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I've done a lot of work with police officers over the years, leadership training etc.
Most speakers/trainers don't like working with police officers and many refuse to do it. Their experience has been, or so they say, that police officers are impatient, intolerant, find sitting in a meeting room all day tedious and are somewhat arrogant and dismissive.
Hmm...actually sometimes that can be true.
But I've never had a problem with them. As a matter of fact, some of my best days in training have been with police officers.
What I've found is that officers are in search of the real and practical. Warm and fuzzy make their eyes roll, and they have no time for fluff. They can spot a phony a mile away.
But you give them something real, something with substance and something they can use...and you've got them.
I do admire them. How could I not really? Every one of my presentations to them begins with this line: "I could never do what you do." And that ain't blowin' smoke; that, ladies and gentlemen, is as real as it gets.
Just to walk up behind some mysterious car that I stopped for speeding would be enough to weird me out. The unpredictability of it all...the risk...the temerity it takes.
I realized a long time ago that I can cut my grass in safety because someone has my back. That a peaceful day-to-day life can exist only to the extent that someone keeps order in my neighborhood.
Our military fights the wars that need fighting on someone else's turf. The police fight the wars that need fighting at home.
Which brings me to Boston...
My nephew, Kyle, works just about a mile from where the shootout took place between the Boston Marathon bombers and police. I didn't know it until my brother emailed us telling us that Kyle, and the rest of the family, were safe.
I had no idea that we had a player in the drama that unfolded last week. But we did.
The police scoured the city for the better part of five days. They locked it down and fought for us. They were the front lines.
Citizens pointed the way, gave tips, and passed on information in the great cooperation. The police fought the battles. One cop is dead and, at this writing, one is severely wounded.
When the police decided that it had become counterproductive to continue the lockdown, people came out of hiding. Coincidentally, it was that order that proved to be the key to bagging the second terrorist.
A man came out of his house, crossed his backyard, saw a ripped cover and blood on his boat, investigated and went back to his house to call police.
The cops made the approach...another firefight leading to the final surrender. All of Boston cheered, able to celebrate, basking in the safety and security delivered by the police.
I've presented leadership training to street cops, too, who are not yet officers. Their captains believed, though not in positions of official authority, that these cops were still leaders in their communities.
After Boston, can there possibly be any other truth?
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