Whenever an event occurs that involves a law enforcement officer doing something inappropriate or excessive, or failing to do what they were expected to do, it seems that the default for many in the profession is to look to point the finger of blame, look to condemn, look to put it all on the officer(s) involved and look to be critical of his or her agency.
If that is you, then you are looking in the wrong direction. You need to look in the mirror, look at your own agency and look at your own training. You need to look for understanding and learning.
It is easy to talk badly about other agencies, and about the involved officers. It is far harder to look in the mirror and ask, “What piece of this do I own?”. It is easy to blame the individual officer(s), it is far harder to look in the mirror and have a long hard look at what you teach, and more importantly, how you teach it, and why you teach what you do in the way that you do.
It is easy to spout the lie, “If I was there, I would have…”. You weren’t there so stop with that crap.
As trainers and people in leadership positions in the profession we need to shift our focus from always looking outward to looking inward. It does not matter how many smiley faces and high scores you get on your training evals, what matters is, did people actually learn. Did they retain what was taught for more than a few days or a few weeks? Did they leave with an understanding of the material and the ability to recall and apply it months later? Have they been taught critical thinking, decision making and problem solving?
Look inward requires asking some hard questions such as:
- Are we intentional and deliberate about developing a culture of leading, learning and excellence in our agency?
- Do people in my agency know what the Mission, Vision and Values of the agency are?
- Do I live, model, and talk about the Core Values of my agency?
- In my agency is training seen as an expense or as an investment?
- Do we have a culture where everyone understands that while they are not all in formal leadership position, they are all in a position to lead?
- What am I going to do to begin to change the negative answers to some or all the above questions?
Let’s stop always looking outward, and spend some time looking inward at ourselves, our training, and our agency culture. Spend time looking in the mirror and taking a long hard look at our own training and the learning environments we create. Let’s stop looking to blame and seek to learn. Let’s stop looking for someone else to lead the change and be the change you want to see in your agency and in the profession.
Take care.
Brian Willis
Winning Mind Training – Providing practical training to law enforcement professionals in the areas of instructor development, Performance Enhancement Imagery, leadership, and mindset.
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