Today’s chiefs and sheriffs must perform daily on the world’s greatest high wire act. No need to wait for the circus big top to come to town, there is a constant, daily matinee at the police department. This career defining (and sometimes ending) balance act is one of prioritizing concerns and needs of all; all while keeping your job and honor. No hiding or avoiding this task. Chiefs must maintain their balance all while juggling – their customer base, their officers, politics, the media, the budget and their integrity.
Daily every chief or sheriff is having to deal with the calls and concerns of their customer base. I use the term customer base as this is a far more inclusive term than that of citizens. You have your residential customers base, the families that live there. Your business community is another customer who has similar needs, and they too want their employees to have a safe environment to live and work in. Your community can have additional customers, say you have a college and the student population. Military base near, then the service members and families. If you have tourist attractions, then the host industry has its specific needs as well. When I hear some young chiefs or wannabe chiefs say the term ‘citizens’ as a catch all, I cringe. Yes, it is broad paint brush; but a great chief understands the different groups or elements within the term. A ‘citizen’ could be a senior, a young parent, a college student or whatever – each has their own perspective and needs.
This customer base is soon to be weighed by the public perception of your department and law enforcement. I have often said the most important person in the department is the next officer responding to the next call for service. I do not care how good you are, you are painted by the public and others by the next call. Everyone will recall the recent bad event to judge you by, not recalling the past successes. A great department makes every call an important one. Your next victim, witness, by-stander and arrestee will be singing your praises or your doom. My answer to this has been the customer-based model, we are not selling anything but service. If you treat everyone as if you would want to be treated by this ‘business’, then your perspective changes. No, we do not want repeat criminal customers, but we want our customers to have a positive feeling when they do call the police. Your past with your departmental reputation is what inherited, but you can change it by re-earning it every day. If you want to make your human resources officer grimace, tell them you have rewritten the police officer job description in three words – human service provider. That is what we do.
When it comes to balancing with your officers, this too is earned. This category includes your officers, staff and union (if applicable). If there is a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) some latitude on both sides is already set. Some CBAs may not allow your informal chats over departmental issues without restrictions. If you came up through the ranks in this department, the older staff will recall your past misgivings. How you acted ‘back in the day’ and how you are acting now. If you are an outside chief, you must earn their trust. You cannot buy it or get it out of a catalog, it is earned and must be maintained daily. Everyone dreams of having a chief who is a ‘cop’s cop’. This is personality based and how personable you are under the most extreme conditions. In smaller agencies it is possible to know your staff -all of them. Larger agencies, you will only get to know your leadership staff and few officers who you normally interact with. A lot of the shining stars will go unnoticed. This is the reason in larger agencies promotions traditionally come from three areas. Internal affairs/professional standards – they interact with the chief through their investigations and get seen. Detectives – they brief the chief with investigations and take the heat off of the department during a bad case. Training Unit – they carry forth the new initiatives and train the policies, they train the department for the chief’s vision of the future.
Your political governing body – boards, council, or whatever they are called, they are a big item to juggle. It matters not what political party they are from or what district they represent; they are important factors you will need to be successful. They will control the budget and can add or remove restrictions in operations. The biggest thing a successful chief has to do is get to know each one. See what their preconceived notions are and where they were forged from. You will need to educate each on your operations, this prevents them on making incorrect statements or promises. If they have a functional understanding of the law, your agency and its logistical abilities – they will be successful. Remind them they will only hear the worst from their constituents, explain how they can channel complaints properly. I offer ride-a-longs, invite them to public events and give them glimpses into the department. Remember, they will not fund an unknown – education and communication with them is paramount to achieve success.
The media is probably the most ever-changing variable to juggle at times. Add to this social media the fastest growing and often the most volatile. Poor media relations will detract from your positive public perception, positive media will add to the public perception. These are so intertwined, so if you say something for one, say it to both. Police – media relations must be built on the foundation for mutual trust and needs. They need us, and we will need them at some time as well. Problem areas, staff and reporters change, and new ones need to establish themselves. The current issue is that social media is instantaneous and the day of the media getting the breaking story are nearly gone. One person with a smart phone posting on whatever platform has scooped the entire newsroom. Now, today’s reporters have far more pressing time tables, they are responding to social media and trying to handle a story they got the same time as their readers.
The budget. First of all, face that depending municipality or collective bargaining agreement, the vast majority of your budget is predetermined before you can buy a coffee on January the 1st. Personnel salary, benefits packages and insurances will take the vast majority of the entire budget. What you can actually control is never enough. Once I dealt with a new councilperson who told his constituents that he was going to reduce the public safety budget by 25%. Later, I sat him down with a spreadsheet and revealed that he was into a layoff scenario and there was no operational money remaining. In his defense, he did not know, once he had this information he later became a great supporter (I prevented him from saying stupid things in public, he never forgot the police again). One of the most pressing needs and wants today is technology. This can be the biggest budget buster, for it is ever changing, needs updates and you understand. I recommend take your budget cycles out further than one or two years, it is all planning.
My mentor chief told me that there will be many sleepless nights as a chief. You find yourself staring out of the window on the night before a big decision. He was correct that sleepless nights are part of the job but why? It is difficult to become devoid of ethics in decision making. Although, some may argue that some leaders have, to their demise. You cannot and should not bend your moral compass to fit a situation. I used to present a law enforcement ethics class which had the three - pronged test for decision making. This is all three and not a best two out of three tests either. Is your decision legal- you are not violating any federal, state or local laws? Is your decision moral – is this an honorable conclusion? Is your decision ethical (balanced) – this fair or just for all involved? If not, my students were told to prepare a statement fitting for the looming press conference. I have lived by this ideal, if I could not explain this to my mother or my priest, then I did not do it.
The question is not how difficult this balancing act is. The question is do you possess the constitution, do you have the depth of faith in yourself to go as far as needed?
