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CHAPTER3.docx3 Vision V
isioning is relatively easy. Casting a shared and clear vision, then holding one another accountable for its pursuit is what’s tough.
A vision is an expression of what a person or an organization cares about.
The insight to see new paths, the courage to try them, and judgment to measure results—these are the qualities of a leader. —MARY PARKER FOLLETT
WHY POLICE MANAGERS GET INTO TROUBLE!
The future isn’t what it used to be. —Yogi Berra Obviously police managers can get into trouble for a lot of reasons. The seven reasons I most often see follow. First, they choose to forfeit their integrity for the slick, fast, questionable shortcuts to success. Second, their vision isn’t shared by others. Third, the vision lacks clarity. Four, the vision may be great, but it is sorely void of a strategy for making it happen. Five, worse yet, it may contain a viable strategy, but there’s no built-in accountability. Six, some managers fail to recognize and deal with the existing culture.
We’ll tackle these issues in the following four sections:
• Vision
• Strategy
• Culture
• Prospection
VISION
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. —Henry David Thoreau
A vision is stable; it doesn’t change often or much. After all, what we truly value does not flip-flop daily. Values are enduring and therefore visions are, too. A vision is a compass for maintaining a steady point toward a destination that we really care about. Strategy serves as a rudder for altering direction, speed, and tactics to successfully navigate the incoming tempest to change. Visions are constant while strategies vary.
The twentieth century began by changing the old constancies, while the twenty-first century began with change as the only constant.
The remainder of this section covers (1) the ingredients or “recipe” for a vision, (2) building a shared vision or not, and (3) accountability. (The foundational need for a clear vision is a part of strategy.)
Recipe
Here are the key characteristics of vision:
Purpose/Mission. Whether you call it a mission or a purpose, a vision statement must articulate the fundamental reason for the organization’s existence. It explains exactly why you exist and why you’re important.
Future. It paints an inspiring future that is not out of sight, but slightly out of reach. It is not an idle dream, but rather a compelling picture of the way it ought to look.
Values. A vision statement is loaded with values. It tells the reader precisely what the organization stands for and is prepared to be measured on.
Principled Decision Making. A shared vision should be judged on its ability to encourage principled decisions. Here’s the question: “Does my vision statement help me to know the wrong path while pointing to the right one?” When you study your shared vision, are you comfortable that it propels you toward moral high ground?
Change Agent. A shared vision of a desirable future will automatically nudge the department for measurable progress. If a vision does not encourage constant change and new strategies, then it’s not a vision.
Conflict Resolution. All police departments struggle over issues. It’s natural that the staff will differ on the best means to resolve a problem. When this occurs, cast your attention on the shared vision, allowing it to assist in problem resolution.
Excellence. Finally, any shared vision should foster a standard of excellence—an excellence by which you, other members of your agency, and your community can measure how good you actually are. The above seven metrics are to be applied when constructing or evaluating an existing shared vision. No measurable metrics = no viable vision.
Approaches
There are two ways for building a vision statement—from the top down (command and control) or from the bottom up (empowered staff). The first approach produces a vision statement, while the latter creates one that is shared, endorsed by members of the agency.
APPROACH A: TOP DOWN
The “A” in this approach signifies above or boss down. For the past three decades many police management teams have created vision statements and worked hard on communicating them to their employees. They believe that vision comes best from the wisdom and expertise at the top of the agency. Consider the following scenario: A meeting is convened so the top managers can develop a vision statement and plan for its distribution. The intent is sincere and the content is always appealing. Each police management team affirms its uniqueness by declaring that it:
• Is committed to being a professional department.
• Believes in its people.
• Stands firm for quality.
• Cares for customers.
• Affirms honesty and integrity.
• Supports teams.
• Is innovative.
But there’s a built-in problem—ownership and implementation! Buy-in resides with those who create a vision and with them alone. A vision statement created by the chief for a police agency to endorse is not owned by the employees. An even more fundamental defect is that, in most cases, the vision statement is created by management for the rest of the organization to implement. Creating a vision statement without shared ownership is fruitless. If you want to see ownership, then all employees need to struggle with articulating their own vision of who they are, where they want to go, and what they truly believe in. And then it’s your turn to craft their insights into a vision
. Point—If a police employee does not feel ownership in a vision, why would he or she feel obligated to make it happen? End point.
APPROACH B: BOTTOM UP
The bottom-up method for achieving a vision statement escapes the two dangerous pitfalls of the top-down—ownership and implementation. The operational word here is “shared.” Yes, Approach A will give the department a vision statement but, it is Approach B that gives it a vision with consequences.
Sculpting shared vision requires time, energy, and inspiration. But it’s well worth it! Why? Because everyone acquires ownership in the final product. If you sense an ownership in something worthwhile, you’re certainly going to support it.
If a leader sincerely wants a vision to be shared by the department, then the following has to happen:
• Listen carefully to all input.
• Link it to the fundamental purpose of police work.
• Make certain all employees are equally mandated to participate (empowerment).
• Retain an open mind and reserve judgment until all views have been surfaced. • Encourage differing, even conflicting, viewpoints.
• Accept the responsibility for the ultimate departmental vision.
Examples
Let’s take a look at three vision statements. If you are tempted to take a shortcut by simply adopting all or a potion of them—don’t do it! A cookie-cutter vision statement is devoid of flavor, calories, and energy. We’ll flex the learning here by casting the three examples into a structured exercise.
STRUCTURED EXERCISE 3–1
Examine the three vision statements that follow. First, highlight all of the values you can spot in each one. Second, look for any goals and record them. Third, write a single sentence that summarizes the expressed purpose of the agency. Compare your findings with others. Are there similarities? Are there any unique concepts or values? What else did you deduce from your research? Finally, either alone or as a member of a group, develop a vision statement for your work unit.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Our Mission
The quality of neighborhood life, its safety and welfare, comes from the commitment of each of its citizens. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department takes pride in its role as a citizen of the community; partners with its members in the delivery of quality law enforcement services. We dedicate our full-time efforts to the duties incumbent upon every community member. As we act, we are universal citizens deriving our authority from those we serve. We accept our law enforcement mission to serve our communities with the enduring belief that in so doing, we serve ourselves. As professionals, we view our responsibilities as a covenant of public trust, ever mindful that we must keep our promises. As we succeed, our effectiveness will be measured by the absence of crime and fear in our neighborhoods and by the level of community respect for our efforts. In accomplishing this all-important mission, we are guided by the following principles:
To recognize that the primary purpose of our organization is not only the skillful enforcement of the law, but the delivery of humanitarian services which promote community peace.
To understand that we must maintain a level of professional competence that ensures our safety and that of the public without compromising the constitutional guarantees of any person.
To base our decisions and actions on ethical as well as practical perspectives and to accept responsibility for the consequences.
To foster a collaborative relationship with the public in determining the best course in achieving community order.
To strive for innovation, yet remain prudent in sustaining our fiscal health through wise use of resources.
To never tire of our duty, never shrink from the difficult tasks, and never lose sight of our own humanity.
Our Core Values We shall be service-oriented and perform our duties with the highest possible degree of personal and professional integrity.
Service-oriented policing means
• Protecting life and property.
• Preventing crime.
• Apprehending criminals.
• Always acting lawfully.
• Being fair and impartial and treating people with dignity.
• Assisting the community and its citizens in solving problems and maintaining the peace.
We shall treat every member of the Department, both sworn and civilian, as we would expect to be treated if the positions were reversed. We shall not knowingly break the law to enforce the law. We shall be fully accountable for our own actions or failures and, when appropriate, for the actions or failures of our subordinates. In considering the use of deadly force, we shall be guided by reverence for human life. Individuals promoted or selected for special assignments shall have a history of practicing these values.
New York City Police Department Mission
The MISSION of the New York City Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in our City by working in partnership with the community and in accordance with constitutional rights to enforce the laws, preserve the peace, reduce fear, and provide for a safe environment. Values In partnership with the community, we pledge to:
• Protect the lives and property of our fellow citizens and impartially enforce the law.
• Fight crime both by preventing it and by aggressively pursuing violators of the law.
• Maintain a higher standard of integrity than is generally expected of others because so much is expected of us.
• Value human life, respect the dignity of each individual, and render our services with courtesy and civility.
Plano, Texas, Police Department
Our Mission The Plano Police Department is a value-driven organization that serves the community by:
• Protecting life and property
. • Preventing crime.
• Enforcing the laws.
• Maintaining order for all citizens.
As the Police Department serves our community, we emphasize:
• Voluntary compliance
• Education of citizens
• Partnership with community
• Visual presence in the community
• Detection and apprehension of offenders Our Values We achieve that mission by:
• Integrity
• Fairness and equity
• Personal responsibility
• Customer orientation
• Teamwork
• Planning and problem solving
Accountability
Quite simply, accountability means that a police employee or group of employees is responsible for an outcome—good or bad. In the top-notch police department I worked for, members own their actions and results. Regretfully, too many employees feel accountability is something thrust upon them when things go haywire. In other words, “Don’t worry, we’ll let you know if you mess up, otherwise assume you are doing O.K.” In poorly performing police agencies, I see accountability imposed upon employees who have little or no control over the situation.
Excellent police departments see accountability as a plus. They personally embrace equal accountability for their successes and mistakes, because they have a voice in the agency’s vision, and are empowered to anticipate and correct problems. The operative condition here is empowerment. Being empowered is the critical difference between imposed and volunteered accountability.
Giving police employees the chance to participate in the development of work process and measurements eliminates worries about unfairness and mistreatment, and encourages employees to take pride in their work. Empowered workers are accountable workers! Here are four very practical ways to increase accountability. First, include the vision as a centerpiece in all pre-entry and in-training programs. Replication works. Discussing current events (e.g., arrests, awards, changes) as examples of the vision in operation is helpful. If you want your vision statement to be a daily reality, then as a leader you simply have to reinforce it. Again—repetition works. Second, the vision statement should be made a core portion of all career assignments and promotional tests. If I were on your promotional oral board, my first question to you would be, “What values comprise your vision or mission statement?” My second, “What have you done in the past few days to exemplify your vision statement?” Third, the leader should conduct an annual survey of community opinions about the values professed in the vision/mission statement. The survey should also include questions on work performance, and I’ll cover this in the final chapter. One question might be, “Your department has made a commitment to making you feel more secure. How secure do you feel right now in your home? Do you have any ideas on how we can make you feel more secure?” Finally, integrate your vision statement into your employee performance appraisal system. Why? Because …
STRUCTURED EXERCISE 3–2
I am sure there are other creative ways to make a shared vision operative in your agency. Round up some of your co-workers and brainstorm ideas on how your department’s vision can be manifested into the living fabric of your organizational culture. Keep in mind that when it comes to a department’s vision, it is never a question of what others will do, but of what you will do.
What gets measured gets done.
It makes sense. If, for example, “service” is one of the values expressed in your vision statement, then it is reasonable and relevant that a police employee’s attitude and behavior be assessed on this value. Let’s face it; it doesn’t make sense to salute and cheer a vision while there’s no bottom line payoff for making it happen.
STRATEGY
We must become the change we want to see. —Gandhi
How well a police agency negotiates the hurdles of change is the key to its survival and success. Some change is external (e.g., Americans with Disabilities Act, homeland security, shifting demographics) and some is internal (e.g., budgetary constraints, diverse management styles, continuous labor relations). Regardless of its source, any change should pose two questions:
• Does it challenge our vision?
• How does it affect our values?
Incessant and avalanching changes can modify a goal, which means re-examining and perhaps recasting it. In other cases, the changes may alter how the goal will be implemented. In both situations the police leader must think strategically … long term!
Strategic thinking is the basis for developing strategic plans and operational plans. It is a leadership quality for making better choices about how to implement departmental goals in the face of chronic and random changes.
When it comes to the subject of strategy (long term), it is typically attached to the word “planning” or strategic planning. It has been my experience, as well as that of the police leaders who use it, that …
Thinking strategically is a lot more difficult than planning for it.
I’m not implying that strategic planning is quick and humdrum. It requires work. But the truly tough brain work resides in “thinking” as compared to planning strategy. When thinking strategically you automatically wrestle with change, and this invariably …
• Uncovers the causes versus the symptoms of problems
. • Dislodges conventional thinking.
• Depends more on intuition than on intellect.
• Seeks to anticipate.
• Points out more than one approach for accomplishing a goal.
To sharpen your strategic thinking, take the following four steps.
Step 1: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy A good strategy has an essential logical structure that consists of three elements:
• A diagnosis
• A guiding policy
• Coherent action
The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstacles called out in the diagnosis. It is like a signpost marking the direction forward, but not defining the details of the trip. Coherent actions are feasible coordinated policies, resource commitments, and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy. A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced.
Unfortunately, good strategy is the exception, not the rule. Many police managers say that they have a strategy, but they do not. They embrace broad goals, ambitions, visions, and values, and skip over pesky details such as problems—this is bad strategy, and while commendable and useful elsewhere, leaders must not confuse them with strategy. In short, a strategy is a coherent set of analyses, policies, arguments, and actions that target a high-stakes challenge.
Here’s how to spot bad strategy. Look for:
1. A scrambled, extensive list of things to do. Often the label “long term” is added so that nothing is urgent.
2. “Blue-sky” objectives that offer no clue on the link between the challenge and the action. “To improve team communication” is a frequent blue-sky objective.
3. An active avoidance of tough, painful choices among competing values.
4. Template-style leadership, which is filling in the blanks with lofty vision, mission, values, and strategies. Leadership and strategy may be joined in the same person, but they are not the same thing.
5. Lots of positivity will overcome any adversity and/or uncertainty; for example, “Shoot for the moon and if you miss it, you’ll be among the stars.” The doctrine that one can impose one’s vision and desires on the world by the force of thought alone has a powerful appeal to many people. Its acceptance displaces critical thinking and good strategy.
Step 2: Recognizing Creative Constraints
The majority of us daily cope with mental blinders that constrain our creativity. There are five in particular that limit our imagination. They are as follows:
1. Resistance to and avoidance of change. Many of us cling to conventional wisdom for safety, blocking new insights.
2. Dependence on rules and conformance. Some of us emphasize conformance over performance by enforcing strict adherence to rules, procedures, and structures.
3. Fear and self-doubt. Some police leaders become immobilized by insecurity, lack of confidence, and fear of criticism.
4. Fixation on logic and hard data. Many leaders have more of a commitment to mechanics than to results. Some expect problems and solutions to fit snugly into neat compartments.
5. Black-and-white viewpoints. The maturity that comes with experience tends to change previously black-and-white judgments to varying shades of gray. Regrettably, some police managers hold to an either/or approach, which seriously reduces their options to a couple of defaults.
Step 3: Tuning In
Most of us seldom tap the full reserve of our knowledge and experience. When we encounter issues, we get anxious. In our anxiety, we forget to trust our intuitive resources. Insight, like great poetry, music, or art, arises from the quiet depths of the unconscious from a source that lies beneath words, deeds, thoughts, and figures.
Step 4: Goal Setting—Clarity
Setting goals and the change process are close pals. You fuss with one and automatically engage the other.
Goal: (n) a desired state of affairs that one attempts to achieve; deciding on a destination and then proceeding in that direction.
By definition then, a goal requires two efforts: seeing the change you want and then making it happen. Dreaming alone is just that—dreaming—no change. Action alone is purposeless—haphazard change or maybe none at all. Yes, grammatically a goal is a noun. But in reality a goal is a verb, because it demands action, and action produces change. Let’s explore three fundamental characteristics that all police leaders must consider when setting goals: (1) stated versus real, (2) one versus many, and (3) vague versus clear.
STATED, OR REAL, OR BOTH?
A stated goal and a real goal may or may not be identical. For example, a police agency proclaims a goal of “Equal police service for all our community.” But in reality the deployment of resources is based in favor of the business community. Another example: an agency doesn’t state anything about gang enforcement, but has actually set a latent goal fervently combating gang activity. One more example: a department professes a goal of reducing Part I crimes by five percent and in reality means it. It is confusing when organizations state goals that are not real or have real goals that are not pursued.
ONE OR MORE?
I have never met a person who has only one purpose in life. I am also unaware of any organization that has exclusively one goal. Imagine a police agency stating, “Our only purpose is to hook and book.” Clearly all police organizations contain multiple goals. Typically a few dominate and influence others, which creates a “hierarchy” of goals or a system of priorities. Having interoperable priorities increases clarity, and that’s next.
VAGUE OR CLEAR?
For several centuries there was a furious debate over goals being vague (flexible) or clear (precise). The latter won. Why? In his brilliantly insightful book, The One Thing You Need to Know (ISBN 0-7432-6265-8), Marcus Buckingham presented solid scientific evidence that humankind has five major fears that produce five critical needs. Pause here and look below. Which in your opinion is foremost?
Fears → Needs
Death → Security
Outsider → Community
Future → Clarity
Chaos → Authority
Insignificance → Respect
It may come as a surprise, but the answer is clarity. After your integrity, if you do nothing else as a leader, be clear. Clarity reduces our anxiety about our incoming future. An effective leader doesn’t have to be passionate, charming, brilliant, or highly verbal, but you must be clear. Our need for clarity, when met, is the most likely to engender within us confidence, persistence, resilience, creativity, and followership.
The great clarifiers are leaders who make us certain about: (1) who we really serve, (2) what our core strengths are, (3) what in reality is being measured (the score card); and (4) setting an example for us to follow.
STRUCTURED EXERCISE 3–3
You can administer the following “clarifier-awareness scale” two ways. First, according to your self-analysis of your style of leading. Second, merely switch the words in your mind to that of your boss. (It’s best applied in both ways.)
The “4” Points of Clarity
Are you (your boss) clarifying for your team (use a number 1–7; 7 is high).
1. Who do you serve? (Who do you really serve?) ___________
2. What is your core strength? (Traffic, gangs, drugs, terrorism, safety, or …). Do you tell your staff clearly where your core strength lies, and thus centered, they will do everything in their power to make it happen? What is your number? ___________
3. What is your core score? Do you sort through all the metrics and pick one (e.g., reduction of Part I crimes) that they have the strengths to impact—and daily broadcast it? What is your number? ___________
4. What actions are you taking? For one, I will be guided by the clarity of what you do. I need to see examples. I need to see you walk your talk. Do you clearly set the example? Your number? ___________
To sum up—if you are really intent on leading others, you have to:
• Show them clearly who they serve.
• Show them their core strengths
. • Show them the score card
. • Show them what actions must be taken.
They will reward you by following your leadership toward a better future for you, for them, for your department, and for your community.
STRUCTURED EXERCISE 3–4
Here is a simple but powerful exercise to help you understand the significance of goal setting.
• Imagine learning that you have to retire in one year. List three things you’d like to accomplish during this last year.
• Assume 11 months have passed and you have one month left. Again, list three things you would like to do. • Make a new list assuming you have one week left and another assuming you have only 48 hours left.
• Examine what you’ve written. If your list includes activities you’re not currently pursuing, what’s stopping you from pursuing them now? Get on track!
Goal setting sets the stage for the development of more precise operational objectives. This subject and “MBO” (managing by objectives) await you in upcoming chapters. Note: This exercise can be easily modified to focus on your personal life. Merely assume that you have one year to live. List three things you’d want to do within the year and so on to 48 hours.)
CULTURE
Organizational culture will eat strategy for breakfast every day. —Charles “Red” Scott
You can create a clear vision of where you want to go along with a superb strategy for getting there, but if your department’s culture says “no way,” then it just won’t happen. As “Red” exclaimed, if your agency’s work culture is not in alignment with your hopes and plans, then it’ll easily eat them alive.
While tough to change, an organizational culture certainly can be changed; it is not wired into our human DNA. Culture is nested in our values, not our genes, and as those values and police leaders change and adapt, so too can culture. In other words, your strategy can escape cultural dictates, but only through careful planning and action.
Fortunately there is a process that can help police leaders avoid the devastating experience of seeing their vision and strategy being gobbled up by entrenched no-change hard-liners. In a word—it’s empowerment. The full benefits and dynamics of this vital process await us in another chapter. (A while back you were exposed to it when you read about the bottom-up approach for conceiving a department’s vision of a preferred future.)
Empowerment means letting employees use their signature strengths.
PROSPECTION
Prospection (pro-spek-shen). The act of looking forward in time or considering the future.
In his informative must-read book Stumbling on Happiness (ISBN 1-4000-7742-7), Daniel Gilbert informs us how and why we are different from all other animal life. We can and frequently (typically two hours per day) think about the future. With our knowledge, needs, hopes, feelings, and memory, we imagine what is around the corner for us. But Gilbert warns us that while our imagination is a powerful tool that allows us to conjure up images from inner space, it has two shortcomings.
Imagination (that faculty that helps us to view the future) first has to cope with misremembering the past, and second, with mispreviewing the present, which causes you and me to misimagine the future.
Congenital naysayers are among the greatest stumbling blocks to imaging the future. They want the facts, just the facts. Steven Samples, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership (ISBN 0-7879-5587-6), writes that our imagination might be every bit as important as vision! What’s neat about your imagination is you do not have to exclusively rely on your own. As a police leader, you best tap into the ideas of the creative geniuses who work for you. After all, they’re being paid to think, so help them earn their salary! Samples warns that if you’re incapable of imaging the future or incapable of engaging the fresh ideas of your staff, your followers are better off without you.
Many police managers are enamored by hard numbers, focus on concrete reality, and accept nothing else. Imagination is for them the soft stuff, guess-work, and lacks substance. Of course proven facts are important, but relying on them exclusively misses the messages that our guts transmit. Many managers strive to be rigorously objective. It is the leader, however, who explores the margins. The success of a leader’s vision is more intuitive than empirical. Imagination leads to new insights, which elevate our ability to predict and thus anticipate changes and trends. We do not want mystical, magical, crystal-ball leaders guiding our police organizations. Nonetheless, we do seek police leaders who have a keen capacity for openly imagining incoming challenges and opportunities.
Ten Trends
Most of us view the future as a happening that is always stealing our security, breaking promises, changing the rules, and creating all kinds of problems. Nevertheless, it is the future that holds our greatest leverage. The past is of record, and if we are alert, we can learn from it. Things occur only in one place—the present. Usually, we respond to those things.
It is in the incoming future, and only there, where a police leader has the time to prepare for the present! Strange, isn’t it?
When imagining the future, you can look at it as content or process. The “content futurists” concentrate on data about the future. The “process futurists” focus on how to think about such new and unusual data.
The ten trends you’ll encounter now are the product of the imaginations of over 2,000 police managers whom I have been blessed to meet and train with over the past five years. Some of the trends we’ll cover are those you may be feeling and experiencing right now. One of the most critical leadership skills needed during times of uncertainty and turbulence is anticipation. Reliable anticipation is the outcome of reliable trend identification. Some anticipation can be analytical, but the most important aspect of trend forecasting is our unpredictable, exciting, at times wrong, but frequently right imagination.
Trend 1: Flat World
Thomas Friedman, in The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (ISBN 13:978-0-374-29288-1), points out that broadband connectivity around the world, undersea cables, the omnipresence of computers, and the explosion of software, e-mail, and search engines have created a platform where intellectual work can be delivered from anywhere. Imagine, right now, some United States Attorneys and CPAs are using their services.
Globalization is shrinking and flattening the world while empowering companies and police departments to participate in open-sourcing, outsourcing, off-shoring, in-sourcing, in-forming, and more. We’ve entered an era of cheap, easier, and friction-free technology that is literally transforming every aspect of business (police, too), every aspect of life, and every aspect of society.
“The flatters” (flanking technologies) have been around (e.g., e-mail, Web browsers) for nearly two decades. They’re taking hold now because a growing cadre of police leaders is using them, and organizational cultures are shifting away from vertical command and control to connecting and collaborating horizontally (this is the “agile” organization that’s covered in a future chapter). Do you know any police manager who is not using a smartphone and living in a WiFi city? I don’t.
Trend 2: Higher Tech
When you write about “richer communications” today, within minutes (even nanoseconds) you’re obsolete. Today, intelligent terminals connect with intelligent networks that are wired and wireless, local and global. Together, they empower police personnel and machines to communicate and share information in an increasingly rich variety of forms: voice, handwriting, video data, print, and image. Networks that never sleep can find you and deliver a message, hold videoconferences across the nation or the world, or identify, locate, and apprehend criminals who operate outside national borders.
The power of technology is indeed bringing police databanks together and giving them access to each other and to the information they want and need, anytime, anywhere—in ever new and useful ways. Around the world, police agencies now recognize (see Trend 4) that their professional future is linked to their communication and information infrastructures.
More less-than-lethal weapons are available. Uniforms with wireless sensors to monitor life signs and measure stress levels, along with pin-hole cameras, are being tested. We now have handheld portable devices that see through walls and clothing and “bugs” that can be surreptitiously placed on individuals. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are capable of locating us within less than three feet of our position. Clearly there are a lot of hardware gadgets and apps in the offing.
Before moving on, it’s appropriate that we mention the most ubiquitous of all—the much-loved and dammed cell phone. The jury is out right now on the issue of whether it does more harm than good. If your agency does not have a policy on its use while officers are on duty, it should!
Trend 3: Lower Touch
We are experiencing a trend now of everyone being in touch and nobody being touched. It’s necessary to think and act high-tech. After all, no one wants to be a hit-and-run victim on the information superhighway. Regrettably, in our quest for more advanced communications technology, we are missing high-touch thinking and acting. We are a nation on a chaotic upward-and-onward race to make everything wireless, compress bits, increase fiber-optic bandwidth—make our future digital. There seems to be a collective faith that technology guarantees us a cyber-utopia of robot cops.
E-mail has its functionality, but clearly it’s not a way to build a team, create enthusiasm, or elevate understanding and mutual trust. We see an out-of-control higher-tech trend that is causing lower touch and thus undermining community-oriented policing.
Already technology is preventing police managers and supervisors from interfacing with their staff. The computer, cell phone, and hundreds of electronic messages have them captured by chips. As a consequence, police leaders must carefully and wisely apply the invading technology to areas that assist with both productivity and people. Leadership by e-mail just won’t work; being digital is not leadership.
Add deployment to technology, and it makes sense that a lot of police employees do not feel engaged, lack a sense of individualism, and approach police work as merely a job. The 3-day/12-hour and 4-day/10-hour allocation plans are a two-edged sword. One side is loved by the officers, in that they can spend more time elsewhere and commute less. Another side is detested by police leadership because it reduces face-to-face communication, trust, and teamwork. I have frequently heard from supervisors who were required to rate the performance of their staff when they did not actually observe their work.
Good news. Many police leaders have decided to combat this malady by pushing aside their computer, jumping over mounds of paperwork, and being physically present in the field of operation (not merely wandering through roll call with a smile). Some agencies have adopted policies that all watch commanders will be in the field 50 percent or more of their duty time. Here’s the kicker. So far the results have shown they enjoy it, and the line officers appreciate it.
Trend 4: A 9/11 Partnership
While somewhat unpleasant, some police managers and I brainstormed 9/11 for any potential benefits. Surprisingly, we found several (e.g., new jobs, new technology, increased patriotism, and more).
Our federal system of governance separates our nation’s police apparatus into national, state, and local subsystems that recognize the need to cooperate and support one another. Shared computer-based criminal justice information is one example of this. Unfortunately, much of the desire for closer and fuller cooperation has been just lip service. 9/11 has changed latent parochialism into a fledgling partnership.
The hurricanes that devastated New Orleans and threatened Houston with a similar fate underscored the lessons learned after 9/11—all of American law enforcement must act as one to be effective in coping with major disasters. To be effective, all levels of policing must be seamless. The terrorists love it when egos and politics scramble a united police front. Yet another benefit has emerged. Is being afraid to fly because of international terrorism any different from being afraid to walk in a neighborhood because of local gangs (terrorists)? The source is different, but the fear is identical—the terrorists have intimidated. Our newly formed international police partnership has discovered a lot of similar interoperable patterns and tactics between international terrorists and local gangs (which are actually national and international). This point is demonstrated in the recently established joint regional centers for anti-terrorism. Their mission includes an anti-gang component!
Trend 5: Pension Envy W
hen it comes to local government (that’s where the majority of policing occurs), usually the largest percentage of the budget is allocated to the police and sheriff’s departments. While it is an essential service, we cannot ignore that the fact that the cost of cops is high and growing. This is both good and bad news for our police officers. It’s good that many of the personnel are earning a fine income with an enviable benefit package. The bad news is that many taxpayers are beginning to voice reservations about both the number and the compensation of police employees. Some folks are expressing that yes, they’re important, but they’re overpriced.
Across our nation many private pension programs have been modified, reduced, and even eliminated. Private-sector workers expecting a retirement income of “X” are being told, “Tough luck, it’ll be ‘X – 50%.’ Simultaneously they discover that their taxes are being raised to pay for better police pensions. This countervailing set of circumstances is on a collision course—police pension systems versus private ballot boxes. Already some police leaders have made tough decisions about retirement packages. For example, newly hired employees receive the same pay but have to contribute more to their pension or simply receive a smaller benefit. All of this is occurring when most police departments are struggling to hire new employees.
It appears there is an increased likelihood that a greater percentage of police officers’ retirement benefits (especially the medical benefit) will be either contributed by the officer, or will be less at the time of their retirement. Another sidebar is the number of years needed to reach retirement. There are some pension programs whereby at age 50 you can receive 80 percent of your salary. The bottom line question is precisely the bottom line dollar, or “as a taxpayer how much am I willing to pay for my police?”
Trend 6: From Bureaucracy to Agility
Police leaders are confronting bureaucracy (the anatomy of an organization) and bashing it. From its inhibiting boundaries, boundarylessness and agility are evolving. Boundarylessness is a behavior definer, a way of getting police managers outside their organizational boxes and offices and working together faster. It also gets the police manager closer to the customers (the community), and most importantly, the work team. It positions them in front, in the lead. This behavior definer is encouraging police managers to cast aside thinking about teamwork and agility and actually practice it! They’re finding that it eliminates barriers that slow the department down and detract from its success.
Boundarylessness will, if practiced, create an agile department, and an agile organization is:
• Speedy: providing a very fast-paced reaction to emerging crime and social problems. Problem-oriented policing is a concrete example of boundarylessness and quick responses.
• Teamwork-driven: engaged in a highly focused endeavor to tear all the walls down and put teams from all police functions together in one room to bring new operations, tactics, and services to life.
• Responsive: delivering quick community/customer intelligence means an advanced method for accurately knowing what people really want. It is a process that gives every police manager direct access to the customer. Community-oriented policing (COP) is one way to make this happen.
Trend 7: Volunteers
In most police agencies today, if you work, you get paid. In some cases the reserve officers may be performing their duties without compensation. They may be hoping for eventual employment and/or just enjoying the excitement of police work. Related, but different, is the growing number of civilian volunteers. These people are willing to contribute their efforts to important causes. They can be observed serving in such capacities as
• search and rescue
• patrol
• clerical/records
• mechanics
• training
• pilots
• clergy
• counseling
• data processing
People want to make a difference; they want purpose in life. We know of police organizations that are benefiting from thousands of hours of volunteer assistance. With more and more people living well beyond their retirement date, a reservoir of proven talent is building, and this talent seriously wants, and indeed needs, opportunities to be applied.
The prudent agencies are welcoming volunteers as prized workers. The dollar savings are tremendous; the work results are exemplary. Volunteers count. The San Bernardino, California Sheriff’s Department has 3,000 officers and 3,000 volunteers.
Trend 8: Empowerment
We are convinced that the growing participation of police workers in decisions that affect them or their clientele will evolve into the mental muscle of more full and rich empowerment. (More on this subject in a forthcoming chapter.) What we wrote earlier on this subject will steadily become a routine practice. Police unions won’t cause it to happen; in fact, they may resist it. Preaching “humanism” won’t promote it. The demand for better police services and strength-based leadership will cause it to happen.
Trend 9: Cut-Back Leadership
PMW Associates has been in the police training business since 1971. Until 2007, it’s most popular seminar was “Internal Affairs.” Currently it is “Budgeting.” Leadership is difficult enough with adequate resources. Without sufficient resources it requires undaunting courage. I’ve spoken to some very strong and fearless police leaders who have stated, “I’m tired of getting my butt kicked; I’ve decided to retire.”
As I write, our nation and our world is facing a debt crisis. We went to the well too often, and now the water is gone. Many are anxious that we’re entering a double-dip recession. A few years ago no one would have thought that police personnel would be laid off. In some cases, no matter what the situation, overtime pay is curtailed.
This is a time of leading a retreat from past horizons and hopes to a grim reality that the next few years will be a period of being thankful we have a job. Here is what the National Institute of Justice recommended in its study, “Strategic Cutback Management: Law Enforcement Leadership for Lean Times” (2011):
• Avoid across-the-board cuts
• Think long term
• Do not just cut costs; look for revenue opportunities
• Invite innovations
• Look outside for help
• Targeted layoffs are more effective than hiring freezes
For a copy of the report see www.nij.gov.
Trend 10: Social Media
The verdict on the power, benefits, and detriments of social media is still coming in and will be for some time. One benefit of social media is being able to keep in touch with friends. One downside is sexual predation. In a recent survey reported on in “U.S.A. Today,” 70 percent of human resource directors are using social media to search for relevant information about job applicants. I know a lieutenant who was demoted to sergeant (the sheriff tried to fire him) when he posted on a media page that his sheriff was an “asshole”! Social media was successfully used by young adults to checkmate the police in the 2011 London, Birmingham, etc. street riots. The stories about the use and abuse of social media are large and legion, and growing.
Some police agencies have found social media helpful in their criminal investigations. We can hope this continues, along with other positive “apps.” In the meantime, all agencies should adopt a policy on its use. For an example of such a policy, see the Web site of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (www.IACP.org—click Social Media)
