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The Second Question

by David Brown | November 7, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

After a hard call, “you good?” gets “yeah, I’m good” every time. One small change gets you a real answer.

Clear the Desk

by David Brown | November 3, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

It's a Tuesday, and the request has been sitting in your box since the first of the month. Four days in March. His daughter turns ten, his wife found a cabin down in Hocking Hills, and his in-laws want to fly in from Arizona if it's actually happening. You've looked...

Write It Down

by David Brown | October 27, 2026 | Fatherhood | 0 Comments

I was driving home from work when a retired general on The Art of Manliness podcast described a briefing he sat through in 1991. Mark Hertling was an Army major in Germany with two boys at home, ten and seven, and he was told his cavalry squadron could take casualties...

Side by Side

by David Brown | October 20, 2026 | The Road and Outdoors | 0 Comments

We were sitting at a fire, and nobody was talking. We both knew there was hardship there, and neither of us was saying anything about it. Then, with tears streaming down his face, all the weight he had been carrying opened up and came out. Nobody had asked him how he...

Skating Isn’t Hockey – Jumping from Officer to Sergeant

by David Brown | October 13, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

There is a particular kind of embarrassment in having a wide open net in front of you and not being able to score. I know it well. I started playing hockey at 43. I never played growing up. I rollerbladed in the nineties, but never hockey, so when I finally stepped on...

Staffing Came Back. Experience Didn’t.

by David Brown | August 18, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

Everyone bracing for a young department to fail is watching the wrong place. They are watching the street, and the street is fine. The failure, when it comes, shows up in a case file somebody else opens about nine days later. Chuck Wexler sent PERF's members their...

Silence is Not Agreement

by David Brown | August 11, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

Watch the room the next time you roll out a decision. If every head is nodding, you have a problem. People who believe in an idea do not nod at it. They speak up, they add to it, they start solving for it before you finish the sentence. Nodding is what a room does...

The Staffing Crisis Is Quietly Promoting People Who Aren’t Ready

by David Brown | August 4, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

The number everyone quotes is one in ten. American policing is running at about 91 percent of authorized staffing, and almost every conversation about that number turns into a recruiting conversation. The conversation nobody schedules is about what the shortage is...

Overtime Is a Bridge. We Made It a Foundation.

by David Brown | July 28, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

In most departments, the worst news in policing is not delivered by the chief. It is delivered by a shift sergeant walking toward an officer who has already worked a full tour, to tell them they are not going home. Ask front line supervisors to name the hardest part...

Who Actually Runs the Police Department? What Does the Charter Say?

by David Brown | July 21, 2026 | Leadership and Culture | 0 Comments

In the early months of the pandemic, law enforcement officers around this country were told, in everything but writing, to stop being cops. The order did not come from their chiefs. It came from the politics above their chiefs, and the crime rates that followed told...

The Cycle of Influence: Understanding Leadership in the Context of Human Connection and Belonging

by David Brown | Aug 6, 2024 | Leadership and Culture

Influence is reciprocal. It is easy to say we are the sum of the five people we spend most of our time with. We tend to adopt their habits, preferences, and speech patterns. But we often overlook the fact that our actions can have a significant impact on those around...

Building Character

by David Brown | Jul 30, 2024 | The Inner Game

**Listen to the article using the A.I. clone of my voice from ElevenLabs.** Are you curious about how to develop your character? It's a fact that many of us rarely engage in deliberate actions aimed at enhancing our character. We often endure circumstances that expose...

The Two Pillars of Effective Communication: Validation and Respect

by David Brown | Jul 29, 2024 | Leadership and Culture

In the labyrinth of human interaction, two seldom-discussed principles can guide you toward success. These principles are simple yet profound and applicable in various contexts, from boardroom discussions to everyday conversations. They revolve around the...

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