Having a sense of humour

I have just finished two days management training sergeants and inspectors at Greater Manchester Police. This comes only two weeks after training the police in Abu Dhabi in community policing and problem oriented policing.  Two police organisations thousands of miles apart with different philosophies and different styles.  And yet there are many links and comparisons. Yes, they face similar basic crime and public order issues, but the scale and frequency vary greatly.  However, the one issue that does link them is story telling. Having worked with police in USA, India and China, it is apparent that police officers love to tell stories.  Maybe that is why programmes based on stories, such as The WOW! Awards are so successful when it comes to policing.

The stories almost always involve people in vary stages of distress or anguish or a particular crime that is unusual.  The story tellers then add their typical police style humour and you have a story that will keep people engaged for hours, and once you let them start you cannot stop them.  My Father was a police officer and he would often be found holding court at family gatherings telling stories about his time as a police officer.  However, only once have I met a police officer who would actually start a sentence with '...and here is another story'.  That honour goes to my friend Officer Dave Schmidt from Green Bay Wisconsin and boy could he tell stories.

The great thing about police stories, especially those that the teller has been involved in, is that they give a tremendous opportunity to learn.  For example, when I deliver the lesson on Management by Walking About I punctuate the story with two examples of the right and the wrong way to do it.  The first involved a senior officer who would come and sit at the desk next to me, rock back on the chair, put his feet up and say "what's happening?". That was it.  The conversation would then flow from issues at work, how staff were feeling, what was annoying them, what motivated them to issues surrounding home life.  Yes he would test me and ask about missing radios and the money float in the safe, but he invariably asked about me and my team.  Compare that with another senior officer who would come and sit next to me and then tell me all about him.  What was happening in his world, how his house was coming along, what issues he was facing at work and at home.  In the end I had to ask this officer to go away as he was preventing me from doing my work and other staff would create opportunities to leave their desk if they saw him approaching. Two very different styles of management, but only one was engaging and motivating.

When you add humour to stories you are almost guaranteed to have the ear of your audience as they know that a punch line is coming.  But the ability to use the humour and the story to punctuate a learning point is a powerful tool.  As I get ready to head to back UAE again I began to reflect on the challenge of using funny stories via an interpreter.  There are those stories that become slightly lost in translation, but that is where numerous cop related videos come in handy.  This is because the other endearing trait that police officers have is their ability to laugh at themselves.  So when we make a mistake, it almost always go public within the police and if a camera is there to catch it, then you can guarantee that it will be shared.  Like the US cop who goes to speak to someone about jumping a red light only to see his patrol car roll backwards across the road and hit a parked car as he forgot to put it in park.

Having a laugh, telling stories are all key parts of relieving the stress of what is often a harrowing job.  So I encourage those involved in policing, wherever you are and whatever your role, keep telling those stories....... "now here is another story........"

Rocking out with my Hard Rockin' Amigo

Usually my blogs relate to issues related to policing or some other socio-political issue, however, this time I want to write about something completely different. Music. Last night I saw on of my favourite rock bands, Rush. I have been a fan of their music ever since I first heard side one of Hemispheres in about 1977. I say the first side, but it one single track. I managed to catch them on the Tour of the Hemispheres and I was hooked. Last night must have been the seventh or eighth time that I have seen them and they have never let me down. My favourite period for their music was the '70s and '80's, so I was delighted when they played the whole of the 'Moving Pictures' album.

This is my third arena concert in the last 12 months having seen Kiss in Liverpool and Manchester and I will be seeing my other favourite band Journey on tour with Foreigner and Styx in a few weeks time.

You may well be thinking that I am stuck in a time warp of music appreciation from three or four decades ago, and I would have to agree with you. In the last couple of years I have seen Journey (five times)' Ozzy Osbourne, Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio), The Scorpions, Extreme, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper and Deep Purple. All classic bands who I saw in their original heyday. A second coming maybe?

But what makes these bands stand the test of time? They reform and come back for more and pack out our biggest venues. The answer I believe falls into two areas. The first if professionalism. They can actually play their instruments and have honed down their stage skills to perfection. Having a it of a birds eye view last night gave me an appreciation into how hard Rush work even when they are not stood on the stage. uitar changes, timing to arrive at the perfect point and the ability to connect with 10,000 people with consummate ease.

The second is the fact that they just pen darned good tunes. All of the old classics, recorded on tape and pressed in vinyl stand up to the scrutiny of digital sound that is so clear that you can hear every twang of the guitar and crash of a hi hat. Add an imaginative light show, a few fire pots, fireworks and the odd laser and explosion and you have the makings of a cracking show.

Perhaps the only criticism would be that the 'old' groups are almost too professional. The ease with which they perform tends to mean that there is a lack of 'edge'. Almost nothing goes wrong. There are no surprises. You know what you are going to get and they deliver it in the bucket load. I think the right word would be 'slick'. They are too slick. Don't get me wrong, I would pay to see these bands over many of the modern groups any day. In fact I cannot think of many modern groups that I would pay to see. But if you take a band like Alabama 3, their stage show is electric and it has 'edge'. You just don't know which members of the band will turn up, or when Larry Love will forget the words and the band will have to start the song again. Maybe this is why they play the smaller venues and the old bands who have crafted themselves to suit the arenas stick to what they know best.
So would I pay to see Rush again? In the blink of an eye. You can't keep an old rocker down and as long as Rush, Kiss, Journey et al want to tour the world to entertain us, I will be the ticket in hand ready to sing-a-long and shout 'hey' at the appropriate moment.

Yes, the average age of the people at the gig was about 50, but there were plenty of your people, some of whom would have been getting introduced to the world of live rock music via a band that recorded their first album in about 1973. But that is what music of this genre is all about. Music for the selective masses?
To be able to 'stand within the pleasure dome decreed by Kubla Khan' Is both a privilege and a pleasure.

Police Accountability - Part One

I am sat typing this blog at the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) conference on Learning and Development.  The main speaker is Peter Neyroud, a retired Chief Constable and former head of National Policing Improvement Agency and author of a recent review of police leadership. This is the end of a week that has seen the media deliver a great deal of bad news about policing in the UK and I am hoping that the speakers today will bring some clarity to where police leadership is going in the UK.

The first of the bad news came with the verdict from Coroners Court in relation to the death of Mr. Ian Tomlinson.  Mr. Tomlinson walked in front of a line of police officers who were dealing with public disorder at the G20 conference two years ago.  As he walked past the officers Constable Harwood struck Mr. Tomlinson with his baton and pushed him the ground.  All of this was caught on camera.  Mr. Tomlinson got up and walked off only to collapse and die a short distance away.  A Home Office post mortem suggested that Mr. Tomlinson died of natural causes, however, independent examinations suggest that he died from internal bleeding caused by the police officers’ actions.  A result of unlawful death was the verdict of the jury which has resulted in the case being re referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to see whether the Constable should face any charges.

As a former police officer I have been involved in many large scale disturbances and it is fair to say that there is a great deal of stress involved as you deal with people who are predominantly intent on causing anti-social behaviour and damage.  The problem with this case is that CCTV evidence did not seem to support the officer’s evidence. The bigger question however relates to accountability and responsibility.  Police officers are sworn to uphold the peace and will at times have to put their public order training into practice.  However, they are accountable for their own actions.  What will happen when police officers refuse to deal with large scale disorder because of the threat of prosecution if something goes wrong?  A silly question?  Well maybe not as some police forces in the UK are unable to attract officers into Armed Response roles as they fear prosecution should they use their weapon and injure or kill someone.  Unfortunately precedents have been set with the arrest and attempted prosecution of two officers who shot and killed a man who they believed was armed with a sawn off shotgun that turned out to be a table leg. However, this is another story.

I would argue that this situation is a leadership issue in terms of the direct supervision of Constable Harwood and strategic leadership.  What level of support, control and supervision is in place during events such as this? I have previously blogged about the fact that the police cannot win in large scale public order situations; however, there is an element of control of resources and visible leadership that seems to have been missing.

Let's move on to another police force who hit the headlines this week.  Merseyside Police have suspended a number of officers from their Matrix Unit (a group of officers who work reactively and proactively to reduce crime, especially gun crime) following photographs being released of them posing with property during a house search.  Three of the officers are being investigated following an allegation that they stole property during a search and attempted to sell it on E-bay.  The photographs were taken with one of the officers own mobile phone and appear to have been circulated within the department.

Once again this is a leadership issue.  What encouraged the officers to even contemplate being photographed with the property let alone removing anything from the house?  Where was the discipline and leadership that made the officers understand that their actions were wholly inappropriate and breached misconduct regulations? The only good tuning to come from this story is that it seems that another officer may have 'blown the whistle' believing that tube officers’ actions could not be justified.  However, the negative publicity will not do the public confidence rating of Merseyside Police any good with questions being asked 'what's next?'

I believe that there are two answers to this.  There is ample evidence that people working as part of a close team, which the Matrix are and police officers work in units in public order situations, succumb to peer pressure, machismo and over exuberance which leads officers to do things that they would not normally do.  Peer pressure, pack mentality, group culture, call it what you will, but it exists.   The second issue is the paucity of police leadership at the first and second line supervisory level.  Sergeants have become senior constables and both they and Inspectors rarely get time to supervise officers on the streets.  Couple this with young men in their twenties egging each other on and pushing the boundaries without someone saying STOP! THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE and you are likely to have problems. 

This is not something that occurs only in the UK.  In the USA recently a force identified over 15 officers who were attending role call and then going to play golf or build houses for the rest of their tour of duty. Another force identified a number of officers who were having sex with a prostitute whilst they were on duty.

Returing to todays conference, Peter Neyroud's review proposes a new leadership model for the police and top of the list are democratic accountability and legitimacy. At the ACPO conference Neyroud stated that leadership is about groups and not individuals.  I can see where he is coming from here, but good leadership at the sergeant and inspector level is essential and there must be clear messages about integrity and ethics if the police are to maintain its legitimacy.

Neyroud also said that 'history matters when you are trying to make change' and I could not agree more.  In building his police force in 1829 Peel chose his Commissioners stating that they had to be men of high integrity, the constables selected men whom were of 'high moral character'.  In 1960 the Royal Commission identified that the police cannot undertake their task without the confidence and support of the people.  This was re iterated in 1993 when The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) stated that the police service relies on the confidence of the community if it is to function effectively.  However, acts such as those above service to damage this confidence.

In 1990 ACPO introduced a Statement of Common Purpose which said 'The purpose of the police service is to uphold the law fairly and firmly; to pursue and bring to justice those whom break the law; to keep the Queen's peace; to protect, help, and reassure the community; and to be seen to do this with integrity, common sense and sound judgment.  We must be compassionate, fours us and patient, acting without fear or favour or prejudice to the rights of others. We need to be professional, calm and restrained in the face of violence and only apply that force which is necessary to accomplish a lawful duty.'

Emphasis added

This Statement of Common Purpose applies to the circumstances mentioned above and would seem on the face of it to be a logical and necessary mantra for police officers to follow. Maybe when we swear our oath to the Queen, we should also take an oath to follow this guidance.  

Creative Leadership = Effective Leadership

As part of my studies I recently came across an article by Robert Katz (Harvard Business Review 1955) who states that effective leadership is dependent on three variables or personal skills.  They are - Technical skills; Human skills and Conceptual skills.

Katz defines technical skills as knowledge or proficiency in a specific type of work or activity.  Technical skills, according to Katz, are of greater important at lower levels rather than at levels of seniority.  Human skill is about having a knowledge of and being able to work with people as opposed to technical skills which is about working with ‘things’. This skill area relates to working with peers, subordinates and superiors in order to accomplish the organisations goals.  Leaders with human skills create an atmosphere of trust where employees feel comfortable and feel encouraged to become involved in planning.  In other words, Human Skill is the capacity to get along with others as you go about your work.

Finally, conceptual skills, this is described as the ability to work with ideas and concepts.  Whereas technical skills deal with ‘things’, human skills deal with ‘people’ conceptual skills deal with ‘concepts and ideas’.  Katz explains that conceptual skills are central to creating a vision and strategic plan for an organisation.  As opposed to ‘technical skills’ leaders with seniority require greater levels of Human and Conceptual skills, whereas lower level leaders require greater levels of ‘Technical and Human skills’ rather than ‘conceptual skills.  It is important for leaders to have all three skills; however, the balance of the skills depends on position within the organisation.

The reason that I found this so interesting is that they are particularly applicable to policing in these days of austerity.  There is an increased requirement for creative problem solving to provide solutions to internal as well as external issues.  Looking back at my time in charge of the Citizen Focus Dept. of my police force we were stepping into an area that was a bit of an unknown and used many creative solutions to improve performance.  Have a leader who was creative and had good human skills spurred us on.  That level of support from a senior officer was essential to our successes.  Take this a step further and look at how the number of police forces using The WOW! Awards as a part of the Citizen Focus/community engagement strategy is increasing.  This is a low cost – high return strategy the creative leaders are recognising is a key part of their focus on recognising the good work of staff thereby motivating them to continue to deliver.

Having the technical skills to determine how best to use initiatives like The WOW! Awards is the responsibility for department heads.  They will be the ones to determine how to champion the product and ensure that it is used to achieve maximum potential; however, the overall strategic responsibility lies with a creative Chief.

Another area that Katz’s theory applies to is Problem Oriented Policing (POP).  Developed by Professor Herman Goldstein in the 1970s, POP is now a part of policing throughout the world.  I am know that Professor Goldstein would agree that an emphasis on POP waxes and wanes over time, but I believe that we are about to see a resurgence of POP as a prt of mainstream community policing.  POP is currently being taught to policemen and women in United Arab Emirates and the UK is seeing an increased focus thanks to champions and academics such as Dr Stuart Kirby at Lancaster University.

As communities require greater access to policing services, and police resources reduce, conceptual and human skills will become essential.  Questions will be asked such as how can we do this differently and who can help will become the norm. There is logic to taking risks and trying new ideas or ways of working or new partnerships.  Strategies should focus on what could be done rather than on what is being done and creativity should be rewarded as much as operational bravery.  It is a question of thinking differently and applying an ethos of ‘let’s give this a go’.

So I think that almost 50 years after Katz posited his theory that he may just have been on to something. 

Further reading in Leadership; Theory and Practice 4^th ed by Northouse 2007

The challenge for policing today

This year promises to be one of the toughest for policing for many a year. We are a quarter of the way through the year and the austerity measures of the coalition are staring to bit. Police staff are being made redundant in many forces. Officers with thirty years or more are being forced to retire. The Hutton Report and the Winsor Report have brought uncertainty about the future of police pensions and the recent Neyroud report proposes the most radical shake up of leadership within the police service since it was created by Peel in 1829.

The impact on policing and those involved is frustration,uncertainty and disillusion. Unlike the mid 1980s when Maggy Thatcher knew she would need the police to deal with the miners and inner city disturbances, the police will not escape conservative reform this time.

So a number of forces are taking the opportunity to redesign their service and structure through various 'change projects'. Many are focusing on changes designed to manage the impact of the cuts and identify where savings can be found. Savings will come through ideas such as outsourcing, however, before that becomes effective the police will have to address bureaucratic procurement processes and be willing to 'let go' of some services that they believe are too precious to be given up. The volume of time and effort that is going into this process is huge. Hours of time taken up by lengthy meetings and consultation processes. And we have yet to see the impact on levels of crime and satisfaction with the service delivered.I say service delivered somewhat tongue in cheek as I do not believe that forces will continue to place the same emphasis on this important aspect of policing.

So is it inevitable that crime will increase? If so, what will that do for public confidence in policing and does it matter? The answer to the former is - probably, the answer to the latter is almost certainly. The late 1980s saw a reduction in levels of public confidence and sparked the whole debate on quality service being delivered by the police. A lack of confidence has a broad impact on a society that feels insecure and an increased fear of crime is likely as the public perceive that the police are unable to tackle cime due to a lack of resources or a lack of caring.

The police are shoved into the limelight again when dealing with public unrest due to the government cuts. This level of confrontation has brought great criticism to the Metropolitan Police who cannot seem to win whether they use a softly softy approach or a more dynamic plan. The fact that we are seeing officers having to defend their actions will cause many to question whether they are doing the right thing. It is a no win situation. The public expect the police to manage demonstrations, but when violence erupts they do not want to see the police confront or arrest those who are breaking the law. The fact that the media stand close by and film/photograph acts of wilful damage does not help the situation. It is often forgotten that after the event there is a criminal investigation to identify and prosecute offenders. The criminal investigation and subsequent prosecutions cost a great deal of time and money.

So as police resources are stretched to deal with crime and disorder, one has to consider whether the government will back down and review their plans as they are supposed to be doing with the military. Maybe those who run the country could look at themselves as they reverse their policies for claiming expenses and last week it was reported that MPs claimed over three million pounds in expenses in just two months. How many police officers, PCSOs or members of police staff would that have employed?

For further information on concerns relating to police reform, visit http://www.police oracle.com/news/Concern-Mounts-Over-Pace-Of-Change_32499.HTML

Intolerance rules - wherever you are

I recently read an interesting article in The Washington Post http://tinyurl.com/3t3xc3a about Islam in America.  The article features Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf addresses a rally to protest congressional hearings on the role of Muslims in home-grown terrorism on March 6 in New York.  He identifies five myths about Muslims in America and goes on to explain how old Islam is in comparison to the American country and covers such issues as terrorism, the treatment of women and whether Muslim American want to introduce Sharia law.

Having recently returned from America and had many conversations about diversity and accepting other people’s differences I was somewhat disappointed that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf felt it necessary to bring up these issues in such a public domain.  That was until I read a headline in the online Gothamist.com http://tinyurl.com/3r9m98k which highlighted the fact that a 13 year old girl had been arrested for trying to rip the hijab off the head of another young Muslim girl in New York.  This followed the arrest of a 12 year old girl on a similar charge.

However, the USA is not the only country to be currently challenging the Muslim faith.  France is currently reviewing Islam and the hijab has been banned or is in the process of being banned in various countries across the world.

It seems that faith is an easy target for headline writers these days and often gives column inches to those who do not deserve it.  The Nursing Times.Net highlighted the Christian nurse who refused to remove a crucifix at work has lost her discrimination claim against Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust (http://tinyurl.com/6zoaabj).  And Personnel Today published the fact that Christian British Airways (BA) worker Nadia Eweida has lost her appeal against a ruling which said the airline was not guilty of discrimination by stopping her wearing a religious cross at work (http://tinyurl.com/43w9zlb), although this may have been subsequently reversed.

What is apparent is that religious tolerance is being challenged in two of the (so called) most tolerant societies in the world.  This does not even consider the intolerances in other part of the world that has resulted in wars and ongoing conflict.

The fact that people’s emotions run high gives the media great copy.  This is evidenced by a short piece on UK TV last night where a Christian preacher spoke of how he sits with Muslims friends, eats Halal food with them, but insists on blessing the food in the name of the Christian God denouncing all other false Gods – I assume referring to Allah.  I am not sure whether this guy was given air time as people would find it funny or odd or because it showed a lack of consideration for people that he himself called friends.  It reminded me of an occasion when I took two officers from the Metropolitan Force for dinner in Liverpool.  One was a devout Muslim so we headed to a restaurant that used Halal meat.  I was astounded when the non-Muslim colleague asked if we could go somewhere that was not Halal as they did not serve beer.  This was a colleague of his and he was ignoring his devout religious beliefs. Is this despotism?  No I don’t think so.  We still hear of people being attacked because of the colour of their skin, or their gender or sexuality.  It is ignorance plain and simple.  

I have just read two books that refer to police constables being leaders within society.  One comes from Sir John Alderson (1979) and the other from Professor Steve Savage (2007).  Both speak of the police as being leaders within society and even further back Storch (1975) refers to the police as being missionaries looking after the morals of society. 

The question is this.  If Peel’s principle of the public are the police and the police are the public is correct, can we be satisfied that we have the processes to prevent such ignorance from becoming an increasing problem within policing?