforms. The following case studies illustrate what we mean by a police leader as a thinker. Roni Alsheich has served with distinction as the Chief in Israel Police Department. After a long stint in the Israeli Security Agency, he was chosen to implement reforms when police-community relations were strained and the police were criticized for inefficiency and ineffectiveness. He took the lead in making his officers think of preventing terrorist attacks rather than counting the number of arrests that they were making through counter-terrorism. An important role that he played exhibiting breaking from the norm was to establish an advisory board to develop appropriate methods for building the evidence-based policing model. He also started the Police Strategic Planning Division’s Research department that could involve academics in evaluating EMUN [acronym for Hebrew term: Logistics Operations and Assets Division]. This involved focus upon problem-oriented policing, situational crime prevention, hot spot analysis, and community-oriented policing. Alsheich achieved this by introducing new technology, policies, procedures, training, and resources despite resistance from entrenched bureaucratic skepticism. The structure was one defined by Goldstein whose SARA model in the Problem-Oriented Policing concept was introduced by setting new standards, procedures, and resources. This was exemplified by the changes he brought in measuring success of police units. Earlier, it was based upon apprehension of the offender, but he changed that to the prevention of crime. This was seen in the prevention of cellphone thefts at the beach. Empowering the officers to work with the municipality to provide affordable lockers and monitoring their usage led to a measurable decline in these crimes.
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Alsheich applied the same principles to the crime of date rape that was being reported by the media. The offenders were using date-rape drugs that quickly evaporate from the body and cannot be proven if these have been administered. He worked with forensics to develop simple kits that can test these drugs and forced the clubs to show these videos. This educational campaign, which involved the community too, led to a serious reduction because it helped the victims to call the police when given such drugs. The authors state his approach was one based upon science and proven results. Moreover, the plan was transparent and user friendly for the field officers. The evidence-based policing model helped evolve measures to judge its effectiveness and let him see the big picture and adjust decisions in accordance. This transformation was achieved by building and empowering his team that subscribed to his thinking and accepted his scheme. Alsheich started by first educating himself and sought out criminologists from Hebrew University to familiarize himself with the latest research findings. He based his ideas centered on these results and shared with his officers. The outcome was that all his officers began to see the same objective creating dynamic synergy and synchronization within the team. He debated his opinions with them and encouraged them to react and challenge them. This helped in widespread acceptance of his vision and plans. He says, “it became a common language spoken by all the counterterrorism subdivisions” (Perry, Hasisi and Weisburd 2023) and the language of every geographical unit and also the headquarters. Furthermore, in an unusual but significant manner, Alsheich subscribed to the vision of evidence-based policing, about “what works best” in a deliberate manner. This perspective promotes scientific research that improves both strategic and tactical functions of the organization. An important component of this kind of policing is to bring together criminologists, people who are trained in scientific methods as also have considerable real police experiences and crime analysts. In order to institutionalize evidence-based policing, Alsheich brought together technology, policies, training, procedures, and requisite resources “sustained through the police hierarchal structure, through formal accountability, and informally through the organizational culture.” Alsheich invited external scrutiny by way of academic study of police functions and went ahead to build a national advisory board and a national academic advisory forum. He opened the doors to external inputs and sold the idea of constant cooperation with the academic community as an important and strategic step for reform of Israeli police. In particular, he used these institutional mechanisms to develop and evaluate the new EMUN strategy focusing upon problem-oriented policing: situational crime prevention, hot spots policing, and community policing through standard operating procedures and technology-based tools. The reforms he implemented were done to organize policing around three central functions: “services to the citizens according to their needs as well as the needs of the communities in which they live (low policing), sophisticated enforcement of complex crimes (high policing), and effective treatment of all offenses that harm quality of life.” He has rightly been described as a “super evidence based cop.” Commissioner Mal Hyde of South Australia Police (SAPOL) has been praised as one of the most proactive leaders within Australian policing. In June 2002, he
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initiated a problem-solving model as a major program of SAPOL. This reform, based on evidence-based policing, targeted patterns of crime, hotspots, and repeat offenders. He attributes his success to the efforts in changing the thinking of his officers by presenting them with a vision and empowering his executive officers to experiment and forge new paths. Jim Bueermann served as the Chief of Redlands Police Department in California who also introduced evidence-based policing. He acknowledged the significance of associating with academics and hired a criminologist for supporting his efforts. A major initiative was to stop the hundred-year-old beat strategy and replace with focus upon hot spots determined by weekly crime analysis. Likewise, when the existing juvenile crime policing was seen not to be giving the desired results, he changed the system and stopped the resources allotted to the unit. The ability to change course, acknowledge failures, and forge a new path distinguished him from other reformers. These examples illustrate that the adoption of evidence-based policing is difficult since it involves innovative thinking and changes in organizational culture. The approach has to be carefully planned and executed. Poor implementation will result in failures to institutionalize a science-based approach to professional policing. Chief Tobin described how creating a project for gun violence reduction led her to involve many agencies and bring them under the same roof. She brought together all the five-district attorneys, the Eastern and Southern Federal Districts, as well as probation/ parole, and the sheriff’s department. She stated, “The entire City and New York State are all in the same room” to deal with gun violence reduction efforts. Her next project is to work on the policing of mental health patients who invariably cause serious confrontation with the officers. She is seeking out the health professionals and collaborating with the health department, the care-givers, and paramedics to train the first responders. She acknowledged the police department asks their officers to do a tremendous amount of work and take responsibility in dealing with people who need medical help rather than be held accountable for law violation. She stressed that her officers need to be given adequate tools which can only come from collaboration with other agencies. Police Chief Hirofumi Ichese handled the specific challenges confronted by organized crime in Japan. He had field experience of combating Yakuza by coordinating inter-agency efforts, including auditing accounts to tame the formidable mafia. As the vice chief of the organized crime division, he focused upon the sources of funding needed by Yakuza for its operations. The government infrastructure projects were generally cornered by organized crime syndicates. While front companies were examined for possible connections, sub-contractors escaped the scrutiny: a loophole exploited by Yakuza. Hirofumi networked with mandarins in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan Water Agencies, and the Urban Renaissance Agency to prevent involvement in government projects by Yakuza front companies. His persistence and ability to elicit cooperation from other government agencies managed to limit Yakuza’s reach into public funds. Japanese government provides extensive welfare funds to the poor: a scheme which was being “milked” by Yakuza. Hirofumi again built collaboration with the Welfare
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ministry to issue an ordinance that empowered lower offices to reject applications for public assistance sponsored by the Yakuza. This cooperative approach helped in successfully arresting a Yakuza head for tax evasion for the first time in Japanese police history. Hirofumi’s philosophy reflects a thinking leader: “You discuss with them, listen to them, accept them, leave the work to them otherwise they would never progress. You keep watching the progress they make with appreciation and trust, otherwise they would never fully mature” (Yoshida 2023). He emphasized the conventional vertical leadership Hirofumi always appreciated the power of lateral leadership and a holistic approach in networking beyond institutional boundaries. Lee Brown is another extraordinary thinking leader whose contributions have changed American police in many ways. One of his remarkable achievements was the creation of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives that focused upon “knowledge-oriented scholar activism” that promoted “research to disseminate minority perspectives on law enforcement prerogatives and push for institutional changes in police policy and practice.” These efforts led to the publication of Black Crime: A Police View (Bryce 1978) and The Inequality of Justice (US Department of Justice 1982) that brought attention to racial discrimination and mass incarceration of young Black males. For his leadership roles in Atlanta, Houston, and New York in developing a comprehensive law enforcement concept and operational philosophy, he was referred as the “father of community policing,” an important component of which was “power-sharing” with the local residents by the police. Pradnya Saravade’s police career exemplifies how thinking leaders achieve extraordinary heights. She has investigated bank and securities scams as member of the premier Central Bureau of Investigation; has served as chief vigilance officer with India’s Securities and Exchange Board of India and as vigilance officer for perhaps India’s richest government corporation, Maharashtra’s City and Industrial Development Corporation. As in charge of Administration wing of the Maharashtra Police Directorate, she ushered innovations in data management and in using innovative technologies like Geographical Information Systems and data visualization. “As Inspector General of Police (Provisions) where the position was responsible for planning and centralized purchases of weaponry, vehicles and equipment and where she handled a budget of about INR 4 billion (USD 73 million), she focused on evolving strategy formulation for the standard annual purchases and the newer technology and operational requirements to cover the entire gamut of policing activities like street policing, investigations, anti-insurgency and anti-terror operations” (Suri and Verma 2023). Pradnya Saravade was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mumbai Port Zone in 2000–2003 which was an area with a large slum population. As seen in most metropolitan cities, these areas attract new immigrants who are opposed by the older residents of the city (Kawalerowicz 2021). People from all over the country, especially from South India, flocked to this port area for work and affordable shanties. Soon, large numbers settled there leading to frequent conflicts with the native Maharashtrian people. “The jurisdiction was affected by a large number of noncognizable offence reports of small fights and disputes, issues of slums unauthorizedly occupying government land and festering law and order issues due to the
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same” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview). The typical response of the police was to ignore the peoples’ complaints asking them to seek redressal in courts. Another problem for the leadership was that officers’ mediating in issues of minor scuffles invariably led to allegations of corruption, highhandedness, and dissatisfaction at the public end. Pradnya supported a system of Mohalla Panchayats [neighborhood councils] that were devised in the model of village panchayats which are familiar to everyone in rural parts of India. People without any previous police records and a Sub Inspector were made a part of the local Mohalla Panchayat which would meet once a month, look into the minor disputes reported at the police station, call both affected parties, and try to arrive at a solution that was also legally right. It helped to cut out frictions in the slum population. Additionally, with the open police engagement in the community, there was more trust in the police, and there was better communication between the officers and the community. “It aided in handling law and order situations and obtaining intelligence from the land area and also of the happenings in the Sea” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview). The system was found to be very effective and the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, replicated it across the megapolis. In another posting as Deputy Commissioner of Police (Enforcement), she collaborated with the Indian IT industry association (NASSCOM) to organize two annual cyber security public awareness campaigns for the first time in India. Furthermore, out of the surplus funds raised by the IT industry for the campaign, she supported the idea of setting up a permanent training facility on cyber literacy for police investigators. Pradnya supervised the project of setting up of the Mumbai Cyber Lab, in Mumbai, with the vision to create a multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence for enhancing Cyber Security in the megapolis. Another major contribution was the Strategy Support System, a project involving setting up of the GIS system, development of software, integration of the system with the national Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network System, and implementation of the project with their concomitant organizational and behavioral changes. The implementation of the project did not begin and end with software development. Part of this ambitious project was delineating the boundaries of more than 1000 police stations. In the development of the project, she took assistance of Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre for the GIS System Development in addition to software engineers who were attached to Police Headquarters as Fellows. At present, the police jurisdiction map tools of the system show all the police department units including headquarters, police stations, and range offices on GIS map. The system also shows location-based offences with the name of police stations and crime statistics. The dashboard developed by her with the assistance of software interns provides “graphical and structural analysis” of various police departments’ subjects. These include crime trends, expenditure, base maps, daily crime report, departmental enquiries, health care, training, stocks of arms and ammunition, and patrolling of vehicles – all available at the click of a button for the whole state or even a particular district or city on GIS. The advantage of the system is that decisions are supported
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with various kinds of numerical and geographic data, and understanding of various variables. Integrity of the data is ensured and the same data is available at headquarters and district level. As an example, under Motor Vehicle module, information on fleet age, expenditure and repair per vehicle, monthly average fuel consumption per vehicle, and monthly average running per vehicle became available to the police headquarters in tabular and graphical formats. This data could be analyzed with registered crimes, police officers, and total number of vehicles in any region of the vast state helping measure efficiency or lack thereof, of the concerned unit’s police fleet. “The need to call for reams of reports from field units has been obviated. The system has helped to rule out discrepancies in data, aided in standardizing decision making variables and ensuring objectivity” (Pradnya Saravade, Interview). Darryl Stephens (Cook et al. 2023) is an exemplar for “police leader as a thinker.” His career symbolizes the characteristics that we have described above. He has served as the “chief executive of four different police departments and executive director of two major national associations. He has also authored or coauthored over 30 reports, articles, and books, and has advised Congress and several presidential administrations on matters related to policing and homeland security.” Starting his career in 1968 at Kansas City, Missouri, he soon earned recognition for his professionalism and at a young age of 28 was appointed Assistant Chief in Lawrence, Kansas, and was just 31 when appointed Chief in Largo, Florida. All throughout, he was frequently involved in research and special projects that led him to be on the Executive Sessions on Policing, sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and organized by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. During the years 1986–1992, Darrel also served as Executive Director of the Police Executive Research Forum. After serving as Chief in St. Petersburg and Charlotte, he also served as Executive Director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) for 7 years. These assignments provided him the opportunity to be involved with developments in police reforms and be a leader in the larger police profession. Darryl Stephens was involved in some innovative experiments in policing during his long tenure. At Kansas City, “he helped design and carry out a field test of two patrol strategies, one focused on high-crime areas and the other on highly-active offenders.” Apart from being part of this famous Kansas City Patrolling Experiment (Kelling et al. 1974), he was also involved with the very first test of problem-oriented policing at Newport News, Virginia (Eck, Spelman, Hill, Stephens and Murray 1987). This test has influenced our understanding of POP and subsequent developments of Community-Oriented Policing. This also displayed his acumen in “thinking analytically about crime and disorder problems; examining what is causing them; searching for creative solutions and finding ways to assess their efficacy in a scientific manner”. Darrel has also published extensively too and has collaborated with many leading scholars of policing. As a recognized Chief, he also contributed in mentoring many other chiefs and future leaders directly and through ancillary activities. His contributions in reforming the American police are appreciable and he exemplifies a thinker who is a doer also.
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Epilogue Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, states that an important consideration for the organizational leader is “empowering every manager and every individual to start coming up with norms that work for that team, given the context of what that team is trying to get done” (Ignatius 2021). Seppala and Cameron (2022) suggest that the leader is a positive energizer who can uplift others through authentic value-based leadership. Such leaders “demonstrate and cultivate virtuous actions, including forgiveness, compassion, humility, kindness, trust, integrity, honesty, generosity, gratitude, and recognition in the organization.” We believe a thinking police leader exhibits these qualities and more. Policing is a unique profession that provides crucial service to the citizens and at the same time regulates their activities with the threat of force and penal action. Citizens want police to provide security and order but fear its powers and want to restrict it also. This invariably involves a compromise. Marx (1995) states then need to “guard against the misuse of physical, psychological and moral coercion by police as well as to uphold human, civil and social rights and dignity in an equitable manner.” Accordingly, what we want is police that functions with restraint in enforcing the law and maintaining order in the society. This is even more important now in the twenty-first century when the world is confronting new problems. The challenges of terrorism and cybercrimes are posing existential threats to democratic societies. The irrational violence and targeting of innocent citizens is placing the police in unchartered situations. Officers have to provide safety and security as combat these offenders, many of who are operating from beyond the borders. The outreach by schemes like the demographic profiling of Muslims by NYPD and even more intrusive tactics by NSA are clearly unacceptable. Technology has to be used widely but with caution and keeping the constitutional safeguards of the society. Accordingly, the thinking police leader must keep in account this larger objective in re-designing the organization to address the problems and foreseeable problems. All the characteristics that we have outlined above must adhere to this condition of democratic policing. A far-sighted thinking leader seeks to create a police organization that strengthens democracy and understand that policing will be more effective if it has the support of, and input from, the community. The examples of police leaders as thinkers that we have presented here illustrate that this is still possible despite the upheaval of technological revolution and growing problems of human society.
Appendix I Country 1994 Switzerland 1995 Spain 1996 Japan 1997 Austria
Theme Police Challenges and Strategies Challenges of Policing Democracies Organized Crime International Police Cooperation
Host Canton Police, Geneva, Switzerland International Institute of the Sociology of Law, Basque Country, Spain Kanagawa University Federal Police in Vienna, Austria
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Conclusion Country 1998 The Netherlands 1999 India
Theme Crime Prevention
Host Dutch Police, Europol
Policing of Public Order
Andhra Pradesh Police, Hyderabad, India Northwestern University, Center for Public Safety Police of Poland
2000 USA, Illinois Traffic Policing 2001 Poland 2002 Turkey 2003 Bahrain 2004 Canada
2005 The Czech Republic 2006 Turkey
2007 Dubai 2008 USA, Ohio
2009 FYR Macedonia
2010 Malta
2011 India
2012 Argentina
2013 Sweden 2014 USA, New York 2015 Hungary
Corruption: A Threat to World Order Police Education and Training Police and Community Criminal Exploitation of Women and Children
Challenges of Policing in the 21st Century: A Global Assessment Local Linkages to Global Security and Crime: Thinking Locally and Acting Globally Urbanization and Security Police Without Borders: The Fading Distinction Between Local & Global Policing, the Private Sector, Economic Development & Social Change: Contemporary Global Trends Tourism, Strategic Locations & Major Events: Policing in an Age Community Policing: Theoretical Problems and Operational Issues Policing Violence, Crime, Disorder, & Discontent: International Perspectives Contemporary Issues in Public Safety & Security Economic Development, Armed Violence and Public Safety Global Issues in Contemporary Policing
Turkish National Police Kingdom of Bahrain Abbotsford Police Department Canadian Police College Royal Canadian Mounted Police University College of the Fraser Valley Vancouver Police Department The Czech Police Academy, The Ministry of the Interior, The Czech Republic Turkish National Police
Dubai Police Cincinnati Police Department & Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police Ministry of Interior, Republic of Macedonia
Commissioner John Rizzo and Malta Police Government of Kerala and the Kerala Police Department IPES
The Blekinge Technological Institute and the Swedish Police In Cooperation with United Nations Dept of Economic & Social Affairs NGO Branch The Ministry of Interior and The Hungarian National Police
230 Country 2016 India
2017 Bulgaria
2018 Thailand
2019 USA, Washington DC 2020 England
2021 Austria 2022 Serbia
Appendix I Theme Policing by Consent: Theoretical Challenges and Operational Issues Crime Prevention & Community Resilience: Police Role with Victims, Youth, Ethnic Minorities and Other Partners Police Governance and Human Trafficking: Promoting Preventative and Comprehensive Strategies Urban Security: Challenges for 21st Century Global Cities
Host Kerala Police Department
IPES and the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior
The Royal Thai Police Association, The Royal Thai Police and Shinawatra University The George Washington University
Liverpool John Moores University Organized Crime & Terrorism: Policing Challenges for Local to International level International Police Cooperation United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Contemporary Police Challenges IPES in Light of a New World and New Knowledge
Appendix II A. ADVANCES IN POLICE THEORY AND PRACTICE – ROUTLEDGE
1. Exploring contemporary police challenges: a global perspective • Sanja Kutnjak Ivković • Jon Maskály • Christopher M. Donner • Irena Cajner Mraović • Dilip Das
2. Translational criminology in policing • The George Mason police research • David Weisburd
3. Police behavior, hiring, and crime fighting: an international view • John A. Eterno • Ben Stickle • Diana Scharff Peterson • Dilip K. Das
4. Women in policing around the world: doing gender and policing in a gendered organization • Vanessa Garcia
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5. Policing in France • Jacques de Maillard • Wesley G. Skogan
6. Policing and mentally ill: international perspectives • Duncan Chappell
7. Civilian oversight of police: advancing accountability in law enforcement • Tim Prenzler • Garth den Heyer
8. Cold cases: evaluation models with follow-up strategies for investigators, second edition • James M. Adcock • Sarah L. Stein 9. Collaborative policing: police, academics, professionals, and communities working together for education, training, and program implementation • Peter C. Kratcoski • Maximilian Edelbacher 10. Community policing: international patterns and comparative perspectives • Dominique Wisler • Ihekwoaba D. Onwudiwe 11. Community policing and peacekeeping • Peter Grabosky 12. Crime linkage: theory, research, and practice • Jessica Woodhams • Craig Bennell 13. Delivering police services effectively • Garth den Heyer 14. Ethics for police translators and interpreters • Sedat Mulayim • Miranda Lai 15. Honor-based violence: policing and prevention • Karl Anton Roberts • Gerry Campbell • Glen Lloyd 16. Los Angeles police department meltdown: the fall of the professional- reform model of policing • James Lasley 17. Police corruption: preventing misconduct and maintaining integrity • Tim Prenzler
232
Appendix II
18. Police integrity management in Australia: global lessons for combating police misconduct • Louise Porter • Tim Prenzler 19. Police investigative interviews and interpreting: context, challenges and strategies • Sedat Mulayim • Miranda Lai • Caroline Norma 20. Police performance appraisals: a comparative perspective • Serdar Kenan Gul • Paul O’Connell 21. Police organized crime: intelligence strategy implementation • Petter Gottschalk 22. Policing terrorism: research studies into police counterterrorism investigations • David Lowe 23. Policing white-collar crime: characteristics of white-collar criminals • Petter Gottschalk 24. Policing in Hong Kong: history and reform • Kam C. Wong 25. Policing in Israel: counterterrorism • Tal Jonathan-Zamir • David Weisburd • Badi Hasisi
studying
crime
control,
community,
and
26. Security governance, policing, and local capacity • Jan Froestad • Clifford Shearing 27. The international trafficking of human organs: a multidisciplinary perspective • Leonard Territo • Rande Matteson 28. Police and society in Brazil • Vicente Riccio • Wesley G. Skogan 29. Police reform in China • Kam C. Wong
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30. Cold cases: an evaluation model with follow-up strategies for investigators • James M. Adcock • Sarah L. Stein 31. The crime numbers game: management by manipulation • John A. Eterno • Eli B. Silverman 32. Mission-based policing • John P. Crank • Dawn M. Irlbeck • Rebecca K. Murray • Mark Sundermeier 33. The new khaki: the evolving nature of policing in India • Arvind Verma B. CO-PUBLICATIONS – Routledge/Taylor & Francis 34.
Change and Reform in Law Enforcement: Old and New Efforts from Across the Globe • Scott W. Phillips • Dilip K. Das
35. Contemporary Issues in Law Enforcement and Policing • Ph.D. Millie • Dilip K. Das 36. Criminal Abuse of Women and Children: An International Perspective • Obi N.I. Ebbe • Dilip K. Das 37. Economic Development, Crime, and Policing: Global Perspectives • Frederic Lemieux • Garth den Heyer • Dilip K. Das 38. Effective crime reduction strategies: international perspectives • James F. Albrecht • Dilip K. Das 39. Examining political violence: studies of terrorism, counterterrorism, and international war • David Lowe • Austin Turk • Dilip K. Das 40. Global community policing: problems and Challenges • Arvind Verma • Dilip K. Das • Manoj Abraham
234
Appendix II
41. Global environment of policing • Darren Palmer • Michal M. Berlin • Dilip K. Das 42. Global issues in contemporary policing • John Eterno • Arvind Verma • Aiedeo Mintie Das • Dilip K. Das 43. Global perspectives on crime prevention and community resilience • Diana Scharff Peterson • Dilip K. Das 44. Global trafficking in women and children • Obi N.I. Ebbe • Dilip K. Das 45. Police without borders: the fading distinction between local and global • Cliff Roberson • Dilip K. Das • Jennie K. Singer 46. Policing global movement: tourism, migration, human trafficking and terrorism • S. Caroline Taylor • Daniel Joseph Torpy • Dilip K. Das 47. The evolution of policing: worldwide innovations and insights • Melchor C. de Guzman • Aiedeo Mintie Das • Dilip K. Das 48. Urbanization, policing and security: global perspectives • Gary Cordner • AnnMarie Cordner • Dilip K. Das 49. Policing major events: perspectives from around the world • James F. Albrecht • Martha Christine Dow • Darryl Plecas • Dilip K. Das 50. Strategies and responses to crime: Thinking locally, acting globally • Melchor de Guzman
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• Aiedeo Mintie Das • Dilip K. Das C. INTERVIEWS WITH GLOBAL LEADERS IN POLICING, COURTS AND PRISONS – ROUTLEDGE 51.
Trends in the judiciary: interviews with judges across the globe, volume four • Wendell C. Wallace • Michael M. Berlin • Dilip K. Das
52. Trends in policing: interviews with police leaders across the globe, volume six • Bruce F. Baker • Dilip K. Das 53. Trends in corrections: interviews with corrections leaders around the world, volume two • Martha Henderson Hurley • Dilip K. Das 54. Trends in corrections: interviews with corrections leaders around the world, volume one • Jennie K. Singer • Dilip K. Das • Eileen Ahlin 55. Trends in legal advocacy: interviews with prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers across the globe, volume one • Jane Goodman-Delahunty • Dilip K. Das 56. Trends in policing: interviews with police leaders across the globe, volume five • Bruce F. Baker • Dilip K. Das 57. Trends in policing: interviews with police leaders across the globe, volume four • Bruce F. Baker • Dilip K. Das 58. Trends in the judiciary: interviews with judges across the globe, volume one • Dilip K. Das • Cliff Roberson 59. Trends in the judiciary: interviews with judges across the globe, volume three • David Lowe • Dilip K. Das
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60.
Appendix II
Trends in the judiciary: interviews with judges across the globe, volume two • David Lowe • Dilip K. Das
61. Trends in corrections: interviews with corrections leaders around the world, volume three • Dilip K. Das • Philip Birch 62. Trends in policing: interviews with police leaders across the globe, volume two • Dilip K. Das • Otwin Marenin 63. Trends in policing: interviews with police leaders across the globe, volume three • Otwin Marenin • Dilip K. Das
References Bayley, DH. 1969. Police and Political Development in India, Princeton: University Press. Bonchek, Mark and Steele, Elisa. 2015. What kind of thinker are you? Harvard Business Review, November 23. https://hbr.org/2015/11/what-kind-of-thinker-are-you Brodeur, Jean-Paul. 1983. High Policing and Low Policing: Remarks about the Policing of Political Activities, Social Problems, Vol. 30, No. 5: 507–520 Bryce, Herrington J. 1978. Black Crime: A Police View, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, U.S. Department of Justice. Cook, DeAnza; LePere-Schloop, Megan; Silk, Dan and Cook, Brian N. 2023. ‘Relational Policing at an Inflection Point: A Need for Police Leaders as Thinkers’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Cordner, Gary and Shearing, Clifford. 2023. ‘Darrel Stephens: An American Police Leader with Vision’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Coxhead, John. 2023. ‘The Thought Police: The need for police leaders as thinkers’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Eck, J., Spellman, W., Hill, D., Stephens, D., and Murphy, G. 1987. Problem Solving: Problem Oriented Policing in Newport News. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum. Eterno, John. 2023. ‘Police Leaders as Thinkers: Interview with Chief Theresa Tobin, PhD, Chief of Interagency Operations, NYPD’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Griffiths, Curt Taylor and Dubord, Neil. 2023. ‘How do we Recognize Police-Leader Thinkers?’ In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Hasisi, Badi and Perry, Simon. 2023. ‘Interview with [Former] General Commissioner of the Israel Police: Roni Alsheich’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Henry, Vincent E. 2023. ‘Police, Race, Crime, and Leadership: Interview with William J Bratton’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer.
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Ignatius, Alt. 2021. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella on Flexible Work, the Metaverse, and the Power of Empathy. Harvard Business Review, Oct 28 https://hbr.org/2021/10/ microsofts-satya-nadella-on-flexible-work-the-metaverse-and-the-power-of-empathy Kawalerowicz, Juta. 2021. Too many immigrants: How does local diversity contribute to attitudes toward immigration? Acta Sociologica, 64(2): 144–165. Kelling, G.; Pate, A.; Dickman, D.; Brown, C (1974). The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment: A technical report. Police Foundation Kratcoski, Peter. 2023. ‘Police leadership: A Learning Experience’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Marx, Gary. 1995. Police and Democracy, The Encyclopedia of Democracy http://web.mit.edu/ gtmarx/www/poldem.html Patel, Deep. 2018. 16 characteristics of critical thinkers, Entrepreneur Oct 24 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/321660 Perry, Simon; Hasisi, Badi and Weisburd, David. 2023. ‘The Contribution of the ‘Super Evidence Cop’: Key Role of Police Leaders in Advancing Evidence-Based Policing’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. Seppala, Emma and Cameron, Kim. 2022. The best leaders have contagious positive energy, Harvard Business Review, April 18 https://hbr.org/2022/04/ the-best-leaders-have-a-contagious-positive-energy?registration=success Suri, Deepika and Verma, Arvind. 2023. ‘Thinking Police Leader in India: Case Study of Dr. Pradnya Saravade, IPS’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer. US National Minority Council on Criminal Justice. 1982. The Inequality of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Assistance, Research, and Statistics Verma, Arvind. 2008. “Interview with Kiran Bedi, Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development, Indian Police Service, New Delhi: Interviewed by Arvind Verma”, In Dilip K Das and Otwin Marenin (Eds.) Trends in Policing: Interviews with Police Leaders Across the Globe, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Pp. 129–141. Yoshida, Naoko. 2023. ‘Hirofumi: A Japanese Thinking Police Leader’, In Arvind Verma and Dilip K Das (Eds.) Police Leader as a Thinker, Springer.
Index
B Broken windows, 22, 27, 191, 206, 207 C Canada, 2, 3, 7, 13, 14, 57, 58, 147, 168, 229 Community policing, 31, 46, 48, 51, 53, 58, 92, 96, 97, 112, 130, 146, 148, 157, 158, 175, 178, 179, 195–197, 220, 223, 225, 229, 231, 233 CompStat, 22, 27, 28, 32, 110, 111, 138, 191, 192, 197, 199–201, 206, 220 Crisis situations, 49, 50, 54 E Evidence based policing (EBP), 105–109, 114–116 Experiential learning, 58 F Field experience, 96, 224 I India, 153–169, 216, 220, 221, 225, 226, 229, 230, 233 Indian Police Service (IPS), 153–169, 220 Interagency Operations, 21–33
L Leadership, 5–7, 10–12, 15, 16, 21, 22, 25, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38, 43–45, 47, 49–51, 53–55, 60, 61, 68–71, 73–76, 81, 82, 88, 91, 96, 97, 99–101, 107, 108, 111, 112, 114, 115, 142–144, 146–149, 151, 153, 154, 157, 158, 162, 163, 169, 180, 182–184, 189, 191–211, 215, 217–221, 225, 226, 228 Leadership strategies, 8, 16, 17, 55, 68, 100 Leadership traits, 75 M Multicultural Society, 143 N National Police Agency (NPA), 171–175, 178–183, 185–188 O Organizational culture, 4, 8, 9, 22, 107, 110, 115, 137, 204, 213, 217, 223, 224 P Police, 1–16, 21–33, 35–61, 65–77, 79–102, 105–116, 119–140, 153–169, 171, 191–210 Police by consent, 71, 183
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. Verma, D. K. Das (eds.), Police Leaders as Thinkers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19700-0
239
240 Police-community relations (PCR), 53, 84–89, 91, 93, 97, 108, 219, 222 Police education and training, 40, 171 Police innovations, 109, 111 Police Israel, 107, 108, 110, 119–140 Police Japan, 171–189 Police leader, 1, 4–17, 21, 22, 24, 31–33, 36–38, 42–50, 55–61, 65, 68–70, 72–74, 76, 77, 81, 83–97, 99–101, 105–116, 142, 147–151, 153–169, 171–189, 191–193, 198, 201, 210, 213–222, 227, 228, 235, 236 Police leader manager, 91, 101 Police leaders as ‘thinkers’, 6–8, 16, 17, 21–33, 65–77, 79–102, 142 Police NYPD, 21–33, 191–193, 197, 199, 201, 202, 204, 208–211 Police role, 2, 93, 149, 219, 230 Police science, 56, 106, 112–115 Police US, 112, 147, 149 Practitioner scholar, 90, 92 Prefectural Police Yakuza, 185–189 Problem-solving, 1, 31, 48, 53, 96, 110–112, 128, 130, 148, 150, 157, 159–163, 196, 219–221, 224
Index R Research partnership, 148, 150 S Super evidence cops, 105–116, 217 T Thinking as leadership, 68, 69 Thinking as reflection, 68 Training, 14, 15, 22, 30, 39–41, 43, 44, 46, 52, 54, 55, 57, 59, 61, 85–88, 100, 106, 107, 110, 135, 144, 149, 151, 155, 157, 162, 163, 165, 166, 168, 171, 178, 179, 184, 185, 198, 215, 219–223, 226, 229, 231 Types of leaders, 200 W Wise leadership, 82, 83, 101 Women police, 8, 11, 160