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Showing posts from February, 2015

Decentralizing Responsibility: Creating Nets from Nooses

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When responsibility is focused on one person or entity, it's a single rope bearing all the weight. Is that neatly tied knot slowly turning into a noose around the organization's neck? When purposefully twisted into an interconnected web, the resulting net protects against falls and survives considerable stress. Accountability factors into every phase of an organization's operations. Whether it's an administrative function, daily operations, crisis response, or project management, the responsibility falls somewhere. When there's a break in that body of responsibility, someone has to pick up the pieces. It's not only a preoccupation with failure; it's also about stacking the deck of  creativity . The bulk of what I've learned about leadership, supervision, administrative duties, and project management is a result of my assignment to my police department's firearms training unit. But as I look back on  all the lessons , they seem to circle back t

Open Letter to President's Task Force on Policing

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The following is text-only version of my official written testimony submitted to President Obama's  Task Force on 21st Century Policing . In it, I boldly recommend  The Illinois Model  be considered as a framework for police training and operations in the United States. 05 FEB 2015 I am a full-time (17+ years) police officer/detective in a Chicago suburb. I currently hold collateral positions as: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) officer; SWAT team supervisor; training unit instructor. I hold a variety of operational and/or instructor roles, responsibilities, and certifications, including: Constitutional law trainer (4th Amendment search/seizure/force/intrusion); Response to mental, behavioral, emotional health emergencies; Weapons trainer (firearms, Taser® , beanbag projectiles, etc); Scenario-based exercise developer & coordinator; Certified Force Science® Analyst (human factors, physiology); Report writing (tactical & investigative) instructor; Community p