Like most all officers, I have been involved in dynamic incidents and in reflecting on those, wanted to know why I would do this and not that, what prompted specific responses, and how I could better understand human performance in these events.  The goal became a quest to understand so I can better prepare officers through training.  My study of psychology gave me this and so much more regarding policing, not only the psychology of performance, but a broader perspective of how people act and interact in an organization.  

So the ‘why’ behind this effort is a drive to better the profession if I can.  To do what I can to help officers and organizations succeed. Being a police officer is a noble calling and I want to foster the professionalism and dedication to excellent police service that makes this job so meaningful and so important.   

This site was created to pass on information related to policing, whether that be the technical knowledge or conceptual knowledge for trainers and supervisors, so as to better the profession of policing.  Policing is a noble calling, a just cause, and obviously a function that society cannot do without.  The officer on the street is the most visible and impactful representation of the police.  However, how we train and lead these officers is what truly makes a great policing organization.  Instructors, training officers, and supervisors bear the responsibility.      

The world has changed and the police management books are outdated. They are full of organizational theory born of the previous age.  The business practices and processes of the industrial age are still ingrained in how we our organizations.  We can no longer use these understandings.  We can no longer settle for archetypical ideas of what a leader should be.  If you want to be a great leader in your organization, look at the environment and figure out what needs to happen to allow your reports to reach their natural best.  Set the conditions for growth.  Be a gardener.  

What does it mean to be a gardener?  Let me give you my philosophy.  Any leader in an organization should act if they were tending a garden.  The gardener serves one main purpose, which is to set the conditions that allow the plants to grow to their natural best.  He does not, in fact cannot, force any plant to bear fruit or grow tall.  The plants will do what the plants will do.  All the gardener can do is foster an environment that promotes growth and provide the necessities for the plants to be successful.  You probably see where I am going with this, but I will draw the parallels nonetheless.  A leader at any level in any organization should be tending the garden.  You cannot force the officers to achieve to their natural best.  Like the plants, they will do what they do.  But regardless of what their potential is, if the environment is not curated to allow them to grow even the best officers will wallow in mediocrity.    

The policing organization of today is a complex thing.  It is an ecosystem like the garden.  Instructors, trainers, and supervisors need to understand the ecosystem to foster the growth of the officers.  This will in turn grow the organization and put it in a favorable position in the environment.