Fixing the Police - A 7 Habits Approach

Using principles of Habit 3 to discuss the role of the police.

If you were to do one thing in your professional work that you know would have enormously positive effects on the results, what would it be?

This is a question Covey asked a group of shopping center managers. They came to a unanimous response…

"Build helpful personal relationships with the tenants."

This is a Q2 activity. That means the above choice would likely yield great results! The problem for the managers, however, is that time spent on this activity made up less than 5% of their total work time.

It makes sense, after all. There are reports to create, meetings to go to, rent to collect, rules to enforce, etc. As a former property manager, I can attest, there is no shortage of these tasks that require immediate attention. However, these are all Q1 activities.

And as we saw on Wednesday, if 90%+ of your time is spent in Q1, you're going to be too burnt out to work on Q2.

So how does this relate to the police?

In most cities, police appear to be operating in Q1, the majority of the time. Very little time is spent on building relationships within the community.

I'm sure relationship-building happens, but that is not the norm. Especially in densely populated areas where even neighbors feel like strangers. Not only that, but the training that some officers receive makes them fearful of their fellow citizens. They see them as potential enemies rather than neighbors.

This creates a relationship between citizens and police, similar to that of manager and tenant. Let's revisit The 7 Habits to explore this further.

The tenants were struggling for survival, let alone prosperity. They had employment problems, cost problems, inventory problems, and a host of other problems. Most of them had no training in management at all. Some were fairly good merchandisers, but they needed help.

The tenants didn't even want to see the shopping center owners; they were just one more problem to contend with.

Change a few and this sounds a lot like the relationship between citizens and police. Most people are just doing their best to stay afloat. Dealing with the police is just another problem to contend with.

In other words, police are not seen as the solution.

This obviously isn't everyone's experience. But it is the experience of enough people that is clearly a problem. Definitely a weak link of our society that needs to be addressed.

So how do we move police toward a better direction? Let's look at the managers once more.

The managers increased their time spent on helping relationships with tenants to 20%, which represented more than a fourfold increase. In addition, they changed their role. They became listeners, trainers, consultants to the tenants. Their changes were filled with positive energy.

The effect was dramatic, profound. By focusing on relationships and results rather than time and methods, the numbers went up, the tenants were thrilled with the results created by new ideas and skills, and the shopping center managers were more effective and satisfied.

They were no longer policeman or hovering supervisors. They were problem solvers, helpers.

Take in that last sentence for a second. They were no longer policemen. Even in the business/management setting, the word policeman is seen as a negative.

What is seen as a positive? Being problem solvers, helpers, listeners, etc.

We are not equipping our police with the tools to become problem-solvers for the community. That is the ideal for the profession. Being proactive within the community and building relationships, helping citizens as problems arise.

Instead, we send them running from crisis to crisis and training them to view their fellow citizens as enemies.

Taking the model provided by Covey to the police would work wonders. They would build personal relationships with residents and seek to listen, train, and consult rather than enforce/punish.

Instead of police, we would have community problem-solvers.

Before I end, I'll just say... I know it isn't quite as simple as all this. I don't really think I've just solved all the police issues with a short blog entry.

However, I really hope more people begin viewing the role of police in this light. I think transitioning in this direction is the most effective and fastest way to fix the police.

That's all for this week. See you tomorrow with the weekly wrap up.