A Washington Post headline this week caught my eye: “Police want to stay out of Occupy story.” As quoted in the article: “What keeps police chiefs up at night is that somehow the purpose of the movement will become about actions that the police have taken,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive…
Tag Archive: Public safety
Creating partners in public safety
A couple of articles caught my eye last week. First, there was Good Old Bill’s wistful story of a spontaneous decision to engage in some community policing: People see that little of us these days, other than in a quick fleeting visit or by passing them whilst preoccupied whilst on foot – or more likely…
Political pressure? Refer to your values
It’s been said that social media “amplifies” whatever an organization’s values are. If a company is all about pushy sales, so will be its social efforts. If it seeks long-term customer loyalty based on relationships, its social efforts will reflect that too. Likewise among police departments. An agency that respects its citizens enough to communicate…
Web 2.0 and Community Policing
One of the “buzz words” for police agencies, before 09-11-01, was Community Policing. For years, using those words in just about any grant request was almost guaranteed to get some state or federal money flowing into the police department. More recently, Community Policing has taken second seat to Homeland Security however. What exactly is this…
Humor in community policing
Good cops know that humor can sometimes defuse a potentially messy or even violent situation, as well as relieve the stress associated with their jobs. In fact, their “gallows humor” is understood–even shared–by more civilians than cops may think. Yet the popularity of two police blotters, those in the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor (Alaska) and Tracy (California)…