I’ve made personnel decisions that looked right at the time and didn’t work out. I can interview somebody, review their record, talk to people who’ve worked with them, and watch how they perform, only to discover later that I misjudged their ability to supervise other people. Sometimes the promotional process itself is the problem. Other…
Everybody likes transparency when the answer makes the department look good. It’s easy to talk about accomplishments, successful investigations, improved response times, or something the department has done particularly well. The harder part comes when I have to acknowledge that something inside my own organization isn’t working the way it should, especially when admitting it…
One of the easiest things to say about a leader is that they need to stand their ground, and sometimes they do. If you’ve made a sound decision for the right reasons, criticism by itself isn’t a reason to abandon it. Leadership would be pretty useless if every decision changed based on who was complaining…
If somebody has been doing the job for twenty years, I expect them to know things a new officer simply hasn’t had time to learn yet. They’ve seen calls go sideways, watched people react under pressure, learned which details matter, and probably made enough mistakes of their own to recognize a few before they happen…
The stories and ideas I don’t want you to miss.
Everybody likes transparency when the question is easy. It’s a lot easier to talk about openness when you’re announcing something good, explaining a successful case, showing off new equipment, or releasing numbers that make the department look good. The harder test comes when somebody asks about an arrest, a use of force, a complaint against…
One of the easiest things for a supervisor to say is, “I treat everybody the same.” I understand why that sounds fair. Nobody wants favoritism, special treatment, or a boss who changes the rules depending on who is standing in front of him. But I don’t think fair treatment requires pretending every employee and every…
Police departments buy equipment all the time. Radios, body cameras, vehicles, computers, protective gear, weapons, medical equipment, software, and plenty of other things most people never think about until somebody needs one. Some purchases are routine replacements, while others involve bringing an entirely new capability into the department. Either way, somebody has to decide what…
Most people who pass through Barbour County, Alabama, see a road. They see U.S. 431 through Eufaula, maybe Highway 51 toward Clayton, maybe one of the smaller roads cutting across the county. They pass gas stations, churches, fields, timber, old houses, a few businesses, and signs for towns they may never actually enter. Then they…
I’ve been through a lot of training over the years. Some of it changed the way I worked. Some of it gave me a certificate, a few pages of notes, and absolutely nothing else. The difference wasn’t always the instructor or the subject. I’ve seen organizations spend money sending employees to training, only to have…
Most people don’t spend much time thinking about how to file a police report until something happens and they need one. Then the questions start. Who do I call? What information do I need? Do I need proof? What if I don’t know exactly what crime was committed? The good news is that you don’t…