Why My Thinking Changed
Count me among those many people who for years insisted that the key person in most law enforcement organizations is the sergeant. I now believe that I was mistaken: the captain is the person who most significantly shapes the leadership, expectations, and performance of the organization. I shall explain why my thinking has changed.
Let me emphasize from the very beginning of this article; My focus is not on an agency’s formal written rules, regulations or policies. The focus of this article is on the critical skills of supervising and managing others. Scores of books and articles have been written on this topic and there are as many leadership approaches are there are writings on the subject. This article provides thoughts and approaches as to how I personally perceive the issue and how I intended to ensure that my leadership philosophies and expected behaviors would hopefully have come to fruition during my tenure in office.
Several years ago, I believed the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors was going to appoint me as the Sheriff, to fill the remaining term of the incumbent who was stepping down. Although there was an heir apparent who had the support of many persons, it was my mistaken belief that although a superb person who would someday be a great Sheriff, he was not yet at that level. Notwithstanding some inappropriate board shenanigans that “prevented” the board from being able to consider me, the heir apparent was appointed to the position and from day one did an outstanding job, and it was my honor to support him during his terms as Sheriff.
In preparation for my mistakenly anticipated appointment, I gave a great deal of consideration to the initial actions that I would take as the Sheriff, with the intent of further professionalizing an already great and effective organization. Had I become the Sheriff, one of my very first significant actions would have been to very quickly and simultaneously outline my leadership expectations across all divisions and stations. Without suggesting that others were not capable of delivering my message, I wanted to invest the time to personally interact, over a course of several weeks, with every supervisor, manager and executive to ensure no misunderstanding with respect to my specific leadership expectations. Additionally, I wanted to ensure that all my people would see and hear first-hand the rationale behind the behaviors that I expected. In layman’s terms, I wanted everyone to start off on the “same sheet of music.”
Based on a great deal of leadership experience (including scar tissue!) in multiple agencies and with years of teaching for the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association FBI LEEDA), I was very clear on the supervisory and managerial behaviors that I expected and developed and had actually authored several self-published booklets describing those behaviors. At the time, I had over twenty years of command leadership experience and a reasonably good track record for managing organizations. Simply stated, I knew exactly what I expected and had developed the materials to augment my personal discussions and presentations.
Where Leadership Influence Begins
As I worked through that decision, all my initial goals led to the rank of captain: the management level that, in San Bernardino County and in most agencies large and small, stands between the officers in the field and the head of the agency.
While recognizing the tremendous impact of sergeants, I also considered the typical reality of an often-wide variety of leadership behaviors and individual preferences as to how mentoring and supervision occurs. I am convinced that the captain rank is the key to harnessing the individual assets of the sergeants, thus creating somewhat of a “supervisory skirmish line” to get them all moving in the same direction with respect to actions and behaviors. It is a given that the captain should be working in partnership with the lieutenants in agencies where that rank exists.
Why Captains Set the Tone
There are several reasons why the captain level must get top billing as the most critical place to start leadership training in a law enforcement agency. Certainly, the sergeant is closest to the troops in providing guidance, but it is the captain who establishes or oversees the guidance that is provided. The sergeant typically interacts with the public in resolving complaints and disputes, but it is the captain who has established or oversees the conditions, practices, and priorities that often determine what must be resolved. Although sergeants provide classroom and field training, captains coordinate the priorities and direction of that training. When questions or confusion arise over policies, procedures, and practices, the sergeant typically seeks answers from the captain; in turn, the captain—along with the agency head—is most often responsible for the direction from which those questions arise. In disciplinary matters, the sergeant appropriately influences the process, but the captain has a much more significant role in the final disposition.
Not for a moment do I fail to recognize the very critical role of sergeants, but the actions of the sergeants are essentially residuals of the actions and activities of the captain in an organization. Given the competition as to where my personal training seminars were to begin, it would be with those at the rank of captain, or the equivalent.
Expectations and Accountability
Starting with the rank of captain would also have allowed me to state, in a positive but unmistakable manner, exactly what I expected in terms of actions, behaviors, and oversight. There would have been no room for misunderstanding. Captains, like everyone else, vary in competence, energy, and commitment. Some work in remote facilities where strong or weak leadership may not be conspicuous to those at the executive level. The men and women of all agencies—and in this case, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department—deserve the very best levels of leadership that the Sheriff can provide. That would absolutely have been the case, had I been given the honor of leading that organization.
While I subscribe to the philosophy of articulating expected actions and behaviors, providing the personnel and resources, and then backing off and letting captains do their jobs, experience has taught me that occasional intervention is necessary. There will sometimes be a senior person—sometimes more than one—who has essentially “taken off their pack” and stopped giving adequate attention to their command. Equally, if not more concerning, is the command officer who is set in “old school” ways and only grudgingly, if at all, responds to the guidance and expectations of the head of the agency. My message would have made clear that my leadership actions, and those of my key people, would recognize and address this type of unacceptable behavior.
The Leadership Lesson
In every pile of dung, there is a pony; you just must dig around a bit to find it. In the case of my not having had the honor to lead the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, there were two ponies. The Department got the and continues to have a great Sheriff, and I got a great topic for my leadership writings!
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Keith Bushey retired from the Los Angeles Police Department as a commander, from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy chief, and from the United States Marine Corps Reserve as a colonel. Other law enforcement experience includes having served as a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff, a State of California deputy game warden, and as the Marshal of San Bernardino County. He is an instructor emeritus for the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association and has lectured and written extensively in the areas of leadership, management and ethics. He is now affiliated with Embassy Consulting Services. His entire eight booklet Leadership Series is in the public domain and may be downloaded without cost from KeithBushey.com. He may be contacted at KDBS255@AOL.COM