I served over 20 years as the chief of police in Madison (WI), four years as chief of the Burnsville (MN) Police Department, and before that as a police officer in Edina (MN) and the City of Minneapolis. I hold graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and Edgewood College in Madison. I have written many articles over my years as a police leader calling for police improvement (for example, How To Rate Your Local Police, and with my wife, Sabine, Quality Policing: The Madison Experience). After retiring from the police department, I answered a call to ministry, attended seminary, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. After 25 years leading two Episcopal Churches in Portage and North Lake, Wisconsin, I now serve as Associate Pastor in a growing, dynamic, and Spirit-filled Lutheran congregation in nearby Black Earth. After losing Sabine, my wife of 40 years to cancer, I met Christine, a retired nurse and widow. We were blessed to find love again and married in 2021.
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3 Comments
Thanks for providing this video. Watching the video helped me formulate even stronger opposition to an apology for anything other than some specific act the officer/department may have committed. Any time we make a mistake we should be prepared to apologize for that error.
This video helped me better understand the underlying assumptions that drive this desire for apology. There must first be a “transgression.” There were certainly transgressions in the past, but current officers/departments are not the transgressors. It seems that the underlying assumption is that the very existence of the police is viewed as a transgression.
An effective apology must acknowledge the offense/accept responsibility for that offense. Recognizing the brutal realities of the past is important, but current actors are not responsible for that past.
Another underlying assumption of this drive for an apology seems to be related to the desire to punish the offender. Most of those offenders are now dead or at the very least long since retired. It is immoral to seek to punish by proxy. If my next door neighbor’s deceased father harmed my ancestors is it right for me to punish my neighbor?
Apologize for what you have done that is wrong. Recognize and educate about the brutal realities of the past. Police.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 
Thanks for providing this video. Watching the video helped me formulate even stronger opposition to an apology for anything other than some specific act the officer/department may have committed. Any time we make a mistake we should be prepared to apologize for that error.
This video helped me better understand the underlying assumptions that drive this desire for apology. There must first be a “transgression.” There were certainly transgressions in the past, but current officers/departments are not the transgressors. It seems that the underlying assumption is that the very existence of the police is viewed as a transgression.
An effective apology must acknowledge the offense/accept responsibility for that offense. Recognizing the brutal realities of the past is important, but current actors are not responsible for that past.
Another underlying assumption of this drive for an apology seems to be related to the desire to punish the offender. Most of those offenders are now dead or at the very least long since retired. It is immoral to seek to punish by proxy. If my next door neighbor’s deceased father harmed my ancestors is it right for me to punish my neighbor?
Apologize for what you have done that is wrong. Recognize and educate about the brutal realities of the past. Police.
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