When I joined the police, our training sergeant congratulated us. He told us we had beaten thousands of other applicants to get there.
Then he said something I have never forgotten:
"You have spent years trying to get into the police; the police will spend the rest of your career trying to get rid of you."
It sounded harsh, and I was taken aback.
What he really meant was that we will be watched. Every decision, every action, every mistake, every complaint.
If you get it wrong, you will be held accountable.
After 22 years in policing, I am yet to meet an officer who hasn't been investigated at some point in their career. Most complaints never result in any finding of wrongdoing, but they are still part of the reality of the job.
When I left the police, something interesting happened. I started seeing things differently about my police career.
I began questioning some of the decisions we had made, some of the things we had been asked to do, some of the situations where we believed we were doing the right thing based on the information we had at the time.
At first, my reaction was: How could that have happened?
Then I realised something important: policing was never just about enforcing the law.
Police officers are expected to be counsellors, mediators, social workers, crisis negotiators, mental health responders, mentors, protectors, investigators, and sometimes - simply the person who turns up when nobody else will.
Most receive little formal training for many of these roles. Instead, they rely on experience, judgement, values and their own life stories to help guide difficult decisions.
Human beings, no matter how well-intentioned, do not always get those decisions right.
The older I get, the less interested I am in judging organisations from a distance. Instead, I find myself asking different questions.
Were the people well selected? Were they trained adequately? Did they have the tools and support they needed? Were they encouraged to think critically? Were they supported when they made difficult judgement calls?
Perhaps most importantly, what happened when things didn't go according to plan?
Organisations do not make decisions; people do.
People operate within systems, policies, expectations, pressures, and often incomplete information.
That doesn't remove accountability. It does, however, add understanding.
Today, I still see policing as a numbers game. The number of people helped, not the number of people arrested.
The problem is there is no box on a timesheet for the teenager you put back on track. No performance measure for the victim who finally felt heard. No code for the family who slept a little easier because someone cared enough to listen.
Before we pass judgement on any organisation, perhaps we should first understand the people within it.
Walk a mile in their shoes by understanding their training, understanding their pressures, and understanding their choices.
Let’s talk!
Walk A Mile In Their Shoes.