Policing is a “Calling” — Not Just a Job!

David CouperFebruary 7, 2022February 7, 2022Uncategorized

Baltimore Police Officer Jaslyn Koger, Houston Police Officer Joshawua Mayfield and Austin Police Officer Charles Wesley are part of a new generation of law enforcement who took the oath.

“Fresh out of the Baltimore police academy just three weeks ago, 24-year-old Jaslyn Koger knows that her unique advantage as a new officer on the streets is her ability to communicate and relate with the community she serves. Koger, a Black woman and Baltimore native, is just one of the young faces of America’s new generation of police officers who have been undeterred by the staffing shortages in many departments nationwide, the spate of killings of law enforcement officers, and recent high-profile incidents of police brutality.

“‘At one point in time, we weren’t police officers, we were just citizens,’ Koger told CNN. ‘Seeing incidents like George Floyd, that affected us just as regular citizens alone. We’ve seen a lot of police brutality videos and I know that I would never want to see my face on anything like that.’”

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Throughout the last decade, while writing this blog, I have continued to stress police work is a “calling” — not just a job. When policing is approached as a “calling” it is better able to develop the kind of service culture that makes police officers trusted and supported. And when police are trusted and supported, they are effective!

[I know I have actively retired from writing this blog, but when a good piece of information on police improvement presents itself, I will try and post it. Improving police is everyone’s business in a democracy.]

Read the full CNN article here: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/us/police-officers-new-generation/index.html

Published by David Couper

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. 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 Mazomanie. View all posts by David Couper

1 Comment

Gunther says:

February 13, 2022 at 2:39 pm

If the police had reformed themselves decades ago, maybe there wouldn’t have been a spate in the rise of police deaths? The blood is on the hands of the police for their deliberate inaction to reform. In addition, thanks to dis-investment by the wealthy people, the CEOs, and the government in the community for the last 40 years, you have the poor, POC, and the marginalized who are not going to take it anymore. In addition, you have right-wing, radical conservatives who now thanks to Trump, Fox News, and the Republican party, have openly taunted and threatened to shoot cops even though many cops have the same right-wing, conservative attitudes. You got wealthy white Americans and business leaders openly flaunting the law and they don’t have to worry about being prosecuted because the justice system in America has been utterly destroyed. Due to all these things, that I have pointed out, maybe that is why the street criminals are shooting the cops. They figure if the wealthy people and right-wing people can literally get away with murder, then they can too. Sooner or later, killing a cop in America wouldn’t carry a negative stigma. Instead killing a cop in America will be considered a part of doing business like it is in Columbia and Mexico from the 1980s to even today.

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