Ask the Chief

 Why do you put so much time and energy toward working with the youth and promoting internships with the Police Department? Anyone who has worked with children or who have hired, trained and supervised employees know that it is a labor of love.

I believe that if you want a better future then you must invest in those who will be the leaders of that future. My experience has taught me that if values and morals are not cemented in the foundation of a child's life then they grow up to be bitter and unhappy adults.

This is also true for future officers in that if you want them to love mercy and to serve a community then you must teach them very earlier in their career.

We all know and work with people who lack exactly what I describe. If you look at the lives of those I deal with professionally, you can appreciate their current state and see a direct link to their childhood.

There is an old saying, "you are who you have been becoming". Children can be put on a road to success or a road to grief. Rookie officers can learn to love people vs loving power.

I have seen so many children spoiled and corrupted with the poisonous ideas of you don't have to be accountable, it is everyone else's fault, you are perfect, you can do what you want without consequences and you are owed everything.

I have also seen officers learn that they are better than those they serve. That the ends justifies the means and that we are enforcers rather than servants.

It is a true statement that, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I see it in men who beat their wives. I see it in drug addicts who blame others for their bad choices. I see it in parents who deny their children's criminal behavior while at the same time pointing out the faults in others. If we want a better future, then we need to take ownership and responsibility.

First, start with the person in the mirror. Second, clean up your own family. Third, take a humbling leadership role in your community so that those yet to come will be better than you. It is my goal for my son to be a better man than I.

It is my goal for children whom I mentor to become better community members than I. It’s my goal to train officers to care more deeply, passionately and serve with more wisdom than I... If we want better we must do better and it start with our own integrity....