Archive for March 2017

The officer who sat across from me at my kitchen table had clearly enjoyed a prodigious career but as he talked about himself, those tales weren’t materializing. I could see right then, if I were choosing whether to hire him, he would fail. I’d seen it many times before. Cops are great at being cops.…

A few years ago, some of my officers began investigating a shooting in which a guy had disappeared after he killed his wife and wounded his adult stepson. As some of the officers began looking for the man, some kids rolled up on their bikes. “Are you looking for that guy who shot those people?”…

Community policing can bring the entire town onto your team. And working together means communication, relationships. No matter the demographics of the department, no matter the socio-economics of the community, relating as people and neighbors changes everything. When I became chief in Mooreseville in April, I wanted to ease tensions in this large department, so…

Since an officer in my police department was brought under suspicion of perjury for statements he made when he thought his police body camera was turned off, some of our constituents have been adamant in calling for a policy that police officers cannot turn off their body cameras at all while on duty. They feel…