In the early days of police body cameras, the few companies that served the market relied on an emergency procurement model: Pioneering police departments would buy the cameras in response to crises to show the public they were engaging in the reforms necessary to keep their trust. This typically followed an ugly use-of-force incident or…

Somewhere along the journey of providing our officers with better tools, better training, increasing their safety and protection and access through advanced technologies of real-time information, we forgot about a basic reality: All policing is done through relationships. It is just as important that we provide training and tools to maximize relationship building as it…

Body-worn camera equipment and infrastructure, program development and implementation are by no means cheap. Assessing their cost-benefit and return on investment is not only crucial but straightforward and easy — if you’re doing it wrong. And you don’t want to do it wrong. Justifying a multi-million dollar expenditure when policing budgets are hard fought for…

I am a supporter of traditions. They serve an important role in keeping the positive parts of the past alive. When it comes to policing, the heritage we celebrate, honor and maintain should be a tradition of excellence. But tradition should not be about the evolution of an organization. Too often, policing agencies fall back…

These days, the term “drone” elicits all sorts of emotional reactions. Some see it as fun, a hobby, a chance to explore a world above the ground that you couldn’t do previously without spending a lot of money. Others see it as a viable operational tool that can be used under numerous work opportunities. And…

On the fateful day that President John Kennedy was assassinated, he was prepared to give a speech in which he planned to say that “leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” I couldn’t agree more. Nearly two years ago, I decided I wanted to go back to school. Our department had been part of…

The officer who sat across from me at my kitchen table had clearly enjoyed a prodigious career but as he talked about himself, those tales weren’t materializing. I could see right then, if I were choosing whether to hire him, he would fail. I’d seen it many times before. Cops are great at being cops….

A few years ago, some of my officers began investigating a shooting in which a guy had disappeared after he killed his wife and wounded his adult stepson. As some of the officers began looking for the man, some kids rolled up on their bikes. “Are you looking for that guy who shot those people?”…

Community policing can bring the entire town onto your team. And working together means communication, relationships. No matter the demographics of the department, no matter the socio-economics of the community, relating as people and neighbors changes everything. When I became chief in Mooreseville in April, I wanted to ease tensions in this large department, so…

Since an officer in my police department was brought under suspicion of perjury for statements he made when he thought his police body camera was turned off, some of our constituents have been adamant in calling for a policy that police officers cannot turn off their body cameras at all while on duty. They feel…

If a burglary has occurred near your house within the week, your home is at an elevated risk for crime. This is a phenomenon known as Near Repeat, and policing and research experts recently collaborated on a program to prevent it. The consequent study just won the Redlands Police Department the International Association of Chiefs…

In their recent paper titled Reinventing American Policing, Cynthia Lum and Daniel Nagan lay out a blueprint for transforming 21st century policing in a way that makes the profession more effective in providing safety and security for the public while maintaining trust in the police by the public. Their plan is based upon two guiding…