My 100th Post — The Year in Review!

This is blog number 100!

Since I began this journey of “getting the word out” about how police can and should strive to improve themselves and their work I have covered a great number of topics in this blog — even beyond what I had addressed in my book.

The first blog was posted (“Un-Arresting Police”) October 21, 2011 in order to set the stage for the coming publication of the book in April, 2012 [“Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption and the Seven Steps Necessary to Improve Our Nation’s Police.”]

Since that time, this site has had over 40,000 views from folks in over 130 countries around the world. Thank you so much for “connecting”! And while my purpose is not to sell books, but rather to promote ideas and get them into circulation, nevertheless about 500 of them have been sold to date at “author events” and on Amazon.com.

I have held “author events” at area bookstores (some as far away as Milwaukee and Madison), coffee houses, churches, libraries, senior centers, and at local civic clubs. Some of my former colleagues also got on board by writing a book review for me and inviting me to speak — at this year’s Wisconsin police chiefs annual meeting, Jefferson County’s Police Memorial Day, a promotional ceremony for the Rockford (Ill.) police, the December meeting of the Dane County Chiefs of Police, and an invitation this spring to be the speaker at the Chippewa Falls (Wisc.) Technical College police graduation.

As I mentioned, my objective is to promote the improvement ideas contained in my book for at least a year. I am now nine months into this commitment and, so far, it has been a wonderful experience talking about (and getting excited about) ideas and improvements. I want you to know that I would be willing and honored to talk to more police and civic organizations about what I learned during my “life in policing.” And, hopefully, what I have learned will help us to continue to field educated, trained, controlled, honest and courteous police officers and encourage police leaders to treat them with respect and be committed their growth.

If you are interested, take a look at the book — consider sharing a copy with a criminal justice student, a new police officer, or police leader.

And also check out some of my introductory blogs about the book on this site — or CLICK HERE to “peek” into it.

Below are some pictures illustrating the wonderful year I have had meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones. I have been on WORT radio with Brenda Konkel, was interviewed in Wisconsin Public Radio by Jim Fleming (“The Best of Our Knowledge”) andJoy Cardin on her morning talk show. I also was interviewed by Matt Rothschild on Progressive Radio and by Neil Heinen’s “For the Record” on WISC-TV in Madison.

Again, thanks to all of you who attended one of my “author events,” made comments on this blog, or bought a copy of the book.

Have a happy and blessed New Year!