Americ ★★

2

an

0

 Policing in

★

Essays on th

2

e F

2

uture 

of a Profession 

★★

Edited by Debra R. Cohen McCullough 

and Deborah L. Spence 

★ ★ ★

“...service to the community 

is at the heart of everything 

every police officer should do, 

both now and in the future.” 


The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or 

policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should 

not be considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are 

illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues. 

The Internet references cited in this publication were valid as of the date of this publication. Given that URLs 

and websites are in constant flux, neither the author(s) nor the COPS Office can vouch for their current validity. 

ISBN: 978-1-935676-04-1 

September 2012 
Contents 

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 

by Debra R. Cohen McCullough and Deborah L. Spence 

SECTION ONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
 

The Future of Policing Can Be Found in the Past. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 

by John P. Skinner 

New Police Management Practices and Predictive Software: 

A New Era They Do Not Make . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

by Ronald W. Glensor and Kenneth J. Peak 

Preparing the Police for an Uncertain Future: Four Guiding Principles. . . . . 17 

by Jim Bueermann 

Quality and Performance Management: An Innovative Approach 

to Future Police Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 

by Michael T. Frazier 

Community Building as Crime Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 

by Michael A. Davis 

Moving Beyond the Myths and Misdirection Impeding 

Community Policing Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 

by Louis A. Mayo 

Asking the Tough Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 

by Joseph Brann 

What Gets Measured Is the Matter: The Need for Leading 

Public Safety Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 

by Michael S. Scott 

vii
 

American Policing in 2022 

SECTION TWO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
 

No-Boundaries Policing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
 

by Kriste Kibbey Etue 

Focusing on What We Can Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 

by Darrel W. Stephens 

Law Enforcement Communications and Information Technology 

of the Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 

by Harlin R. McEwen 

Austerity Breeds Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
 

by Rick Fuentes 

Embracing the Digital Coffee Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
 

by Jason O’Neal 

The Role of Language in Expanding Private Sector Partnerships . . . . . . . . 71 

by Jason Smith 

Producing a Positive Return on Investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
 

by Barbara Duncan 

Putting the “Local” Back in Local Law Enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
 

by Jim Burack 

A “Back to the Future” Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
 

by J. Scott Thomson 

Car 54: Where are You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
 

by Bernard K. Melekian 

viii
 

 

 

 

Contents 

SECTION THREE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 

Balancing the Art and Science of Policing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 

by Tim J. Dolan 

Pursuing Excellence in Policing: The Leadership Challenge 

of the Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 

by Charles H. Ramsey 

Social Unrest, Drug Abuse, Cyber Crimes, and No Money. . . . . . . . . . . . 105 

by David E. Dial 

Rethinking “Business as Usual” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
 

by Joseph A. Schafer 

Saving Our Own through Peer Review: A Prescription 

for Improved Law Enforcement Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 

by Alexander L. Eastman 

A Labor Perspective on the Value of Our Internal Communities 

and Collaborative Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 

by Christopher Tracy 

Ending the Monopoly of Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
 

by Edward F. Davis 

Reflections on the Eve of My Retirement: A Letter from the Future . . . . 127 

by Chris Cognac 

Commonly Used Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 

About the COPS Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 

About the Editors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 

ix

1

★ ★ ★
 

Introduction
 

by Debra R. Cohen McCullough 

and Deborah L. Spence 

During a presentation to the American 

Society of Criminology in 2011, Jim 

Bueermann displayed a PowerPoint 

slide with this prediction: by 2022, 

every police department will have a resident criminologist. This got chuckles in the room, but later that 

week, as the two of us talked about Bueermann’s prediction over lunch, we found we were intrigued by 

the idea of what predictions for policing other people 

might make for the next 10 or 20 years. 

Initially, we thought we might use this idea of predicting the future to run a series of interviews for the 

Community Policing Dispatch, the e-newsletter for 

the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services 

(COPS Office). But the more we discussed it with 

co-workers, we realized the idea had the potential to 

be more powerful as a single, print collection than as 

a web-based series spanning a number of months. As 

a result, the idea for this book—that law enforcement 

leaders across the country could share their perspectives on what policing might/could/should look like 

10 years from now—was born. 

Who should we invite to join us in this project? This 

was the hardest part of the whole enterprise. For every 

one name we could think of, there were no doubt 10 

we didn’t know about. As excited as we were to embark on this project, we knew it would be a challenge 

to solicit essays from busy people with busy schedules with no monetary reimbursement and not even 

the promise of being published. Our current director, 

Bernard Melekian, was an obvious choice. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book is the collected 

wisdom of 27 artists. 

★ ★ ★

So too was Bueermann, considering that without his 

PowerPoint slide we would not have been inspired to 

create this at all. From there we talked to colleagues, 

read articles, paid attention to speakers we heard at 

meetings and conferences, and considered the types 

and sizes of agencies and organizations we felt needed 

to be represented, thus building a list of people we 

thought might work. 

But would those we invited find the project as interesting as we did and want to participate? Luckily 

for us, they did. We have contributions from chiefs 

and former chiefs, as well as captains, lieutenants, a 

sergeant, an officer, and even a few who have made 

careers out of helping the police do their jobs better. 

They represent big cities, small towns, and tribal and 

state agencies. Some are already nationally known, 

others now will be, and all were gracious in giving 

their time and ideas to this project. 

We gave the contributors little instruction on what to 

write. We simply asked them to share their view on the 

future of policing, presenting this as a chance for them 

to articulate their vision and, we hope, help shape the 

thinking of law enforcement professionals and policymakers alike. We then sat back and nervously waited 

for the essays to arrive. Unavoidably influenced from 

our years managing programs designed to propel policing into the 21st century, we predicted that essays 

on technology would dominate the submissions, followed quickly by talks of streamlining finances and 

keeping up with local economies. And we worried 

that the collection might trend toward everything we 

wouldn’t be able to do in the future. 

After the first few submissions, we realized our contributors were going to exceed our expectations. Important questions were being asked and answered 

about the core mission of police work, the ideal characteristics of leaders, the role of the community, the 

impact of the economy, and the measures of success. 

Ultimately, we selected a collection of honest, inspiring, and, in fact, quite personal essays on how the policing field can build on what we know now to create 

a better future. 

We also worried about what we’d do if two people 

contributed the same idea. That didn’t happen. While 

themes emerged among the essays, they were not 

repetitive. True, policing leaders appear to love quoting the father of modern policing, Sir Robert Peel, 

with seven essays referring to one or more of his nine 

principles. Similarly, James Q. Wilson and George 

Kelling’s impact on modern policing is clearly felt 

through many of these contributions, as is Herman 

Goldstein’s. But on the whole, the essays work together and reinforce the key tenets of community policing, 

with an emphasis on partnering with the community, 

using problem solving to address crime systematically, 

and transforming organizations (and their people) in 

ways that make the first two more effective. 

2
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction 

Certain themes particularly intrigued us. For example, 

Michael Scott chose to grapple with the issue of measuring police effectiveness and raises the question: how 

can we plan for the future if we do not have an accurate measure of the extent of the problem? Others, including John Skinner and Joseph Brann, also raise the 

issue of the limitations of standard measures of crime 

and performance. The Uniform Crime Reports, while 

they continue to be the standard measure of crime 

(never quite replaced by the National Incident-Based 

Reporting System), remain fallible, but they are all we 

have at the moment. Maybe in these pages we see the 

beginning of a call to action to design a better system 

of measurement. Perhaps in 2022 we will see the national discourse focused on Scott’s “index of leading 

public safety indicators” the same way that we currently talk about economic or public health indicators. 

We also were interested to see that for many of the essayists, like Kriste Kibbey Etue and Harlin McEwen, 

technology is clearly a means to an end, and not the 

end itself. This is also true for the trio of essays written by Rick Fuentes, Jason Smith, and Jason O’Neal 

that are related to fusion centers and information 

sharing. In the recent era of rapid technological development, many of us clearly tend to latch on to the 

newest gadget as the solution to what ails us. After the 

shine wears off, its value is measured purely by how 

it enhances public safety. Technology cannot, and 

should not, replace good police work. Technology is 

a tool, but you have to learn how to use it, much like 

an old hammer, with focused precision lest you jam 

the nail right through to the other side or, worse yet, 

pound yourself on the thumb. 

Technology cannot, and 

should not, replace good 

police work. 

★ ★ ★

Another common theme concerns the people—not 

the public community, but the police community. 

Christopher Tracy, Charles Ramsey, and Edward Davis all speak to how the current climate offers both 

opportunities and challenges to ensuring that our nation’s future police departments are staffed with welltrained, talented individuals and led by chiefs with 

clear, articulate visions. Many other essays make clear 

that leadership can occur at any level and that this 

idea will become only more important over the next 

decade. With the right recruitment tools, training 

programs, accountability systems, and collaboration 

between labor and management, agencies will be able 

to serve both their internal and external communities 

to the benefit of all. 

Last, we chose to open this collection with the essays that focused on the “why” of it all. With more 

than 700,000 men and women going to work in law 

enforcement every day in this country, the philosophy behind what they do and why it matters cannot 

be overstated. Many of these contributors, like John 

Skinner, Louis Mayo, Ronald Glensor, Kenneth Peak, 

and J. Scott Thomson, all recognize that in many respects as much as things will change, some things will 

remain the same. 

3
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

The desire to protect the soul of police work amidst 

the progress wrought by social, political, and economic changes, and the latest bandwagon, is evident. One 

thing that clearly shouldn’t change by 2022 is that 

“policing always has been and will be about people,” 

says Joseph Brann in his essay. From the first to the 

last essay—in which Chris Cognac sends us a letter 

from September 2022—every one of our contributors acknowledges that service to the community is at 

the heart of everything every police officer should do, 

both now and in the future. Keeping that principle 

at the forefront will ensure the legitimacy of police 

departments and the professionals who staff them. 

What is the best way to read these essays? While we 

have grouped them into three areas around their primary focus—be that the motivation of the organization, the tools that make the job more productive, 

or the thin blue line itself—we don’t believe there 

is a wrong order. Read this collection from front to 

back, from back to front, in alphabetical order, or by 

closing your eyes and pointing at a name in the table 

of contents to determine where to start. 

We are confident this book will inspire you as 

much as it inspired us. Never have we been more 

proud to work for the COPS Office, in jobs that 

give us the opportunity to interact with the likes of 

these 27 contributors, and to help shape the public 

safety world of 2022. We’d like to take this perfect 

opportunity to thank some important people who 

made this book possible: Supervisory Analyst Robert 

Chapman, Assistant Director Matthew Scheider, and 

Deputy Director Sandra Webb for their support in 

allowing us the necessary time and resources; Amber 

Jabeen for helping us track RSVPs and get submission 

guidance out to all the correct people; and the creative 

and talented Erin P.T. Canning, Nancy Carlsen, and 

Fletcher Maffett of the COPS Office Publishing staff 

for a beautiful final product. 

We were excited from the start of this project, and it 

never disappointed. For all who work in the policing 

field, you can take pride in the fact that your leaders 

are both thoughtful and creative. In his contribution, 

Tim Dolan talks about the “art of policing” coming 

from the “innate skills, smarts, experience, or traits 

that are inside a person [and] relates to a person’s ability to interact, perceive, innovate, and act.” If that is 

true, then this book is the collective wisdom of 27 artists. They not only are able to describe their vision for 

the future of public safety but also offer concrete ways 

on how to lead us there. Reading these essays has provided us with a sense of assurance that we are in good 

hands in the years to come. It also confirms there is 

work to be done and a shift in thought must take place 

if we are going to avail ourselves of the future promised to us in the pages that follow. Let’s get started. ★

4

Section One

“...by 2022 chiefs may be able to answer accurately the 

all important question, ‘What business are you in?’” 

– Louis Mayo 
7

 

 

 

★ ★

The Future of Policing 

Can Be Found in the Past 

★
 

by John P. Skinner 

One of the most endearing images of 

American policing is that of the traditional foot patrol officer walking a 

beat and twirling a night stick. The 

image is powerful because it represents an era in policing when police officers were integrated into the 

fabric of the community they served. An effective 

foot patrol officer walked the beat, knew everyone in 

the neighborhood, and problem solved complex issues 

and problems. 

The community identified the officer as one of its 

own and developed an informal network of communication based on collaborative partnerships and 

a mutual level of trust. Perhaps most important, the 

mere presence of the officer walking the beat often 

contributed to a sense of safety and security within 

the neighborhood. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At its core, policing is about 


community service. It is 


about making neighborhoods 


stronger and fostering an 


unwavering feeling 


of safety and security.
 

★ ★ ★

Unfortunately, many positive aspects of this style of 

policing have been lost through the modernization 

of society and the evolution of technology. Over the 

last decade, it has become fashionable for departments 

to initiate community policing programs and cite industry buzzwords, only to discover later that the true 

foundation of policing can’t be found in any single program; it must be embraced as a philosophical strategy. 

In the pursuit of effectiveness and efficiency, many 

big city police departments have turned away from 

the core fundamentals of building community trust 

though interpersonal relations. The creation of the 

911 emergency response system and the increased reliance of police vehicles have developed an entire new 

law enforcement system around rapid response and 

reaction. Within this system, police officers have lost 

their identity within the community. With little time 

to spend on interaction, relationship building, and 

problem solving, modern day police officers are less 

of a partner with the neighborhoods they serve and 

more like a rapidly moving force, separated from the 

community by a high-speed cage of glass and steel. 

Through the integration of new technology, police 

agencies have also placed increased emphasis on specializations. Most modern departments are now compartmentalized into individual units that specialize in 

a distinct type of police work. Gang units, narcotics 

task forces, warrant apprehension teams, and special 

investigation squads were all created to address a specific area of concern. Although there are advantages to 

this strategy, the unintended consequence is that it creates a further layer of separation from the community. 

Within this movement of specialization, communities can no longer identify and connect with that 

single officer who understands the demographics and 

individual needs of the neighborhood. Instead, the 

community is forced to navigate through the bureaucracy of the department, often getting passed from 

one section to another. In return, these specialized officers no longer feel a community level of responsibility. Their success and effectiveness is tied directly to 

their specialization and not to the fundamental service of neighborhoods. 

Modernization and technology have also had a significant impact in how police departments are evaluated. 

An agency’s success is now directly related to a statistical evaluation of Uniformed Crime Reports. The 

invention of CompStat has reinforced this general 

notion and, to the credit of its architects, has helped 

achieve crime reductions in many communities. 

8
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Future of Policing Can Be Found in the Past 

However, despite the success of this system, it fails 

to account for important aspects of law enforcement: 

e.g., quality of service and a community’s perception 

of fear and safety. 

Despite national reductions in violent crime, the perception of crime and safety in many communities 

remains unchanged, and police departments struggle 

in a public relations arena to maintain a balance between people’s perception of crime versus the reality. 

Residents no longer feel any level of attachment to 

the police officers working within their neighborhoods, and the gap between police officers and the 

people they serve is rapidly widening. The combination of all of these dynamics has brought policing in 

the United States to a critical crossroads. 

The future success of American policing lies in the 

ability to recognize these important conditions and 

develop strategies that focus on redefining the relationship between police officers and the community. 

These strategies need to go well beyond implementing a single program or assigning a small group of 

officers to work on community-related affairs. The 

development of these strategies must address the rebirth of the fundamental philosophy of police-community partnership. 

The foundation of this philosophy must be incorporated into all levels of training within police agencies. 

Interpersonal communication skills, problem solving 

techniques, and strategies to build positive community relationships must become the cornerstones of 

police training programs. New officers should be 

Despite national reductions 

in violent crime, the 

perception of crime and 

safety in many communities 

remains unchanged... 

★ ★ ★

indoctrinated in these programs during their time in 

the police academy, and then the programs should 

be continually reinforced during annual in-service 

sessions. 

The increased availability of technology for police 

agencies is exciting and has created limitless possibilities. However, despite these possibilities, there 

needs to be a concerted effort to invest specifically 

in technology that promotes positive interaction and 

communication between the police and the public. 

Investments in mobile handheld communication devices would encourage officers to leave the confinement of their vehicles to interact with the community, 

while still allowing access to important information. 

Most important, police departments must build new 

evaluation tools that go beyond the simple comparison of Uniformed Crime Report data. These new 

evaluation tools need to measure the community’s assessment of quality of police service, the perception 

of crime, and the effectiveness of police strategies. 

9
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

Specific emphasis needs to be placed on evaluating a 

police agency’s response and support of crime victims. 

The success of any police department must become 

intertwined with the accessibility and satisfaction of 

the community it serves. 

At its core, policing is about community service. It 

is about making neighborhoods stronger and fostering an unwavering feeling of safety and security. The 

police officers of the past who walked their foot patrols and spun their nightsticks understood this and 

embraced their important role within the community. 

The police officers of the future will be forced to navigate through a complex society and will be called upon 

to address new challenges. They will be drawn toward 

new technologies and encouraged to be more efficient. 

As these officers advance toward the future, it is imperative that they remember the past. ★

John P. Skinner is the deputy police commissioner of the Baltimore (Maryland) Police Department. He is responsible for 

the day-to-day management and oversight of the agency’s administrative operations. With 20 years of law enforcement experience, 

Skinner manages the department’s $370 million budget and oversees the recruitment, hiring, training, planning, and information 

management of the nation’s ninth largest police agency. Over the course of his career, Skinner has served in multiple investigative and 

patrol-related positions, including commanding officer of the Western and Central Districts, which encompass Baltimore’s downtown 

and Inner Harbor areas. In 2008, he was appointed chief of the Patrol Division, where he commanded all of the agency’s uniformed 

personnel. He has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice for developing the Baltimore Police Department’s Patrol 

Response Survey, an evaluation program that measures the community’s perception of police performance. He was also named the 

2006 Baltimorean of the Year by Baltimore Magazine and was selected to represent the city of Baltimore at the 2,500th anniversary of 

the original marathon in Athens, Greece. Skinner holds a master’s degree from the University of Baltimore and is an associate professor 

of criminal justice at Towson University in Maryland. 

10
11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

★

New Police Management 


Practices and Predictive 


Software: A New Era They 


Do Not Make 

★ ★
 

by Ronald W. Glensor 

and Kenneth J. Peak 

is always interesting to read professional 

magazine and journal articles where the authors I

t 

make bold predictions about policing’s future 

based on a single program or strategy. Some of 

the predictions are tantamount to putting a powerful 

new engine and other upgrades into a 1960s’ vintage 

Ford Mustang and then giving it a new name: does 

the modification or new technology improve the car’s 

performance? Absolutely, but they do not change 

what the car is fundamentally—a vintage Mustang. 

Similarly, some people view the next era of policing 

as being intelligence-led or predictive policing. 

Still, others say we are in an information era or that 

“we’re not doing community policing now, we’re 

doing CompStat.” 

We believe that the general use—and at times misuse—of words such as “era” and police use of language 

and clichés are problematic and create more harm and 

confusion than they help. 
American Policing in 2022 

If you wish to converse with 

me, define your terms. 

–Voltaire 

★ ★ ★

Furthermore, policing is indeed in an information 

“age” but not in an information “era.” What have historically been touted by many as new eras of policing were in fact tactics and management tools, which 

remain an integral part of community policing and 

problem solving. 

We hope this discussion serves as a case in point and 

the beginning of constructive discussions about the 

importance of language in policing. In examining the 

use of clichés in policing, first consider the views of 

Chris Braiden, former police superintendent in Edmonton, Canada: 

The problem with cliché policing is that it waters 

down the purpose. Over time, the purpose fades 

into the background as clichés proliferate. No 

need for clichés. The latest cliché? Intelligenceled policing, which says something itself about 

policing’s past.1 

Those police practitioners of considerable longevity 

can easily identify with Braiden’s assessment and tendencies to re-label things—and they can probably add 

a few more labels of their own. The time has come to 

seriously question this use of clichés and tendency to 

label things anew. Why does this happen at all? After 

all, in most professions emphasis is placed on establishing foundations and then building on them, not 

replacing them. 

This is not a minor issue for the field. Indeed, one 

of the long-standing, major criticisms of policing has 

been its tendency to quickly and, to some, blithely 

put new labels on different strategies and tactics 

(which have sometimes been caustically termed the 

“flavor of the month”) and to use labels that are not 

altogether accurate. This criticism has certainly been 

lodged against community policing, owing to the fact 

that in the past some agencies failed to properly articulate, grasp, train for, and implement the strategy, 

too often creating a peripheral “unit” or, say, simply 

assigning an officer to bicycle or foot patrol and then 

anointing theirs a community policing organization. 

In a related vein, this lack of consistency of practice 

in problem solving has long been felt to frustrate— 

and even prevent—attempts to empirically evaluate 

efforts of community policing and problem solving. 

What are intelligence-led policing and predictive policing, and why do some people wish to ascribe to 

them a new “era” in policing? Perhaps it would first 

be useful to consider what might constitute—or does 

not constitute—a new era in policing. 

A review of the policing literature would lead most 

rational people to believe that nearly everything that 

has been launched anew constitutes an “era,” as opposed to being a mere strategy. For example, for 

many the police-community relations era emerged 

from the political and social upheavals of the 1960s. 

12
 

 

 

 

 

New Police Management Practices and Predictive Software: A New Era They Do Not Make 

And the team policing era—which was formulated in 

the 1970s and sought to decentralize the delivery of 

police services and make police officers generalists— 

failed largely due to poor planning and implementation. Furthermore, street officers had no idea what 

they were supposed to be doing under this strategy, 

which was described as a new era. 

More recently, the term “intelligence-led policing” 

originated in the late 1990s in Great Britain, where 

police believed that “a relatively small number of people were responsible for a comparatively large percentage of crimes” and that “police officers would have the 

best effect on crime by focusing on the most prevalent offenses occurring in their jurisdiction.”2 They 

also needed to manage law enforcement resources efficiently and to respond effectively to serious crime. 

In 2000, Britain’s National Intelligence Criminal Service, which developed a National Intelligence Model, 

set priorities for the police service:3 

•	 Target prolific offenders through overt and covert 

means. 

•	 Manage crime and disorder hotspots. 

•	 Identify and investigate linked series of crime or 

incidents. 

•	 Apply a range of prevention measures such as 

closed-circuit television and lighting schemes or 

community action initiatives. 

These priorities comprise problem solving—a part of 

problem-oriented policing—that is at the heart of the 

community era of policing. It is a management process 

placing greater emphasis than ever before on gathering 

information and performing higher levels of analyses. 

Policing simply cannot 

afford to continue debating 

acronyms, strategies, and 

eras as it proceeds into a 

future that promises a rapidly 

changing environment. 

★ ★ ★

Many police agencies have the wherewithal to employ 

both crime analysts and intelligence analysts. Crime 

analysts keep their fingers on the pulse of crime in the 

jurisdiction: e.g., which crime trends are up, which 

are down, where the hot spots are, and what type of 

property is being stolen. Intelligence analysts, on the 

other hand, are likely to be more aware of the specific 

people and groups who are responsible for crime in 

the jurisdiction: e.g., who they are, where they live, 

what they do, and who they associate with. Unifying 

and utilizing both of these functions—crime analysis 

and intelligence analysis—is essential for obtaining a 

comprehensive grasp of the crime picture. In other 

words, crime analysis allows police to understand the 

what, when, and where while intelligence analysis allows police to understand who is involved, such as 

crime networks and individuals.4 

Turning again to why succinct language is needed in 

policing, a ranking member of the Los Angeles Police 

Department once described predictive policing and 

intelligence-led policing as follows: 

13
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

The LAPD has assumed a leadership role in 

translating these successes into the next era of 

policing: predictive policing. By developing, refining, and successfully executing on the predictive-policing model, the LAPD is leveraging the 

promise of advanced analytics in the prevention 

of and response to crime. 

[Intelligence-led policing] does not replace the 

community involvement and problem-solving 

approaches in the community-policing model; 

it extends them to include research-based approaches, information and communications technology, and increased information sharing and 

accountability.5 

With what we believe is a high degree of irony, a mere 

two months before the above comments were published, an assistant U.S. Attorney General stated that: 

I think our first order of business is to define 

what we mean by “predictive policing.”  We’ve 

become so accustomed to labels in law enforcement.  Is predictive policing just another label 

for another policing model? Or is it a larger concept—something that incorporates many policing 

paradigms?”6 

These differing points of view concerning the work 

of policing is obviously confusing—and such blithe 

traversing from one description to another of policing 

can only serve to undercut the good work that police 

do. As indicated above, the police have long suffered 

under the yoke of the “flavor-of-the-month” criticism, and it is time to be much more wary in terms of 

describing its role and functions. 

According to the report, Navigating Your Agency’s Path 

to Intelligence Led Policing, intelligence-led policing 

“builds upon many of the tenets of the [Office of] 

Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS [Office]) program” and is defined as: 

A collaborative law enforcement approach combining problem-solving policing, information 

sharing, and police accountability, with enhanced intelligence operations. 

[Intelligence-led policing] is not a new policing 

model but, rather, an integrated enhancement 

that can contribute to public safety...whether it 

is community-oriented policing, problem-oriented policing, or other methodology.7 

In sum, community oriented policing, problem solving, intelligence-led policing, and predictive policing 

are not separate and distinct entities and strategies. 

Rather, intelligence-led policing and predictive policing will advance the evolution of community oriented 

policing and problem solving to address 21st century 

challenges of crime and disorder. There is no compelling need to create a separate term or “era” that 

attempts to emphasize these two complements to 

policing. Policing simply cannot afford to continue 

debating acronyms, strategies, and eras as it proceeds into a future that promises a rapidly changing 

environment. ★

14
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Police Management Practices and Predictive Software: A New Era They Do Not Make 

Ronald W. Glensor is a retired assistant chief of the Reno (Nevada) Police Department. He has more than 34 years of 

policing experience and has commanded the department’s Patrol, Administration, and Detective divisions. Glensor is recognized 

internationally for his work in community policing and has provided assistance to more than 750 agencies throughout the United 

States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain and has been a judge for the Herman Goldstein Awards since its inception. He is a 

consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security. In 1996, he was selected as one of only 10 

U.S. public policy experts to receive an Atlantic Fellowship and traveled overseas to examine repeat victimization with the Home Office 

in London, England. His awards include the University of Nevada Alumni Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award in 1996 and 

the Police Executive Research Forum’s Gary P. Hayes Leadership Award in 1997. Glensor has co-authored Community Policing and 

Problem Solving: Strategies and Practices; Police Supervision; and Policing Communities: Understanding Crime and Solving Problems. 

He has a master’s degree in public administration and policy and a doctorate in political science from the University of Nevada. 

Kenneth J. Peak is a full professor and past chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

He entered municipal policing in Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1970 and subsequently held positions as a nine-county criminal justice planner for 

southeast Kansas, director of a four-state Technical Assistance Institute for the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, director 

of university police at Pittsburg State University and the University of Nevada, Reno, and assistant professor of criminal justice at Wichita 

State University. He has authored or co-authored 25 textbooks focusing on a variety of policing and justice administration subjects, two 

historical books (on Midwestern bootlegging and temperance), and nearly 60 monographs, journal articles, and invited chapters. 

15
American Policing in 2022 

Endnotes 

1. Braiden, Chris, “Cliché Policing: Answer Before Question” (unpublished paper). 

2. Peterson, Marilyn, Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 

2005), 9, www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/210681.pdf. 

3. The National Intelligence Model (London: National Criminal Intelligence Service, 2000), www.intelligenceanalysis.net/National%20Intelligence%20Model.pdf. 

4. Bruce, Christopher, quotation in Integrated Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Enhanced Information Management for Law Enforcement Leaders, by 

J. H. Ratcliffe (Washington, D.C.: Police Foundation, 2007), 16, www.cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/integratedanalysis.pdf. 

5. Beck, Charlie, “Predictive Policing: What Can We Learn from Wal-Mart and Amazon about Fighting Crime in a Recession?” The Police Chief 76, no. 11 

(November 2009), 18–24. 

6. Robinson, Laurie, “Predictive Policing Symposium: Opening Remarks” (speech given at the Predictive Policing Symposium in Los Angeles, California, 

November 18, 2009), www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/strategies/predictive-policing/symposium/opening-robinson.htm. 

7. Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, Navigating Your Agency’s Path to Intelligence-Led Policing (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau 

of Justice Assistance, 2009), www.it.ojp.gov/gist/Document/38. 

16
17

 

 

★

Preparing the Police for 

an Uncertain Future: 

Four Guiding Principles 

★ ★
 

by Jim Bueermann 

One of the more arduous challenges 

police leaders face is preparing their 

organizations for an increasingly hardto-predict future. The last decade has 

demonstrated just how difficult it is to forecast social, 

technological, economic, and political trends and 

events, which can impact public safety and result in 

calls for police action. 

Broadly, police responses are typically grounded in either guiding principles or tradition and organizational culture. The latter does not necessarily guarantee 

effective outcomes but may be more comfortable for 

some than reframing organizational paradigms. 

Policing’s future is fraught with uncertainty; therefore, 

it needs a set of coherent, organizational development 

principles that prepare police officers to manage their 

evolving world, regardless of its future state. These 

principles must reflect American democratic ideals. 
American Policing in 2022 

Historically, police 


departments have done 


much better in training 


their officers on the technical 


aspects of the job than 


in preparing them for 


evolving futures.
 

★ ★ ★

They need to mirror the public mandate for responsive, equitable policing. These principles must also 

be anchored to the culture of American policing, and 

they must be flexible enough to ride the unpredictable waves of change. 

The four guiding principles presented here are predicated on those articulated by Sir Robert Peel in the 

1800s. They represent a framework for helping the 

police to think expansively about their future—no 

matter what it is—and their relationship with the 

people whom they serve. 

Historically, police departments have done much better in training their officers on the technical aspects of 

the job than in preparing them for evolving futures. 

Investigative or procedural techniques are much more 

likely to be part of police training curricula than the 

theoretical underpinnings of cultural literacy, police 

legitimacy, or evidence-based policing. While an increasing number of thoughtful police leaders are introducing their personnel to these forward-thinking 

ideas, the majority of organizational development in 

police departments is framed around slow, incremental change. This would be reasonable if the world was 

evolving at a slow, incremental pace, but, as we know, 

that is not the case. 

Police leaders are obligated to help their followers understand not just “what” to think, but “how” to think 

about the world ahead of them. And the “how” may 

be radically different from the way contemporary 

leaders themselves were taught to think about policing. The following principles will help leaders effect 

meaningful, future-oriented organizational change. 

Principle 1: Be value-driven 

When police departments establish a set of organizational values—especially when they do so with 

community input—they create a foundational belief 

system on which all organizational and individual decision making can be based. For instance, articulating 

that collaboration, leadership, ethics, excellence, and 

the respect for human dignity are an organization’s 

core values means that everything within it—from recruitment, promotions, and discipline to training in 

police legitimacy and procedural justice—must be in 

alignment with what the organization purports to believe. In the future, effective police departments will 

align everything they do with democratically framed 

values reflecting their community commitment. 

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Preparing the Police for an Uncertain Future: Four Guiding Principles 

Principle 2: Be a catalyst for change 

The recession has demonstrated that the police can’t 

afford to control crime and disorder all by themselves. 

And they can’t do this by employing outdated practices perpetuated by tradition, rather than by being 

motivated by desired outcomes. In the future, police 

departments will act as brokers, rather than providers, 

of many crime control products and services. Increasingly, they will define their role as a catalyst and facilitator of community action by defining crime and 

disorder problems and then interweaving scarce public and private resources to solve those problems that 

do not mandate substantial police intervention. 

Victim services, drug court interventions, prisoner 

reentry programs, and focused deterrence programs 

aimed at curbing the behavior of known offenders are 

examples of important crime control strategies that 

lend themselves to police leadership without the use 

of extensive police resources. When the police serve as 

a catalyst for change, they are more likely to manage 

desired changes, rather than be managed by the forces 

of change. 

The role of what is essentially a crime control social 

activist may be uncomfortable for many police departments. However, leadership, by definition, requires 

appropriate risk-taking, a tolerance for ambiguity, and 

courage. If police departments are to control their own 

destinies, they must lead change—not be subject to 

it. This includes internal organizational changes along 

with external changes in the community. Assuming 

the role of a community change agent requires a clearly articulated set of organizational values and the intestinal fortitude that is the hallmark of true leadership. 

...police departments 

must become learning 

organizations, capable of 

experimenting, evaluating, 

and modifying their 

approaches... 

★ ★ ★

Principle 3: Be legitimate to those whom 

you serve 

News reports are replete with police departments that 

have become disconnected from the communities 

they serve. Claims of biased-based policing and inappropriate use of force are seemingly commonplace. 

Growing is the number of incidents of wrongful conviction in which police behavior is questionable. 

When people perceive the police as legitimate in their 

actions, they are more likely to comply with police 

orders and obey the law. They are more likely to cooperate with officers; and, as a result, both the police 

and citizens are safer. 

On an interpersonal level, police legitimacy requires 

the police to be fair, neutral, and unbiased in their decision making. It also requires they treat people with 

courtesy, dignity, and respect. At an organizational 

level, the manner in which police officers feel they 

19
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the future, police 

departments...will define 

their role as a catalyst 

and facilitator of 

community action... 

★ ★ ★

are treated by the leadership of the department creates a sense of internal police legitimacy and frames 

officer–citizen interactions. And from a community 

perspective, police legitimacy requires police departments to act in a manner consistent with the adage of 

“investing in the bank of community trust”—because 

they will make a withdrawal at some point (e.g., community reaction to police use of force). 

The essence of police legitimacy is straightforward. 

Community safety is enhanced when (1) police 

departments articulate a core set of values framed 

around the theoretical underpinnings of police legitimacy, (2) they lead change within themselves as 

well as in the community, and (3) they train and hold 

police officers accountable for behaving in highly 

legitimate ways. 

Principle 4: Be a learning organization 

Fortune 500 companies count intellectual capital among their most valuable assets. They all have 

some form of a knowledge management initiative 

to leverage what their employees know about their 

products, services, customers, and operating environments. Similarly, successful police departments in 

the future will find themselves actively managing the 

crime and disorder knowledge of their officers, justice system partners, and community members. The 

extent to which departments capture, use, share, and 

increase what they know about crime and disorder 

will largely determine their future success. 

Inherent in any effective effort to manage knowledge 

is the notion of on-going learning and evaluation. 

Successful private sector organizations constantly review the best evidence of what works in their markets, develop strategies based on that evidence, and 

then evaluate them for success. In other words, they 

constantly experiment with ways to improve their 

profits and learn from those experiences. In policing, the equivalent of this is known as evidencebased policing. It is a thoughtful approach to using 

the best available evidence about what works to control crime to drive policing strategy and is a gateway 

concept to police departments becoming “learning 

organizations.” 

In the coming years, police resources are likely to 

become even more constrained. As a result, it will be 

crucial that police departments experiment with ways 

to improve their bottom line of community safety and 

employ smart policing strategies based on the best 

available evidence. Like the private sector, the police 

will need to commit to evidence-based practices— 

either developed by researchers or themselves—to 

enhance the safety of their communities. 

20
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing the Police for an Uncertain Future: Four Guiding Principles 

To accomplish diverse community safety goals, police 

departments must become learning organizations, 

capable of experimenting, evaluating, and modifying their approaches as a result of those evaluations. 

Moreover, they will have to do this within a framework that aligns activities with clear organizational 

values, furthers their role as catalysts of community 

action, enhances the public’s perception of their legitimacy, and uses evidence to drive police practices. 

In the future, the police will have to think differently about their relationship with their community, 

their role in society, and the manner in which they 

craft responses to crime. Police leaders will have to 

sharpen their focus on preparing their organizations 

for volatile, uncertain futures. With this in mind, we 

can apply to the control of crime and disorder Albert 

Einstein’s view that “the world we created today...has 

problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way 

we thought when we created them.” By acting in accordance with the guiding principles laid out here, police leaders can effectively prepare their organizations 

to better serve the public now and in the future. ★

Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, worked for the Redlands (California) Police Department for 33 years, 

serving in every unit within the department. He was appointed chief of police and director of Housing, Recreation, and Senior Services 

in 1998 and served in that role until his retirement in June of 2011. He then served as an executive fellow with the U.S. Department of 

Justice’s National Institute of Justice and a senior fellow at George Mason University.An honorary fellow of the Academy of Experimental 

Criminology, Bueerman has also been elected into the halls of fame at George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime 

Policy and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, San Bernardino. He is a graduate of California 

State University, San Bernardino, the University of Redlands, the FBI National Academy, and the California Command College. 

21

23

★ ★ ★
 

Quality and Performance 


Management: An 

Innovative Approach 

to Future Police 

Management 

by Michael T. Frazier 

L

aw enforcement executives all over the 

world are traditionally tasked with similar 

missions, including: 

•	 Suppressing crime 

•	 Collaborating with the community to determine 

service expectations 

•	 Working closely with all levels of local, county, 

state, and federal governments 

•	 Aligning available law enforcement resources to 

determine and meet all safety and security expectations effectively and efficiently 

While those mission objectives are not likely to change 

over the next 10 years, successful law enforcement 

agencies will expand the expertise of their personnel 

in the use of proven business management principles 

and techniques that will complement their crimefighting, leadership, and communication capabilities. 
American Policing in 2022 

Adding these business tools will assist agencies in not 

only providing effective safety and security services 

but also providing them through a management capability that will rival successful businesses all over 

the world. 

As a major drain of any city budget, the law enforcement agency will operate more efficiently to ensure 

the equitable distribution of limited public funds. 

Through the development of a solid law enforcement 

business management culture, those mission objectives identified above will be reached effectively by 

the expanded commitment to manage the agency as 

a business system comprised of interrelated working 

parts, namely: 

•	 Planning and performance management: Planning for short-, mid-, and long-term objectives 

to ensure an aligned focus, identified success factors, regular performance reviews, and enhanced 

organizational performance 

•	 Resource management: Identifying, providing, 

and efficiently managing the provision of resources, including hiring, facilities, equipment, 

financial, and information 

•	 Core product/service management: Identifying, measuring, challenging, and continually 

improving the core competencies of the agency, 

including patrol, investigations, and all support 

services 

•	 Measurement, analysis, and improvement: Ensuring that customer input is valued and sought 

after and service levels are regularly satisfied, 

including performance evaluation and improvement, service consistency, internal performance 

auditing beyond compliance audits, and corrective action techniques that ultimately repair 

problem root causes to eliminate reoccurrence 

•	 Knowledge/quality management: Creating an 

environment that fosters individual and organizational learning and growth, ensures continuity, and relieves challenges related to succession 

planning 

The management model that will be used to transition agencies to a state of law enforcement business 

excellence will be based on a complementary relationship of compliance with generally accepted national 

and/or state accreditation standards and international 

business management standards, currently managed 

by the International Organization of Standardization. Through this complementary relationship, the 

law enforcement agency will have added considerable value to its accreditation process, streamlined 

the compliance/maintenance processes, enabled and 

encouraged the development of relevant performance 

metrics beyond traditional law enforcement measurements, and effectively responded to recent economic 

challenges. This effective balance between law enforcement compliance and business performance will 

continue to elevate each agency’s relationship with the 

community it serves. 

24
-

Quality and Performance Management: An Innovative Approach to Future Police Management 

Surprise Police Department’s ISO quality management system model is a connected system of interrelated parts. 

Management Responsibility 5.0 

Quality Management System 4.0 

General 

Requirements 

4.0

General Requirements 

Management

Commitment 

5.1

Customer 

Focus 

5.2

Quality

Policy 

5.3

Quality,

Planning &

Objectives 

5.4

Responsibility,

Authority, Communication 

5.5

Management

Review 

5.6

Documentation 

Requirements 

4.2

Quality

Manual 

4.2.2

Control of 

Documents 

4.2.3

Control of 

Records 

4.2.4

Resource Management 6.0 

Provision of 

Resources 

6.1

Human 

Resources 

6.2.1

Competence,

Training

Awareness 

6.2.2

Infrastructure 

6.3

Work 

Environment 

6.4

Product Service 7.0 

Product/

Service 

Planning 

7.1

Customer 

Processes 

7.2

Design &

Development 

7.3

Purchasing 

7.4

Product/

Service 

Delivery 

7.5

Monitor 

Measure 

Equipment 

7.6

Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement 8.0 

Internal 

Audit 

8.2.2

Continual 

Improvement 

8.5.1

Customer 

Satisfaction 

8.2.1

Control 

Non 

conformance 

8.3

Corrective 

Preventive 

Action 

8.5.2/8.5.3

Monitor 

Measure 

Analyze 

8.4

Management Driven 

Resource Alignment Through Performance Management 

Customer Satisfaction Through Performance Management 

Source: Copyright 2011 Surprise (Arizona) Police Department. 

25
 

 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

The law enforcement agency 

that commits to learning and 

applying effective business 

management principles and 

performs as a component 

system is better equipped to 

succeed in all areas of law 

enforcement responsibility. 

★ ★ ★

The guiding principles that will shape the future of 

law enforcement management are expected to evolve 

as do internationally accepted business management 

principles. The basis for these principles, however, 

will likely remain steadfast as a set of fundamental beliefs that are essential for leading and operating a law 

enforcement agency “aimed at continually improving 

performance over the long term by focusing on customers while addressing the needs of all other interested parties.”1 The following principles will be used 

throughout the organization to enhance the management system components identified above:2 

•	 Customer focus: “Organizations depend on their 

customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements, and strive to exceed customer 

expectations.” 

Organizations focusing on their customers will 

likely increase operational effectiveness and efficiency and enhance trust, credibility, and 

reputation. 

•	 Leadership: “Leaders establish unity of purpose 

and direction of the organization. They should 

create and maintain the internal environment 

in which people can become fully involved in 

achieving the organization’s objectives.” 

Effective law enforcement leaders applying this 

principle will elevate information consistency, 

promote alignment and understanding of departmental processes and objectives, communicate the 

value of accreditation and management standards, 

and reduce probability for miscommunication. 

•	 Involvement of people: “People at all levels are 

the essence of an organization, and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for 

the organization’s benefit.” 

Employee involvement typically results in an organization comprised of motivated people who 

are eager to contribute, people who are willing 

to participate, people who are willing to be held 

accountable for the development of individual 

and organizational objectives and performance 

related to those objectives, and people who are 

willing to participate in change and continual 

improvement. 

•	 Process approach: “A desired result is achieved 

more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.” 

26
 

Quality and Performance Management: An Innovative Approach to Future Police Management 

Effectively developing and managing required, 

efficient processes will reduce redundancy, eliminate waste, reduce cost through control and 

elimination of corrective action needs, establish predictability of results, promote efficiency 

through effective use of limited resources, and 

prioritize opportunities for improvement. 

•	 System approach to management: “Identifying, understanding, and managing interrelated 

processes as a system contributes to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its 

objectives.” 

An organization performs through a unified approach of all parties. The system approach will 

reduce individual agendas and inequitable allocations of resources and will promote consistency 

in objective development. The organization will 

then become more efficient, more effective, and a 

better place to work. 

•	 Continual improvement: “Continual improvement of the organization’s overall performance should be a permanent objective of the 

organization.” 

All members of the organization should continually examine performance and look for better ways 

of doing business and strengthening alignment. 

Similarly, the organization should regularly examine its products and services to ensure they still 

meet customer needs, are technologically current 

or advanced, are in compliance with standards, 

and are in alignment with current regulatory and 

statutory requirements. 

[The] balance between law 


enforcement compliance 


and business performance 


will continue to elevate each 


agency’s relationship with the 


community it serves.
 

★ ★ ★

•	 Factual approach to decision-making: “Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data 

and information.” 

Organizations can improve only what is being 

measured. Decision making will be better supported with objective information rather than 

subjective reactions. Balancing factual information with experience, knowledge, and opinions 

will assist in selecting the best of competing ideas. 

•	 Mutually beneficial supplier relationships: “An 

organization and its suppliers are interdependent, 

and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances 

the ability of both to create value.” 

Similar to the organization’s reliance on customers 

to enable it to continue operating as a vital public 

safety entity, the agency must also have a solid relationship with its suppliers to ensure they understand the organization’s needs as they ultimately 

relate to providing services to its customers.3 

27
 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

Several law enforcement agencies throughout Europe 

and Asia have applied this business methodology for 

several years. However, only a few agencies in the 

United States—including in Houston, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; Clark County School District, Nevada; 

and Surprise, Arizona—have become considerably 

more effective and efficient by formally adopting and 

successfully implementing the business philosophy. 

The law enforcement agency that commits to learning and applying effective business management principles and performs as a component system is better 

equipped to succeed in all areas of law enforcement 

responsibility. The agency will be more focused on 

its customers, be more connected internally to ensure 

consistency and efficiency, and possess a management capability to evaluate and respond positively to 

performance data beyond customary clearance rates, 

crime rates, and response times—all in an effort to 

develop a world-class business that just happens to 

provide safety and security services that consistently 

meet community needs at the level expected. ★

Michael T. Frazier was appointed as the chief of police for the city of Surprise, Arizona, on February 14, 2011. Previously, 

Frazier served as the chief for the city of El Mirage, Arizona, for just over three years. As chief, he is responsible for all aspects of the 

police department in serving the needs of the community. This responsibility, as it was in El Mirage, is characterized by a changing 

culture and a heightened professionalism within the organization. Focusing on community policing, developing protocols and effective 

business practices, and building a solid foundation for providing effective customer service are dramatically changing the way the 

department is perceived by the community. Frazier began his law enforcement career with the Phoenix (Arizona) Police Department, 

serving in nearly every division for 32 years until retiring in October 2007. While with Phoenix, Frazier rose through the ranks, retiring 

as the executive assistant chief of police. In that role, he was responsible for a $600 million budget and the day-to-day operations of 

the department, including patrol, investigations, and tactical operations. Frazier holds a bachelor’s degree in justice studies from Arizona 

State University and master’s degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University. 

Endnotes 

1. Hoyle, David, ISO 9000 Quality System Handbook (London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006). 

2. The eight listed principles and quotations are from the International Organization for Standardization, Quality Management Principles (Genève, Switzerland: 

ISO Central Secretariat, 2011), www.iso.org/iso/qmp_2012.pdf. 

3. Amari, David M., “Creating a Police Quality Management System—How the Surprise Police Department Combines CALEA Accreditation and ISO 

9001:2008 Quality Management Principles,” CALEA Update Magazine 108 (February 2012). 

28
29

 

★

Community Building as 

Crime Control 

★ ★
 

by Michael A. Davis 

What fundamentally separates police 

from the rest of society is the authority to utilize corrosive force. 

Police have almost exclusive rights 

to exercise formal control in areas of crime and disorder. Historically, through the eras of policing (political, reform, and community) in the United States, the 

police have focused their innovations in the area of 

how to levy force in a more fair, impartial, and thus 

more effective way. 

What has remained constant in policing is the fundamental belief that public safety is achieved only 

through exercising formal control. Some police 

chiefs, I’m sure, would quibble with this assertion, 

touting what they believe are broad, holistic efforts at 

reducing crime. The problem is that, despite the best 

intentions, it is rare to find police officers working the 

street who see their role extending much beyond that 

of an instrument of formal control. 
American Policing in 2022 

30

...our charge is not to 

simply be reflexive to crime 

trends but to challenge those 

conditions that contribute to 

crime and disorder. 

★★★

This misguided ethos of patrol officers was illustrated 

in a recent article1

 that focused pejoratively on what 

the author described as hug-a-thug initiatives promulgated by police administrators. The illustrations 

accompanying this article featured minority males 

dressed in urban fashion in emotionally charged situations. The author insinuated that any outreach effort 

was akin to extending a capitulating hand across enemy lines and proclaimed that “what warriors do best 

is keep the damned in check.” 

I present this example not to say that all patrol officers 

have malevolent intent but that the culture perpetuated through generations of myopic police leadership 

has led to this unhelpful mentality of patrol officers. 

In fact, there is significant research that enforcementonly crime reduction measures have led to decreased 

policing legitimacy and thus decreased effectiveness 

in the communities that need the police the most. 

It would be inaccurate to state that policing has not 

evolved some in the last three decades, but the question is have we done more harm than good under 

the fundamental principles of community policing, 

which stress more than anything else improving the 

conditions of the communities we serve? This is a topic where there is an easy fight to pick, especially with 

those law and order purists who quickly point to 30-

year lows in crime across the United States and give almost all the credit to high-intensity law enforcement. 

The correlation between full jails and low crime falls 

right into the police ethos of law and order that seems 

to have a high tolerance for collateral damage in poor 

(and minority) communities. Sure, crime is down. 

But for some communities crime has never gone 

down (significantly), and in some cities violent crime 

is making a comeback. So, if disadvantaged neighborhoods are still fertile ground for crime, then this 

crime dip is ephemeral. 

My assertion is that the police over the past couple of 

decades have done little to change the conditions in 

communities that allow crime to exist. In fact, if one 

were to believe that the effects of mass incarceration 

reduce a community’s capacity to prevent crime, then 

police have done more harm than good in some communities of color. 

As police, I believe our charge is not to simply be reflexive to crime trends and patterns but to challenge 

those conditions that contribute to crime and disorder. This approach requires more than working with 

the community (as purported by community policing) but actually being part of the community, creating an intended future that is distinct from the past. I 

call this approach asset-based, police-led community 

building. This policing philosophy is focused on the 
Community Building as Crime Control 

gifts and assets of a community and treats crime as 

a symptom of disconnected community. One of the 

goals of this policing strategy is building active social 

capital throughout the community. When we activate 

community members to lay claim to this place and 

the people within it, we reverse the pathology of the 

isolation and dependency that cripples a community’s 

ability to prevent crime. 

Asset-based community policing’s implementation 

is evolutionary, not revolutionary. This approach 

requires layers of strategies that engage and activate 

more and more people in each initiative. The accumulative effect of the complete orientation of police 

services to building active social capital will challenge 

those conditions that lead to crime. 

So, where to begin is the age-old question. I believe 

that a shift in focus and a shift in behaviors will begin 

the process. Community building cannot be viewed 

as the secondary but primary objective of police departments. The police have to play a lead role in this 

process because community members will take the 

path of least resistance and demand everything from 

the police and expect nothing from themselves in creating a safer place. 

To begin the process of community building, the police can do three things: 

1.	 Work to build a culturally competent community: People who live in diverse communities 

fear demographic change, and that fear leads efforts to leverage the police to mitigate that fear. 

Building a competent community creates a working trust between communities of color and the 

Patrol officers are a police 

department’s greatest source 

of ideas and...strategies for 

this community-building 

approach to policing. 

★ ★ ★

dominate race and removes the police from the 

middle. This focus would by default raise the 

level of police legitimacy in diverse communities. 

This means police departments need to focus on 

connecting residents to one another, creating the 

space for conversations focused on gifts, assets, 

and the common future we can build for this 

place we call our community. 

2.	 Stop letting residents off the hook: Generally, 

residents don’t care much about crime until it 

impacts them. Residents view themselves as 

consumers of services without any responsibility 

to serve one another to build a collective future. 

By enhancing the level of collective efficacy in a 

community, the muscle of informal social control 

would strengthen, thereby reducing dependency 

on the police for every issue requiring a control 

remedy. This means changing the conversation 

from a transactional and deficit focus to an assetbased focus on relationships. This would not only 

raise the level of police legitimacy but also curb 

the incessant need to add cops to the payroll. 

31
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

3.	 Get patrol officers to focus on communitybuilding outcomes: Police organizations have 

orientated patrol officers as a group to focus 

almost exclusively in arcane enforcement-only 

crime control tasks. Police departments don’t 

promote, measure, or reward (and thereby don’t 

value) community-building policing approaches. 

Because of this failure in leadership, patrol officers 

are stuck in a perpetual cycle of low-reward and 

high-stress enforcement-only strategies. Changing 

this dynamic begins by the alignment of awards 

and accountability systems to the advancement 

of collective efficacy and the inculcation of the 

commensurate behaviors to geographic policing 

strategies. Officers who are orientated to care 

about outcomes will behave and make decisions 

according to how they will impact the whole and 

not simply whether or not they will violate policy. 

Patrol officers are a police department’s greatest 

source of ideas and commensurate strategies for 

this community-building approach to policing. It’s 

high time that police leaders engage these resources 

as the assets they are. 

For police to be relevant and effective in the next 

10 years, our approach of symptom-based, enforcement-based tactics must morph to a more sustainable and effective model. By leveraging the assets of 

the community, we can begin to create an intended 

future for our communities where the outcomes are 

more significant and conditions that lead to crime 

have been changed. ★

Michael A. Davis has been in law enforcement for 20 years and has served as the chief of police for the city of Brooklyn 

Park, Minnesota, for over four years. Prior to joining the Brooklyn Park Police Department, Davis worked for the Minneapolis Police 

Department and served in such roles as the commander of the Internal Affairs Unit and sector lieutenant. Davis holds a master’s degree 

in organizational management and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Davis is a member of the International Association of Chiefs 

of Police and the Police Executive Research Forum. He is also a member of the current Executive Session on Policing and Public 

Safety at the Harvard Kennedy School, John F. Kennedy School of Government. In April 2012, Davis was presented with the Gary P. 

Hayes Award for leadership and innovation from the Police Executive Research Forum. 

Endnotes 

1. Goetz, Ti, “Have You Hugged Your Thug Today,” American COP 8, no. 1 (January/February 2012), 

http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/AmericanCop/ACJF12/?Page=34. 

32
33

 

★

Moving Beyond the 

Myths and Misdirection 

Impeding Community 

Policing Success 

★ ★
 

by Louis A. Mayo 

All of local policing is impeded by a 

schizophrenic existence of confusion 

and conflict between the many myths 

and misdirection of policing, resulting in 

a fragile house of cards (myths) on a foundation of 

sand (misdirection). This is well clarified in the classic essay “Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie 

Sutton,”1 which describes local policing as more like 

the service orientation of Florence Nightingale than 

the law enforcement role of chasing criminals. Extensive research has quantified the local police role, 

indicating that rarely is an officer involved in “crime.” 

In fact, my research indicates that the average police 

officer is involved in only one such crime incident 

per week—and that is usually to take a routine report 

about some prior property crime. 
American Policing in 2022 

Why is U.S. policing called 

“law enforcement” since law 

enforcement is such a small 

part of policing? 

★ ★ ★

The basic principle of community policing has been 

well known since 1829 when enunciated by Sir Robert Peel in his founding of the London police department and is equally true today. American policing is 

derived from the London model, but unfortunately 

this aspect/principle has been over-ridden by local 

culture. Of Peel’s nine principles, two are key: the 

“police must secure the willing cooperation of the 

public...,’’ and “the basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.” 

After I once spoke at an FBI international symposium 

on policing, I was approached by two Australian police officials with puzzled looks on their faces. They 

asked, “Why is U.S. policing called ‘law enforcement’ 

since law enforcement is such a small part of policing?” The Australians are correct. The term law enforcement is a gross misnomer and distortion when 

referring to community, or any other, policing. 

In 1967, the President’s Crime Commission indicated that most police work does not involve crime,2 

and my research quantified it. Such gross misperception of the problem was articulated when I spoke at 

a workshop to senior police officials and asked their 

estimate of how many major crime calls are answered 

per week by an average officer. Their replies were 

usually in the range of 15 to 25 calls per week. They 

looked on in doubtful amazement when told that research says the correct answer for almost all cities is 

one. They were then given a simple formula to compute the rate for their department and looked up in 

amazement when faced with the actual results. 

With such gross misperceptions of an organization’s 

activities, no chief executive can make good decisions 

for leadership. The world-famous management consultant Peter Drucker, when consulting with a new 

organization, frequently would ask what business are 

you in? The answer is not obvious. In the 1990s, John 

F. Smith, then-president of General Motors, astutely 

stated in a television interview that GM was actually 

in the entertainment industry. If their new cars were 

not emotionally exciting or entertaining, low sales 

would result in their bankruptcy. 

So, what business are you in? 

A common motto of policing is “to serve and protect.” Throughout history, this has been to serve and 

protect the powerful from the powerless, a point 

made by Samuel Walker in his text, Popular Justice. 

Successful implementation of community policing 

must recognize the dramatic social and political implications of empowering the powerless from the police if the community of people are to see the police 

as friends and supporters and not hostile adversaries. 

All of the mechanics of community policing are really 

only methodology to that end. 

34
Moving Beyond the Myths and Misdirection Impeding Community Policing Success 

In Community Policing: The Past, Present and Future,3 the results of three national surveys of about 

300 police departments reporting implementation of 

community policing are presented. However, none 

reported implementation of all of the community 

oriented policing elements and, according to Gary 

Cordner, “police agencies [tended] to adopt a relatively modest version of community policing” and 

“officers [seemed] to spend relatively little time actually engaging citizens.”4 Because community policing is a holistic philosophy, partial implementation 

will result in ineffective results, particularly because 

such departments combine traditional with community policing and these do not mix any more than 

oil and water. In that same text, Herman Goldstein 

stated “the initiatives associated with community policing cannot survive in a police agency managed in 

traditional ways,”5 which are in direct conflict with 

the stated community policing principles of Peel. 

Finally, a basic element of community policing is 

integrity, without which all the other principles and 

procedures are void. Police must not only act with 

complete integrity but also be perceived as such by 

the community. Unfortunately, as Lord Acton in 

England stated, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”6 To see the risks of 

this in policing, we just have to look at the research 

of psychologist Philip Zimbardo in his famous experiment at Stanford University where he empowered 

some students to act as guards and others as prisoners, 

but he had to cancel the project when he found the 

guards abusing their power. 

Despite this risk, in my over 60 years in policing, I 

have known only two chiefs with adequate corruption-prevention programs. That explains why the 

U.S. Department of Justice has found more than 30 

departments guilty of patterns and practice (not isolated events) of civil rights abuse.7 Yet many chiefs 

would not fire an officer for making a false official 

statement, even though it normally involves at least 

two felonies—perjury and obstruction of justice. 

Chiefs must understand the need for strong anticorruption programs if community policing (or any 

policing) is to succeed. 

Recognizing and correcting the many policing myths 

are critical to successful implementation of community policing, by first cleansing students’ minds of the 

many policing myths and then recognizing that traditional and community policing do not mix, like oil 

and water. This is emphasized in the graduate curriculum in community policing, designed by myself and 

Dr. Diana Bruns at Southeast Missouri State University, which starts with cleansing students’ minds of 

policing myths to help them accept the true/proven 

principles of community policing. Ultimate success 

has police and citizens’ minds harmonized in cooperative unison versus opposed adversaries. If we work 

now to address these myths and misdirection across 

the board in our training and education programs, by 

2022 chiefs may be able to answer accurately the all 

important question, “What business are you in?” ★

35
 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

Louis A. Mayo has been engaged in advancing policing nationwide through research, operations, training, and management 

consulting since 1967. He is president of Mayo, Mayo and Associates, Inc., which is devoted to solving police management and 

operations problems. He is also the founder of the Police Association for College Education, a non-profit devoted to improving policing 

by advocating that all officers have at least a four-year college education, as recommended by national commissions and the federal 

courts. As staff co-founder of the National Institute of Justice, Mayo directed nationwide training programs to improve policing and 

other aspects of criminal justice, including courts, prosecution, and corrections. His service on a national committee to recommend 

training in police use of force resulted in a curriculum used to train many police agencies. Mayo also served as an associate member 

of the Federal Council for Science and Technology, the national science policy advisory board to the president. He was given the annual 

award “for outstanding national contribution to the advancement and professional development of criminal justice administration” by 

the criminal justice section of the American Society for Public Administration. Mayo developed the curriculum for the FBI National 

Academy on implementing police research, and he has been an invited speaker at the FBI academy on several occasions, including 

the International Symposium on the Future of Law Enforcement. His doctoral dissertation, “Analysis of the Role of the Police Chief 

Executive,” was the first comprehensive analysis of this role in the United States. 

Endnotes 

1. Bittner, Egon, “Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton: A Theory of Police,” in The Potential for Reform of Criminal Justice, ed. H. Jacob (Beverly Hills, 

CA: Sage Publications, 1974), 17–34. 

2. Task Force on the Police, Task Force Reports: The Police (Washington, D.C.: The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, 

1967). 

3. Fridell, Lorie, and Mary Ann Wycoff, eds., Community Policing: The Past, Present, and Future, (Washington, D.C.: Police Executive Research Forum, 2004), 

65, www.policeforum.org/library/community-policing/CommunityPolicingReduced.pdf. 

4. Ibid. 

5. Goldstein, Herman, The New Policing: Confronting Complexity, NIJ Research in Brief (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of 

Justice, 1993), quoted in Community Policing: The Past, Present, and Future, eds. Lorie Fridell and Mary Ann Wycoff (Washington, D.C.: Police Executive 

Research Forum, 2004), 8. 

6. John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, First Baron Acton of Aldenham, was a 19th century British politician and historian. Considered one of the most learned 

men of his time and a vocal advocate of both religious and personal freedom, he is now best known for his often misquoted statement on the corruption of power. 

36
37

 

★ ★ ★

Asking the Tough 

Questions 

by Joseph Brann 

Over the past two decades, most regions 

of the United States have experienced 

significant declines in the Part I crime 

rate, both in the violent and property 

crime categories. Although this long-term trend has 

been quite remarkable and unprecedented, it remains 

something the general public is largely unaware of 

and most often surprised by when it is pointed out 

to them. The media have not brought a great deal of 

attention to this, as they tend to focus on sensational 

crime stories and usually focus on crime data only 

when annual Uniform Crime Reports are released. 

Most police agencies and local officials routinely neglect to publicize long-term trends or fail to even recognize what has taken place in their own jurisdictions 

beyond looking at the seasonal or annual data. Even 

researchers and academics have difficulty explaining 

the reasons for this apparent but long-term reversal 

in crime. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are we effective? Are we 

accountable? Are the results 

that we are seeking what the 

community expects? 

★ ★ ★

Despite the progress in lowering crime over the longterm, we continue to witness increasing pressures on 

police organizations to achieve even better results. 

That includes seeking reductions in both crime and 

the fear of crime, improved cost-efficiency in the delivery of police services, heightened accountability for 

results at both the organizational level as well as on the 

part of all employees, and improved responsiveness 

to community and neighborhood issues/concerns. 

These pressures are likely going to increase even more 

in the future, and that is one of the challenges that 

must be met by the next generation of police leaders. 

Some argue that these increasing demands and lofty 

goals are simply unattainable in light of the long-term 

reductions we have already experienced. Yet this crime 

reduction trend has continued even in an era of shrinking resources and a significant decline in the economy. 

There are lessons to be learned and opportunities before us if we choose to recognize some of the significant 

influences that have been at work. We can build upon 

the foundation that has been evolving for the past several decades and do even more if we so choose. 

There is potential for even greater success if leaders, 

at all levels of police organizations, as well as elected policy-makers recognize that we cannot afford 

to be limited by past assumptions and myths that 

still haunt and limit the profession. Examples include thinking that the police can do little to prevent 

crime other than through increased enforcement and 

arrests, that crime rates are somehow tied to police 

staffing levels (especially that of sworn officers), that 

the public should do little more than act as the eyes 

and ears of the police, and that suppression and enforcement strategies are more effective than prevention strategies or multi-disciplinary approaches. 

The roots and influence of many of the innovative policing strategies that began to proliferate in 

the 1990s, which is when we first began to witness 

widespread crime reductions across the country, were 

actually sown in the 1970s and 1980s. Police strategies shifted from being largely reactive in nature to 

exploring new methods for preventing both property crime (through such things as target hardening, 

crime prevention through environmental design, 

loss prevention techniques, etc.) and violent crime 

(improved public awareness through community 

education and training, sexual assault prevention, 

risk awareness and avoidance, etc.). Improved data 

mining capabilities evolved with the development 

of computer-aided dispatch/records management 

systems, and this opened the door to the emphasis 

on problem-solving tactics that focused on reducing 

repeat crimes and chronic nuisances associated with 

specific locations, offenders, and victims. 

38
 

 

 

 

Asking the Tough Questions 

Those jurisdictions that were on the forefront of 

adopting these strategies, programs, and tactics were 

also the first to begin experiencing significant and 

lasting declines in their crime rates. Their successes 

preceded the national trend and prompted other 

communities to examine what was happening and to 

adopt similar approaches. 

While the police have most certainly played a role 

in reducing crime, it would be foolhardy to not recognize that a number of factors have influenced this 

trend, including the fact that even the nature of crime 

has been changing. In the past, most policing strategies have largely focused on Part I crimes. The effectiveness of policing strategies, responses from our 

criminal justice system, and shifts in crime policies 

along with shifts in demographics have all contributed to some subtle but significant changes in criminal 

behavior and victimization. 

There is a decided shift taking place in the types of 

crimes being committed today, with a pronounced 

increase found in the Part II crime category; more 

crime has become evident in areas related to identity 

theft, fraud, white collar crime, and other categories 

that do not necessarily get the attention of the media 

when they focus on crime data. And most members 

of the public do not understand the difference between Part I and Part II crimes. Additionally, significant police resources are rarely committed to Part II 

crimes, other than for drug and vice offenses. 

This decline in Part I crimes and shift toward Part II 

crimes warrant a closer examination to ascertain 

whether other factors could be at work and whether 

police strategies and resources are being adjusted to 

ensure the public’s needs are being met. Is the current crime decline actually the result of improvements 

in policing strategies and crime policies, or might it 

reflect a failure on the part of the police to recognize 

that shifts are occurring in criminal behavior because 

offenders realize that Part II crimes receive less attention from police and prosecutors? If so, does this reflect awareness on the part of career criminals that 

the likelihood of getting caught for these crimes is 

considerably less and that, even if apprehended, the 

sanctions are virtually non-existent? 

Another question requiring attention is whether this 

overall decline in Part I crimes is real or whether it 

could be the result of some agencies deliberately reclassifying Part I crimes as Part II crimes in order to 

foster an appearance of success. If so, what will be the 

impact on community trust? How would this affect 

an organization’s ability to document and track crime 

and offenders properly, to ensure victims are provided 

services, and to deal with offenders? And if the trend 

is truly what it appears to be on the surface, are police leaders appropriately adjusting and redirecting 

resources to respond to this shift in crime so as to remain responsive and accountable to the community? 

If they are not doing this, what impact does that have 

on police effectiveness, the budget, and community 

confidence? 

Conversely, if we accept that the current Part I crime 

rate reduction is attributable, in part, to the policing 

strategies and crime policies that have been adopted, 

what might this mean for police organizations in 

the future? Will we leave our existing structures and 

39
American Policing in 2022 

The composition of the 

workforce in police agencies 

will also be an issue...in the 

coming decade. 

★ ★ ★

resources as they have been, in spite of the fact that 

Part I crimes may have significantly declined and the 

workload in those areas has diminished? Or will we 

adapt by restructuring and redeploying our resources 

to respond to the shifts in crime by reassigning staff 

from areas where crime has been reduced to areas 

where it is on the rise? 

The composition of the workforce in police agencies 

will also be an issue to address in the coming decade. 

For several decades, a gradual shift in police staffing has been occurring in parts of the United States 

(most notably in the far west region) with more agencies employing civilian personnel to provide services 

that were traditionally provided by sworn police officers. The primary factor influencing this has been 

economics, based on the desire to maintain services 

in the most cost-efficient manner possible. However, 

during the course of budget cuts in many jurisdictions, elected officials have been tending to eliminate 

civilian positions rather than sworn officers. 

Along with the changing nature of crime, other influences are also at work that may drive more consideration of the use of civilian personnel and various 

non-traditional approaches. As crime increases in 

those areas that require unique knowledge and particular expertise, such as financial crimes and accounting skills, computer technology and systems, and 

other complex cases, police organizations will probably have to rethink whether the employees handling 

these cases are most likely going to be found within 

the ranks of their existing personnel or recruited from 

new applicant pools. 

Will it be more effective and efficient to hire police 

officers as has been done in the past and then train 

them to handle assignments they may not have an 

interest in or be willing to make a long-term commitment to? Or might it make more sense to recruit 

from the ranks of accounting or IT professionals and 

others who are not necessarily interested in being a 

sworn officer but who possess valuable skills and have 

an interest in this work? Why not consider hiring 

them to supplement or complement sworn personnel who handle the enforcement functions? There 

is little difference to be found in this approach than 

with what we observed approximately 30 to 40 years 

ago with the hiring of the first civilian community or 

police service officers, crime scene technicians, forensic technicians, and a host of other assignments that 

are now commonly filled by capable and professional 

staff who are not sworn police officers. 

40
 

 

 

 

Asking the Tough Questions 

Some of the greatest challenges for police leaders 

today stem not just from dealing with external factors, such as crime and service demands, but equally 

so from the responsibility and pressures associated 

with examining organizational performance in an era 

of increasing scrutiny. That requires a willingness on 

the part of police executives to ask tough questions 

of others in the organization and ensure the answers 

provided are objective and supported by facts. Are we 

effective? Are we accountable? Are the results that we 

are seeking what the community expects? Are we doing the right things? The answers will tell the story. 

Ultimately, policing always has been and will be about 

people—the community as well as the members of 

the organization—and whether the latter are serving 

the former. ★

Joseph Brann is the founder and president of Joseph Brann & Associates, a California firm that specializes in improving 

organizational performance and accountability of public safety agencies. He has also served as a federal court special master and 

consultant to the State of California, Office of the Attorney General, monitoring and overseeing police reform efforts of local police 

departments. In 1994, Brann was appointed as the founding director for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services in 

the U.S. Department of Justice. He was appointed by President Clinton to create and administer that agency following passage of the 

1994 Crime Act legislation and served in that capacity until 1999. Brann began his law enforcement career in 1969 with the Santa 

Ana (California) Police Department. In 1989, he was appointed as chief of police in Hayward, California. He earned his bachelor’s 

degree in criminal justice from California State University, Fullerton; a master’s degree in public administration from the University of 

Southern California; and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy. 

41

43

 

 

 

★

What Gets Measured Is 

the Matter: The Need for 

Leading Public Safety 

Indicators 

★ ★
 

by Michael S. Scott 

I

t is sometimes said that what gets measured 

matters. To turn the phrase, much is the matter 

with what gets measured in the crime, policing, 

and public safety realm. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in its annual 

Uniform Crime Reports, appropriately cautions readers not to use the data to compare police agencies; 

many factors outside the control of police agencies affect reported crime rates. Sound as this caution is, it is 

seldom heeded by journalists who write stories about 

police agencies, by citizens who read those news stories, by political leaders who oversee police agencies, 

or by police executives who administer and lead them. 

Like it or not, for over 80 years, the Uniform Crime 

Reports remain for all intents and purposes the only 

real game in town for rating local police departments 

and gauging public safety and security. 
American Policing in 2022 

...we are foolish to persist in 


our belief that any 


single index could provide 


us with a reasonably 


accurate portrait of the 


quality of our police... 


★ ★ ★

That the Uniform Crime Reporting Program—and 

even its new and improved cousin, the National Incident-Based Reporting System—provides an incomplete and sometimes inaccurate measure of crime, 

policing, or public safety should be beyond dispute 

among knowledgeable police executives and criminal 

justice scholars. Its deficiencies are legion: it misses 

unreported crime, improperly recorded crime, the 

noncriminal and non-law enforcement work done by 

police, citizens’ perceptions of their safety and security, and the “apples-and-oranges” nature of different 

types of jurisdictions. 

But acknowledging the limitations of this, or any, reported crime index is not an indictment of the index 

itself. The National Incident-Based Reporting System 

represents a substantial and important improvement 

over the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which 

itself was a substantial and important improvement 

over what preceded it. The indictment to be handed 

down is that we are foolish to persist in our belief that 

any single index could provide us with a reasonably 

accurate portrait of the quality of our police or the 

safety and security of our communities. 

Think of the social, economic, and physical spheres 

of our lives in which measuring current conditions is 

important, and compare how we do that with how we 

measure conditions in the policing and public safety 

sphere. When we want to know how the economy 

is doing, we turn not to one measure but rather to 

a composite index of leading economic indicators, 

which incorporates measures of work hours, manufacturing, unemployment, consumption, construction, stock prices, credit, interest and bond rates, 

and consumer expectations. When we want to know 

about the weather, we gauge temperature, humidity, precipitation, air pressure, wind, and cloudiness. 

When we want to know about the public health of 

communities, we measure the prevalence and transmission of disease, injuries and premature fatalities, 

longevity, infant mortality, exposure to toxins, access 

to medical care, diet, and physical activity. When we 

decide where to live, we assess home prices or rents; 

the size and design of the home; proximity to schools, 

churches, shops, parks, and transportation lines; demographics of neighbors; and risks to our safety, security, and peace of mind, which includes not only 

crime but also noise, odors, and traffic. In short, 

citizens can handle some complexity of measurement 

for important matters; indeed, they insist upon it for 

helping them to make important decisions. 

Measuring policing and public safety is important 

to a variety of individual and government decisions. 

These measures influence where people choose to 

44
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Gets Measured is the Matter: The Need for Leading Pubilc Safety Indicators 

live, work, and recreate. They influence whether citizens trust the police and government. They influence 

how public funds are expended, both how much gets 

spent and on what within jurisdictions and which 

jurisdictions get funds. And they influence decisions 

about whether police funding, personnel, policy, or 

practice need to improve or whether other systemic 

changes are needed to improve public safety. 

Policing and public safety measures also influence 

the myriad operational decisions that police officials 

make, including how to allocate resources and how 

to design strategies and tactics. At least some of the 

manipulation and distortion of Uniform Crime Report data by police, and some of the police tactics that 

diminish civil liberties and generate enormous costs 

to the criminal justice system, can be attributed to the 

pressure placed upon police administrators, and ultimately upon police officers, to drive down the Uniform Crime Report numbers. If the numbers were 

not given such weight by journalists, politicians, and 

police executives themselves, the police might feel freer to employ less aggressive strategies and tactics that 

are at least as effective yet more equitable. 

At the broadest and perhaps most profound level, 

measuring crime, policing and public safety informs 

us about the strength and viability of our democracy: 

whether justice is established, domestic tranquility 

insured, the common defense provided, the general 

welfare promoted, and the blessings of liberty secured. 

The police subsequently came into being as a means 

of achieving and preserving these existential goals set 

out by the U.S. Constitution’s authors. 

The development of an index of leading public safety 

indicators is long past due. One should be developed 

that gives the same degree of careful consideration 

and reliable measurement to policing and public 

safety that has been given to other spheres of community life. Just as multiple phenomena are measured in other spheres, so too should the measure 

of policing and public safety comprise more than 

crimes recorded by police. 

What else matters? In general terms, the police should 

be measured both by their effectiveness in achieving their objectives and by their fairness in achieving them. As it relates to effectiveness, in addition 

to measuring crimes recorded by police, an index of 

leading public safety indicators should also include 

measures of crimes that may have gone unreported 

to the police,1 public health records of intentional 

and accidental injuries and deaths, insurance industry records of claims arising out of criminal conduct, 

noncriminal complaints about unsafe or disorderly 

conditions, and citizen perceptions of their personal 

and community’s safety and security. 

As it relates to police fairness, the index should 

measure such things as citizen trust and confidence 

in the police; perceptions of police fairness from 

lawyers, judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, civil 

rights attorneys, and activists; citizen complaints 

against the police, including civil lawsuits filed and 

judgments rendered; and government lawsuits filed 

against police agencies, such as federal pattern-andpractice lawsuits. 

45
 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

Each indicator—and others not mentioned— 

requires careful consideration as to how the data is to 

be collected, how it should be categorized and analyzed, how its reliability is to be demonstrated, how it 

is to be weighed in a composite index, and how it is 

to be reported. Police and crime scholars should play 

a role in developing the leading public safety indicators; federal, state, and local governments should play 

a role in collecting, analyzing, and reporting the data; 

and professional police organizations should play a 

role in vetting the system and endorsing its credibility. 

Over the past 40-plus years, the American police have 

made tremendous strides in reconsidering and improving their relationship with the citizenry and with 

other government and nongovernment organizations. 

They have likewise made tremendous strides in improving their understanding of the causes of crime 

and disorder as well as what actions, by police and 

others, can most effectively control and prevent them. 

The police have made great progress in recognizing 

that they alone cannot control and prevent all public safety problems, that others must share in that responsibility. And the police have made great progress 

in recruiting and hiring a police workforce that better 

reflects the communities it serves, and in training its 

officers how to police intelligently, compassionately, 

and with judgment and restraint. A remaining relic 

of the past, however, is the simplistic and unreliable 

system in place for measuring how police agencies 

perform. This system is undermining progress on all 

other fronts and begs for a long-overdue overhaul. ★

Michael S. Scott is a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the director of the Center for 

Problem-Oriented Policing. He was formerly chief of police in Lauderhill, Florida; served in various civilian administrative positions in 

the Metropolitan (St. Louis, Missouri) Police Department, the Fort Pierce (Florida) Police Department, and the New York City Police 

Department; and was a police officer in the Madison (Wisconsin) Police Department. He was a senior researcher at the Police Executive 

Research Forum in Washington, D.C., and in 1996 he received PERF’s Gary P. Hayes Award for innovation and leadership in policing. 

He holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. 

Endnotes 

1. The National Crime Victimization Survey, provided by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, measures this at the national level, but it must be extended routinely to 

the local level. 

46

Section Two 

“In the year 2022, the bulky, temperamental, mobile 

data terminals that occupy a good portion of the front 

passenger compartment in a squad car will be in the 

police department ’s museum.”

 – J. Scott Thomson 
49

★

No-Boundaries Policing
 

★ ★
 

by Kriste Kibbey Etue 

Mobile, flexible, and regional: three 

attributes successful and progressive law enforcement agencies must 

adopt to survive and prosper in the 

future. The nation’s criminal justice community, and 

law enforcement in particular, is steeped in tradition 

and often resistant to change; however, with increasing demands and decreasing resources, maximizing 

technology and promoting both intra- and interdepartment cooperation will be crucial for police 

departments that want to provide the highest quality 

law enforcement services. 

In 2012, mobility is defined as an officer’s ability to 

physically move from one location to another in a 

timely manner. In 2022, mobility will be a concept 

where the officer’s jurisdiction, technology, and communication tools are all integrated to promote noboundaries policing. 
American Policing in 2022 

In 2022, mobility will be a 

concept where the officer’s 

jurisdiction, technology, and 

communication tools are 

all integrated to promote 

no-boundaries policing. 

★ ★ ★

In 2012, Michigan is a state with dozens of disparate 

and proprietary communication systems that do not 

easily interconnect, resulting in most Michigan State 

Police patrol vehicles having at least two separate radios. Without the ability to communicate across systems, the mobility of troopers to be deployed across 

geographic boundaries is limited. In 2022, this will 

no longer be an issue because all radio systems will be 

fully integrated and share a common platform. A patrol vehicle will need only one radio for the trooper to 

communicate to dispatch authorities in any of Michigan’s 83 counties. 

Mobility will also be fostered through in-car technology that will optimize the trooper’s time on patrol. In 

2012, troopers are beginning to utilize mobile applications such as electronic traffic citations and traffic 

crash reports. By 2022, troopers will have a one-stopshop records management system that will incorporate all common administrative needs, including time 

accounting, report writing, form completion, and 

data collection. Troopers will also have direct access 

to sophisticated biometric information that will make 

hiding one’s identity nearly impossible. 

With mobility greatly enhanced, both the trooper 

and agency will need to become increasingly flexible 

regarding assignments and responsibilities. In 2012, 

most troopers begin and end their day from an established Michigan State Police work site through which 

their activity is tracked and they complete paperwork 

and other administrative obligations. In 2022, most 

troopers will begin and end their day from home. 

With improved and reliable in-car technology, troopers will be able to complete most, if not all, of their 

reports and investigative research from their patrol vehicle, or “mobile office.” The assignment of vehicles 

coupled with working from home will not only be 

more efficient but also undoubtedly increase patrol 

visibility and crime deterrence. 

In 2012, the Michigan State Police is in the early 

stages of implementing the Data-Driven Approach 

to Crime and Traffic Safety. Deployment of resources 

based upon this formal approach is dependent upon 

reliable crime statistics being submitted in a timely 

manner. Currently, most Michigan crime data is submitted weeks or months after the fact. By 2022, crime 

statistics will be reported for intelligence analysis and 

resource deployment on a real-time basis, and troopers will receive their daily, or even hourly, assignment 

based on this timely information. True data-driven 

policing promotes increased flexibility for both the 

officer and department in deployment options and 

allows proactive hot spot policing, which has a significant deterrent effect. 

50
No-Boundaries Policing 

Troopers and sergeants, the backbone of our agency, 

will need to become more flexible as they are weaned 

from the vestiges of traditional “bricks and mortar” 

policing. They cannot, however, be expected to do this 

on their own. The department must be pro-active in 

offering our members state-of-the-art training so they 

have the tools needed to succeed in this new environment. Updated training in investigative techniques, 

patrol tactics, leadership, and management must be 

offered remotely and conveniently to increase participation and decrease the costs associated with conventional classroom-based training. Embracing new 

training techniques will be a key to preparing our current and future troopers to succeed in 2022. 

With resources becoming increasingly scarce and 

pressure mounting on police departments to put 

more officers on the streets while reducing command 

or desk staff, regionalization will have a significant 

place in 2022 policing. Since its inception in 1917, 

the Michigan State Police has always had a regional 

focus due to its statewide jurisdiction. However, the 

department fully embraced this concept in late 2011 

with the implementation of the Regional Policing 

Plan. The Michigan State Police closed over half its 

posts, moved over 100 administrative sergeants into a 

mobile supervision role, implemented a squad-based 

trooper deployment model, and entered into dozens 

of cooperative, resource-sharing agreements with local police departments. 

While still in its infancy, the regional policing plan 

is already proving beneficial to Michigan’s citizens, as these efforts have increased administrative 

Troopers and sergeants, the 

backbone of our agency, will 

need to become more flexible 

as they are weaned from the 

vestiges of traditional “bricks 

and mortar” policing. 

★ ★ ★

efficiencies, provided increased patrols and field supervision, and enhanced working relationships with 

law enforcement partners. By 2022, the Michigan 

State Police will have fully implemented the regional policing plan and further reduced the number of 

physical work locations due to enhanced technology, 

connectivity, and all troopers and road sergeants having assigned patrol vehicles. 

Departments that maintain the flexibility to mobilize 

officers, either short-term or long-term, to provide 

police services to a region that has experienced a loss 

in police protection or an escalation in violent crime 

is a necessary and critical component of policing in 

the future. The Michigan State Police plans to excel in 

this endeavor so its services will be in demand in 2022 

and beyond, as jurisdictional boundaries continue to 

blur, resources remain limited, and crime becomes 

ever increasingly mobile. 

51
 

 

American Policing in 2022 

Some things will remain the same; troopers in 2022 

will not look different than they do today. They will 

proudly wear the traditional Michigan State Police 

uniform, drive patrol vehicles with the red “bubble,” 

and honor those who came before them with excellence, integrity, and courtesy. However, the trooper 

of 2022 will be better trained, better equipped, better 

managed, and fully capable of handling criminal incidents anywhere in the state of Michigan. The trooper 

of 2022 will begin and end the work day from home, 

be dispatched to an area of patrol determined not 

by a hunch but by real-time crime data, and have in 

the patrol vehicle all the tools needed to handle most 

criminal incidents. ★

Colonel Kriste Kibbey Etue was appointed to the cabinet-level position of director of the Michigan State Police 

by Governor Rick Snyder on January 9, 2011. Etue is the 18th director in the 94-year history of the department, and she is the 

department’s first female director. As director, Etue also serves as state director of Emergency Management and as Michigan’s 

homeland security director. The Michigan State Police is a full-service law enforcement organization with approximately 2,400 enlisted 

and civilian employees. Etue began her career with the Michigan State Police in 1987, graduating as a member of the 101st Trooper 

Recruit School. She has served at every rank in the department. Etue holds an associate’s degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community 

College in Michigan and is a graduate of the 206th session of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. 

52
53

 

★

Focusing on What We 

Can Control 

★ ★
 

by Darrel W. Stephens 

On what basis can we project ourselves 

10 years in the future and imagine what 

policing might look like? Thinking 

about the future often conjures up 

the image of gazing into a cloudy crystal ball that 

gradually clears and provides a picture of what might 

take place in ensuing years. If only that was possible... 

our 401(k) results would be much better. 

Everyone has heard the saying that the best predictor of the future is the past. I don’t recall who said 

this, but it makes a lot of sense. Thus, one approach 

is to look at recent history and use that to develop 

a picture of what the next 10 years might bring for 

policing. Certainly demographic trends can provide 

considerable insight into what the population will 

look like in the future. However, one only has to look 

at the advances in technological innovation and the 

continued expansion in how we use the Internet to 

understand that predicting the future based on the 

past has significant limitations. 
American Policing in 2022 

Developing an image of how 

things could look provides the 

opportunity to take positive 

steps toward creating a better 

future for policing. 

★ ★ ★

Another approach is to describe how one would like 

policing to look in 2022. That crystal ball would 

largely be a reflection of one’s aspirations for the future of policing. Such a vision would also require narrowing the broad idea of policing to some areas that 

seem particularly important to its future as a whole. 

Developing an image of how things could look provides the opportunity to take positive steps toward 

creating a better future for policing. 

Four areas are of particular importance to the future 

of policing—human resources, technology, communication strategies, and collaboration. Other important areas—the economy and public policy in 

areas such as education and immigration—will also 

influence how policing will look in 2022. Although 

the police can influence public policy, they have less 

ability to control the outcomes, and their impact on 

the economy comes primarily from the reduction of 

losses associated with crime and traffic crashes and 

perhaps their contribution to a sense of safety. 

So, the focus here will be on the four areas police have 

a better ability to exercise some measure of control: 

Human Resources 

The number of police officers in America experienced 

steady growth from the mid-1980s through 2008 

when the economy took a downturn that has been 

called the Great Recession.1 Since then, the police 

have experienced significant reductions in both sworn 

and non-sworn personnel. Studies conducted by the 

International Association of Chiefs of Police, Police 

Executive Research Forum, Major Cities Chiefs Association, National League of Cities, and others have 

reported furloughs, hiring freezes, and layoffs resulting in an overall reduction of police staffing.2 

What does this mean for policing in 2022? Will the 

economy rebound and provide resources to allow police staffing to return to previous levels or higher? Although our crystal ball is cloudy, the costs of policing 

have increased so dramatically in the past (quadrupled 

1982 to 2006) that staffing levels are unlikely to return to those of 2008 and may drop even lower.3 The 

proportion of sworn employees in policing by 2022 is 

very likely to shift from a majority to a minority. 

Police salaries and benefits have been a key focus 

for balancing budgets over the past few years. Pension benefits have been reduced for many new officers, and salary freezes have mitigated cost increases. 

But the only way to manage personnel expenses that 

represent 85 percent or more of the budget is to cut 

the numbers or change the mix to more lower-cost 

employees. 

54
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Focusing on What We Can Control 

Furthermore, police officers in 2022 will focus more on 

work requiring sworn authority while being supported 

by technology and teams of non-sworn employees 

with special skills and training to do work that police 

officers do today. One can imagine geographic areas of 

the community being served by teams of people from 

police, city, and county agencies that work together to 

create safe neighborhoods. 

Technology 

Advances in technology have made important contributions to improving police effectiveness over the past 

couple of decades. The police are in a much better 

position to identify and respond to crime problems. 

Predicting crime events is becoming a reality and by 

2022 will contribute to overall community safety. 

Though policing is dangerous work, improvements 

in equipment have contributed to reduced injury and 

death rates. And we have seen advances in the use of 

technology as a deterrent to crime, such as cameras in 

neighborhoods and businesses. 

There is every reason to believe those advances will 

continue and by 2022 both police productivity and 

community safety will be significantly improved 

through the use of technology. It also offers the potential for improving officer safety through equipment and better information. 

Advances in technology will also bring significant 

challenges and new safety threats. There has been an 

explosion of Internet crime and fraud that law enforcement struggles to address—by 2022 we will see 

increased resources devoted to this area and laws that 

support local police investigations and prosecution. 

Communication Strategies 

Changes in the news media over the past 20 years 

have been amazing. Newspapers have downsized as 

readers have shifted to the Internet and left them with 

a business model that no longer fits today’s world. 

Television news competes with both the Internet and 

cable, providing hundreds of choices for news and information. The police have historically relied on the 

traditional news media to reach their communities 

but are now in a position where that strategy is not 

sufficient to keep pace. 

Effective policing in 2022 will require communication strategies that are in tune with the manner in 

which people obtain information. How that might 

look in 2022 is impossible to tell—Facebook with 

900 million subscribers began in 2004, and Twitter 

and YouTube were launched in 2006. The police will 

have to adjust their communication strategy continually if they expect to connect effectively with their 

communities. The Boston Police Department is setting the tone with the creation of BPDNews.com, 

which serves as the source for news on the police and 

crime in the community. Milwaukee and Seattle have 

followed suit and launched their own web-based news 

and information sites. All of them rely on social media 

as a key part of their strategy to reach their audiences. 

Collaboration 

Collaboration has always been a key component of 

community problem-oriented policing. Stakeholders 

partnering with the police to take the steps required 

to minimize opportunities to commit crime—this is 

an essential aspect of crime prevention efforts. 

55
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...police officers in 2022 


will focus more on work 


requiring sworn authority 


while being supported 


by technology and teams 


of non-sworn employees 


with special skills... 


★ ★ ★

As such, policing in 2022 will require collaboration 

on many fronts—including technology—and will be 

of greater importance than today. Those who do not 

collaborate technologically on shared goal platforms 

will not survive.4 The community’s sense of safety 

will require more than the ability to walk through 

the neighborhood at night—it will also require confidence that electronic financial transactions are secure 

and private information remains that way in the everexpanding cyber world. 

Community policing has taught the police about the 

importance of working with the community and other 

government agencies to create safe neighborhoods. In 

fact, the future will require a greater investment in collaboration by the police; it will require them to embrace 

the role of fostering collaboration between government 

agencies, the private sector (including security professionals), community groups, and individuals. 

Conclusion 

An image of policing in 2022 is difficult to construct 

even though it is only a decade away. To be sure, the 

police will have to be even less independent and more 

focused on collaboration to remain relevant. As crime 

changes, the reliance on police presence and retrospective criminal investigations will have to give way 

to greater emphasis on influencing the public and the 

private sector to take the steps that only they can take 

to ensure their safety. Clearly the future will bring 

both opportunity and challenges for policing as technology gets better and understanding the causes of 

crime improves. ★

56
 

 

 

 

 

 

Focusing on What We Can Control 

Darrel W. Stephens was appointed the executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association on October 1, 2010. He 

is also a faculty member of the Division of Public Safety Leadership in the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University, where 

he has served as an instructor since June 2008. Stephens is an accomplished police executive with over 40 years of experience. 

His career began as a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1968. He has 22 years of experience in a police executive capacity, 

including almost nine years as the chief of police of the 2,100-member Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) Police Department. In 

addition to his police experience, Stephens served for two years as the city administrator in St. Petersburg, Florida, and as the executive 

director of the Police Executive Research Forum from 1986 until 1992. Stephens also served as the president, vice president, and 

legislative committee chair of the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association while chief of police in Charlotte. Throughout his career, he has 

taken on difficult and challenging opportunities and championed strategic technology investments to enhance employee productivity. 

He has written extensively about policing and is a frequent speaker advocating progressive policing approaches. He received the 

prestigious Police Executive Research Forum’s Leadership Award and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ O.W. Wilson Award. 

Stephens was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2005 and is frequently called on to participate in 

study panels. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Central Missouri (formerly Central Missouri 

State University). Stephens was inducted into the Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame in 2010 and also received the CEBPD 

Distinguished Achievement Award in Evidence-Based Crime Policy. 

Endnotes 

1. The Impact of the Economic Downturn on American Police Agencies (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing 

Services, 2011), www.cops.usdoj.gov/ric/ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=619. 

2. Ibid. 

3. Gascon, George, and Todd Foglesong, “Making Policing More Affordable: Managing Costs and Measuring Value in Policing,” New Perspectives in Policing 

(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2010), www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/231096.pdf. 

4. Bratton, William, and Zachary Tumin, Collaborate or Perish! Reaching Across Boundaries in a Networked World (New York: Crown Business, 2012). 

57

 

★ ★ ★
 

Law Enforcement 

Communications and 

Information Technology 

of the Future 

by Harlin R. McEwen 

S

tate-of-the-art law enforcement communications and information-sharing technologies have become increasingly critical to 

the law enforcement community, and these 

technologies and services have become essential to 

providing the public with the protection and security 

it deserves. 

Our law enforcement officers and other emergency 

professionals must have access to modern and reliable communications capabilities, including missioncritical-communications and high-speed data and 

video, to communicate with each other and with federal officials across agencies and jurisdictions during 

emergencies. 

Predicting the future is often difficult. Technology 

has been advancing so rapidly in the past decade that 

it is not easy to envision what will be possible in the 

future. However, it is good to sometimes brainstorm 

59
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technologies and services 


have been developed...
 

that will enable 


law enforcement 


to communicate and 


share information better 


than ever before.
 

★ ★ ★

about what may be possible with a view toward influencing the development of future technology and to 

make the predictions a reality. 

I believe the future of law enforcement communications and information sharing will be influenced 

significantly by legislation passed by Congress and 

signed into law by President Obama on February 

22, 2012 (Public Law 112–96). This law has set in 

motion the development of a new Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN). It sets the 

foundation for the next generation of public safety 

wireless broadband communications based on technology that is already being implemented for public 

use by the major commercial carriers. 

The expectations are that the NPSBN will bring 

greater reliability, security, and coverage than currently provided by commercial carriers while at the same 

time giving public safety access to the latest commercial technologies. Public safety will manage priority 

access within its own network without competing for 

spectrum resources on the public networks that are 

often crowded and unavailable during major events 

and emergencies. And it is expected that eventually a 

satellite component of the NPSBN will provide coverage when terrestrial service is disrupted or in areas 

where terrestrial service will never be available. 

The future is exciting. The next 10 to 15 years will 

see the development and implementation of the 

NPSBN, which will bring exciting new law enforcement and public safety data services and improved 

interoperability. 

Public safety organizations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Sheriffs’ Association, International Association of Fire Chiefs, National 

Association of State EMS Officials, and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International continue to provide focus on law enforcement 

and public safety communications issues and promote 

the ongoing needs of public safety personnel. 

In August 2009, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, a federation of 15 public safety 

national organizations, created the Public Safety Assessment of Future Spectrum and Technology Working Group to identify public safety communications 

requirements for the next 10 years. The working group 

followed up on a 1996 final report issued by the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee.1 The updated report, titled “Public Safety Assessment of Future 

Spectrum and Technology” (PSAFST), has just been 

60
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Law Enforcement Communications and Information Technology of the Future 

finalized and covers 2012 through 2022.2 The working 

group has done an excellent job in conducting research 

and using national questionnaires to collect information from public safety personnel on the real current 

and future communications needs of public safety. 

The PSAFST report reviews the 1996 report’s recommendations, comments on whether those recommendations have been implemented, and reflects on those 

recommendations in today’s environment. The report 

is broken into three key areas—operations, technology, and spectrum. It sets forth more than 20 key 

findings and recommendations that clearly identify 

the significant investments that have been made over 

the past 10 years to improve public safety communications and interoperability and also identifies the 

critical needs and challenges of the future. 

In the information technology arena, the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) is sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the 

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. The heart of this initiative is the Global Advisory Committee consisting of volunteer practitioners 

who advise the U.S. Attorney General on information 

technology.3 The committee has been working diligently for many years to develop information-sharing 

tools and requirements for improved justice information sharing. Many of the accomplishments of Global 

have been or are now being implemented and serve as 

the foundation for the future of information sharing 

in the realm of justice and public safety. Services like 

the National Information Exchange Model were started by visionaries participating in the Global process 

and provide a firm foundation for financial savings to 

The most significant 

challenges will be a 

willingness by law 

enforcement leaders and 

officers to embrace change... 

★ ★ ★

local, state, and federal government entities as well as 

improved methods of information sharing. 

Specialized law enforcement and public safety applications are being developed that are similar to those 

currently available on smart phones and devices, such 

as those using Apple technology, like iPhones and 

iPads, and Android technology. 

Next-generation 911 information (e.g., text messages, 

photos, and video) sent to Public Safety Answering 

Points by citizens using smart phone devices through 

commercial services will eventually be able to be forwarded to law enforcement and public safety field 

personnel using the NPSBN. 

Law enforcement apps will access FBI Criminal Justice 

Information Services such as the National Crime 

Information Center, criminal history information, and 

Nlets4 hosting services just like law enforcement already 

has access to Department of Motor Vehicle records, 

driver’s license and corrections photos, and computer 

aided dispatch and records management systems. 

61
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

In summary, the future is exciting and almost unlimited. Technologies and services have been developed, 

or are being developed, that will enable law enforcement to communicate and share information better 

than ever before. 

The most significant challenges will be a willingness 

by law enforcement leaders and officers to embrace 

change, and the availability of funding. Many advanced technologies and information services are 

already available to those willing to implement new 

services, but the current economic climate is a challenge that may extend well into the future. Law enforcement leaders will need to develop strategies for 

funding new and improved technology in this difficult economic environment. I am convinced the 

investment will result in improved and more efficient services while also resulting in significant cost 

savings. ★

Harlin R. McEwen serves as the chairman of the Communications and Technology Committee of the International 

Association of Chiefs of Police, a position he has held for more than 35 years. He was a chief of police for more than 20 years, last 

serving as chief in the city of Ithaca, New York. Following his retirement from Ithaca, McEwen became a deputy assistant director 

of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C. During his tenure at the FBI, he provided executive oversight for new 

FBI Criminal Justice Information Services, such as the National Crime Information Center 2000 project, the Integrated Automated 

Fingerprint Identification System, and the Law Enforcement Online system, and he traveled extensively throughout the United States 

and internationally, meeting with law enforcement groups and speaking at law enforcement and criminal justice conferences. He is a life 

member and honorary president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a life member of the National Sheriff’s Association, 

and a life member of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International. McEwen has written many articles and is 

the recipient of many awards, including the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s Richard DeMello Award presented at 

the Radio Club of America and the FBI National Executive Institute Associates’ Penrith Award for executive leadership. 

Endnotes 

1. See Final Report of the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee (PSWAC, 1996), www.npstc.org/documents/PSWAC_AL.pdf. 

2. See “Public Safety Communications Assessment 2012–2022: Technology, Operations, and Spectrum Roadmap, Final Report” (Littleton, CO: National Public 

Safety Telecommunications Council, 2012), www.npstc.org/download.jsp?tableId=37&column=217&id=2446&file=AFST_NPSTC_Report_06232012.pdf. 

3. “Background and Mission,” Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global), www.it.ojp.gov/default.aspx?area=globalJustice&page=1019. 

4. See “Nlets: The International Justice and Public Safety Network,” National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, www.nlets.org. 

62
63

★ ★ ★

Austerity Breeds 

Prevention 

by Rick Fuentes 

The International Association of Chiefs of 

Police polled more than 400 law enforcement leaders from state police agencies 

and small and mid-sized police departments, finding that nine of 10 respondents considered 

staffing reductions and dwindling operational budgets as the “new reality” of policing.1 The survey also 

indicated that 85 percent of those polled had already 

reduced their budgets, with more than half identifying their financial state as a serious issue. The Police 

Executive Research Forum described the new reality 

as a “new normal,” as more than 60 percent of its city 

departments anticipated cuts to their 2011 budget.2 

Both tell us that budget reductions have brought 

about fundamental operational challenges to a significant number of this country’s police departments. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strategies to predict and 

prevent crime are less costly 

than adding staff... 

★ ★ ★

Fiscal austerity, when imposed upon policing, can 

breed uncertainty in the ranks. Demotions, layoffs, 

and contract negotiations that impact salaries, pensions, and benefits drive down morale and increase 

the pace of retirements. It is too early to assess how 

the new reality and norm will threaten decades of 

lower crime rates, particularly across the violent index crimes most associated with the use of a weapon. 

There are already examples that forecast bad trends. 

In New Jersey, some criminal street gang members 

have proudly flaunted T-shirts inscribed with the date 

of city police layoffs, with the crimes of shootings, 

homicides, and carjacking on the rise in those areas. 

What can a police executive do to address a department’s financial straits? A police department can 

tighten its belt either by trimming bureaucracy or by 

spreading fewer cops across more dots. Big points can 

be scored with municipal administrators and those 

ministering to local treasuries if deskbound officers 

are replaced by lower-cost but often equally qualified 

civilians with commensurate knowledge, skills, and 

abilities. That is not to suggest that everyone should 

be pushed into a marked black and white. 

Relocating sworn officers from behind administrative 

desks into investigative or outreach assignments can 

ensure the continuation of programs that are often 

victims of the first cut to beef up patrols—e.g., community policing, school resource officers, and narcotics enforcement. Eliminating these programs can 

cause a police department to lose its healthy grip on 

community relations or its ability to exert sufficient 

enforcement pressure upon those inclined to commit 

crimes. Police chiefs should remember that the broad 

adoption of community policing strategies brought 

about significant crime reductions in the 1980s and 

1990s and shouldn’t suffer the consequences of downsized departmental missions unless all other options 

are exhausted. 

Secondly, 77 fusion centers have sprouted up on the 

landscape of American policing. There is at least one 

in every state and more in the most densely populated 

regions. They have been weaned on federal financial 

support and guided through specific technology processes and policies that ensure privacy interests. They 

are the economies of scale that help police departments of all shapes and sizes do more with less. In 

this challenged era that demands investing in what 

works and moving beyond what doesn’t, fusion centers are a standout. Fusion center analysts ply their 

trade by making sense of data in ways that help good 

decision makers in policing become better informed 

decision makers. This is especially helpful when there 

are many more crime dots than cops to sit atop them. 

64
Austerity Breeds Prevention 

Strategies to predict and prevent crime are less costly 

than adding staff to lower response times or increase 

investigative clearance rates. If police departments are 

to prevent crime, it makes sense for shift supervisors 

to deploy their patrols where crime is most likely to 

occur. Predictive policing can be a highly effective and 

preventive strategy when risk factors such as historical data displaying crime times, dates, and locations 

are stacked upon other data sets such as gang member and parolee addresses, known drug corners, and 

hangouts such as late-night food and liquor establishments. This needs to become a core mission in fusion 

centers, with sophisticated software that loads, interfaces, and maps these data sets in seconds. Predictive 

software has already shown high levels of probability 

in some states and cities. Getting it up and running in 

all fusion centers must be a benchmark in supporting 

sounder patrol deployment decisions in understaffed 

police departments. 

As fusion centers, state police agencies, and urban 

police continue to build their information-sharing 

capacity, a significant vulnerability remains in addressing matters of national homeland and hometown 

security. Many of America’s small- and mid-sized police departments—a national population numbering 

well over 15,000—continue to be disconnected from 

the information-sharing environment. This is not an 

oversight; rather, it represents how 10 years of federal homeland security funding has been disbursed to 

those areas of the country at most risk for crime and 

terrorism. Now, with the numbers of police trending downward and yet some spikes in violent crime, 

...crime is not just a policing 

problem. It also feeds off a 

municipality’s weakness to 

exert discipline upon itself. 

★ ★ ★

the federal government should pursue informationsharing solutions for the small department with the 

same passion and urgency that has brought about the 

growth and prosperity of the national fusion center 

network and information-sharing initiatives such, as 

the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative. Without that connectivity, the country falls 

way short of achieving an all-hands-on-deck national 

information-sharing environment that can disclose 

precursor terror activity and fight crime without geographical blind spots. 

Much more effort needs to be directed at the prevention of crime. With noticeably less police officers on 

the street in many cities but undiminished public 

expectations, it’s high time for local governments to 

realize that crime is not just a policing problem. It 

also feeds off a municipality’s weakness to exert discipline upon itself. Cleaning up the blight of abandoned buildings and junked cars, lighting up dark 

corners, and enforcing code violations on after-hours 

food and liquor establishments that become hideouts 

and hangouts restrict opportunities for crime. 

65
 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

Following in the footsteps of CompStat, Baltimore, 

Buffalo, and more than a dozen other cities and states 

use management accountability and risk management 

programs such as CitiStat and StateStat to partner all 

the assets of state and local government to fight crime 

and create other operational efficiencies. 

There have been many advances in policing in the last 

50 years, most of which have given police executives 

an ample toolbox and brought fresh perspectives and 

approaches to public safety. Now, after more than 10 

years of state, local, and federal financial support in 

the name of homeland security leading to unprecedented levels of community collaboration, technology 

improvements, and information-sharing initiatives, 

shouldn’t we leverage those advances to temper the 

effects of federal, state, and local penny-pinching? 

If this is as good as it gets economically for the foreseeable future, then it’s certainly worth a try. ★

Colonel Joseph R. “Rick” Fuentes was nominated by Governor James McGreevey to become the 14th 

superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and was confirmed on June 2, 2003. Fuentes enlisted in the state police in January 

1978, serving several postings as a general road duty trooper. He served as instructor in the training academy and then as a detective 

and supervisor in a variety of assignments that included the FBI/NJSP Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Intelligence Bureau, and Street 

Gang Unit. Prior to his nomination as superintendent, he was assigned as chief of the Intelligence Bureau, overseeing nine units within 

the Intelligence Section. In 1993, as a result of several narcotics investigations, he was a co-recipient of the Trooper of the Year 

award. Fuentes holds a doctorate’s degree in criminal justice from the City University of New York. He is a member of the U.S. Attorney 

General’s Global Advisory Committee, a member of the Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Partner’s Group of the Office of the 

Director of National Intelligence, and an appointed member of Harvard University’s Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety. 

Endnotes 

1. Policing in the 21st Century: Preliminary Survey Results (Alexandria, VA: International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2011), 

www.theiacp.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=tbBGd4RKEGE%3d&tabid=937. 

2. Is the Economic Downturn Fundamentally Changing How We Police? Critical Issues in Policing Series (Washington, D.C.: Police Executive Research Forum, 

2010), http://policeforum.org/library/critical-issues-in-policing-series/Econdownturnaffectpolicing12.10.pdf. 

66
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★

Embracing the Digital 

Coffee Shop 

★ ★
 

by Jason O’Neal 

The future of policing in America is partnerships, technology, and intelligenceled policing. In these days of increased 

demand and decreased funding for law 

enforcement, we must embrace the age-old adage of 

work smarter, not harder. Law enforcement is about 

the detection and reduction of crime, which is accomplished through understanding it. 

Today, our society is more connected and mobile 

than ever before with ready access to the Internet and 

transportation. Criminals take advantage of this to 

engage in criminal activity across an array of jurisdictions. Whether these activities are identity theft, a 

series of vehicle burglaries, or serial rapes taking place 

across communities, criminals remain many times 

undetected simply because of their mobility across 

jurisdictional lines. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technology...has taken the 


process of law enforcement 


information sharing to a 


whole new level, creating 


now a digital coffee shop 


to exchange information.
 

★ ★ ★

Law enforcement agencies, similar to our society, reflect a balance of different interest groups that may 

be representative of federal, state, county, municipal, 

and tribal agencies, as well as specific disciplines such 

as drug enforcement, highway safety, or school safety. 

Developing partnerships among such a diverse region 

is not an easy task, as it requires bringing together 

those who can contribute and benefit all yet often 

times may be competing or have other priorities. 

Partnerships and collaboration among law enforcement entities and professionals lead to identification 

of crimes and perpetrators who may be operating 

across jurisdictional lines. These partnerships must be 

built not only among law enforcement agencies from 

multiple jurisdictions but also among communities 

and the private sector to advance their mutual interest. These partnerships provide a force multiplier and 

amplify the reach of the law enforcement community. 

In order to have a successful partnership, communication is the key. This hinges on how well we understand 

others and how well they can understand us. When 

communication fails, the result is confusion, conflict, 

and frustration. We must engage people as participants, encouraging discussion and feedback. 

Successful partnerships provide a more efficient use 

of resources and lead to initiatives such as mutual-aid 

and cross-deputation agreements, which allow officers to provide law enforcement services and make 

lawful arrests within or near a jurisdiction. Officers 

may react immediately to observed law violations and 

other emergency situations without the burden of legal 

jurisdiction. 

Partnerships also lead to information sharing, which 

helps law enforcement target both criminal actors as 

well as similar crimes across jurisdictions. Information sharing is not a new concept to law enforcement 

as officers have traditionally met at the county line or 

even the local coffee and doughnut shop to discuss 

crimes and criminals. There are also a multitude of 

law enforcement groups and associations designed to 

bring officers together to share information. 

Technology, however, has taken the process of law enforcement information sharing to a whole new level, 

creating now a digital coffee shop to exchange information. Officers now have faster access to information 

and communicate with more people than ever before. 

If information leads to knowledge and knowledge to 

wisdom, then the question becomes what are we doing 

with all this information and are we experiencing fewer 

problems and making better decisions because of it. 

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Embracing the Digital Coffee Shop 

We now live in a world where we are overwhelmed 

with more information on a daily basis than we can 

possibly process. Many times, excessive information 

results in inaction because a method is lacking for 

comparing and processing that information. Being 

exposed to so much information, almost instantaneously, without knowing the validly of the content 

and with the risk of misinformation can cause disorientation and lack of responsiveness. Particularly when 

we view the information received as most often being irrelevant or unrelated, it becomes difficult for a 

person to both understand and make decisions based 

upon that information. 

More and more law enforcement agencies are enacting policies, procedures, and training for gathering 

and assessing essential information. While computers may assist with analyzing these large amounts of 

data, it is still raw and has limited intelligence uses. 

For information to be useful, both the content and 

context must be processed. Therefore, some agencies are employing crime analysts who can digest the 

vast amount of information, which can be collected 

through various methods such as a human sources, 

electronic sources, or even imagery. 

Intelligence can be used to understand past behaviors 

and forecast probable, future behaviors. Intelligenceled policing harnesses the power of this information 

and can be used by an officer or executive in recommending courses of action. Intelligence provides 

law enforcement with trends, a targeted approach to 

crime control, and reliable methods targeting crime 

prevention. It also enables the identification of persisting and developing problems. 

Intelligence, if used correctly, 

can prove to be a powerful 

crime-fighting tool. 

★ ★ ★

Advances in technology and information sharing require a responsible approach and management to ensure information is not released inappropriately. Law 

enforcement’s goal is not only to protect the public 

from crime but also to ensure people’s civil liberties 

are not violated. Privacy requires balancing the interests of the justice system with an individual’s rights 

and public confidence. 

Intelligence, if used correctly, can prove to be a powerful crime-fighting tool. And with such a powerful 

tool comes the responsibility to use it appropriately 

and ensure legal safeguards are provided to our citizens to protect privacy and civil liberties at every level. 

By developing partnerships and increasing our communication and information sharing, we begin the process 

of intelligence-led policing, which will help ensure our 

justice system works stronger, faster, and smarter. This 

is the future of law enforcement in America. ★

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American Policing in 2022 

Jason O’Neal is currently the deputy associate director of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Division 

of Drug Enforcement. From 2004 to 2012, he served as the chief of police for the Chickasaw Nation Lighthorse Police Department, 

which includes a jurisdictional territory of more than 7,648 square miles in south-central Oklahoma and encompasses all or parts 

of 13 Oklahoma counties. O’Neal has more than 17 years of practice as a law enforcement officer, beginning as a military police 

canine handler in the U.S. Marine Corps; he handled both narcotic- and explosive-detector dogs. During this time, he was assigned to 

operations with the U.S. Secret Service on executive protection throughout California and Nevada. He also worked as a supervisory 

police officer in the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs for six years; he was responsible for the enforcement of 

federal, state, and tribal laws throughout a number of reservations in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Oklahoma. O’Neal 

is a member of the East Central University Campus Initiative to Reduce Crime Against Women, as well as multiple state councils and 

boards concerning violence against women, emergency management, interoperable communications, and law enforcement education 

and training. He is also the legislative liaison to the National Native American Law Enforcement Association and a member of the 

International Association of Chiefs of Police Indian Country Law Enforcement section and Firearms Committee; the U.S. Department 

of Justice, Senior Level Interagency Advisory Group’s Tribal Working Group; FEMA’s National Incident Management System Patrol and 

Security Working Groups; the Global Privacy and Information Quality Working Group; and the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services 

Division North Central Working Group, and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System subcommittee. O’Neal was named 

the 2008 and 2011 Chief of Police of the Year by the National Native American Law Enforcement Association. 

70
71

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

★

The Role of Language 

in Expanding Private 

Sector Partnerships 

★ ★
 

by Jason Smith 

P

olicing in 2022 will be influenced by our 

ability to share information through an 

expanded intelligence community that includes the private sector. While September 

11th radically modified our capacity to share information, this process is still evolving. 

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed many 

law enforcement strategies, including community 

oriented, hot spots, and broken windows policing. 

While each of these represents a contract between 

the community and the police, there is no guarantee they will endure. New strategies get published 

and become more attractive than the current one, 

and poorly managed strategies cause failure or unremarkable results. Any of these factors will diminish 

sustained strategic application or the eagerness for 

participation in a new strategy. 
American Policing in 2022 

Information sharing is a 


noble banner that creates and 


sustains partnerships at all 


levels of government and 


the private sector.
 

★ ★ ★

The most innovative police departments still rely 

on history to manage operations and deployments; 

predictable human behaviors and outcomes serve as 

the baseline for staffing and resource allocation. Yet 

we have seen that this strategy can become complicated by unpredictable and reduced budgets. Police 

agencies change the way they do business when there 

is less money. Budget cuts have resulted in layoffs, 

furloughs, and reductions to technology, training, 

and initiatives designed to focus on specific crime 

problems. 

A smarter way of using existing resources and creating a contingency for an unpredictable future is a 

well-executed intelligence-led policing strategy that 

leverages regional partnerships. The Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Police Department has institutionalized an 

intelligence-led policing approach that goes beyond 

the mere collection and analysis of information. The 

agency has mastered the ability to share actionable 

intelligence at all levels of public safety, meaning the 

intelligence ends up in the hands of someone prepared to use it. The agency has instructed its entire 

sworn and civilian staff on what this work process entails. The process has also become a standard training 

component for new recruits and is refreshed at each 

in-service. 

The Southeastern Wisconsin Threat Analysis Center, 

an Urban Areas Security Initiative fusion center,1 covers eight counties of the state and is co-located within 

the Milwaukee Police Department’s main operations 

building. The two augment each other’s ability to 

share information over a wide area with all parties involved. This includes the private sector, which is an 

integral partner in preventing crime and terrorism, as 

private sector security polices the majority of the critical infrastructure that is privately owned in Southeastern Wisconsin. 

As such, the fusion center sought in 2011 to strengthen the information-sharing environments in the 

private sector by offering training on how to recognize and address suspicious activity in their own environments. This responsibility of the private sector 

is shared among local jurisdictions, which engage in 

risk management and share information and response 

plans addressing acts of terrorism, internal and external criminal activity, natural disasters, emergency 

response, critical communications, and continuity of 

operations. 

However, what an information-sharing environment 

needs to grow and be sustainable is often unclear. But 

as established points of contact between the private 

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The Role of Language in Expanding Private Sector Partnerships 

organization and government agency partners educate 

each other on their own responsibilities, processes, 

and gaps, the relationships and thus informationsharing environment begin to evolve. And the relationships that arise from this dialogue are the most 

valuable and enduring part of a partnership. 

Milwaukee accomplished two objectives in its effort to 

create an information-sharing environment: (1) validating police legitimacy by using shared knowledge to 

create crime and terrorism prevention strategies and 

(2) creating a lasting legacy by ensuring those strategies 

are sustainable. 

An example of the first objective is illustrated by the 

relationship the Milwaukee Police Department and 

fusion center developed with a tribal casino. In conducting a critical infrastructure assessment, the fusion 

center looked beyond basic homeland security preparedness protocols and discussed crime prevention 

and information-sharing processes to reduce the calls 

for service that the casino made to the police department. While this casino is one of hundreds of private 

sector businesses in Southeastern Wisconsin engaged 

by the fusion center, this partnership created preparedness, prevention, and information-sharing templates for other tribal casinos throughout the state. 

In this way, the intelligence-led policing concepts that 

the Milwaukee Police Department provides to other law enforcement agencies throughout the region 

are the same concepts that have become embedded 

in the tailored training given by the fusion center to 

the private sector. The training opportunity—which 

A crisis is not the time to get 

to know your partners. 

★ ★ ★

includes bomb technicians, tactical supervisors, and 

other people who need to respond in a critical incident—creates a set of shared expectations from all 

participants, resulting in relationships that evolve 

during and after the training. 

The second Milwaukee objective of creating a lasting legacy was accomplished through a well-executed 

intelligence-led policing strategy with informationsharing emphasis. For example, when the Milwaukee 

Police Department and the fusion center expanded a 

network of information sharing with other law enforcement agencies, first responders, and private sector 

agencies and organizations, a series of shared expectations and new understandings were developed. The 

private sector understood the language used by public 

safety and could respond to information delivered by 

the police department and fusion center. 

Furthermore, everyone learned that information 

sharing is a language understood only by the groups 

that work at improving it, and if the groups work at 

improving it. While a law enforcement-sensitive bulletin sent to neighboring police departments looks 

different from one sent to the private financial community, each partner needs to understand the message of that bulletin in the same way for a cohesive 

73
 

 

American Policing in 2022 

and well-planned response. Improving the collective 

ability to share information, to receive and accurately 

interpret intelligence products, should happen before 

it has to happen. A crisis is not the time to get to 

know your partners. 

Information sharing is a noble banner that creates 

and sustains partnerships at all levels of government 

and the private sector. The next 10 years will see continued mainstream marketing of terrorism through 

Al-Qaeda publications like Inspire, but its real domestic applications and effects on terrorism remain unknown. Crime patterns will continue to rise and fall 

in different geographic areas, affecting local agencies 

and their communities. 

The next 10 years will also show not only criminals 

increasingly using social media but also law enforcement, only the latter will be doing so to create awareness and prevention measures for both crime and 

terrorism. Standards for information sharing with 

the private sector will evolve to create a common 

lexicon enabling law enforcement to share information, threats, and courses of action. And the private 

sector will increasingly be engaged as a trust partner 

and be put at the front of these investigations or be 

asked to participate by recognizing and reporting the 

precursors to criminal or terrorist activity. By expanding information-sharing capabilities to the private 

sector, all partners will respond to a set of similar 

expectations and a shared sense of responsibility and 

accountability. ★

Jason Smith is a captain and the intelligence commander for the Milwaukee Police Department, which includes the 

Southeastern Wisconsin Threat Analysis Center, one of 77 state and major urban area fusion centers. In this role, he is responsible for 

providing an all-crimes and all-hazards approach to preparedness and protection of the Southeast Wisconsin Urban Areas Security 

Initiative Region. Smith leads a diverse team dedicated to creating an intelligence-led policing environment through prevention and 

enforcement initiatives. A 22-year veteran of the Milwaukee Police Department, he previously supervised criminal investigation teams 

in homicide, robbery, and intelligence sections of the department’s Criminal Investigation Bureau. 

Endnotes 

1. The 77 fusion centers around the country have adopted an all-crimes, all-hazards approach to intelligence collection, information sharing, and analysis. 

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75

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

★

Producing a Positive 


Return on Investment
 

★ ★
 

by Barbara Duncan 

The future of law enforcement will undoubtedly embrace and blend the 

successes of past and present law enforcement practices while planning for future 

changes that will enhance such practices. Two of the 

areas where change in the profession will be most 

profound will be in the use of technology and in the 

development of police-community relations. 

The benefit of proactive and data-driven patrol 

rather than basic reactive patrol is self-evident and 

time proven. Accordingly, some focus and emphasis 

should be placed on uniformed patrol services. There 

is no doubt that rapidly changing and expanding 

technology has in many cases provided great benefit 

to law enforcement and by extension the community 

being served. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...agencies that can establish 

communitywide trust will be 

in better position to expend 

necessary financial resources 

on reducing violent crime 

even further. 

★ ★ ★

Unfortunately, these technologies can be quite expensive and tend to demand regular service by competent 

personnel, thereby draining precious resources from 

where they are needed most. More often than not, 

these resources are depleted from patrol services until the point where personnel deployment appears to 

favor specialization over uniformed police presence in 

the community. 

For the future, I envision and believe a trend is developing toward technologies that will actually release 

personnel from desk and technology maintenancerelated duties so they may return to the field where 

the human component is most valuable. Today’s law 

enforcement executive must be mindful of and actively seek such relevant technologies while marshalling 

all available resources toward the most cost-effective 

expenditure of funds. Current economic times have 

brought austerity budgets into main-line municipal 

operations as a routine method of operation rather 

than an isolated exception. Because funding sources 

continue to shrink, the importance of making the 

proper selection of technologies has moved to the top 

of the consideration list. 

The key to developing an economically sustainable 

solution to the problem of finding the appropriate 

technology is not always clear. As advancements in 

technology increase at exponential rates, the solution to the problem ultimately rests with an adroit 

agency leader who can either educate himself on the 

relevant technologies and related forecasts or surround himself with technology-savvy colleagues. 

Gone are the days when the competency of a chief, 

sheriff, or commissioner rested comfortably on the 

mere knowledge of traditional police applications 

and the selection of proper in-box solutions. Indeed, the law enforcement executive of today must 

be able to recognize the dilemma of the technology 

explosion and select technology applications that 

will propel the agency activity forward, toward a 

more efficient work product. As if this task wasn’t 

daunting enough, the executive must also hold a vision flexible enough to accommodate the enhanced 

technology that 10 years into the future will hold 

while working within the limited funding realities 

of today. 

It also appears that the current state of economic affairs has played a part in reshaping the way some law 

enforcement agencies approach crime reduction. Arguably, no police program can succeed without support from all corners of the community it serves. The 

fact is that our profession is inextricably intertwined 

76
Producing a Positive Return on Investment 

with the society it serves. Ten years from now, those 

agencies who have successfully implemented Compstat will have secured the ground they captured in 

pushing crime back by reworking and redefining the 

approach to and nature of police-community relations. Expensive police resources are best deployed 

based upon data, and data is best developed through 

healthy community relations. 

This is not to say that 10 years from now law enforcement will be relegated to deliver watered-down social 

programs rather than the practice of traditional law 

enforcement activity. To the contrary, agencies that 

can establish communitywide trust will be in better 

position to expend necessary financial resources on 

reducing violent crime even further. 

Most agencies have experienced success stories using 

a combination of data-driven crime deterrence applications in conjunction with non-traditional law enforcement outreach. Citizen’s police academies have 

been tremendously beneficial in engendering a positive interaction with the public and improving the 

public view of their law enforcement agency. Additionally, partnering with the business community as 

part of a re-entry program can steer a potential repeat 

offender onto a new life course. Police contact with 

school-age children through weekly mentoring projects is having a tremendous impact on children’s attitudes and perception of the police, government, and 

educational processes in general. To this end, a strong 

relationship with local educators is critical. 

The cornerstone of success 

for the future of law 

enforcement will be the 

ability of the agency to be 

viewed as competent by all 

cultures within a city. 

★ ★ ★

Although these nontraditional models have proven 

successful in highlighting the many attributes of law 

enforcement, additional work in the area of relationship building is imperative. The area deserving attention and effort during the next 10 years can be found 

in partnership building in those neighborhoods experiencing violent crime. The cornerstone of success 

for the future of law enforcement will be the ability of 

the agency to be viewed as competent by all cultures 

within a city. Relationship and partnership development between police and at-risk or even failing neighborhoods can prove challenging and must be driven 

by the agency executive. 

When a community stands behind its police department and engages in an active partnership development with the men and women serving and 

protecting, crime rates tend to drop. By way of example I offer the High Point Police Department in 

77
 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

North Carolina. In High Point, successful crime reduction efforts featuring partnerships between police, 

businesses, clergy, and neighborhood residents have 

produced tremendous results. Building relationships based upon trust between residents and law 

enforcement will prove to be a critical and economically sound component in future crime reduction 

strategies. The relationship component between law 

enforcement and minority communities is in need 

of the most attention. I believe this premise will be 

especially relevant as financial constraints force law 

enforcement to rethink resource deployment and rework initiatives to produce a positive return on investment. ★

Barbara Duncan began her career as chief of the Salisbury (Maryland) Police Department on November 15, 2010. She 

came to Salisbury after having risen through the ranks over the course of nearly 22 years to become the chief of police in the city of 

Mount Vernon, New York. In her capacity as chief in Mount Vernon, she was responsible for the day-to-day operations of an urban 

municipal police force in the third most densely populated municipality in the state of New York, home to 75,000 residents within 4.2 

square miles. Throughout her tenure with Mount Vernon, Duncan enjoyed assignments as a uniform and plainclothes patrol officer; a 

patrol squad supervisor, personnel officer, commanding officer of the Training Unit, executive officer of the Support Services Division, 

and commanding officer of the Special Operations Division, which included the administration of Internal Affairs and the coordination of 

community relations. While in Mount Vernon, Duncan successfully employed crime reduction strategies based on data-driven policing 

combined with active community relations. These experiences have been replicated in Salisbury, and similar successes are being 

noted. Prior to working in Mount Vernon, Duncan obtained her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Mercy College, New York. In 

1996, she secured her law degree from Pace University, School of Law. She graduated from the 210th Session of the FBI National 

Academy in 2002 and also graduated from the West Point Leadership and Command school as offered by the New Jersey Chiefs of 

Police Association in 2008. 

78
79

 

★ ★ ★

Putting the “Local” 

Back in Local Law 

Enforcement 

by Jim Burack 

We have witnessed significant progress in policing over the past half 

century. We have arguably rediscovered the fundamental truth of 

Sir Robert Peel’s assertion that the police’s relationship 

to the public is central to crime control and a peaceful society. We have embraced scholarship and the 

importance of basing practice on evidence in terms 

of what works and what does not. Yet in spite of successful new practices—such as community policing, 

problem-oriented policing, crime prevention through 

environmental design, CompStat, Broken Windows 

and a related understanding of quality-of-life crimes, 

restorative justice, community and problem-solving 

courts, procedural justice, early childhood intervention, and many other instances of innovative justice 

thinking—we have still not experienced a breakthrough in crime reduction. 
American Policing in 2022 

The intimidating nature 


of large, impersonal...
 

police stations is undoubtedly 


a deterrent to routine 


police-citizen interaction 


and communication.
 

★ ★ ★

We have generally implemented these good, new 

ideas in isolation but rarely have realized the benefit 

that might accrue if multiple advances were layered 

on one another with each innovation generating additional value. Is there a policing and justice structure 

that would facilitate the blending and harnessing of 

these individual advancements simultaneously? 

The key is a recommitment to true local policing, 

particularly in urban and even suburban America. By 

and large, the basis of modern policing remains the 

professional 911-driven rapid-response model. It’s designed to put a patrol car at the caller’s house within 

minutes. It assumes that callers prefer a house call, 

yet many would-be consumers of police services are 

reluctant to ”order” a police car for various reasons, 

such as a sense that the problem may not be serious 

enough to merit a police response or the caller may 

not want to draw the neighborhood’s attention when 

the squad car would pull up out front. 

Many police service consumers would prefer a lowkey, self-initiated visit to their familiar neighborhood 

police officer at the local station down the block. 

The intimidating nature of large, impersonal, more 

distantly located, fortress-like police stations is undoubtedly a deterrent to routine police–citizen interaction and communication. What is remarkable is 

that the policing institution collectively has not critically examined this basic assumption built into the 

rapid-response model and asked whether the system 

is discouraging customers from calling or visiting before the incident occurs and when the police might be 

able to intervene more effectively. 

Urban policing models might look to small-town 

America for some cues to effective policing. Interestingly, there is policing research that suggests smaller 

and medium-sized police agencies can be more successful than larger ones in generating resident satisfaction. A series of studies in the 1970s by Dr. Elinor 

Ostrom1 and colleagues at the University of Indiana 

showed that the Chicago Police Department, then 

perceived to be a professional urban law enforcement 

agency, received lower levels of citizen satisfaction 

scores than smaller, arguably less professional and 

specialized police departments in comparable neighborhoods just outside Chicago city limits. One might 

theorize that residents in smaller jurisdictions appreciated the personal relationship they might have enjoyed with their local officers and the heightened level 

of police accountability and community identity that 

may be more likely to occur with a small department 

in a smaller community. 

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Putting the “Local” Back in Local Law Enforcement 

It may be that urban American law enforcement lost 

its historical neighborhood roots because the professional rapid-response model does not rely primarily 

on community support and local relationships, even 

though they can certainly help. The rapid-response 

model is premised on the fundamental assumption 

that efficiency and effectiveness are derived from fewer 

but larger fixed patrol bases and multiple patrol cars 

staffed by anonymous patrol officers ready to respond 

at a moment’s notice to the scene of the crime over a 

widely dispersed area. There is a powerful, and perhaps not well supported, strand in American organizational thinking that institutional consolidation is a 

money-saver, presumably because it eliminates redundant support services. There is clearly merit to this argument, but a more sophisticated and nuanced model 

can be reconciled with a decentralized patrol force operating from neighborhood-based patrol stations. 

A more financially sustainable model is a hybrid; 

high-cost specialized law enforcement support services, facilities, equipment, infrastructure, and personnel can be shared regionally by neighboring police 

agencies. For example, communication centers and 

public safety answering points, SWAT, K-9s, drug 

task forces, crime labs, and specialized investigators 

for homicides or white-collar crime are the kinds of 

resources that need not be duplicated. But the patrol 

force and investigators who have the primary function 

of policing a neighborhood are truly the heart and 

soul of American policing. Indeed, American policing 

culture acknowledges the centrality of patrol as the 

backbone of American policing; intimate knowledge 

of the community and its people allows the police to 

support community cohesiveness and confidence and 

ultimately build stronger, safer communities. 

We have arguably created a police and justice model 

more concerned with organizational comfort and efficiency, premised on organizational consolidation, 

than with effectiveness or sensitivity for the police 

consumer. What if we were to re-imagine an American justice system, designed from the ground up, for 

the benefit of its victims, its families, even its suspects 

and defendants, and ultimately the community? 

We would create consolidated, approachable, neighborhood-level police stations with community problem-solving courts. The facility would include an access 

point to a range of government, private, and non-profit 

wraparound social support services, particularly for 

first-time, at-risk youth offenders when positive interventions early in a juvenile’s criminal lifecycle might 

preclude later, more serious criminal activity. 

This model would dissolve traditional organizational 

silos by utilizing a case management team that would 

review individual cases and create tailored responses 

including drug and mental health treatment. Local 

neighborhood-level community courts can acknowledge that low-level, quality-of-life crimes that erode 

community standards initially degrade neighborhoods. Local courts are more likely to take the time 

and effort to craft meaningful responses to local crime. 

Officer workspaces arranged around a conference table would promote a collaborative problem-solving 

approach and encourage officers to “connect the dots.” 

81
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Understanding that successful 

neighborhoods define 

successful cities is critical. 

★ ★ ★

This work environment would help reinforce innovative management and training systems that encourage 

community problem-solving approaches such as the 

Police Training Officer program. 

The facility itself would leverage the power of architectural design by serving as a safety and security anchor for the neighborhood. The building would be 

fronted in glass so the police could provide the reassuring impression that they are observing downtown 

activity. The design would suggest transparency and 

accessibility, not a Fort Apache-like presence that suggests an “us versus them” relationship. The station 

would include a welcoming lobby with a children’s 

library and toys, fireplace, and rocking chairs instantly conveying a sense of community partnership. 

A playground next door would encourage families to 

treat a police station and court as a friendly and approachable institution providing a range of services to 

all segments of society. Reconceptualizing the design 

of a police station could harness the power of architecture to reduce crime2 and suggests one way society 

could deemphasize other more conventional and less 

effective law enforcement responses. 

We should ask how our policing and justice structure can support models of new urbanism, walkable 

communities, livability, transit-oriented development, 

smart growth, the creation of a sense of place, and the 

whole range of thinking that now underlies the success of urban neighborhoods and the renaissance of the 

American city. Understanding that successful neighborhoods define successful cities is critical. The essential building block of socially and economically viable 

and sustainable neighborhoods is public safety, which 

we take for granted in many American neighborhoods. 

But if we are to affect the most challenged American 

urban neighborhoods that need jobs and economic 

sustainability, we must think initially about crime. 

The single most significant impediment to justice innovation is the scale of our justice institutions. Urban 

precinct houses typically serve a collection of neighborhoods that comprise a small city—a service population of 100,000 is not uncommon. Even today, a 

typical budget-cutting response in times of austerity 

is to close police stations. This is symbolic of our lack 

of appreciation for the strength American policing 

derives from community connections and our abiding but perhaps misplaced faith in the continued effectiveness of the rapid-response model. 

It is not unfair to suggest that in many American jurisdictions we have effectively removed “local” from local 

law enforcement, and that there is little “community” 

in community policing. We frequently make only a 

cursory commitment to neighborhoods and communities. In many places we have regionalized justice services, effectively delinking communities from police, 

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Putting the “Local” Back in Local Law Enforcement 

courts, and probation and parole services. What matters is a permanent, committed police presence that 

is scaled to the neighborhood, reinforces community 

cohesion, and is sensitive to local values and culture. 

The confluence of these strands of police innovation, 

with architecture at its core, can change officers and 

organizational culture. When a police officer sits with 

a victim, witness, or suspect by the police station 

lobby fireplace in a rocking chair instead of in a steel 

chair bolted to the floor in an antiseptic interview 

room, organizational perspectives, approaches, and 

culture can change in positive ways. 

This model aligns with a range of successful and 

promising criminal justice and urban policy innovations we know work. It especially deserves a chance to 

be piloted in crime-challenged urban neighborhoods 

that require a police and justice presence scaled to 

the community and integrated with community life, 

standing as a beacon of safety and security and catalyzing neighborhood social and economic growth. 

The American urban renaissance might be expanded 

to a broader range of needy and deserving neighborhoods if we embrace new ways of constructing and 

scaling the American justice system. ★

Jim Burack is the town administrator and chief of police in Milliken, Colorado. He has also served as a U.S. Senate staffer, 

patrol officer with the Westminster (Colorado) Police Department, and counsel and director of operations with the Police Executive 

Research Forum (PERF) in Washington, D.C. A U.S. Marine Corps Reserve colonel, Burack is assigned to Marine Forces Pacific, 

Hawaii. Previous tours include liaison officer to FEMA and U.S. Northern Command; an active duty tour in 2004 to 2005 in Ramadi, 

Iraq, as the civil affairs officer leading engagement with the Iraqi judiciary in Anbar Province; evaluator with the U.S. Department of 

Defense inspector general for investigations and for policy and oversight at the Pentagon; civil affairs team leader during peacekeeping 

operations in Kosovo in 1999; and military prosecutor and special assistant U.S. Attorney in Southern California. Burack has earned 

a doctorate’s degree from the University of Colorado, a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University 

of Colorado, Denver, and a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Senior 

Management Institute for Police. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Northern 

Colorado and a member of the Colorado, California, and D.C. bars. 

Endnotes 

1. Ostrom was named by Time Magazine in 2012 as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. (See the full list at www.time.com/time/specials/ 

packages/completelist/0,29569,2111975,00.html.) 

2. Katyal, Neal, “Architecture as Crime Control,” Yale Law Journal 111, no. 5 (2002). 

83

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★ ★ ★

A “Back to the 

Future” Paradox 

by J. Scott Thomson 

A“back to the future” paradox within the 

policing profession will come to fruition 

by 2022. As bleeding-edge technology 

rapidly becomes more affordable, simpler 

to use, and fitted to the palm of nearly every person’s 

hand, the role police officers play in society, in light 

of the global economic downturn, will return to the 

180-year-old Peel principles that are underpinned 

by problem solving and crime fighting. 

There is not a sector of society anywhere on this planet 

that has not felt the impact of the current financial 

crisis. This change in the environment has resulted in 

the evolution of policing out of necessity for survival. 

Whether this has manifested itself in an acute form, 

such as layoffs, departmental closings, and regionalization, or a more chronic fashion through personnel attrition and diminished budgets, mostly all in the policing 

profession are feeling the constraints. The message is 

unequivocal; the status quo can no longer remain. 
American Policing in 2022 

...best practices are past 

practices, [and] today’s 

leaders must be vanguards of 

“next practices”! 

★ ★ ★

The “good old days” are actually today, and police 

leaders must begin modifying practices and changing 

culture to best transition into this new normal that 

is currently upon many and will soon encompass all. 

In some regards, best practices are past practices, as 

today’s leaders must be vanguards of “next practices”! 

In early 2010, newly appointed Director Bernard Melekian of the Office of Community Oriented Policing 

Services for the U.S. Department of Justice forecasted 

four emerging components for the survival of American policing: 

1. Change in the delivery of police services 

2. Use of technology 

3. Use of volunteers 

4. Regionalization/consolidation 

Melekian’s soothsaying serves as a police chiefs’ survival guide for the growing list of extremely challenged cities currently in the crucible, such as Detroit, 

Michigan, and Camden, New Jersey. 

By 2022, experience will have educated society of the 

falsehood of the cliché “more with less” as it relates 

to policing. Communities will have realized that it is 

physically and logistically impossible to literally produce more of a service or product in an environment 

of increasing demands with less resources or material. 

Policing can and will broaden its responsibilities, raise 

performance standards, and demand a greater effort 

from its ranks. But without a fundamental change in 

the foundation, framework, and ideology of the police organization, the law of diminishing returns will 

rule the day, and success, if experienced at all, will 

hardly be sustainable. 

This shift in the paradigm of delivering services will 

be accomplished well before 2022 by those who have 

properly managed expectations of the community 

and made the people themselves the catalysts of the 

preferred change. The transition of each other’s roles 

in the police-community relationship will be from the 

most prevalent model of a customer being serviced by 

a vendor to a true partnership with each participant 

accepting greater responsibility in the process for desired outcomes. 

Residents will welcome this adjustment as they enjoy the synergistic product of a concentrated policecommunity relationship with a narrower focus on the 

greatest priorities. This occurs when police agencies 

can no longer perform concierge-like services and 

cease attempting to deliver on the skewed logic of our 

Professional Era forefathers who guaranteed a cop to 

arrive at every received call. And no longer will the 

benchmark for success be measured solely by police 

response times to crimes that have already occurred. 

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A “Back to the Future” Paradox 

Unrealistic demands that transform cops into clerks 

cannot be continued as significant reduction in resources, namely personnel, occur. The basic laws of 

physical science dictate that something has to give. 

This transformation  will not be without challenges 

and growing pains. However, over the next 10 years, 

residents will experience the value of this change in 

the delivery of police services by the stronger relationships they are able to develop with their neighborhood beat officer because of the officer’s ability to 

maintain continuity of assignment. The beat cop’s 

primary role will be protector, facilitator, and convener. When problems arise, residents will be more 

apt to contact their officer on his or her smart phone 

rather than cold call 911. 

Less boots on the ground will compel police leaders 

to explore every force-multiplier option available to 

them. The private sector and military are well advanced in this area and have been using technology 

to enhance personnel efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability to better achieve objectives. 

In the year 2022, the bulky, temperamental, mobile 

data terminals that occupy a good portion of the front 

passenger compartment in a squad car will be in the 

police department’s museum. Officers will gaze upon 

it in wonderment and recall stories from their training 

officers about its cost and inefficiencies. The smart 

phones that rest on their duty belts, even in future 

dollars, will be a fraction of the cost and perform a 

greater range of tasks in a quicker, more coordinated 

manner that is consistent with crime fighting. They 

will also laugh aloud about the wasted hours of cops 

hunting and pecking the QWERTY board that 

existed prior to the near perfection of automated 

speech recognition and its complete integration into 

the infrastructure of policing technology. 

The smart phone that every officer will possess will 

have the ability to interact with the officer and perform an array of analytical functions, such as data 

mining dozens of local, state, and federal databases, 

centralized computer-aided dispatch records, and records management systems. Individualized biometric 

profiles, arrest records, wants/warrants, calls for service histories, family court, etc., will all be queried 

in a fraction of a second, and valuable information, 

offender link analysis, etc., will be articulated back to 

officers in a prioritized manner, giving them the ability to have a more strategic response and ultimately 

a more successful resolution to the matter that has 

summoned their attention. 

These devices will automatically provide valuable, 

strategic street crime data or quality of life concerns 

based on the patrolling officer’s established position 

via a GPS. For example, when an officer is patrolling 

a particular hot spot, his or her established location 

will trigger actionable intelligence. Succinctly receiving the spatial and temporal trends, victim/suspect 

profiles, modus operandi, etc., the system will give 

the most significant information that the street cop 

needs to take specific tactics to best prevent the next 

crime from occurring or solve a most recent event. 

The ubiquitous nature of smart phones grows more 

each day as does the membership and usage of social 

media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other 

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American Policing in 2022 

networks that serve as a platform for global informing 

sharing. This transformation is already in full evolution, as it has reshaped how people communicate and 

interact with each other. 

When 2022 is upon us, law enforcement will be fully 

engaged, from chief to rookie officer, in the use of 

social media and its relationship and communication with communities. To be forewarned is to be 

forearmed, and a circumspect public will be better 

positioned to target-harden themselves and provide 

vital information rapidly to assist in apprehending a 

suspect of a crime. Criminals enjoy the shadows of 

anonymity and will not find comfort in a networked 

neighborhood in a forward-leaning position against 

anti-social behavior. 

Finally, the technological advances that enhance communication and partnership with neighborhoods will 

also provide a much more accurate assessment of a police officer’s effectiveness. People have a right to expect 

100 percent commitment from every officer honored 

with the responsibility of protecting the public. ★

J. Scott Thomson has been in policing since 1992. He has been the chief of the Camden (New Jersey) Police Department 

since August 2008. He holds a master’s degree in education from Seton Hall University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from 

Rutgers University. Thomson has ascended through the ranks of the Camden Police Department, serving in various operational and 

investigative positions and commands and receiving several commendations such as the Narcotics Detective of the Year in 1999 from 

the County Narcotic Commanders Association of New Jersey. He has served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Special Committee 

on Discovery in Criminal and Quasi-Criminal Matters and was recently appointed to the Board of Advisors for New York University 

School of Law’s Center on the Administration of Criminal Law. In 2011, Thomson received the Gary P. Hayes Award for leadership and 

innovation in policing from the Police Executive Research Forum. 

88
89

 

★

Car 54: Where are You?
 

★ ★
 

by Bernard K. Melekian 

There is little doubt that the nature of 

police service delivery will change profoundly over the next decade. Indeed, 

that change is already underway, driven 

in large part by the downturn in local economic conditions. A 2011 COPS Office report1 clearly documented the loss of local law enforcement capacity as 

measured by the number of officer positions lost due 

to either layoff or attrition. 

The changes to service delivery will occur across four 

fronts: greater reliance on technology; greater use of 

civilians both as employees and volunteers; consolidation among agencies, either of core services or in 

the form of agency mergers; and alternative delivery 

of non-emergency calls. Of these, perhaps the most 

visibly radical and most politically difficult to implement is the last, which will result in a significant alteration in the way uniformed patrol operations are 

conducted. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In spite of significant 

personnel losses, most 

agencies have not changed 

their business model. 

Rather, they are doing less 

of the same... 

★ ★ ★

One of the most significant changes in American 

policing began in the 1930s with the introduction 

of the radio car to uniformed patrol. Officers could 

respond more quickly to events, the methodology 

was far more economical than foot patrol, and, as 

post-WWII America sprawled into the suburbs, the 

visibility of the local law enforcement agency was 

maintained. Conversely, the detachment of local law 

enforcement from the communities they served has 

been directly tied to this change. 

Two key tactical assumptions underlie the use of mobile uniformed patrol. The first is that the random 

nature of such patrol is a deterrent to crime. The second is that such patrols should cover every portion 

of the jurisdiction during the course of a patrol shift. 

While the first assumption has been substantially discredited by numerous studies over the last 40 years, 

such studies have not altered the second assumption 

for reasons that are as much political as operational. 

The model has not changed since the introduction 

of the radio car. A person calls dispatch, the call is 

evaluated, a radio car is assigned, and officers handle 

the call. For the average citizen, the patrol response is 

the police department. Law enforcement has trained 

the public to expect a response to almost any request 

for service. This effort is usually seen as being distinct 

from community policing. 

Since the introduction of community policing in the 

1980s, few departments have fully implemented the 

concept as the foundational philosophy of their organizations. Rather, community policing has coexisted 

alongside the traditional reactive model for patrol. For 

the most part, jurisdictions were not really forced to 

make choices between the two operating modalities. 

The changes wrought by the economy have brought 

this inherent tension to the surface. As agencies 

downsize, chiefs often say they can no longer afford 

their community policing programs, which indicates 

that community policing was a program rather than 

a philosophy. In spite of significant personnel losses, 

most agencies have not changed their business model. 

Rather, they are doing less of the same; that is they 

still use the same basic patrol response but with longer response times. 

The delivery of patrol services will need to change 

fundamentally. This change will be driven by the 

loss of capacity (i.e., the number of officers available) and recognition of the fact that patrol visibility 

does not need to touch 100 percent of a jurisdiction’s streets and neighborhoods. The work that has 

been done by researchers such as David Weisburd, 

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Car 54: Where are You? 

Andrew Papachristos, and others suggests that a 

more surgical approach to the deployment of patrol 

resources can have a significant impact on reducing 

the levels of crime and social disorder. 

Patrol response falls into three broad categories: 

emergency response, order maintenance, and nonemergency responses. The time available to the patrol 

officer on any given day is finite. Emergency response 

will always be the priority for local law enforcement, 

but it consumes a small portion of the allotted patrol 

time. The remainder is divided between the other two 

categories. 

Order maintenance activities are those duties that are 

seen as the desirable, proactive aspects of community 

policing. They include crime control, traffic management, and community outreach. The ability of the 

patrol officer to engage in these meaningful activities 

is a direct function of the amount of time available 

to that officer, and the percentage of non-emergency 

responses determines the time available. 

Non-emergency responses take up the bulk of the 

officer’s directed time. Activities such as report taking, alarm responses, and non-critical investigations 

fall into this category. For a variety of reasons, many 

jurisdictions are reluctant to seriously consider alternative responses to these kinds of calls. In this area, 

true changes in the delivery of patrol services will 

need to occur. 

...the infusion of the 

millennial generation into 

police work is creating a 

workforce that wants to be 

engaged in a more direct 

and creative fashion. 

★ ★ ★

Patrol services will be much more place and person 

focused. Research—beginning with Marvin Wolfgang’s famous Philadelphia cohort study and continuing through David Weisburd and Lawrence 

Sherman’s landmark work on hot spots in Minneapolis—has demonstrated the significant impact a small 

number of persons and places can have on a jurisdiction’s overall crime rate. The implications for the 

delivery of patrol services are also significant. If the 

research proves to be applicable to a broad range of 

jurisdictions, the ability to control crime and perform 

social order maintenance would no longer be dependent solely on an ever-increasing number of officers. 

Rather a much smaller group of officers could focus 

on these places and persons in a much more effective 

and cost-efficient fashion. 

91
American Policing in 2022 

Three factors are converging to make true change 

in the delivery of patrol services a reality. First, the 

constriction of the economy is reducing the number of sworn officers available to handle patrol duties. Currently many departments are responding by 

eliminating special details such as narcotics and traffic 

units. The officers that were in these units are being 

assigned back to patrol. However, those special details 

actually serve a critical function that will ultimately 

need to be filled. 

Second, the infusion of the millennial generation into 

police work is creating a workforce that wants to be 

engaged in a more direct and creative fashion. This 

generation demands that its work be fulfilling and 

that it be provided much greater latitude in setting 

the parameters of that work. Patrol work that requires 

significant research and emphasizes creative problem 

solving will be perfectly tailored for this new generation of officers. 

Third, there is a growing recognition among law enforcement leaders that patrol is ultimately where the 

connection between the department and the community it serves will be forged. The actions of the patrol 

officers, more than any other aspect of the department, will determine the legitimacy of the department. For too long, patrol was the place where an 

officer began his career and worked toward leaving for 

a special detail. Being sent back to patrol was always 

considered a punishment. This is going to change. 

In the future, patrol will look quite different. The 

non-emergency responses will be handled by civilians 

or by greater reliance on technology. There will be 

fewer patrol officers, but they will be highly focused 

problem solvers who will rely heavily on research to 

determine the focus of their daily activities. Such research will identify not only criminals but also key 

persons or places in the community in order to enhance the legitimacy of the agency. Their training will 

focus heavily on interpersonal communications and 

scenario-based problem solving. Their equipment 

will be rich on data access, and their weaponry will 

be heavily less than lethal. The use of force will be 

discreet, surgical, and effective. 

The essence of police service will never change. We 

will always strive to protect the innocent and pursue 

the guilty. We will always recognize that law enforcement determines the truth or falsity of the constitution and our system of laws. In short, what we do will 

not change, but how we do it is going to change quite 

radically. I think it’s going to be quite exciting. ★

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Car 54: Where are You? 

Bernard K. Melekian was announced as the director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services by Attorney 

General Eric Holder on October 5, 2009. Prior to joining the COPS Office, Melekian was the chief of police for the city of Pasadena, 

California, for more than 13 years. He also served with the Santa Monica (California) Police Department for 23 years, where he was 

awarded the Medal of Valor in 1978 and the Medal of Courage in 1980. Melekian has been the recipient of numerous awards and 

is recognized as a leader whose commitment to the advancement of community policing is built on years of patrol experience and 

a strong record of incorporating the needs of the community into police operations. In April 2010, he was awarded the prestigious 

National Public Service Award by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration. 

Melekian holds a bachelor’s degree in American history and a master’s degree in public administration, both from California State 

University, Northridge. He earned his doctorate in policy, planning, and development from the University of Southern California and is 

also a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the California Command College. Melekian served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 

1970. As a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, he was called to active duty in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm and served 

in Saudi Arabia. Melekian served a second tour of active duty in 2003, and he retired from the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves in 2009 

after 28 years of service. 

93
“We need to get this right. Forget ‘Too Big to Fail.’ 

Our motto as we build to the future ought to be that 

law enforcement is ‘Too Important to Fail.’” 

– Christopher Tracy 

Section Three 
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★ ★

Balancing the Art and 

Science of Policing 

★
 

by Tim J. Dolan 

I

believe a chief of police of a major city in 

America needs to be optimistic but always a 

little concerned. Being concerned or apprehensive is a survival trait learned long ago when 

we worked the street. Getting too comfortable could 

make you a little less attentive and result in a mistake 

that is either unsafe or, at the very least, problematic. 

One of the areas of policing that makes me a little 

nervous is the rapid development of technology. I 

think technology presents some of our largest future 

opportunities as well as challenges. 

Analytical intelligence (e.g., crime statistics, mapping, 

and systematic observations) has led us to resultsoriented policing—putting as former New York and 

Los Angeles Chief of Police Bill Bratton commonly 

called “cops on the dots.” Today’s advances in analysis are changing our reactive tactics to become more 

future-oriented and proactive. Predictive policing 

matches criminal intelligence with crime statistics and 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technology advances are 

clearly opportunities for us 

to police better. 

★ ★ ★

intangible factors to tell us where the risk is higher for 

the next crime to occur.1 For crime analysis to be fully 

and effectively integrated, leadership must be its champion by demanding value, having it contribute to the 

mission, having the right people on board, and prioritizing the technology and data quality.2 According to 

Rutgers criminologist George Kelling, recent police innovations in evidence-based tactics have led the way for 

accountability for all of municipal government.3 These 

advances, coupled with additional technologies such 

as ShotSpotter4 and business and community cameras, 

have made us much more effective and efficient. We 

have, in many cases, been able to do better with less. 

The results show that smart policing tactics matter. 

In addition to the technological advances to overall policing strategies, we have the advances available to our 

employees on the street. I use the term employee because 

many of today’s new police department employees are 

specialists due to the skills needed to manage new technological advances. We have forensic scientists, crime 

analysts, neighborhood outreach personnel, crime prevention specialists, and more. In order to take full advantage of those advancing technologies, we will need 

to increase the number of these specialists. 

The primary role of specialists is to make our departments and officers more efficient and effective. They 

let our officers know where they should be when, and 

they put tools in officers’ hands that help them better 

deal with whatever they come across. It is ironic that 

while the need for specialists grows so does the need 

for our officers to become more generalists. 

We all know that police officers are very expensive. 

Their continued support and funding depends on the 

quality of their community policing or their ability 

to serve. They need to be a “jack of all trades” when 

responding to calls for service. They are crime prevention experts, traffic controllers, medics, first-response 

tacticians, mediators, investigators, legal experts, and 

much more. They need the right tools to help them 

get dispatched, seek information, record statements, 

photograph evidence, collect DNA, make a report, 

and give advice. 

In many ways, our future police officers are truly going to be Texas Rangers. The rangers’ motto of “one 

riot, one ranger” will actually become true for most 

law enforcement calls for service.5 Tomorrow’s police 

will have more information and capacity due to computers in their squads and on their person. 

Computers are already becoming the “other officer 

in the squad.” They can track every movement of 

squads and officers using GPSs. Dispatchers use 

GPS and computer monitoring to maximize efficiencies and generate alerts. Officers can access 

criminal and informational data in their squads and 

on handheld devices. 

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Balancing the Art and Science of Policing 

Tomorrow’s police officers will be partnering even 

more with computers. Computers will eventually become “partners” to any officer working the street and 

will work with officers in real time. Officers will get a 

suggested route to any call based on the latest traffic 

data. Traffic lights will be changed to assist with their 

safe and quick arrival. Business and neighborhood 

cameras, as well as ShotSpotter technology, will help 

to monitor the flight of suspects. Officers will quickly 

receive recorded information and get intelligence on 

the address and its occupants. 

Once officers arrive at a scene, computers will record 

their activities as well as listen and watch for threats. 

The officer’s phone camera will be able to scan and 

record crime scenes instantly. Phone apps will assist 

with collecting evidence and recording statements. 

It all sounds very futuristic or sci-fi, but the truth is 

that most of the tools mentioned already exist and are 

being used to some capacity by the military and law 

enforcement. Connecting what we call artificial intelligence6 into our day-to-day work will keep increasing 

as we find ways to integrate databases and find safe 

and efficient ways to store data. We only have to look 

at what the average person can already do with Siri on 

their iPhone today to get a glimpse of what connecting all our law enforcement databases and apps would 

mean to an officer. 

Technology advances are clearly opportunities for us 

to police better. They help us tremendously in the 

science of policing. They will never, however, replace 

the need for police officers or what we call the art 

of policing. The art of policing7 is the human side. 

Training is teaching someone 


how to use a tool. Education 


is what helps an officer use 


a tool wisely.
 

★ ★ ★

It is what can make one officer superior to another 

despite the fact that they might have the same tools, 

education, and training. 

Within law enforcement, we see the art of policing 

every day. It is the street officer who “just knows” this 

particular traffic stop is dangerous; the officer who 

uses discretion for the greater good; the homicide investigator who gets a reluctant witness or suspect to 

talk; or a chief that makes a legally non-advisable comment on an incident to quell public outcry. The art of 

policing comes from innate skills, smarts, experience, 

or traits that are inside a person. It relates to a person’s 

ability to interact, perceive, innovate, and act. 

I am concerned that the art of policing will not improve as rapidly as the science of policing—only because those technological innovations are coming so 

rapidly. We know that better tools used inappropriately 

or wrongly can be dangerous. Electronic control weapons8 are a good example. Used appropriately, these devices can help us arrest combatants more quickly and 

safely. Do they take the place of lower level use of force? 

No. Do they eliminate officers having to put hands on 

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American Policing in 2022 

resistant arrestees? No. Should they be used on any 

physically resistant arrestee? No. Are there crystal clear 

guidelines of when we should or should not use force? 

No. We need officers to use their best discretion of 

when and when not to use certain types of force. 

As an administrative example, we can talk about access to state database driver’s license information. 

Having access to this information allows officers to see 

the driver’s photo, address, and driving record. They 

should not be accessing this information for personal 

purposes. Doing so is a violation of the driver’s rights. 

So, how do we ensure we are improving the art of 

policing with the advances of technology? I believe 

that education plays a major role. By education, I do 

not necessarily mean training. Training is teaching 

someone how to use a tool. Education is what helps 

an officer use a tool wisely. We need to make sure that 

our officers are well-educated and are people of strong 

ethical character. 

Police chiefs know that any given day can bring their 

next major challenge. Along with good leadership, 

progressive tactics, advanced police education, and 

recruitment they will look for assistance from technology. Technology used wisely can make us more 

effective and more efficient. However, those fastmoving advances in technology can also present some 

of the greatest challenges. ★

Tim J. Dolan has served as chief of the Minneapolis (MN) Police Department since April 2006. He holds a master’s degree 

in public administration from the University of St. Thomas and is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy and Police Executive 

Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Policing. In his 34 years in law enforcement, he has also served as assistant chief, 

deputy chief, and commander of the Fourth Precinct, as well as commander of SWAT, Narcotics, Training and Precinct Patrol. During 

his tenure as chief, the department has seen historic declines in violent and Part I crimes. The department has also won international 

recognition and awards for their efforts in juvenile justice, community policing partnerships, downtown business partnerships, and 

other crime reduction initiatives. The department takes great pride in their recent successes with the 2006 I-35W bridge collapse, 

the 2008 Republican National Convention, and the 2011 Northside Tornado. Dolan is a life-long resident and employee of the city of 

Minneapolis. He has been married to Lori for 32 years, and they have four sons—Ben, Matt, Brent, and Tom. 

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Balancing the Art and Science of Policing 

Endnotes 

1. See Egge, Jeff, “Experimenting with Future-Oriented Analysis at Crime Hot Spots in Minneapolis,” Geography and Public Safety 2, no. 4 (March 2011), 6, 

www.cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=598. 

2. Taylor, Bruce, Rachel Boba, and Jeff Egge, “The Integration of Crime Analysis into Patrol Work: A Guidebook” (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, 

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2011), 15–16, www.cops.usdoj.gov/ric/ResourceDetail.aspx?RID=617. 

3. “The View from Academia: Police Chiefs Must Take a Long-Term View in Responding to the Economic Crisis,” in Is the Economic Downturn Fundamentally 

Changing How We Police? Critical Issues in Policing Series (Washington, D.C.: Police Executive Research Forum, 2010), 23–24. 

4. The Minneapolis Police Department has been using ShotSpotter for about nine years and has coordinated syncing ShotSpotter with its neighborhood 

cameras. (See www.shotspotter.com.) 

5. “One of the most enduring phrases associated with the Texas Rangers today is ‘one riot, one ranger.’ It is somewhat apocryphal in that there was never 

actually a riot; rather, the phrase was coined by Ranger Captain William ‘Bill’ McDonald, who was sent to Dallas in 1896 to prevent the illegal heavyweight prize 

fight between Pete Maher and Bob Fitzsimmons that had been organized by Dan Stuart and patronized by the eccentric ‘Hanging Judge’ Roy Bean. According 

to the story, McDonald’s train was met by the mayor, who asked the single ranger where the other lawmen were. McDonald is said to have replied: ‘Hell! Ain’t I 

enough? There’s only one prize-fight!’” (“Texas Ranger Division,” Wikipedia, last modified June 13, 2012, www.texasranger.org/history/BriefHistory1.htm.) 

6. See Beukes, Johann, “Is Artificial Intelligence Truly Possible?” last modified October 25, 2011, 

http://johannbeukes.com/is-artificial-intelligence-truly-possible/2011/10/25/. 

7. Finding a clear definition of “the art of policing” is difficult. However, renowned criminologist George L. Kelling said that “police work is complex, that police 

use enormous discretion, [and] that discretion is at the core of police functioning” (“Broken Windows” and Police Discretion, Washington, D.C.: National Institute of 

Justice, 1999, 6). 

8. See Police Executive Research Forum, 2011 Electronic Control Weapon Guidelines (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community 

Oriented Policing Services, 2011), http://cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e021111339-PERF-ECWGb.pdf. 

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★ ★ ★
 

Pursuing Excellence in 


Policing: The Leadership 


Challenge of the Future
 

by Charles H. Ramsey 

The increasingly complex social, technological, and political environment in 

which we find ourselves places difficult 

demands on police organizations. More 

often than not, we struggle to keep pace with our ever-changing landscape. As we continue to move forward in the 21st century, what will be the next step 

in our evolution as a profession? How will we meet 

the challenges and opportunities confronting police 

agencies globally? 

There are many contemporary issues in policing that 

demand our immediate and future attention if we are 

to stay relevant and capable in our crime-prevention 

and fighting mission. The more technically proficient 

we become at preventing, reducing, and solving crime, 

the more likely we will have to do so with shrinking 

resources. All police organizations have been affected 

by the economic downturn, but expectations that we 

continue to be just as effective in our crime-fighting 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We need police leaders who 


can mobilize and inspire...
 

not become immobilized 


by the uncertainty 


of the future.
 

★ ★ ★

mission remain the same, if not higher. We must rise, 

not only to meet the exigent demands of our globally 

connected society but also to set our own expectations about what is possible. 

What is possible for our profession is ultimately dependent on the men and women who will become the 

leaders of our police departments in the future. If we 

don’t create our own future, others will. We cannot lose 

sight of the fact that without talented, bold, and innovative people willing to put themselves in the highest 

positions in our agencies, our profession will languish 

and be trapped on the sidelines of our own evolution. 

Developing leadership competencies in the private 

sector and military is a highly valued enterprise. Our 

nation’s best business schools and military academies 

all have robust programs, including executive education, on the subject of leadership. Leadership is an area 

in which many of our corporate, government, and 

educational institutions invest significant resources. 

Our profession must do the same. Though there are 

programs that focus on management and leadership 

for police at various ranks, I believe we must develop 

leadership training and education programs specifically for top-level law enforcement executives. 

At the center of effective leadership are competencies that are not typically found in any one discipline 

or taught by a subject matter expert. It is incumbent 

upon this generation of leaders, however, to articulate 

and impart these core leadership competencies to the 

next generation. Leaders must possess self-awareness, 

maintain a broad and interdisciplinary perspective, be 

comfortable as the focal point of a complex system, 

balance constant public scrutiny, develop a successful 

senior team, manage relentless stress, and cultivate a 

command presence. We must partner with premier 

leaders in business, government, the military, and the 

non-profit sector and work with our colleagues from 

around the world in delivering a leadership program 

that tackles these issues. We also need to tap into the 

body of knowledge from current leaders in policing 

and other industries to bring their experiences to life 

through candid and contemporary case studies. 

More often than not in our profession, we cultivate leadership by accident, or good fortune, not 

by design. We have the opportunity, and I believe 

the responsibility, to help ensure the success of the 

next generation of men and women who will carry 

this profession into the future. We need leaders who 

will possess the technical, psychological, and emotional strengths to bring the right people together, at 

the right time, doing the right things for the greater 

good. The end result when all the individual pieces 

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Pursuing Excellence in Policing: The Leadership Challenge of the Future 

are moving in synchrony can be powerful. This is a 

complex process, made even more complex because 

of the world in which we live. 

Let’s imagine for one moment how an orchestra 

sounds at the beginning of rehearsal, where all the 

individual musical instruments can sound quite unharmonious, with each player moving at his or her 

own pace. Then the conductor assumes his position 

and with a series of hand gestures unifies the performers, sets the tempo, listens critically and carefully to 

the sound of the ensemble, communicates the vision 

forward, and guides them to their harmonious conclusion. We need police leaders who can mobilize and 

inspire their organizations to lean forward into this 

complex environment but not become immobilized 

by the uncertainty of the future. 

Leading in this complex and high-risk world requires 

more than just an understanding of complexity; it requires a strong sense of how to thrive within it. Police 

leaders must be ready to fight crime and terrorism, 

deploy resources effectively, meet citizen needs, satisfy 

political administrations, and maintain organizational credibility and morale—all while under the scrutiny of a globalized media network. We cannot rely 

on the status quo or on chance to produce the leaders 

of the future. Let us take the first bold and visionary 

step now to create the future we want for our profession and ourselves. ★

Charles H. Ramsey, the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) police commissioner, leads the fourth largest police department in 

the nation with more than 6,500 sworn members and 830 civilian members. He brings over 40 years of knowledge, experience, and 

service in advancing the law enforcement profession in three different major city police departments, beginning with Chicago, then 

Washington, D.C., and now Philadelphia. Ramsey has been at the forefront of developing innovative policing strategies and leading 

organizational change for the past 19 years. He is an internationally recognized practitioner and educator in his field, and he currently 

serves as president of both the Police Executive Research Forum and Major Cities Chiefs Association—the only law enforcement 

professional to hold both of these prominent positions at the same time. Ramsey holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in 

criminal justice from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. He has lectured nationally on community policing and homeland security 

and received numerous awards, including the John M. Penrith Award for leadership from the FBI National Executive Institute, the 

Leadership in Policing Award from the Police Executive Research Forum, and the Innovations in American Government Award from the 

Harvard Kennedy School, John F. Kennedy School of Government. 

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105

 

 

 

★ ★

Social Unrest, Drug 

Abuse, Cyber Crimes, 

and No Money 

★
 

by David E. Dial 

I

n the best of times, the enforcement of laws 

has always presented challenges for all societies. Those challenges are exacerbated during 

periods of rapid change. As we entered the new 

century in 2000, America began such a period. It is 

unlikely that the pace of societal changes will be slower during the next decade. To meet the challenges that 

are looming in the future, police leaders will need to 

prepare their departments for change. 

The 1990s were relatively good years for law 

enforcement in America. Economically, the country 

was prosperous, technological advances enabled the 

use of DNA and automated fingerprint identification 

systems to enhance our crime-solving capabilities, 

and the community oriented policing practices and 

partnerships that started in the prior decade began to 

pay off with decreases in crime rates throughout most 

communities. Those good years did not continue. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One challenge of the future 

then will be continuing 

resource limitations. 

★ ★ ★

The terrorist attacks of September 11 drove our 

country into a prolonged war and we spiraled into the 

biggest economic decline since the Great Depression. 

The economic downturn of the last few years was 

certainly unprecedented, and it began a revolution of 

fundamental change in many police agencies across 

America. However, this financial collapse and the 

mandated changes were not without warning. As 

early as 1973, Adam Smith wrote in his bestselling 

book, Supermoney, 

We are all at a wonderful ball where the champagne sparkles in every glass and soft laughter 

falls upon the summer air. We know, by the rules, 

that at some moment the Black Horsemen will 

come shattering through the great terrace doors, 

wreaking vengeance and scattering the survivors. 

Those who leave early are saved, but the ball is 

so splendid no one wants to leave while there is 

still time. So, everyone keeps asking “What time 

is it?” but none of the clocks have any hands. 

Anyone in this profession during the last four years 

knows that the horsemen have arrived. Virtually every police agency in the country has been or will be 

impacted by decreasing revenues. I have listened to 

scores of police chiefs across the country discuss the 

service modifications and the structural changes that 

have been necessitated by the new fiscal reality, and 

no one thinks they will have the ability to put more 

police officers on the street and return to the personnel resource level of five years ago. One challenge of 

the future then will be continuing resource limitations. 

Police leaders owe it to their communities to adjust to 

these limitations in a positive way and to provide the 

highest level of police service possible with the resources they have available. They will need to develop online 

reporting capabilities, merge resources with neighboring agencies, and use technology in ways they have not 

thought of in the past. 

The development and use of technology to enhance 

our productivity is not something that we can depend on others to do. Most departments today lack 

the necessary software and data analysis capabilities 

to collect, collate, and disseminate useful information 

to patrol officers. Even fewer have meaningful social 

media strategies and capabilities for the gathering of 

intelligence and situational awareness. Limited resources impede their abilities to do any real strategic 

planning and to improve technological capabilities. 

Police executives will need to look within their agencies for someone to champion these causes. Police and 

fire departments throughout the country have scores 

of employees who have tremendous technical knowledge, and they are being underutilized by the agencies 

that employ them. During the last decade, a Fremont, 

California, police officer became one of the first to 

develop an online reporting system, and a Naperville, 

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Social Unrest, Drug Abuse, Cyber Crimes, and No Money 

Illinois, firefighter worked with vendors to develop 

a regional state-of-the-art interoperable communications network. The challenge is to find out who these 

underutilized employees are, train them, and improve 

crime prevention and crime-fighting capabilities. 

Simply stated, get the right people on the bus, and 

get them in the right seats. 

Closely related to the need for new skills and technology is the need for a computer forensics lab to investigate the growing number of cyber crimes. Computers, 

cell phones, and electronic tablets are now being used 

in virtually all types of crimes. Some criminals even 

use these devices to record their crimes. Being able to 

examine them forensically will be a critical part of policing in the future. To afford the necessary technology 

and training associated with a computer forensics lab, 

police agencies should consider grants, partnerships 

with community agencies, seizure funds, and regionalization. The upward trend in cyber crimes and the use 

of technology is only going to increase in the future. 

Modern America is made up of a divisive citizenry. 

This division is greater than any time since the 1960s 

and perhaps more than any time since the Civil War. 

This divide is brought on by several issues that include 

the growing frustration with the Global War on Terror; differing ideas on how to handle immigration and 

illegal immigrants; conflicting opinions on the redistribution of wealth, health care, gun control, and the 

legalization of drugs; and ever-changing demographics. Increasingly, it is exhibited in anger and hostility 

directed at government. Although it is uncertain how 

our divided attitudes will impact our communities, 

the social conditions are ripe for widespread protests 

and riotous behavior in the future. The police will be 

placed squarely in the middle of conflicts that will 

arise in the next few years. The wise police leader will 

have his or her organization trained and equipped to 

deal with sudden disorder that can erupt. 

With the social networking sites that exist today, the 

tactics employed by protest groups and radicals will 

be vastly different than the ones that have existed in 

the past. Police agencies will be required to monitor 

these sites and develop intelligence networks within 

their communities and other agencies. They will also 

need to ensure that their mutual aid pacts are current 

and have plans in place to deploy the necessary resources rapidly and effectively to prevent widespread 

violence and property damage. 

During the recent NATO summit held in Chicago, 

the police and federal law enforcement agencies wrote 

the book on how to handle large-scale protests in that 

city. They monitored websites and gathered intelligence about what to expect, ensured the protection 

of protestors’ constitutional rights, and made clear 

boundaries about where the protests could occur. The 

officers were equipped, trained, and ready to handle 

any disturbance that might arise. No one should 

think, “It can’t happen here.” 

In many parts of the country, illicit drug use is on the 

rise again. This is not a good trend, and it is something that police agencies should do everything they 

can to get this problem under control. Families are 

being destroyed, and many people, mostly young, 

are dying from drug overdoses. I served as the chief 

of police for 22 years in the nice Chicago suburb, 

107
 

American Policing in 2022 

Naperville. During my final year of service as chief, 

we recognized a significant increase in the abuse of 

heroin by teenagers. In 2011, eight people died of 

heroin overdoses in our community. Four of them 

were students at one specific high school. 

We quickly recognized that this was not a problem 

the police department alone could solve. In addition 

to increased undercover enforcement, two of our detectives formed partnerships with the local hospital, 

both school districts serving our community, social 

service providers, and homeowner groups. A powerful, factual community presentation about the impact of drug abuse and addiction received widespread 

publicity and was given several times at multiple locations in the city. More than 1,000 parents and teenage 

children watched these presentations in person and 

several thousand more watched the local television 

network showing of them. 

We focused our efforts on making parents aware of 

how the heroin was getting into our community, 

what they should look for, and where they could find 

help. We tried to educate young people about the 

very real dangers associated with drug abuse. These 

presentations were given high praise from parents, 

social workers, school officials, and health care professionals. More important, we are now nearly seven 

full months into 2012, and we have experienced only 

two more drug overdose deaths this year. Our goal, of 

course, was zero. 

Police agencies in America can expect several challenges in the next decade, but we must keep in mind 

that we have been challenged before. We have met 

those challenges with honor, dedication, and professionalism. We make a difference in our communities, 

and they need us to continue. ★

David E. Dial retired from service as the chief of police in Naperville, Illinois, on May 18, 2012. He served as a police officer 

for more than 45 years, including 22 years as chief. Dial has a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and administration from San 

Jose State University, a master’s in public administration from the University of Colorado, and a second master’s degree in homeland 

security and defense from the Naval Postgraduate School. He has also attended the FBI National Academy and is a graduate of the 

Senior Management Institute for Police sponsored by the Police Executive Research Forum. He has served on various committees 

throughout his career and is currently the immediate past president of Police Futurists International. Beginning in August 2012, Dial 

assumed the role of criminal justice director at Aurora University in Illinois. 

108
109

★ ★

Rethinking “Business 

as Usual” 

★
 

by Joseph A. Schafer 

American higher education has been undergoing a fundamental transformation 

since the mid-1990s. For-profit degree 

programs have grown exponentially, enabled by the rise of computer-based learning systems. 

More recently, we have begun to see entire college 

courses, often taught by leading experts in a given 

field, being made freely available to members of the 

general public. Anyone can take a course on artificial intelligence taught by a world-renowned scholar 

from Stanford University. Receiving transcripted college credits for that experience is not freely open, but 

anyone can access the lectures, study materials, and 

assessments used in this course. 

“Business as usual” in American higher education 

is rapidly changing in directions we cannot conclusively predict. What these evolutions will mean for 

brick-and-mortar universities is unclear. What they 

might mean for state university systems, which have 
American Policing in 2022 

For years, a bright divide has 

existed between the corporate 

world...and the public 

sector.... Simply stated, these 

bedrock assumptions are no 

longer true. 

★ ★ ★

endured years of declining public financial support, is 

unclear. Could we reach a point where young adults 

have completed many of the same education experiences (or possibly even better learning experiences) 

than those of earlier generations, but do not have a 

college transcript, degree, or debt load? 

The trends and trajectories we can observe in higher 

education are helpful when considering the future of 

American policing, which is also undergoing a radical transformation. But the profession is not as far 

down this path relative to higher education. Colleges 

and universities are deep into an uncertain journey 

with an unclear future. Policing is in the early years 

of a similar process. In both cases, I would argue the 

professions need to boldly, courageously, and critically rethink business as usual. While the future may 

be unclear, what is evident in both professions is that 

old ways of thinking and operating will be decidedly 

inadequate for the future reality. 

In May 2012, several British policing services began 

to explore privatizing aspects of their operations. This 

step was not only to privatize low-level aspects of 

policing in these regions but also to out-source core 

tasks, including routine patrol, investigations, and 

detention. With a starting contract price tag of over 

$2.4 billion spread over seven years, the announcement generated considerable interest from a number 

of major corporations involved in military, industrial, 

and public safety contracts. 

Whether privatization of such services truly creates 

financial gains, results in better service delivery, or 

is in the interests of communities or citizens is irrelevant. This event signifies the death-knell of what historically has been a bedrock assumption of the public 

sector—that government agencies are too big to fail 

and too entrenched to be supplanted or replaced. For 

years, a bright divide has existed between the corporate world (with its emphasis on cost and value) and 

the public sector (populated by organizations that 

“had” to exist). Simply stated, these bedrock assumptions are no longer true. Legislative and executive 

branches, facing daunting financial realities, will increasingly look for ways to provide services at a lower 

cost. Whether that is prudent in the long term will be 

a trailing consideration to the short-term fiscal gains. 

Previously sacrosanct government agencies could find 

themselves dramatically restructured or disbanded 

altogether. 

What this means for the future of policing is that 

“business as usual” assumptions about police organizations, operations, leadership, tradition, and culture 

must change. Calls for change in American policing 

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Rethinking “Business as Usual” 

can be traced back to the roots of the International 

Association of Chiefs of Police, the 1931 Wickersham 

Report, and various other inquiries arising during the 

past century. What has changed is that agencies that 

do not change by 2022 will face the real threat of 

elimination, something previously unknown. 

To respond to these changes, American policing 

must initiate real, honest, and critical dialogue and 

innovation. Paramilitary bureaucratic organizational 

structures and operational approaches were vital in 

removing systemic corruption from policing more 

than a century ago. They are decidedly ill suited for 

modern public safety needs. Bureaucracy is slow and 

entrenched and resists change. It suppresses creativity, innovation, and flexible ways to address problems. 

In a world where technology changes at an exponential pace and society is undergoing continuous rapid 

transformation, agencies employing bureaucratic government structures risk being rendered incapable of 

addressing their core missions. 

The prevailing bureaucratic command-and-control 

structure noted in the majority of American police 

agencies is the wrong model if agencies hope to attract and retain the services of those entering the 

modern labor market. Policing has been experiencing a recruitment and retention crisis since the mid1990s. Efforts to correct this problem have largely 

failed. Today’s youth are different than their predecessors, including those currently leading police 

organizations. Lamenting that fact has neither corrected the problem, nor will it reverse this broader 

social trend. Policing must explore new ways to think 

...agencies employing 


bureaucratic government 


structures risk being 


rendered incapable 


of addressing their 


core missions.
 

★ ★ ★

about personnel systems, recruitment, hiring, training, culture, and internal operations. Policing cannot 

force the modern labor force to fit into a historical 

organizational model. The profession must find an 

organizational design that will attract bright, competent, and capable people and will encourage them to 

continue to work in policing. 

Crime, public safety, and homeland security are becoming increasingly complex. Police agencies are being asked to serve an expanding role in society and to 

shoulder a growing list of mandates. New tools and 

resources are accompanying this trend. This includes 

increasing use of analysis and analytics to inform the 

understanding of crime, disorder, and social problems. 

It includes greater collaboration with private interests 

that can provide expertise unavailable within policing 

personnel. It includes greater partnerships with nonpolice personnel and organizations to enact solutions 

that will work. 

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American Policing in 2022 

Above all else, policing needs real leadership. Herman 

Goldstein once wrote a scathing critique of leadership 

in American policing; his observations centered on 

the lack of true leadership, courage, innovation, and 

forward thinking by police personnel and within police organizations.1 Changes in the past half-century 

have, regrettably, been quite minimal. The policing 

profession continues to systematically suppress innovative ideas and creative thinking, insisting instead on 

reinforcing tradition and conformist thinking. While 

the profession develops competent supervisors and 

administrators, in the future policing will need courageous leaders to remain viable. 

What are the future solutions to these daunting circumstances? No one knows. However, this uncertainty 

cannot be used to justify inaction and a continuation 

of current operational strategies. Discourse and dialogue are needed; the conversation cannot be limited 

to policing executives, scholars, or policy makers. Bold 

and innovative ideas are needed. Courageous leadership is needed. Experimental efforts must be initiated, 

and we must be prepared for many of those efforts 

to fail. If the policing profession remains passive and 

reactive in shaping its own future, the result will be 

increasing irrelevance for the police and greater vulnerability for communities and citizens. The policing 

profession must mobilize itself to shape its own future 

in a way that does not simply seek to preserve a mythical image of bygone days. 

I make these observations with all due respect for 

American policing and its leaders. But I also make 

these observations as someone who works in another 

public sector realm that has been undergoing fundamental changes and challenges to historical assumptions. Simply stated, education officials in this nation 

have failed to show the vision, courage, and true leadership to navigate current challenges to higher education. Policing must do better. ★

Joseph A. Schafer is chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a master’s and doctorate from Michigan State University. 

Schafer is a former president of Police Futurists International (PFI), a member of the PFI/FBI Futures Working Group, and a member 

of the FBI Terrorism Research and Analysis Program. He has served as a visiting scholar with the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI 

National Academy and as a visiting fellow with the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security in Australia. He has published widely 

on futures issues in policing, police leadership, organizational change, police innovation, police operations, and citizen perceptions of 

crime, safety, and policing. 

Endnotes 

1, Goldstein, Herman, Policing a Free Society (New York: HarperCollins, 1977). 

112
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★ ★ ★

Saving Our Own 

through Peer Review: 

A Prescription for 

Improved Law 

Enforcement Safety 

by Alexander L. Eastman 

Too often in law enforcement, when bad 

outcomes occur, such as death or serious 

injury to one of our own, law enforcement agencies burrow themselves in the 

investigation and legal aspects of the consequences. 

We rarely, if ever, study these incidents in detail with 

the goal of crafting lessons learned for others to review and subsequently avoid making similar mistakes. 

Consider almost any of the high-profile murders of 

U.S. law enforcement officers over the last few years— 

precious few of these tragedies have been studied and 

translated into a usable format for officers worldwide. 

Many other professions are well ahead of us in terms 

of improvements in safety and effectiveness. For the 

future of policing, this must change quickly. 
American Policing in 2022 

...law enforcement lacks a 

robust national capacity to 

capture all injuries, analyze 

trends, and rapidly make 

recommendations that can 

be broadcast nationwide. 

★ ★ ★

For a poignant example, we need only to look to 

the medical community. Medical errors—those that 

harm patients—have received an incredible amount 

of attention over the last decade. There have been articles not only in scientific journals and medical texts 

but also in most major U.S. newspapers and magazines. In order to combat these errors and eliminate 

the real harm that was occurring to patients, doctors, 

hospitals, and health systems have had to renew focus 

on maximizing clinical safety and effectiveness. No 

longer is simple patient care sufficient—that same 

care must now be timely, efficient, and, most important, safe and free from preventable error. These 

improvements in healthcare safety and effectiveness 

started with an analysis of the problem, continued 

with applying the results of that analysis to presentday bad outcomes through a peer-review process, and 

culminated with an explosion of publications and 

marketing of novel programs that work. Meaningful future improvements in law enforcement officer 

safety will require a paradigm shift; law enforcement 

administrators must move toward the medical model 

of less-than-optimal outcome analysis rather than tradition-based models of local investigation and avoiding the tough, performance-improvement issues that 

desperately need to be discussed. 

Officer safety is perhaps the most overused, abused 

term in law enforcement publications, new protocols, 

and novel programs over the last five years. An analysis of the immense dollars spent under the umbrella 

of law enforcement officer safety programs would be 

nearly impossible given the magnitude and breadth 

of activities that would be included but likely would 

yield disappointing results. Many of the programs advocated and implemented over the last several years 

have not done enough to actually improve law enforcement safety while simultaneously garnering disproportionate attention and resources from the law 

enforcement community and its leaders. 

To make policing safer in 2022, the process must begin with an understanding of the present problem. 

While the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officers Killed and 

Assaulted dataset and the National Law Enforcement 

Officers Memorial Foundation both have made attempts to evaluate and characterize officer fatalities, 

these deaths represent only a small fraction of officers 

seriously injured in the line of duty each year. Neither 

of these groups, nor any other out there today, can 

succinctly and accurately answer the question of how 

and, more important, why U.S. law enforcement officers are sustaining injuries—a critical first step in 

determining how to truly improve officer safety. 

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Saving Our Own through Peer Review: A Prescription for Improved Law Enforcement Safety 

More recently and moving toward beginning to correct this deficit in our present knowledge, the International Association of Chiefs of Police has published 

results from its Reducing Officer Injuries: Developing 

Policy Responses—a study that examined 18 U.S. 

law enforcement agencies employing 9,746 officers 

(approximately a 1% sample of officers). The study 

looked at more than 1,200 injuries sustained during 

the one-year period. The analysis of these injuries is 

the first step toward meaningful safety improvement. 

While many of the injuries studied were minor, two 

clear trends emerged. First, and most practical, law 

enforcement training in injury mitigation, health, 

and wellness has lagged behind other topics. Second, 

and likely more important, law enforcement lacks a 

robust national capacity to capture all injuries, analyze trends, and rapidly make recommendations that 

can be broadcast nationwide. Until we take steps to 

correct this deficiency, not only will we remain behind other public safety professionals but also each 

solution will remain relatively isolated, ensuring that 

others may remain at risk to making the same mistake. 

In addition to studying outcomes and data, the second key component of the process by which medical 

safety and effectiveness continues to improve is that 

of peer review.1 The idea is simple—when bad things 

happen in medicine, a group of peer physicians take a 

look at the facts of the case; review the care provided 

and decisions made with a tough, introspective examination; and ultimately provide a proscription of 

some sort to avoid the bad outcome again. This process, critical to the recent profound improvements in 

We fundamentally have 


to change the way we respond 


to times when we are not 


at our best.
 

★ ★ ★

medical care effectiveness and safety, is protected from 

legal discovery, allowing a frank discussion where all 

facts are laid bare and meaningful change and improvements can be made. Except in cases of egregious 

negligence, recommendations for improvement are 

rarely punitive. Instead, the focus is on improvement 

and avoidance of similar mistakes in the future. Interestingly, the legal protections afforded to this process 

do not interfere with malpractice claims—as negligent physicians still have to be held accountable—but 

it allows mistakes to be evaluated and corrected in real 

time and to be discussed and distributed to others so 

mistakes are not repeated. 

Law enforcement leaders should take steps to emulate 

this process, to create a way for us to truly analyze 

and discuss our mistakes without fear of repercussions 

and reprisal. Following an officer death in the line of 

duty, criminal and internal investigations occur in every agency. Too often, agencies hide behind these investigations as rationale for not disseminating crucial 

safety findings that have the potential for meaningful 

officer safety improvement. Imagine instead, given 

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American Policing in 2022 

the above, a concurrent peer review, done by other 

law enforcement leaders with access to every important fact and detail that generated nonpunitive, nonjudgmental important lessons learned. These could 

each be distilled into a five-minute presentation and 

read at roll-calls all over the nation, providing our officers with the knowledge needed to avoid a similar 

situation in the future. Whatever format these could 

be disseminated in, the final product is critical for the 

future of law enforcement safety. We have to achieve 

this paradigm shift in the way we examine our tragedies and near-misses. 

Worldwide, policing looks completely different in 

many ways than it was even 20 years ago. Yet as law 

enforcement agencies continue their transition from 

compartmentalized, isolationist organizations to a 

more agile, open, interactive model, we as law enforcement leaders must continue to push the proverbial envelope. If the intention is to make meaningful 

improvements to law enforcement officer safety in the 

year 2022, we fundamentally have to change the way 

we respond to times when we are not at our best. The 

time to emulate some of our peers is overdue—as is 

the time to create a meaningful, nonpunitive, and robust national peer review process. ★

Alexander L. Eastman, MD, MPH, FACS, is a lieutenant and the deputy medical director of the Dallas (Texas) Police 

Department and the lead medical officer for the Dallas Police SWAT team. He also serves as the medical director and SRRT surgeon 

for The University of Texas (UT) System Police. A former firefighter/rescuer in Montgomery County, Maryland, his interests include the 

prehospital care of the injured, novel methods of hemostasis, cost-effective care, and the interface between medicine, law enforcement, 

and public health. Eastman is the vice-chair of the Police Physician’s Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and 

a member of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Officer Safety and Wellness Group. In addition, Eastman is an assistant professor and 

trauma surgeon in the Division of Burn/Trauma/Critical Care at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the chief of Trauma at Parkland 

Memorial Hospital. A graduate with distinction of the George Washington University School of Medicine, he completed his general 

surgery residency and two fellowships at UT Southwestern Medical School/Parkland Memorial Hospital. He is board certified in both 

general surgery and surgical critical care and holds a master’s degree in public health from the UT Health Science Center at Houston. 

Endnotes 

1. See O’Dowd, Adrian, “Peer Review Must Stay as Guarantee of Quality, Research Leaders Tell MPs,” British Medical Journal 342 (2011), doi: 10.1136/bmj. 

d3656. 

116
117

 

 

 

★ ★ ★

A Labor Perspective 

on the Value of Our 

Internal Communities 

and Collaborative 

Leadership 

by Christopher Tracy 

I

t would be an understatement to say that the 

consequences of the 2008 economic decline 

have been felt across the board for American 

law enforcement. Nevertheless, here we are. 

Even now, in 2012, the issues we face are not restricted to large agencies or small departments, big 

cities or rural communities; we have all been forced to 

adapt in one way or another to the demands of smaller budgets in a relatively compressed period. Papers 

have already been written detailing the dire effect the 

economy has had on our profession, not only from a 

broad, national perspective but also from each of our 

various local points-of-view.1 The bottom line is that 

most, if not all, law enforcement agencies have had 

to grapple with less resources, smaller budgets, fewer 

officers, and reduced training—a trend that sets the 

stage for the evolution of our profession over the next 

decade and beyond. 
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...we have to accept that 

all of us will need to work 

together, labor along with 

management... 

★ ★ ★

In order to cope with the new normal brought on 

by the worst economic conditions of our lifetimes, 

many opinions will be offered, outlining strategies for 

how law enforcement ought to be able to do more 

with less. There are sure to be proposals advocating 

ways for departments to be (re)structured with fewer 

commissioned personnel, suggestions for new and innovative ways to target crime and conduct criminal 

investigations, and thoughts on ways to regionalize 

or form new partnerships to reduce budgetary constraints. For the foreseeable future, the greatest consideration for many of these proposals will likely be 

given to those policy and procedural changes that reduce the most cost. 

However, no matter what is proposed and ultimately 

implemented, because of the relative significance of 

labor costs to overall budgets, the impacts will ultimately trickle down to and be felt the most by the 

police officers, detectives, and their immediate supervisors—whom I will refer to here after as our internal community—who make up the front lines of 

public safety. 

Unfortunately, the bad economy combined with austerity policies at the federal, state, and local levels, 

which have universally slashed police budgets, have 

taken a dramatic toll on officers and put a strain on 

labor-management relations. That said, no amount 

of finger-pointing will undo the current situation. 

With an eye toward the future, we have to accept that 

all of us will need to work together, labor along with 

management, with compassion and a belief in the 

importance of supporting our (internal) community, 

along with a healthy dose of constructive leadership 

to steer the way. 

As a labor leader, I fully expect to be engaged in a dialogue with management about these issues, prospective solutions, and their impact as we move forward. 

Rather than focus my thoughts here on particular 

solutions, however, I would instead like to take a 

step back to focus on the consequences these brutal 

economic times have had and will likely continue to 

have on our internal communities and the need for 

collaborative leadership to weather the current storm 

and look to the future. 

As law enforcement agencies cope with smaller budgets, we have all likely witnessed first-hand layoffs 

(real or threatened), early retirements, eliminated positions, non-existent hiring, staffing shortages, scaledback services, eliminated specialty units, curtailed 

overtime opportunities, cancelled non-essential training, or some combination thereof. 

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A Labor Perspective on the Value of Our Internal Communities and Collaborative Leadership 

There have been several unfortunate consequences as 

a result of these cutbacks, stemming from large reductions in force. For example, large numbers of senior 

officers are opting to retire early in order to prevent 

involuntary layoffs. This is troubling because not only 

are we losing many great officers before we should 

have but they also are no longer available to serve as 

mentors for the next generation. In essence, we have 

lost vast amounts of institutional knowledge representing careers’ worth of experience spent honing 

criminal investigation techniques, forging relationships in the community, and gathering intelligence 

on neighborhoods and criminals without having 

much of a cohesive succession plan in place. 

Another consequence is the loss of coveted positions 

on many of the specialty, proactive units as school resource officers, traffic/motorcycle officers, gang unit, 

narcotics/vice, and community-based liaison officer 

programs are reduced or dismantled to save money. 

These losses will likely have a significant public impact, as these programs have a demonstrated track 

record of reducing crime and amplifying the effectiveness of patrol as force multipliers. In addition, 

losing these programs will surely have a negative 

impact on morale because those positions are highly 

sought after and many of those eliminated positions 

resulted in the involuntary transfer of an officer to 

another assignment. 

Beyond those losses, however, perhaps the worst consequence of the current economic crisis is its effect 

on relationships within our internal communities. 

Not only has the current economic downturn caused 

...we are losing a great many 

officers before we should... 

★ ★ ★

untold amounts of stress by increasing the likelihood 

of forced layoffs and reduced incomes (and there still 

does not appear to be any sign of real economic recovery on the horizon), but the ongoing nature of 

the uncertainty has also placed undo emphasis on 

two possible yet competing solutions: either reduced 

wages or mandatory layoffs. When framed as an either/or, this type of budget mitigation conversation 

pits junior officers against senior officers. The ensuing rift is based largely on the competing interests of 

job preservation against the consequences of wage 

concessions affecting earning potential and retirement income, with both sides assuming the other is 

unsympathetic to their individual plights. Despite the 

fact that alternative solutions might be negotiable, 

tensions run high when perspectives are restricted to 

extreme points of view. 

Divisions along these lines within our community 

tear at the very fabric of internal cohesion and sense 

of community. The problem is then exacerbated by 

the protracted nature of this economic downturn 

and the continued uncertainty that has the cumulative effect of sapping morale. In addition, there is a 

growing hostility due to budget slashing, force reductions, and departmental reorganization decisions that 

have caused the internal community to increasingly 

119
American Policing in 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Put another way, 

“united we stand, 

divided we fall.” 

★ ★ ★

distrust management’s decisions. This feeds into the 

“us versus them” mentality, and the longer the depressed economy continues to fester, the longer these 

feelings will persist. 

We need to proceed cautiously. A carefully considered, measured approach is critical. Giving in to outrage—pointing the finger and blaming others, either 

directly or through the media—may satisfy some primal need for instant gratification, but it is unlikely to 

foster an atmosphere conducive to meaningful, open 

dialogue and constructive negotiation to advance 

long-term goals. How then can we focus our efforts 

to achieve results that are responsive to the needs of 

our internal communities? 

As we consider the way forward, let us start by reexamining the philosophy of community policing 

and its three key components: organizational 

transformation (which includes agency management 

and labor relations), community partnerships, and 

problem solving.2 If we view each of our organizations 

through the lens of the other two components, then 

the most effective way to address the consequences 

of the depressed economy is to focus on the need 

for forging and maintaining internal community 

partnerships between labor and management as an 

integral part of effective problem solving. Put another 

way, “united we stand, divided we fall.” 

One of the keys to building a bridge to the future (even 

with our internal communities in a state of turmoil) is 

having engaged leadership dedicated to collaborative 

problem solving. To be truly collaborative, both labor 

and management must be willing to forge long-term 

relationships, maintain open lines of communication, 

and invest in ways to negotiate for mutually agreeable 

outcomes. From a labor perspective, we are arguably 

far more likely to achieve our goals—such as improving the quality of life for our members—if we focus 

on working constructively with management. 

On the other hand, progress is likely to stagnate or 

evaporate entirely in the event union leadership 

adopts a less constructive mentality that boxes management into a defensive corner, for example, by getting caught up in petty squabbles that may benefit 

only a few members, by arbitrarily exerting its authority unnecessarily, or by obstructing management at 

every turn.3 Consequently, given the fragility of the 

economy, the impacts to internal communities within 

our law enforcement agencies, and the unique role 

unions have as the advocate for those internal communities, the stage is set for collaborative union leadership to take charge of shaping a positive trajectory 

for the future of our profession. 

Let me conclude by saying that the next decade is up 

to all and each of us, whether we be an agency director, chief of police, union president, or patrol officer. 

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A Labor Perspective on the Value of Our Internal Communities and Collaborative Leadership 

Where we go as a profession from this point forward 

depends on us recognizing the value of community 

and collaboration. We need to focus not on blame, 

outrage, or finger-pointing; instead we need to work 

together to build the framework for our future, whatever it and the economy brings, by doing what we in 

law enforcement do: adapt, improvise, and overcome. 

Our future, our reputation, indeed our very legacy 

will be forged, in part, on whether we convince the 

public we are capable of taking care of each other. 

After all, why would anyone trust us to protect and 

serve if the law enforcement community cannot work 

together and take care of one another? 

We need to get this right. Forget “Too Big to Fail.” 

Our motto as we build to the future ought to be that 

law enforcement is “Too Important to Fail.” The way 

forward is together as a community, collaboratively. 

Here we go... ★

Christopher Tracy is a police officer with the Tacoma (Washington) Police Department. He is currently assigned as the 

administrative officer in the Special Investigations section. He also serves as the vice president of Tacoma Police Union Local No. 6, 

which represents more than 330 rank and file police officers, detectives, and sergeants. Prior to getting his start in law enforcement, 

Tracy was an attorney, initially working as an intellectual property litigator for a large international law firm based in Seattle, Washington, 

and later as an in-house attorney for a global health initiative non-profit. He has a bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology with 

a minor in Norwegian from the University of Washington and a law degree from Saint Louis University in Missouri. When he has free 

time, Tracy enjoys playing golf, reading, cooking, and spending time with family and friends. 

Endnotes 

1. See The Impact of the Economic Downturn on American Police Agencies (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented 

Policing Services, 2011); Derby-McCurtain, Tarna, et al., Community Policing Strategies and Effectiveness in Reducing Crime: A Position Paper to the Tacoma 

City Council (University of Washington, Tacoma, 2012), paper available upon request at 

www.tacoma.uw.edu/news/cuts-police-could-compromise-future-safety-budgets. 

2. Community Policing Defined (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2009). 

3. I do not mean to suggest that collaborative union leadership means that every decision made by management must be deferred to absolutely. There will be 

times when labor and management will disagree. In such times, it may become necessary to consider the available alternative dispute resolution tools—including, 

where applicable, filing grievances, arbitrating claims, and resorting to unfair labor practice claims—to resolve disagreements. In general, though, collaborative 

relationships would utilize such alternatives only as a matter of last resort, and only after efforts to conciliate jointly have proven to be fruitless. 

121

123

 

★

Ending the Monopoly 

of Tradition 

★ ★
 

by Edward F. Davis 

Ten years is a short time in terms of policing. It is difficult to anticipate any 

change in a business or organization so 

steeped in tradition and practices that 

so define our culture. But today is a unique time in 

world history. Economic forces are changing longheld beliefs. Technological leaps have given us new 

tools to utilize. Finally, police have learned much in 

the past two decades. A better relationship with academia combined with a willingness to experiment 

with tactics has moved policing back toward the fundamentals espoused by Sir Robert Peel. We are more 

focused on prevention, and we are working more in 

partnership with the community. These experiments 

and better-informed teachings have helped drive 

down crime and increase trust between the police and 

the community. 
American Policing in 2022 

A police force for only 


those who cannot afford 


their own protection is in no 


position to expect 


ever-increasing tax funding.
 

★ ★ ★

Union management responsibility 

Great plans, however, mean nothing without the 

consent and cooperation of the officer on the street. 

Union relationships are more important than ever, 

considering cutbacks our service endured over the 

past five years. These factors should inform police negotiations in the next decade. Reductions in available 

tax dollars will continue to be a priority for political 

leaders, a priority driven by public expectations. Hard 

decisions on staffing and benefits must be made. I 

am hopeful that unions and management can work 

together in crafting solutions that will reduce the tax 

burden, without harming individual officers. Police 

officers deserve a proper compensation package and 

retirement benefits. Union and management can 

work together to educate the community on the risks 

officers face, especially long-term effects on health, 

stress, and premature death. The public understands 

its responsibility to veterans and rightfully so. Police 

leaders need to draw the public’s attention to the 

plight of the police. 

I foresee unions concentrating more on core benefits 

and less on their agenda of organizational control. 

This is a simple matter of priority. But giving management more control of internal processes will make 

the police more responsive to the community at a 

time when community support of police is vital. 

An indisputable fact hovers over these negotiations. 

The private security industry grows each year. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 19 to 34 billion 

dollars are spent in the United States by people who 

desire safety. The police need to access these nontax 

dollars. A police union and management partnership 

that enters the competitive bidding process will force 

the police to become cost effective. 

We can no longer afford to rely on a monopoly based 

on tradition. Those who still believe the police are 

not in direct competition with the private sector are 

deluding themselves. Our training is superior, and 

we have the edge with statutory authority and our 

unique responsibility to all the people. But these are 

tenuous facts to rely on. The people have already voted on this issue with their pocketbook. We need to 

recognize this fact and access a portion of those private dollars through competition. A police force for 

only those who cannot afford their own protection is 

in no position to expect ever-increasing tax funding. 

Better harnessing of technology for police 

Proliferation of miniature video systems 

and cell phones 

Concerned about intrusions on their own privacy, the 

police have been slow to accept personal video systems. However, the use of miniature video systems 

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Ending the Monopoly of Tradition 

and cell phones has been prolific. The police will view 

this development as beneficial for law enforcement 

over the next 10 years. Police vendors will develop 

cameras imbedded in radio equipment that police 

will use to document any controversial encounter. 

This technology will assist the police against illegitimate claims of police brutality or bad acts. Initially 

viewing cameras as an intrusion, officers cleared over 

time by videos already prevalent in public spaces will 

see the benefit to having their own cameras. 

Similar to recent court decisions regarding the interrogation of suspects, there will be a negative presumption by the court if police do not have film and audio 

to back up their claims. At the same time, this development will ensure police officers act in accordance 

with policies, procedures, and regulations. Fewer resources devoted to internal investigations will result. 

Virtual policing 

Technology will play an important role in how police 

perform their patrol. The lessons we have learned in 

the battlefield during the last two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in computer systems that create complete situational awareness for troops. These 

systems can be easily adapted to policing. Soon, police 

officers on patrol will view a running map that shows 

threats, gun permit locations, problem properties, the 

location of probationers’ and parolees’ residences, and 

the location of those who are on GPSs. This information and more will be streamed in real time, eliminating the step of officers having to request it. 

...technology will assist the 


police against illegitimate 


claims of police brutality 


or bad acts.
 

★ ★ ★

GPS—an alternative to incarceration 

The use of GPSs on suspects will be viewed by courts 

as an attractive and inexpensive addition to incarceration. These systems will drastically reduce crime 

rates. Based on the knowledge that a small number of 

people commit a large number of crimes, better surveillance of this small population will result in added 

efficiencies for the prevention of crime. In Boston 

today, ShotSpotter technology is overlaid with probationers’ GPS locations, resulting in instant resolution 

to shooting incidents. 

Use of data 

Millions of crimes go unsolved in the United States 

each year. More extensive use of DNA in misdemeanor cases, for example, will increase clearance rates. 

Effective use of video from the millions of systems 

currently deployed nationwide will accomplish the 

same goal. Black box technology in motor vehicles is 

another underutilized investigative lead. There is simply not enough time or money to investigate fully all 

but the most serious of crimes. 

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American Policing in 2022 

In 10 years, DNA will be cheaper and easier to use. 

Data clouds containing massive amounts of video and 

inputs from plate readers and GPSs will be combined 

and lead to fast resolution of crime. Much debate 

is needed to balance the extent of data mining and 

privacy concerns and to ensure the public is free of 

victimization by criminals and government intrusion. 

The combination of economic forces, technology, 

and smarter policing will coalesce into different practices for policing in 10 short years. These factors are 

indisputable. The only question is how far management and labor will go to achieve logical change that 

is beneficial to the community and the police. We 

need to remember that the police are the public and 

the public, the police. Mindful of the great management and union leaders currently in policing, I am 

optimistic for the future. ★

Edward F. Davis is the 40th police commissioner of the city of Boston. He was sworn in by Mayor Menino on December 

4, 2006. As police commissioner, Davis has recommitted the agency to community policing and combined it with predictive policing. 

He created and implemented Safe Street Teams—engaging officers in community oriented policing in hot spot areas throughout the 

city—and reinvigorated “Operation Ceasefire” to reduce gang violence. From 2006 through 2011, the city of Boston experienced a 

25% decrease in Part I Crime. Prior to becoming commissioner of the Boston Police Department, Davis served as the superintendent 

of police in Lowell, Massachusetts, for 12 years. During that time, the city of Lowell realized a 60% reduction in Part I Crime. 

Commissioner Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Leadership Award (2002) from the Police Executive 

Research Forum and the Hundred Club of Massachusetts’ 2011 Humanitarian Award. He was also the recipient of the NIJ Pickett 

Fellowship and attended the Harvard Kennedy School, John F. Kennedy School of Government’s program for Senior Executives in 

State and Local Government. A founding member of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs, Davis serves on the association’s board of 

directors, as well as that of the Police Executive Research Forum. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in criminal justice from 

Southern New Hampshire University (formerly New Hampshire College) in Manchester, New Hampshire, and from Anna Maria College 

in Paxton, Massachusetts, respectively. 

126
127

 

 

 

★

Reflections on the Eve 

of My Retirement: 

A Letter from the Future 

★ ★
 

by Chris Cognac 

I

think back to the days when I started working as a rookie street cop in 1992. The trust in 

the police was at an all time low; the riots that 

resulted from the Rodney King beating verdict 

had just ended. Crack cocaine was invading the streets 

and housing projects of America’s inner cities. Police 

departments were engaged in a full on battle for the 

streets against the gangs that killed and intimidated 

those who opposed them. 

The gangs were bold; attacks on police officers and 

even on police stations themselves skyrocketed. Officers were forced to put up bullet proof glass in the 

station lobbies, purchase armored vehicles to serve 

warrants, and retreat to the relative safety of the police car. It was “us versus them,” and we determined to 

take everyone we could to jail and to “win” no matter 

what the cost. 
American Policing in 2022 

The era of crime fighting and 

“force multiplying” through 

social media was upon us. 

★ ★ ★

Then there was a new trend called the “Internet,” 

and everyone was on it. People were communicating with other people all around the world in chat 

rooms and bulletin boards. Cellular phones became 

affordable and included cameras on every phone. 

People began to use cell phone cameras to record the 

police whenever they could, hoping to catch a rogue 

officer so they could send it to the media. Special interest groups and people with hidden agendas began 

to set up officers by using hidden video cameras and 

microphones, hoping to create an incident in which 

they could file a lawsuit to further their cause. Once 

these videos that were often edited to fit the needs of a 

group were made public, it further drove a wedge between the police and the community. Where once the 

public trusted the word of individual police officers, 

there was now suspicion and the thought of deception on the part of the police. The police in general 

were still stuck in the 1980s and took the defensive 

posture of “no comment.” 

Entering the second decade of the new millennium, 

the police as a whole began to examine how they could 

do things better and how they could become more 

approachable and trusted using the new technology 

available to them, such as social media like Facebook 

and YouTube. Individual officers and units began to 

reach out to the public and educate them about crime 

prevention, disaster preparedness, and even how to 

organize a neighborhood watch group using a new 

thing called Twitter. Speaking of Twitter, police began 

to use it as a way to instantly notify the local community of breaking issues, such as street closures or 

major crime trends and suspect descriptions. This resulted in building trust within the community, as it 

empowered the ordinary citizen to help fight crime. 

All of a sudden, the long-lost bonds between the police and community were being re-established after 

many years of neglect and mistrust. The era of crime 

fighting and “force multiplying” through social media 

was upon us. 

The one constant that had not changed was the police car. The traditional police vehicle was a big Ford 

or Chevy V-8 loaded with so much equipment that 

just getting in and out of one for years was causing 

a multitude of work-related back injuries for officers 

around the country. Gasoline was $4.50 a gallon and 

not getting any cheaper, and the cost of replacing a 

vehicle was approaching $60,000 by the middle part 

of the decade. Something needed to change. 

A few forward-thinking police departments teamed 

up with electric vehicle manufacturers, such as Segway, Tesla, and Brammo, to help design the future 

of transportation for police. The transition from 

gasoline to electric-powered vehicles was not an easy 

one. In the beginning, many officers were reluctant to 

break away from the safety of what they had always 

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Reflections on the Eve of My Retirement: A Letter from the Future 

known and were used to. The electric motorcycles 

looked different; they were not as cool as the HarleyDavidsons or BMWs that motor officers had ridden 

since the advent of the modern motor officer. The 

Tesla electric vehicles used to be able to go only 150 

miles on a charge and barely went 100 mph, which is 

why they were phased into unmarked detective units 

for the first few years. It took a few years, but the cost 

savings in fuel and maintenance alone prompted the 

remaining police agencies to give up gasoline vehicles 

and not only go green for the environment but also 

go green for budgets! 

In the third decade of my career I observed that officers were being required to carry more and more 

equipment to include a multitude of less-lethal options, audio as well as video recording devices, and 

handheld electronic devices in place of the traditional 

mobile data terminal that went away with the gasoline 

vehicles. The workplace injuries began to increase due 

to the amount of equipment carried and the no-placeto-carry-it problem of the traditional Sam Browne belt. 

The police uniform as we knew it was no longer practical, so, like with the switch to electric vehicles, we 

switched to a more functional uniform for patrol officers (while still keeping tradition alive in the dress 

uniform). Gone was the 30 pounds of gear around 

the waistline of an officer, replaced by the external 

ballistic vest with load-distributing technology that 

allowed officers more freedom of movement and reduced injuries (on a drastic scale as we now know). 

The vest was fitted with the appropriate electronic 

In the beginning, many 


officers were reluctant 


to break away from 


the safety of what they 


had always known... 


★ ★ ★

equipment, and the firearm and holster moved from 

the “hip placement” to a more ergonomically friendly 

thigh holster. 

The smart gun started to be implemented across the 

nation. The guns use a fingerprint-recognition safety 

system that allows the officer to fire the weapon only 

when the gun recognizes the officer’s fingerprints. I 

am proud to say that since this has been implemented, 

no officer has been killed in the line of duty with his 

or her own weapon. I understand that the next generation of firearms will have a built-in less-lethal option, 

but I won’t be around to test that one (although it is 

sure to impress). 

I have seen a lot of things change in my 30 years on the 

job. I went from a young rookie with just a badge and 

a gun. It was “us versus them;” take ’em to jail and go 

home was the motto. Now in 2022, I am seasoned and, 

so I like to think, a wise veteran cop who realizes that 

the police need to think outside the box, partner with 

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American Policing in 2022 

the people they serve, and look for better ways to do 

things, as there is always room for improvement. 

I think of the grizzled crusty street cops I looked up 

to when I was 24 and working the night shift. We 

thought they knew it all (and so did they). I wonder what the 24–year-old rookie thinks of me and my 

peers now? Do they think we know it all? I know that 

we are quite aware we don’t! 

When those kids are my age, what will they be like in 

2052? Will they fly hover cars and use laser beams? 

It’s possible, that’s one thing I know for sure, because 

if you would have told a 24-year-old me what kind 

of technology and equipment the 54-year-old me is 

using, I never would have believed you. 

Be safe, and don’t forget the old retired guys like me! ★

Chris Cognac is a 20-year veteran of the Hawthorne (California) Police Department. He is the sergeant currently assigned to 

the Community Affairs Unit but has served in numerous capacities from uniform patrol, to sexual assault and crimes against children 

detective, to cooperative resource unit, to aviation bureau, to undercover narcotics supervisor. Cognac is a true believer in the ability 

of individual officers making a difference in the communities they serve. He uses his networking and communication skills as a force 

multiplier, putting people who want to help the community with those in need of an opportunity. Most recently, he has begun to take the 

simple concept of “Coffee with a Cop” nationwide. He has assisted officers and police departments across the country in implementing 

their own events that aim to build good communications and trust within those communities. Cognac is a graduate of the Delinquency 

Control Institute at the University of Southern California. In his spare time, he is a food and travel writer for magazines and newspapers 

and develops new food television concepts. He also hosted his own Food Network TV show, The Hungry Detective. 

130
★ ★ ★
 

Commonly Used Terms
 

Association of Public-Safety Communications 

Officials International (APCO International) 

Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) 

closed-circuit television (CCTV) 

community oriented policing (COP) 

computer-aided dispatch (CAD) 

crime prevention through environmental design 

(CPTED) 

Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) 

Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety 

(DDACTS) 

Department of Justice (DOJ) 

Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) 

electronic control weapons (ECW) 

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 

Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative 

(Global) 

intelligence-led policing (ILP) 

International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) 

International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) 

International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 

Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted 

(LEOKA) 

Major City Chiefs Association (MCCA) 

mobile data terminal (MDT) 

National Association of State EMS Officials 

(NASEMSO) 

National Crime Information Center (NCIC) 

National Executive Institute Associates (NEIA) 

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) 

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 

National Intelligence Criminal Service (NICS) 

National Intelligence Model (NIM) 

National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial 

Foundation (NLEOMF) 

National League of Cities (NLC) 

National Public Safety Telecommunications Council 

(NPSTC) 

National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) 

Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative 

(NSI) 

131
American Policing in 2022 

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services 

(COPS Office) 

Office of Justice Programs (OJP) 

Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) 

Police Training Officer (PTO) program 

problem-oriented policing (POP) 

public safety answering points (PSAP) 

records management system (RMS) 

special weapons and tactics (SWAT) 

Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) 

Uniformed Crime Report (UCR) 

132
 
133

 

★ ★ ★
 

About the COPS Office 

The Office of Community Oriented Policing 

Services (COPS Office) is the component of the 

U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing 

the practice of community policing by the nation’s 

state, local, territory, and tribal law enforcement 

agencies through information and grant resources. 

Community policing is a philosophy that promotes 

organizational strategies that support the systematic 

use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, 

to proactively address the immediate conditions that 

give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social 

disorder, and fear of crime. 

Rather than simply responding to crimes once they 

have been committed, community policing concentrates on preventing crime and eliminating the atmosphere of fear it creates. Earning the trust of the 

community and making those individuals stakeholders in their own safety enables law enforcement to 

better understand and address both the needs of the 

community and the factors that contribute to crime. 

The COPS Office awards grants to state, local, 

territory, and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire 

and train community policing professionals, acquire 

and deploy cutting-edge crime fighting technologies, 

and develop and test innovative policing strategies. 

COPS Office funding also provides training and 

technical assistance to community members and local 

government leaders and all levels of law enforcement. 

The COPS Office has produced and compiled a 

broad range of information resources that can help 

law enforcement better address specific crime and 

operational issues, and help community leaders better 

understand how to work cooperatively with their law 

enforcement agency to reduce crime. 

•	 Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested nearly 

$14 billion to add community policing officers 

to the nation’s streets, enhance crime fighting 

technology, support crime prevention initiatives, 

and provide training and technical assistance to 

help advance community policing. 

•	 By the end of FY2011, the COPS Office has 

funded approximately 123,000 additional officers to more than 13,000 of the nation’s 18,000 

law enforcement agencies across the country in 

small and large jurisdictions alike. 

•	 Nearly 700,000 law enforcement personnel, 

community members, and government leaders 

have been trained through COPS Office-funded 

training organizations. 

•	 As of 2011, the COPS Office has distributed 

more than 6.6 million topic-specific publications, training curricula, white papers, and resource CDs. 

COPS Office resources, covering a wide breadth of 

community policing topics—from school and campus safety to gang violence—are available, at no cost, 

through its online Resource Information Center at 

www.cops.usdoj.gov. This easy-to-navigate website is 

also the grant application portal, providing access to 

online application forms. ★
 

 

 

 

American Policing in 2022 

About the Editors 

Debra R. Cohen McCullough serves as a senior analyst with the Research and Development division of the COPS 

Office. In this capacity, she manages federal grants and cooperative agreements for research, training and technical assistance, and 

publications dedicated to supporting public safety. Her portfolio includes programs designed to ensure the successful implementation 

of communications technology projects, enhance cultural competency, and improve officer safety. Under her maiden name, Cohen, she 

is the author of articles highlighting projects on technology, crisis management, information sharing, and police facility architecture. She 

also manages the development of nationally distributed publications and websites, such as the Law Enforcement Tech Guide series, the 

technology-focused Issue Briefs, and DiscoverPolicing.org. McCullough played a key role in the office’s 311 non-emergency system 

initiatives and served as interagency liaison for national survey projects. As a singer and songwriter, she became adept at the art of 

collaboration, the science of coordination, and the use of duct tape. McCullough earned her doctorate and master’s degree in criminal 

justice from the State University of New York at Albany and bachelor’s degree in political science from Rider University (formerly Rider 

College) in New Jersey. 

Deborah L. Spence is a supervisory analyst with the Research and Development Division of the COPS Office. In addition 

to her supervisory duties, she oversees analytical functions relating to grant program development and is the editor-in-chief of the 

COPS Office e-newsletter, the Community Policing Dispatch. She has recently focused her work on the economy and public safety by 

managing a project on public safety consolidations as well as co-authoring The Impact of the Economic Downturn on Law Enforcement 

in America and The Relationship Between Economic Conditions, Policing, and Crime Trends. Prior to joining the COPS Office, Spence 

worked for the Institute for Law and Justice where she co-authored two COPS Office publications, Guidelines for Starting and 

Operating a New Police Department and Call Management and Community Policing. She also worked on several national evaluations 

of programs created by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Spence initially honed her multi-tasking abilities 

growing up as a competitive figure skater but ultimately traded her blades for books to earn a master’s degree in justice, law, and 

society from American University in addition to a master’s degree in modern history from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. 

134

Photo credits: 

Pages 6, 7, 43, 48, 63, 75, 85, 94: 

Courtesy of Bullneck Images. ©2012. Used with permission. 

Page 17: © Glynnis Jones/Shutterstock 

Page 23: © arindambanerjee/Shutterstock 

Page 127: © shalunts/Shutterstock 

All other images © Shutterstock 

What could the field of policing look like 10 years 


from now...if the profession is willing and able to 


experiment and innovate?
 

Law enforcement leaders of today address this and other questions as they share their visions of 

how the policing profession will change in the years to come. What becomes clear through these 

26 essays is that with the right recruitment tools, training programs, accountability systems, and 

collaboration between labor and management, agencies will be able to serve both their internal 

and external communities to the benefit of all. 

U.S. Department of Justice 

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services 

145 N Street, N.E. 

Washington, DC 20530 

To obtain details on COPS Office programs, 

call the COPS Office Response Center at 800.421.6770
 

Visit COPS Online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.
 

e07122489 

ISBN 978-1-935676-04-1 

September 2012