Today I read in the news that a Police Chief of a metropolitan area announced his resignation amid a lot of turmoil in the city and within his Department. And in the news story, I was taken back by the Metro Council President…
“If the officers don’t feel in tune with their police chief, it displays itself on the street. And so, I think it’s very important for the police chief to recognize that they are responsible partially for the morale of their officers and for, you know, the morale of the city”
Did you catch it? The person who is 2nd in command of this metropolitan city says that the Police Chief, a person in charge of just a single department within the city’s government is responsible for the “morale of the city”. Sound familiar? As the safety professional, we are often looked upon as the single source of “safety morale” even though we may not even be part of the management team. Even when we are part of the management team, we are often at the whims of the management team’s decisions which impact culture much more than we could ever overcome.
