What real police leadership entails. The opinions expressed on the Forum page are those of the contributing writer or cartoonist, or of the original source newspaper, and do not represent an official position of Law Enforcement News. Readers are invited to voice their opinions on topical issues, in the form of letters or full-length commentaries. Please send all materials to the editor. If you think you re a leader, but nobody is following you, then you are just out for a walk.
Bosses have subordinates, but true leaders have followers regardless of their rank or title.
Historically, when individuals thought of leadership, they thought of rank. That perception, along with a top-down chain of command, caused a lot of people to believe that they cannot or should not do anything about reoccurring or organizational problems. Police patrols can then check to see which black-driven cars to leave alone. The issue here, of course, is racial profiling the practice of police pulling people over, usually young male blacks and Hispanics, for questioning if they fit a particular criminal profile. Racial profiling has now become the latest cause c l bre for civil rights activists.