Blue Canary: For Cops By a Cop

Chief of Police is a title typically given to the head of a police department, but that simple definition gets very confusing very quickly. Sheriffs are the name we give to elected officials who preside over county law enforcement in the US, while Chief’s of Police typically preside over municipal police agencies.

Sometimes Chief’s are elected. Sometimes they are appointed by a mayor or city council. Sometimes they are selected through the civil service act. Sometimes they are not called Chief’s of Police at all.

Police Commissioners are another term, frequently found in the larger metropolitan areas 

Chief,

When we talk about the police chief’s we are talking about the head of a municipal police department not affiliated with the local sheriff’s office.

What do chief’s do?

Sorry to make you laugh, it wasn’t a trick question.

Chiefs of police are typically responsible for operational oversight, budgeting, planning, discipline, direction, regulations, communications, and in smaller agencies general police work. All at the behest of a governing body, either mayor or city council.

It’s not an easy job.

I rose to the highest levels of administration in my police department. I was third in charge, so while I didn’t ever actually do the job, I did learn one thing.

You can’t pay me enough to do it.

[Insert Intro]

George Sippert spent 32 years serving the people of Flint Township Michigan. Flint township is located on the west side of the city of Flint Michigan. He took over as chief of police in 2004 an served until 2018. Throughout his career, Sippert also served in various roles including: Field Training Officer, Firearms instructor, School Resource Officer, Community Policing Division Commander and Motorcycle Unit Commander.

He is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy, a member of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, Genesee County Chiefs Association, Central Michigan Chiefs Association, Genesee County 911 Advisory Board and the Flint Area Narcotics Group Advisory Board.

I have had the pleasure of knowing and speaking with George on a number occasions and I couldn’t think of anyone better to discuss the role of the police chief.

Note: This was an extremely difficult episode for me to record. I want to apologize for the audio. It was the best I could do.

72 officers had to die.

I refuse to let that sacrifice go unremembered.

This one is for you,

Ethics in Leadership

It’s an interesting topic and at times can be very controversial. Peter Drucker was an Austrian American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of modern management theory. He famously said “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers”

This statement has led to some interesting classroom discussions as well as arguments about leaders. In my courses I typically lead with a few definitions of leadership and then ask the class a question. I ask them to give me a list of “Good Leaders.” What follows is an interesting take on leadership. We will typically start with George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and then the class will typically throw in George Patton, Bear Bryant, and then a modern president. Which president however is based on where the class is being taught. This is where the arguments start.

Leaving the list of “Good Leaders” on the board I ask the class for a list of “Bad Leaders.” This list starts with Adolf Hitler, followed by Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot. Jim Jones and David Koresh are added as the classes input starts to wind down. And then someone will throw out the name of the same modern president that was on the “Good List.”

Defining leadership as “someone who has followers” might be accurate from a technical point, but it fails to address what I believe is one of the major elements of leadership. Ethics. Those leaders in the “bad List” are leaders, they moved countries, cultures, and peoples to do some truly horrific things, but I could never look at them as leaders because to me ethical leadership is the most important element.

I believe that ethical leaders can lead anyone, but unethical leaders only lead unethical people, the rest they will drag along against their will.

Let’s take a look at ethics, morals and ethical leadership. 

Commander Bob Meader retired from the Columbus Ohio Police Department in February of 2022. During his tenure at Columbus PD, he served in patrol, street attack unit, property crimes, legal and training. He retired as the commander of the Columbus PD Police Academy. While working Commander Meader managed to get his law degree and today spends his retirement training Ohio police officers on issues regarding the law in Ohio.

I had the pleasure to talk with Bob about legal issues pertaining to training, administration, and de-escalation.

Leading Up

General William T. Sherman once said "We have good corporals and good sergeants and some good lieutenants and captains, and those are far more important than good generals."

Sherman recognized the importance of leading up.

What is leading up? It’s providing leadership in an organization from a position of lower authority. It’s understanding the role played by various members of an organization and how to properly and effective work within that organization.

This is more commonly referred to as Followership.

Followership at its core is the individual’s willingness to go along with a leader. There willingness to follow. But it is much more than that.

We put tremendous emphasis on leadership. Hell, my entire season 5 is focusing on leadership, but we often forget the importance of the follower. Without followers there are no leaders.

It is said that all leaders are followers, but not all followers are leaders. And that is an interesting thought. The concept behind this is that to be a successful leader, you must know how to follow. Taking that a step further you must realize that every leader has a boss. For example, in the public safety realm, every sergeant must report to a lieutenant. Every lieutenant reports to a captain. Every Chief of Police Reports to a Mayor or City Council and every Sheriff reports to the electorate.

Everybody has a boss.

Being a good follower will provide you with the skills necessary to help you be a good leader.

Now let’s look at the second part of that saying…not all followers are leaders.

Another true statement. Some people are simply not cut out for leadership. They are not wired that way. They can be good followers, but refuse to accept some of the basic principles of leadership. Most people don’t start out as leaders, they start out as followers but as they learn to be good followers they start learning the skills necessary to be leaders and grow.

There are several essential qualities to an exemplary follower and we should always be looking to improve in these areas. Lets take a quick look at those essential qualities.

Sheriff, a word, and position that derive from the old English term Shire-Reeve. This person was responsible for managing a shire or county in England. The practice began sometime before 700 A.D. and when America was colonized by European settlers we brought the concept with us. 

Today in the US, 48 out of the 50 states have sheriffs. Alaska doesn’t have counties and therefore has no sheriff’s and Connecticut replaced its sheriff system with State Marshalls in 2000. In 46 out of the 48 states with the sheriff’s system the sheriffs are elected officials and mostly serve 4-year terms.

The duties of sheriff vary from state to state and even from county to county. In the south and western states sheriffs are seen as the constitutional law enforcement officer and the position is held in high esteem. Also, the more rural the county the more likely the sheriff is the primary law enforcement agency. Sheriff’s are also typically responsible for the jail and court systems in their county making the position difficult and challenge on a number of levels.

For Sheriff’s, leadership is an important skill. Not only must they lead their officers and civilian employees, but they must also lead in the jails, the courts, and because of the political nature of the position, in the community

As for notable people that have held the position of sheriff in American history it’s an interesting list. From historical figures like Bat Masterson, Daniel Boone, and Grover Cleveland to controversial ones like Buford Pusser, Grady Judd, and Joe Arpaio.

I realized if I wanted to discuss leadership in law enforcement, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk to at least one Sheriff.

I had a perfect candidate in mind.

[Insert Intro]

Sheriff Chris Lane was elected on November 8, 2022 as the 59th Sheriff of Bartholomew County IN

 Sheriff Lane has dedicated over 30 years to law enforcement.  During this time, he has served in a variety of positions, including patrol, supervision, administration, and investigations.  He was appointed as Chief Deputy of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department from 2015 - 2022.  Sheriff Lane is also a 2019 graduate of the FBI National Academy, joining an elite group that makes up less than 1% of America’s law enforcement community. 

And the most important part of his background…we went to the police academy together.

Fear is the Mind Killer, 

That statement is as relevant today as it was in 1965 when Frank Hubert published his novel Dune.

Paul Atraides, the main character in Dune, quotes from the Litany of Fear in the first chapter of the book. The entire quote is;

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

The quote is designed to help you focus through your fear. It recognizes that fear will happen, that you will be scared, but you must not let that fear define you, or rule you. You must concentrate through the fear and let your reason win. It also acknowledges that fear will pass and you will have to live with the actions and consequences of your decisions once it is gone.

The number one enemy to effective leadership is fear.

Fear is why we fail

Fear is why our people fail

Fear is why or organizations fails

We let fear guide our decisions, we let fear dictate our responses and we let fear paralyze us from taking action.

I had been a sergeant for about 6 years before my agency sent me to my very first leadership class. I didn’t know what to expect and honestly, I thought it was going to be a waste of time. I mean I had been an informal leader on night shift for years as the old guy and the FTO. When they promoted me to sergeant, they obviously didn’t think leadership was important because they didn’t bother to send me to any training. So, I wasn’t very interested.

This story could have had a very different ending, but the leadership training they did send me to was put on by Bill Westfall.

Bill Westfall is an amazing instructor and one that really lit the fire under me to be an effective leader.

Since then, I began reading every leadership book I could get my hands on, from historical works to books by business leaders. I also took as many leadership classes as I could find, a few of them I took on my own dime and my own time.

So, when I tell you my guest on this episode is one of the very best teachers in leadership, 

I’m not kidding.

Jack Enter has been associated with the field of criminal justice since 1972 when he began his career as a law enforcement officer. Since that time, he has worked as a street police officer, detective, vice/narcotics investigator, manager, and as the administrator of a law enforcement agency in the suburbs of Atlanta. Jack obtained his Ph.D. in 1984 and has served as a professor and administrator in the university setting and served as one of the planners of the security component of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. He has lectured throughout the United States and abroad on Leadership as well as Profiling Interpersonal Violence and The Future of Crime and Policing. He has authored two books Challenging the Law Enforcement Organization (2006; Revised 2022) and Law Enforcement Leadership in the Midst of Change (2022). 

Leadership Journeys.

You are going to hear me talk a lot about leadership journeys this season.

What do I mean about leadership journeys? It’s how I describe the process of growing as a leader, of taking on formal and informal responsibilities and about not only learning the process of leadership, but embracing it as well.

I decided the best way to start this season off was to talk you through my leadership journey, and no it wasn’t very pretty.

Many of you out there have had the pleasure of having a mentor or role model for your leadership journey. I had none.

Ok, so that isn’t entirely true, I have found out while preparing for this season that we all have guides on our leadership journey, they just might not be formal ones and maybe we didn’t recognize them for what they were.

You see in my law enforcement career I had very few, and I mean very few positive formal role models. The supervisors and leaders that I had throughout my 30-year career in law enforcement were terrible. But I learned from them. I mostly learned what not to do.

What not to do.

That can be a powerful teacher.

Leadership, The Oxford English Dictionary defines leadership as;

The action of leading a group of people or an organization. The state or position of being a leader.

Got it. That’s a simple one. Next important lesson please…

Not so fast.

Leadership has to be one of the most vexing skills to learn in our profession. First of all, it’s critically important. It’s important for the officer working the beat who must deal with the public every day. They must lead on scenes and at calls for service, they must show leadership for the community and the people they serve.

It’s important for the line supervisor. They must show leadership to not only that same public as the officer, but also to the officers themselves as well as peers and members of other government agencies.

It’s important to the administrators whose management positions can at times exacerbate the divide between the working officer and the organization, who’s goals should be aligned, but rarely are.

And of course it’s important to the police leaders, who by their very title should be experts in a field that quite frankly, you can’t be an expert in.

“But Steve,” you say, “I know a lot of expert leaders, masters of the craft.”

Bullshit.

They are faking it.

On this season of Blue Canary, we are going to focus on Leadership. We are going to talk about what it means to be a leader, how to learn leadership skills and why leadership is abnormal behavior. I am going to talk about my personal leadership journey as well as interview Chief’s and Sheriffs about their leadership journeys and struggles. We will also hear from leadership experts about the challenges modern police leaders face.

Finally, we will mix in a few of our listeners favorite topics just for fun.

Our first episode of the season will drop on June 5th so make sure you like and subscribe so you don’t miss anything, because this is the story we have to tell.