Chief Noble Wray on Policing

Some excellent remarks on the art of policing!

I had the pleasure of working with Noble Wray when I was chief in Madison. He was fairly new to the department when he came to help me with the transformation and to both diversity and new thinking to an all-white command staff.

It was a time of major transformation (our second one!) as we began to implement Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s concepts of “continuous improvement” and Total Quality Management into the police organization, developed a new and modern style of leadership called “quality leadership,” and established an experimental police station to test out our ideas about closer neighborhood policing and team leadership. Those were heady years for all of us.

After I retired, Noble continued his growth in policing and leadership and served as chief from 2004-13 before he retired.

He now works in the COPS office leading the “Policing Practices and Accountability Initiative.” The Initiative is to help police leaders implement the recommendations of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Noble continues to “press on” and I am honored to call him both friend and colleague.