by David Brown | Nov 7, 2026 | Leadership and Culture |
After a critical incident, I used to ask “you good?” and move on. Everybody in this work has asked it, and everybody has answered it. The answer is always the same: “Yeah, I’m good.” That answer isn’t a lie, exactly. It’s a reflex. The question is built to be answered...
by David Brown | Nov 3, 2026 | Leadership and Culture |
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....
by David Brown | Oct 13, 2026 | Leadership and Culture |
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...
by David Brown | Aug 18, 2026 | Leadership and Culture |
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...
by David Brown | Aug 11, 2026 | Leadership and Culture |
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...
by David Brown | Aug 4, 2026 | Leadership and Culture |
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...
