Paradigm Shift
Imagine Catching Kids for Doing Something Good, Instead of Bad…
I can’t escape the realities of my job—I have to hunt down criminals. But could I also work on the other end of the spectrum? Could I build positive relationships strong enough to keep youth out of trouble? Could I serve as a mentor instead of a hunter? Could I learn to trust them? Could they learn to trust me?
“The first problem for all of us, men and women,
is not to learn, but to unlearn.” Gloria Steinem, U.S. journalist
Some Baby Steps
When I was assigned as Superintendent of Richmond, I wanted to build a strong relationship between the youth in our community and my police staff. The first small step was to get all of my people trained on being proactive and taking initiative. We had to pull out of our reactive mode of waiting for youth to commit a crime before we intervened.
We needed more proactive initiative and less reactive intervention—in other words, to prepare instead of repair.
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