How a Bad Experience Renting a Vehicle Provides Important Lessons for Law Enforcement Leaders

I have always believed that law enforcement can improve their relationship with the communities they serve if every police officer treats each call for service as though it is the most important call of the day.

Having this attitude can be a big challenge for most officers.

The call may be the most traumatic event that has ever happened to the caller although but just a “routine” call for the police officer.  Many of the calls for service come are from people calling the police for the first time.

You only get one chance to make a good first impression.  Take advantage of that first interaction.

A contributing factor that makes it worse is the fact that police departments have a monopoly on the service they provide.  Unhappy or poorly treated “customers” have little recourse.  In most cases, callers can’t just call another department.

How It All Began

I attend Vertical Life Church in Dallas, GA.  At the time you read this, 25 of us will be in Allen, SD, which is one of the poorest, if not the poorest, cities in America.  Allen is on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The majority of the team flew out, but one team member volunteered to drive out and carry all of the tools we needed for the work.  I volunteered to help him make the 20 hours, 1,375-mile trip.

Unfortunately, the primary driver got a new job in North Carolina a few weeks before we left and had to cancel.  Airfare had already been purchased for all of the other team members, so I became a solo driver.  We tried to find another volunteer to ride with me, but we didn’t have any takers.

I was ok with driving solo.  It would give me an opportunity to do a lot of thinking, chat with friends on the phone, listen to some great music on satellite radio and learn a lot from some great podcasts.

Rental Vehicle Debacle

We no longer had a truck for the trip so we were forced to rent a small SUV to carry all of the tools, saws and extra supplies that would not fit on an airplane.  We needed the right size SUV to take all the stuff, a vehicle with good gas mileage and a reasonably priced car.

Little did I know how difficult that would be.

I went online and decided a small SUV like a Toyota RAV4 would be perfect.  I searched several locations online and attempted to book the vehicle.  A message popped up telling me that none of the cars we needed were available.  After seven attempts, I decided to call one of the rental companies directly.

The attendant quickly informed me that it was spring break, the Master’s Golf Tournament was in town, and several events were happening in Atlanta.

This could be a problem!

After searching online and calling several companies, I was able to get a RAV4 booked for $539 for the week.

At least I thought it was booked.

Humans Make Mistakes

Although I had a vehicle booked, I held out hope we could get it cheaper.  After checking another location, I found out that the company had made a HUGE mistake and somehow booked me picking up and dropping off the vehicle in Merced, CA.

I couldn’t believe it.

It would not have been too bad except they now said they did not have a RAV4 or equivalent SUV available.  I was back to square one.

Of course, I canceled the Merced, CA rental.

Failure to Correct the Mistake

After calling around to various other cities, I located another RAV4 for $558 for the week.  This was pricey but not too bad considering some places wanted over $800.

The next day, I received a phone call from the company confirming my rental for Merced, CA.  I guess someone failed to cancel that rental.

On top of that error, the company I booked with the day before for $558 called and said they didn’t have any SUVs for rent.  Instead, they wanted to give me a car.  I asked about the reservation I had, but he said they had overbooked.

I kept calling the local companies to make a reservation, and the local companies kept transferring me to the corporate office for reservations, which contributed to the problem.

Unfortunately, I was back to square one.

Final Resolution

I was getting desperate.

We were running out of time, so I had to make something happen.

I ended up renting a RAV4 type vehicle in Chattanooga, TN at the airport for $398 for the week.  What a savings!  I could even return the car in Acworth, GA which is near my home.

Jackpot!

My wife, Wanda, was kind enough to agree to drop me off at the airport in Chattanooga.  We had a lovely breakfast and an enjoyable ride together.

Lessons Learned

As I was going through this ordeal, and getting very frustrated, I couldn’t help but think about how we as law enforcement treat our “customers” sometimes.  We leave them with a less than warm and fuzzy feeling about our department and us by the way we handle their calls and our interactions.

I learned foru lessons from this experience.

1. Accept Responsibility When We Make a Mistake

We are human, and mistakes will happen.  I think most people understand that concept.  In our line of work though, errors can be a big deal with severe consequences.  Unfortunately, we do not admit our mistakes easily, even when they are minor.

We can gain a lot of credibility in the communities we serve if we admit to our mistakes and correct them moving forward.

2. Correct Our Mistakes When We Say We Will

It is one thing to make a mistake.  It is entirely different to make a mistake, say you will correct it and fail to do so.

In my experience, this typically happens when a mistake has been made on an accident report or something similar.  An interested party calls to have the error corrected and the officer assures the person it will be fixed.  When the mistake isn’t corrected in a timely fashion, it makes the situation worse.

Correcting our mistakes when we say we will should be a priority.

3. Don’t Transfer People Who Call the Department From Person to Person

This happens in most departments.  Someone calls to speak to an officer, check on an issue or have something corrected and they are transferred from person to person until they finally reach the wrong person.

Ok, maybe they do reach the right person, but by then they are frustrated with the merry-go-round phone call.

This leaves people with a bad taste in their mouth.

When possible, take a message and make sure the message gets to the right person.  Of course, immediately sending them to the right person works even better.

4. Treat Every Call Like It is the Most Important Call of the Day

This lesson may be the most important one I learned through this experience.

How the public views a department can change dramatically overnight if the department focuses on providing excellent customer service and treating each person that calls the people like their call is important to us.

This should be our common response.  Sadly, that is not the case in many departments.

I don’t believe this is an intentional response from most departments.  Officers are merely overworked, responding from one call to another with a long line of calls holding for them.  It is easy to tell when an officer appears to be in a hurry or is simply going through the motion.

As a department, we owe more to the community we have sworn an oath to serve and protect.

Conclusion

Although we can’t control everything and we know that mistakes do happen, we can make a difference by how we treat people both during and after our encounter with them.  Showing genuine concern and compassion for those people whose paths cross ours can make all the difference.

As a side note, the trip was uneventful, and I made it to Allen, SD on the Pine Ridge Reservation without incident.  I met our team at the Pass Creek Church where we are staying and working this week.

We have already laid over 1,200 square feet of floor yesterday and are looking forward to the rest of the week.

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