The Improvement Steps

Seven Police Improvement Steps

1. ENVISION: The community must cast a bold and breathtaking vision to ensure a distinguished future for policing in their city. A modern police department today is staffed with educated, well-trained officers who are committed to control in their use of force, honesty above reproach, respectful of every citizen, and willing to work within the community and uphold the principles of our Constitution.
2. SELECT: The city must encourage, be willing to compensate, and select the finest and the brightest to serve as their police officers. They must take immediate steps to diversify the department in terms of both race and gender.
3. LISTEN: Police leaders, and especially the chief, must intently listen to what their officers and members of the community are saying. And answer the question: How can we work together to build a safe, trusting, and respectful community?
4. TRAIN AND LEAD: The city must implement professional standards and community-oriented police training for the police department and establish a collaborative and respectful style of leadership within it. There is no doubt that the chief officer plays a vital and important role here. He or she must be given both the authority, tenure, and support within the community to carry out these necessary steps.
5. IMPROVE CONTINUOUSLY: The city administration, the police department and its leaders must be committed to unceasingly improving the systems in which they work–everything they do. This would extend to working to assure the justice system in the city and county is fair and equitable and that trust of police in the community is building.
6. EVALUATE: City officials and police must be able to critically assess, or have assessed, the crucial tasks and functions they are expected to perform. They must be able to answer the question, “How are we doing?” with data as a result of community surveys and focus groups
7. SUSTAIN: The city and its police must be able to maintain and continue the improvements and progress that are made into the future.

For further description of the seven steps, check out Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption and the Seven Necessary Steps to Improve Our Nation’s Police.