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Where Do You Start if You Want to be a Police Chief?

Instead of Where Maybe it Should be When Maybe the question shouldn’t be where do you start.  Instead, it should probably be when do you start? I’m not sure about most police officers, but when I first got into law enforcement I had no clue about what I wanted to do.  I was just happy to have a job and spent quite a few years just figuring out my place in the department. After I had been with the Marietta Police Department for a few years, I thought about what I needed to do to get promoted to Sergeant.  It took 10 years for me to achieve that goal and then another four years to make Lieutenant. I first thought of my career goal after making lieutenant.  So basically, I spent the first 15 years of my career with no thought of being a police chief. So, let’s get back to the original question.  Where do you start? Right where you are. Let’s get to my alternate question now.  When do you start? Right now! If you are a police officer, sergeant or lieutenant you obviously have more time to prepare for that future police chief job opportunity than someone…

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What Can Law Enforcement Leaders Learn From CEOs?

A lot. You probably knew I was going to say that right? I guess I need to expand on that thought and explain what law enforcement leaders can learn from CEOs! Adam Bryant, a writer for the New York Times, interviewed and covered CEOs for a number of years.  He asked them the usual questions you would expect about their companies.  One day, Adam had a radical thought and decided to interview CEOs and ask them a different set of questions.  He focused on success, how they lead their employees and the life advice they give or wish they had received. Since that idea popped into his head, Adam has interviewed 525 CEOs as part of his Corner Office column. The CEOs interviewed were from both large and small companies. Some of them came from humble backgrounds while others were born with a silver spoon. Adam Bryant penned his final column recently titled, “How to Be a C.E.O., From a Decade’s Worth of Them.” In this column, Adam acknowledged he learned a lot from many of the CEOs about management, leadership, and human behavior.  Adam also acknowledged not all of the leaders were insightful. Adam identified three reoccurring themes that…

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So You Want to be the Top Cop?

After working with the Marietta Police Department for almost 15 years and attaining the rank of Lieutenant, I still had not identified my long-term career goals.  Frankly, I only thought about my next promotion.  In my case, I was trying to figure out how to get promoted to Captain.  Outside of that thought, I was clueless. Until I met Chief Bobby Moody. Chief Moody took over the Marietta Police Department on July 1, 1996, as our police chief and my life changed forever. For the first time ever, a supervisor asked me about my plans for the future.  Chief Moody actually sat down with me and pressed me about my future career plans until I finally figured them out and answered him out loud.  I want to be a police chief!  I actually said it out loud and there was some relief in actually having a goal.  (I will discuss more about my talk with Chief Moody in future posts) My enthusiasm was short lived.  Reality set in. As I gathered information and conducted research about how to best prepare myself to be selected as a police chief, I found there were few resources available. I was very fortunate in…

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