American Policing Doesn’t Have to Stay Arrested

Part memoir, part Madison history, and part policy handbook, Arrested Development draws on my more than two decades as Madison, Wisconsin’s police chief (1972–1993) to diagnose what’s broken in American policing and chart a path toward genuine reform. The book opens amid the turbulence of the “War at Home” era — National Guard troops lining the streets, tear gas drifting across campus, storefronts boarded against unrest, and a department steeped in militarized, old-school tactics that treated protesters as enemies. Into that environment stepped me, an unlikely choice for chief, who set out to remake the force from the inside.

I trace how I transformed a resistant, white, male, military-style department into a national model for community-oriented, quality-driven policing — diversifying the ranks, professionalizing training, and insisting that officers see themselves as public servants rather than an occupying force. The book’s genesis lies in my frustration at a 2005 gathering of police chiefs who showed little interest in applying lessons from a popular current book, Good to Great, to their own institutions; on the flight home, I began sketching the ideas that would become this book.

Blending candid personal reflection with concrete policy analysis, I lay out seven necessary steps for reform, tackling protest response, racism, corruption, and accountability head-on. Written for both general readers and police leadership, the book argues that lasting change depends on genuinely listening to communities, building diverse departments, and treating continuous improvement as a core professional discipline rather than a slogan. My voice throughout is direct, unsentimental, and shaped as much by my later vocation after my retirement as an Episcopal priest as by my decades wearing a badge — I believe this is a rare pairing of insider authority and moral urgency that gives the book its lasting relevance to ongoing debates about current policing in America.

You may purchase a copy HERE.