Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education
We’ve recently been introduced to new language and concepts like “social distancing” and “shelter in place orders” thanks to COVID-19. The implications of this are far reaching and definitely impact public safety & law enforcement.
Change is always hard, but in times of crisis, change is easier. Great leaders know this and do 2 things; 1) Manage fear through direction, protection, and order and 2) Initiate positive change with vision, alignment, and execution. Great leaders are not afraid of parting with “the way we’ve always done it.” Instead, they realize that necessity is the mother of invention and they use emergencies as an opportunity to better their agency as a whole.
The Great Recession of 2008 had an enormous impact on law enforcement staffing and forced police departments and sheriff offices to do more with less. Some leaders took advantage of this crisis and used their time and energy to reinvent their organizations. The necessity to do more with less was an opportunity for them to invent and share a new vision of how to be successful at delivering public safety vs. spending time and energy trying to get back to “full-staff.” These great law enforcement leaders made innovative tweaks and decisions on how they delivered public safety and guided their organizations to unprecedented levels of crime reduction and community service.
COVID-19 and its implications offer another significant opportunity for law enforcement leaders to step-up and become great leaders in our ever-changing world today.
Examples of this are already happening. The Savannah Police Department leadership suspended group meetings like shift-briefing and is now conducting their briefings virtually through an investment in technology to be more efficient. With this change, they are providing protection against virus transmission/exposure, management direction, and order to their officer’s lives at work. They’re also using their technology investment in other ways to create more time for higher priority calls and bringing more value to their community faster. Click here for the Savannah Channel 11 Top Story, “New technology helping keep Savannah officers safe, connected amid COVID-19 pandemic.”
Whether it’s the COVID-19 pandemic or some other crisis, become a great law enforcement leader by managing fear and creating a positive vision of organizational change. In the words of a great Chief of Police recently promoted to City Manager, “Technology like SmartForce® can be the difference between simply doing what has always been done, and doing it more efficiently” – John Jackson, MCJ.
If you’d like to learn if investing in new law enforcement leadership & management technology will have a high return on investment and can facilitate great organizational change for you, call or email me. Thanks for all you do to make the world a safer place!
