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…
A police chief answers to somebody, and the people he answers to are allowed to ask hard questions about how the department runs, how the money gets spent, and whether the town is getting what it expects. That part isn’t the problem. The problem starts when the question stops being about the department and becomes…
One of the worst times to start building a relationship between the police and the community is when something has already gone wrong. Emotions are high, people want answers, and we’re expected to make decisions while everyone is trying to figure out whether they can trust each other. I don’t expect everybody in town to…
When I’m looking at hiring a police officer, the salary is only part of what the department will spend on that person. By the time you add benefits, uniforms, equipment, academy expenses, field training, supervision, and the time other officers spend helping someone learn the job, you’ve made a considerable investment before that new officer…
When I first became a police officer in 1997, the people around me who wanted the job actually wanted to be police officers. Maybe they had wanted it since they were kids, or maybe they came to it later, but they were working toward putting on the badge and serving the public. Nowadays, I see…
Most people know to call the police when something looks wrong. The harder part is knowing what information actually helps once you make that call. You don’t need to investigate anything yourself or decide whether a crime has been committed. What helps is telling us what you actually saw, where it happened, and what is…
When I’m looking to hire a police officer, I’m not just trying to fill an empty position. I’m deciding who I’m willing to put in a patrol car, give a badge and a gun, and trust to make decisions on behalf of the department when I’m not standing beside them. That’s a considerable amount of…
Most scams don’t work because the person on the other end is especially convincing. They work because they convince you that you don’t have time to think. You get a phone call saying there’s a warrant for your arrest. A message says your bank account has been compromised. Someone claims a family member is in…
When somebody really needs the police, there’s a good chance they’re already having a bad day. They may be scared, angry, confused, or worried about somebody they care about. That’s a terrible time for me to discover that the first relationship we’re trying to build with them is happening in the middle of a crisis….
Holding somebody accountable for a standard I never made clear isn’t accountability. It’s me blaming them for something I assumed they knew. That’s an easy trap, because the longer you’ve been on the job, the more things start to feel obvious. I can look at a report and know what’s missing. I can hear about…