In July I had the great fortune to attend the Force Science Institute five day certification course in Calgary. This course was attended by over 70 law enforcement trainers and investigators and was a result of the efforts of Staff Sergeants Darren Leggatt and Chris Butler of the Calgary Police Service. Darren and Chris are dedicated professionals who had attended the Force Science Certification Course the previous fall in San Jose. Having seen the value of the program they worked tirelessly to bring the course to Calgary.
The September 28 issue of the Force Science Institute newsletter talked about the efforts of Sergeant Craig Allen of the Hillsboro Oregon Police Department to bring the two day Force Science Institute Seminar to Oregon. This two day seminar exposed over 130 officers from the state of Oregon to this need to know information. Sgt. Allen was able to work with City County Insurances Services which is based in the state’s capitol and covers 150 or Oregon’s law enforcement agencies to pay for over half the officers attending. The same newsletter talked about the efforts of Alex gardner, the District Attorney for lane County, Oregon who set up a one day seminar with Dr. Bill Lewinski from the Force Science Institute in Eugene, Oregon. The seminar will be attended by approximately 200 people including politicians, media representatives, civic leaders, district attorneys, human rights commission members, law enforcement personnel and some activists who are consistently skeptical of police conduct in force situations.
On Monday of this week I was in Bend, Oregon presenting on the topics of Excellence Through Training (targeted at supervisors and command level personnel) and Excellence in Training (targeted at trainers) at the IALEFI Regional Training Conference. In speaking with Dennis Carroll, the IALEFI RTC Co-ordinator, he impressed upon me that the reason this RTC not only happened but was a huge success was due to the efforts of Sgt. Todd Fletcher of the Bend PD. I had not met Todd personally until the conference but have to say that I was hugely impressed with his ‘make it happen’ attitude during all our dealings leading up to the conference and his efforts and attitude during the conference. I was also extremely impressed with the efforts of Todd’s wife Crystal who was helping out with the conference and Kim Morse, the Bend PD Training Section Administrative Assistant. Kim had a mazing positive attitude and was putting in 16 hours days working continuously to ensure that the conference was a success.
Almost every week I get e-mails from Commander Randy Meyers of the Oak Lawn, Illinois PD about an upcoming course that he is hosting at his facility. I have had the pleasure of knowing Randy for a number of years and teaching courses for him in Oak Lawn. Randy works tirelessly to bring top quality training programs to Oak Lawn to expose his officers to as much training as possible. Randy’s efforts result in him working long hours six or seven days a week and while his officers, and those of surrounding agencies are the beneficiaries of his hard work and commitment his efforts often go unnoticed. Randy also teaches college courses and is a dedicated husband and father.
It has been said that people can be divided into three groups: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.”
Above are just a few of the many stories of people who have made things happen. Over the years I have been involved in organizing conferences, courses, sports team and other events. There are always a few who are willing to step up and do whatever it takes to make the event a success. Unfortunately there seem to be a lot of people who wait for things to happen, who wait for someone else to take the initiative.
By make things happen I am not just talking about bringing training programs to your location. I am talking about making changes to the training you deliver either by updating content or changing the deliver to enhance the learning experience for your officer. I am talking about making the commitment to coach and mentor others. I am talking about the pursuit of excellence.
The question this week is which group do you fall into? If you cannot honestly say you are in the ‘make it happen’ group then my next question is “What are you going to do to change that?”
Take care.
Brian Willis
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