The following video illustrates many of the problems facing police improvement in America — topics I have written and spoken about during my career in policing and after my retirement.
Shortly after I received my master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, I was given a grant to survey police departments in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and London. What I learned there changed my thinking about the job I had been doing for almost a decade. Meeting and talking with my colleagues in these European countries opened my eyes about use of force, women in policing, training, and leadership.
Now listen to how some police in other countries see how we practice policing a democracy. We need to start making improvements now before it is too late.
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. At the present time, I serve a small church in North Lake (WI), east of Madison. Sabine and I have nine adult children, eleven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She is also a retired police officer and we both continue active lives.
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