August 7, 2025 • 21 mins
Welcome back to another episode of The First Responder Playbook! In this episode, host Brent is joined once again by the insightful Sergeant V, who brings his experience and wisdom from the field to discuss one of the cornerstones of effective leadership: servant leadership. Together, they explore what it truly means to put the needs of your team and community first, rather than seeking recognition or personal advancement.
Brent and Sergeant V share candid stories of their own challenges and lessons learned in leadership roles—like the pitfalls of chasing after numbers for self-promotion versus genuinely serving the public, and how understanding and supporting the unique motivations of every team member can be the key to success. They discuss practical ways to lead by example, the importance of being visible and present for your team, and the value of honest, anonymous feedback within agencies.
Whether you’re a new supervisor or a seasoned officer, this episode is full of real talk and practical advice on how to inspire, motivate, and lift up those around you. Tune in for an engaging conversation on growing as a leader—and hear why the best leaders never forget where they came from.
Want to be a guest on The First Responder Playbook: Insights on Leadership and Training? Send Brent Colbert a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1748037097521814b71b1b454
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Guys, welcome to that new episode of the First Responder Playbook. I'm joined
again by my great guest, Sergeant V. Sergeant V is
out training in the wild south of America
and he is taking his time out of
getting a little bit of rest to join us tonight. So thank you Sergeant V.
It's nice again. And I'm not in the south of America.
(00:25):
I'm not that lost yet.
I. We are here tonight to talk about servant leadership,
which you know, its definition is where the main goals to
enhance growth, well being and empowerment of individuals and
communities. Placing the needs of others before the leader zones.
(00:46):
Sergeant V, this is something that I believe in
wholeheartedly because
often in law enforcement and first responders in general
there is a me culture.
But as a leader you kind of have to put your team before
(01:08):
yourself. Would you agree with that? Absolutely.
And it can be a struggle, Right. We all have that desire to
hit that next achievement, hit that next goal, fulfill our own
missions that sometimes we
forget that our fellow co workers or our
subordinates, they're actually the mission, they're the
(01:31):
goal because if we can help them, we're going to do better as a
team. Yeah, for sure. I,
I think that we really need to realize,
especially as a profession, is that
your person, your partner to the left or the right of you
(01:51):
is there to achieve a common goal and not a personal
goal. So like it is very
nice to go out there and you know, catch criminals
or you know, catch people doing criminal acts. But
are you doing it to promote yourself or are you doing it to serve your
citizens? And that's what we really need to realize at the end of the day
(02:13):
is we're here to serve the citizens of our town, city,
tribe, whoever you may work for. I
like that. That's a good reality check. I've seen it plenty of times.
Heck, I've probably been guilty of it a time or two. Going out there,
you know, getting into the fun chases, hunting the warrants or
(02:34):
trying to get as many DUIs off the street as possible or
you know, trying to find as many drugs as possible because I want that recognition
or that advancement it might get me for my next promotion that I was up
for. But yeah, we oftentimes forget
that we're not doing it for ourselves. We're doing it to help the community. We're
doing it to make the streets safer, to hold
(02:56):
those people accountable that have done those bad things and so the community is
safer in the long run. That's a good reminder. Yeah,
absolutely. And don't be wrong I love being proactive and I love,
you know, even being competitive to catch criminals.
It's just you have to remember to do it for the right reason. To not
just, hey, we're doing it to do it. Like, it's
(03:18):
not okay to go out there and, you know,
takes drugs or warrants to just promote yourself. And like I said,
every person. You're right, every person's probably been guilty of it at some
point. But we have to take a step back and slow down and
say, are we doing this for the right reasons or are we doing this
because it serves us? And we need to remember that we need to be
(03:40):
doing it to serve others, not ourselves.
Yeah. I remember a time in my career where a
supervisor had given me assignment and I went back to my shift
and I was very management based. It was early on in my
leadership career, and that supervisor was very management
based in the way he did things. And I had been struggling getting
(04:02):
my shift to get motivated to go out there and,
you know, be productive. And he was very
much the. All right, well, you just tell them, this is the rules, this is
the policy, and this is the quantity, the output that I want.
And, you know, not knowing any better, not having any more
training and leadership than I did, I went out there and took the same
(04:24):
approach. Because to me, it motivated me that way because I'm a
task oriented person. You lay out your goals, you lay out your
objectives. I'm willing to jump and drive and hit those
goals. That's a good challenge for me. But it didn't always work for
everybody else. I had to eventually figure
out what actually helped to motivate them and
(04:46):
not what motivated me. That's that selflessness that we oftentimes
forget is we need to do things that appeal to them
so that they accomplish the mission on their terms. Because
at the end of the day, the goal is the same. Right. Doesn't matter how
we get there, as long as we get there. Yeah,
for sure. So in your opinion, how would you apply
(05:08):
servant leadership in law enforcement? Oh,
it starts with knowing your guys and gals on the street with
you. Knowing your teammates, knowing your subordinates.
Okay. Knowing what their strengths and their weaknesses
are. And the only way to figure that out is to get out there and
work with them and then sit down and talk to them, get
(05:31):
to know them. Right. Figure out what it is that's driving
them, where they're wanting to go, why they're wanting to go there,
and then support them in those goals and in those missions.
Not every police officer wants to be a detective. Not
every police officer wants to be a supervisor. So figuring
out what it is that they want to accomplish and then
(05:54):
being there and supporting them as best as you can so they can hit those
goals. And sometimes they might come to you and they have
a perception or an idea of where they want to be, but they're just not
the right fit for that. So being able to coach and mentor them and
help them see what their actual strengths and weaknesses are, too,
so that they can be the best possible officer for themselves.
(06:17):
Yeah, I agree with that. We have to realize that,
you know, if you have a shift of five, there's four other different
personalities besides your own out there that have varied interest.
They might be different ages, they might come from different backgrounds,
and no one is ever going to have the. The
(06:37):
same desire to do the exact same thing at the exact same time.
And even if you did have, you know, five hard chargers,
would you really make a good shift at that point? Because, you know, if you're
just out there hard charging, who's going to take the calls? So
you have to have a very good mix of that, and you
(06:57):
have to be aware of that. So I. That I would
agree with that. So since you took what I was probably gonna say on the
first one, I'm going to come with the second one. Man. To me,
servant leadership is being willing to
do just as much as what your patrol people are doing
when you're in a patrol supervisor's role. So if
(07:20):
you're a sergeant or corporal, you're not above taking
calls, making arrests, being seen in public,
showing up to big things. Don't just show up to those
homicides or, you know, whatever may occur, like
be seen out of the office, make contact with citizens,
and show your people that you can actually get out there and lead by
(07:43):
example. I think a lot of times respect
goes a long ways with that, because once you get
that respect, people know you're out there doing it. You know, you're going to catch
a lot more, catch a lot less flack, and your
shift's going to run more smoothly. Yeah, I like
that. We just have to be careful that we're not showing up and
(08:05):
just taking over the case. And they're just there to support
us. We should be there to support them. Right.
So while we are there to help make those arrests and we're all there as
a team, it's not so that we get the credit so that they get the
credit. And so that may require taking a little bit slower approach
and coaching and mentoring them through how to solve the case
(08:27):
or work through to the solutions that need to be there so that they can
walk away feeling like they accomplished something and learned something as well.
I agree wholeheartedly. Mine, I guess I should clarify was more,
you know, when you got somebody to jail and you got somebody else on another
domestic, like you don't hold a call until
that guy gets down to the jail. Oh yeah, like go shag that
(08:50):
call, handle that
more. So like as needed, you take calls, not
show up, take over. Because you're right. If you show up and take over your
calls, are you really teaching them anything, being a good leader, good
mentor? No, not really. And then
they're not learning anything. So what's the point of doing it other than
(09:12):
you're getting your own self glory? And that just goes
against servant leadership wholeheartedly.
Another thing that I really would like to touch on with servant leadership
is that oftentimes when people get in
administrative roles, they
(09:32):
kind of lose touch with what's going on
on their shifts. So, you know,
let's just say your agency has four shifts. Well, obviously you're going to see
your day shift more because you're out during daytime hours.
It would help with shift morale, which is
(09:52):
knowing what's going on at the department. Make an appearance at roll call
or in the mornings, you know, when the shift briefing happens for
the shift exchange. Make yourself seen at times
so that way you can be in tune with what's actually going on. Because
you're going to hear a lot of fluff when people come to you and say,
(10:13):
hey, everything's going great. Department. There's not one
issue here. Well,
95 of the time there's probably issues going on. They just
don't want to tell you. The only way you're going to ever find out is
actually showing up and making the effort to like be seen,
like when it matters. So don't just be a office
(10:34):
supervisor and stay in there 24 7. Get out and
be seen that, you know, different shift changes, you know, if
there's shift meetings going on, stuff like that. Oh,
absolutely. Being out there with the team
builds so much camaraderie and respect. But
when you have that supervisor that you said like never comes out of their
(10:56):
office, it's. I wouldn't say
it's a morale killer, but it definitely
doesn't build the same sense of leadership and connection with
the team. Yeah, absolutely.
Where, where do you want to
(11:17):
see law enforcement head towards
in the next five years in regards to leadership?
Oh, that's an interesting question. So.
There'S a lot of agencies that
promote officers to leadership positions
(11:38):
without ever giving their officers training
until sometimes years after they've been
promoted into that leadership position. I would like to see it
mandatory for officers to get leadership training
prior to being promoted into leadership because
leadership is a skill and it's a learned skill that takes time and
(12:00):
practice to implement. And if they don't get the training
beforehand, then they're getting a crash course when they get promoted.
So I'd like to see more requirements to having that training
prior to promotions. Yeah, I, I can agree with
that wholeheartedly. They really don't
(12:20):
think that's too hard to implement. It's just a lot of
agencies either want to save a few bucks
or they don't want to send them until they're for sure they want to put
them in that role. And I understand that to a point. But you're right. If
you step in day one and you're not prepared, what happens if
something happens day one and you're not prepared?
(12:41):
So yeah, I wholeheartedly can get on board with that.
What would you like to see in five years for leadership?
The implement implementation
of survey feedbacks at your agency.
And you see those a lot at bigger agencies right now.
(13:05):
But I want them anonymous because
I feel like you would get a more true representation of
people's feelings if they don't know who they came from.
But I feel like they would, they would be very effective
at smaller sized agencies because
(13:25):
people are more willing to put their
time and effort, I think into like being
a part of the department. Smaller agencies. At bigger agencies, you
don't have as much of the camaraderie with the whole agency. It's more
of, you know, hey, like my whole squad, like we're, we're tight
but you know, I may not see anybody else. Smaller agencies, you're gonna see
(13:48):
everybody and like people get more invested in being,
you know, a small town police officer. My opinion could be wrong, but
I feel like those surveys would allow
leadership to be able to know about things that are going on
that people sometimes wouldn't tell necessarily.
(14:09):
Maybe new technology that's appearing that, you know, they think hey, we could use
and you know, just general feedback on like hey, we might
want to go to Fords instead of Chevys or.
You. Know, and that was actually one of my
big complaints at an agency that I had an interview at was,
(14:30):
was the type of vehicles they were using. And
so like that matters to your people. If that matters to your people. Then it
should matter to you as a leader because you're there. They
should definitely be driving Chevys. Yeah.
Because I mean, honestly, you're there to serve the citizens, but you're also there to
serve your officers because you have to have a balance of both.
(14:53):
You have a workable relationship. And
so I think you just need to be, as a leader, open to new
ways of feedback and ideas. I feel like that'd be a good way to
get them out there, like that idea.
You. I like that because sometimes we promote
people and they might have looked
(15:15):
like the best candidate, but then they don't make the right adjustments
and they take different approaches and everything looks good on
paper. But the truth is
they're not really being selfless and they're not really leading their people.
They're managing them. And it can be hard to tell the difference
from, you know, that office space above them as opposed to
(15:38):
when you're down below them and actually working with them on the streets. So
that'd be interesting feedback to see. Yeah, for sure. And I,
I really think that
moving forward in law enforcement, kind of like we talked about
previously with managing of the personalities,
(15:59):
is that departments are going to have to realize
that this generation of officer is not tied to,
to one agency like they were in previous generations.
And so they're gonna have to get creative to keep
retention up. And so whether that may be, you know,
(16:19):
fringe benefits, like extra money for degrees or, you know,
certifications, picking up extra part of your health
insurance or extra part of your pensions,
agencies are gonna have to be creative to keep your people, because they're not tied
to one agency for 25 years anymore. For the most part.
(16:40):
Yeah, I would. I almost have a different perspective on that,
honestly, because I like to hear it. This, this is a
discussion. Yeah. I don't think officers leave
the department. Officers lead or leave their
leaders. So it's, it's not about the
benefits at all. The benefits may be worse
(17:02):
somewhere else, but if the leadership there is better, they're going to go there.
If the environment, if the camaraderie is better somewhere
else, they're going to go to that place whether the benefits are
good or not, because that's what they want. They want the connection.
They want the rapport. They want the
emotional, personal benefits, not the
(17:24):
physical benefits. I can get behind that, actually,
because I know some people's done that
a. Lot good over the years. Yeah, maybe I'm guilty of that.
But, you know, you're, you're right on that for sure.
That poor leadership will run people off
(17:45):
quicker than pretty much anything else. So
as we wrap up, what's one
thing that you are grateful for from your time in law enforcement?
You know, I'm going to keep it on the leadership realm. I had an old
sergeant. He was, he was a
(18:08):
great leader. I'd almost say he was a coach as
opposed to a leader. And that's the great thing about coaches, is
coaches don't just lead or manage.
Coaches inspire change.
And that's what he did with me. He inspired me. He taught
me things that no other sergeant or supervisor
(18:30):
ever thought to teach. And it made me a better
police officer for it. I knew my,
looking back on it, I didn't realize my own strengths and weaknesses,
but he did. And some of the things he said and did
helped with my strengths and weaknesses. So
that's, that's what I'm thankful for. I can get behind
(18:53):
that. I think I'll, I'll go two
because now I want to keep one on top of the topic of the podcast
too. You always have the good ideas.
I will say if my one for leadership purposes
is always be fair as a leader and
don't forget where you came from. I had a
(19:16):
sergeant that I still to this day adore.
And he was never a bush shaker. He
probably studied a lot of policy in a dark corner somewhere.
But when push came to shove and I needed somebody
there with me, he was there every time. And if I did something
that, you know, wasn't up to policy or, you know, maybe needed to
(19:39):
be corrected a little bit, he would correct me, but he would do it respectfully.
And there was a lot of people that talked bad about him
that never had actually worked with him. And then I actually worked with him.
And I mean, to this day, he's good as gold.
So I would just remind people that people remember
leaders who are fair and, you know, treat
(20:03):
them with a little bit of respect at times. So that's my
number one. But I will say my second one, my, that I'm
grateful for in law enforcement is the ability to
solve crimes to help citizens out.
I, A lot of guys hate it, but I love working property crimes because
(20:25):
there's that tangible thing that you can get back to the citizen, say, look, we
got your property back that you were, you know, was stolen from you.
And I just, I love being able to get out
there and actually do stuff to show that we want to help
people. And that was always my favorite
thing. A lot of guys hate it because it's kind of slow paced and
(20:49):
you got to put a lot of elbow work in, but there's
nothing more rewarding than getting someone stolen property back. In my opinion,
those were good cases. Well, Sergeant
V, it's fun, as always. Stay safe, and we'll see
you guys next time. Go inspire some change.
Yep.
Guys, welcome to that new episode of the First Responder Playbook. I'm joined
again by my great guest, Sergeant V. Sergeant V is
out training in the wild south of America
and he is taking his time out of
getting a little bit of rest to join us tonight. So thank you Sergeant V.
It's nice again. And I'm not in the south of America.
(00:25):
I'm not that lost yet.
I. We are here tonight to talk about servant leadership,
which you know, its definition is where the main goals to
enhance growth, well being and empowerment of individuals and
communities. Placing the needs of others before the leader zones.
(00:46):
Sergeant V, this is something that I believe in
wholeheartedly because
often in law enforcement and first responders in general
there is a me culture.
But as a leader you kind of have to put your team before
(01:08):
yourself. Would you agree with that? Absolutely.
And it can be a struggle, Right. We all have that desire to
hit that next achievement, hit that next goal, fulfill our own
missions that sometimes we
forget that our fellow co workers or our
subordinates, they're actually the mission, they're the
(01:31):
goal because if we can help them, we're going to do better as a
team. Yeah, for sure. I,
I think that we really need to realize,
especially as a profession, is that
your person, your partner to the left or the right of you
(01:51):
is there to achieve a common goal and not a personal
goal. So like it is very
nice to go out there and you know, catch criminals
or you know, catch people doing criminal acts. But
are you doing it to promote yourself or are you doing it to serve your
citizens? And that's what we really need to realize at the end of the day
(02:13):
is we're here to serve the citizens of our town, city,
tribe, whoever you may work for. I
like that. That's a good reality check. I've seen it plenty of times.
Heck, I've probably been guilty of it a time or two. Going out there,
you know, getting into the fun chases, hunting the warrants or
(02:34):
trying to get as many DUIs off the street as possible or
you know, trying to find as many drugs as possible because I want that recognition
or that advancement it might get me for my next promotion that I was up
for. But yeah, we oftentimes forget
that we're not doing it for ourselves. We're doing it to help the community. We're
doing it to make the streets safer, to hold
(02:56):
those people accountable that have done those bad things and so the community is
safer in the long run. That's a good reminder. Yeah,
absolutely. And don't be wrong I love being proactive and I love,
you know, even being competitive to catch criminals.
It's just you have to remember to do it for the right reason. To not
just, hey, we're doing it to do it. Like, it's
(03:18):
not okay to go out there and, you know,
takes drugs or warrants to just promote yourself. And like I said,
every person. You're right, every person's probably been guilty of it at some
point. But we have to take a step back and slow down and
say, are we doing this for the right reasons or are we doing this
because it serves us? And we need to remember that we need to be
(03:40):
doing it to serve others, not ourselves.
Yeah. I remember a time in my career where a
supervisor had given me assignment and I went back to my shift
and I was very management based. It was early on in my
leadership career, and that supervisor was very management
based in the way he did things. And I had been struggling getting
(04:02):
my shift to get motivated to go out there and,
you know, be productive. And he was very
much the. All right, well, you just tell them, this is the rules, this is
the policy, and this is the quantity, the output that I want.
And, you know, not knowing any better, not having any more
training and leadership than I did, I went out there and took the same
(04:24):
approach. Because to me, it motivated me that way because I'm a
task oriented person. You lay out your goals, you lay out your
objectives. I'm willing to jump and drive and hit those
goals. That's a good challenge for me. But it didn't always work for
everybody else. I had to eventually figure
out what actually helped to motivate them and
(04:46):
not what motivated me. That's that selflessness that we oftentimes
forget is we need to do things that appeal to them
so that they accomplish the mission on their terms. Because
at the end of the day, the goal is the same. Right. Doesn't matter how
we get there, as long as we get there. Yeah,
for sure. So in your opinion, how would you apply
(05:08):
servant leadership in law enforcement? Oh,
it starts with knowing your guys and gals on the street with
you. Knowing your teammates, knowing your subordinates.
Okay. Knowing what their strengths and their weaknesses
are. And the only way to figure that out is to get out there and
work with them and then sit down and talk to them, get
(05:31):
to know them. Right. Figure out what it is that's driving
them, where they're wanting to go, why they're wanting to go there,
and then support them in those goals and in those missions.
Not every police officer wants to be a detective. Not
every police officer wants to be a supervisor. So figuring
out what it is that they want to accomplish and then
(05:54):
being there and supporting them as best as you can so they can hit those
goals. And sometimes they might come to you and they have
a perception or an idea of where they want to be, but they're just not
the right fit for that. So being able to coach and mentor them and
help them see what their actual strengths and weaknesses are, too,
so that they can be the best possible officer for themselves.
(06:17):
Yeah, I agree with that. We have to realize that,
you know, if you have a shift of five, there's four other different
personalities besides your own out there that have varied interest.
They might be different ages, they might come from different backgrounds,
and no one is ever going to have the. The
(06:37):
same desire to do the exact same thing at the exact same time.
And even if you did have, you know, five hard chargers,
would you really make a good shift at that point? Because, you know, if you're
just out there hard charging, who's going to take the calls? So
you have to have a very good mix of that, and you
(06:57):
have to be aware of that. So I. That I would
agree with that. So since you took what I was probably gonna say on the
first one, I'm going to come with the second one. Man. To me,
servant leadership is being willing to
do just as much as what your patrol people are doing
when you're in a patrol supervisor's role. So if
(07:20):
you're a sergeant or corporal, you're not above taking
calls, making arrests, being seen in public,
showing up to big things. Don't just show up to those
homicides or, you know, whatever may occur, like
be seen out of the office, make contact with citizens,
and show your people that you can actually get out there and lead by
(07:43):
example. I think a lot of times respect
goes a long ways with that, because once you get
that respect, people know you're out there doing it. You know, you're going to catch
a lot more, catch a lot less flack, and your
shift's going to run more smoothly. Yeah, I like
that. We just have to be careful that we're not showing up and
(08:05):
just taking over the case. And they're just there to support
us. We should be there to support them. Right.
So while we are there to help make those arrests and we're all there as
a team, it's not so that we get the credit so that they get the
credit. And so that may require taking a little bit slower approach
and coaching and mentoring them through how to solve the case
(08:27):
or work through to the solutions that need to be there so that they can
walk away feeling like they accomplished something and learned something as well.
I agree wholeheartedly. Mine, I guess I should clarify was more,
you know, when you got somebody to jail and you got somebody else on another
domestic, like you don't hold a call until
that guy gets down to the jail. Oh yeah, like go shag that
(08:50):
call, handle that
more. So like as needed, you take calls, not
show up, take over. Because you're right. If you show up and take over your
calls, are you really teaching them anything, being a good leader, good
mentor? No, not really. And then
they're not learning anything. So what's the point of doing it other than
(09:12):
you're getting your own self glory? And that just goes
against servant leadership wholeheartedly.
Another thing that I really would like to touch on with servant leadership
is that oftentimes when people get in
administrative roles, they
(09:32):
kind of lose touch with what's going on
on their shifts. So, you know,
let's just say your agency has four shifts. Well, obviously you're going to see
your day shift more because you're out during daytime hours.
It would help with shift morale, which is
(09:52):
knowing what's going on at the department. Make an appearance at roll call
or in the mornings, you know, when the shift briefing happens for
the shift exchange. Make yourself seen at times
so that way you can be in tune with what's actually going on. Because
you're going to hear a lot of fluff when people come to you and say,
(10:13):
hey, everything's going great. Department. There's not one
issue here. Well,
95 of the time there's probably issues going on. They just
don't want to tell you. The only way you're going to ever find out is
actually showing up and making the effort to like be seen,
like when it matters. So don't just be a office
(10:34):
supervisor and stay in there 24 7. Get out and
be seen that, you know, different shift changes, you know, if
there's shift meetings going on, stuff like that. Oh,
absolutely. Being out there with the team
builds so much camaraderie and respect. But
when you have that supervisor that you said like never comes out of their
(10:56):
office, it's. I wouldn't say
it's a morale killer, but it definitely
doesn't build the same sense of leadership and connection with
the team. Yeah, absolutely.
Where, where do you want to
(11:17):
see law enforcement head towards
in the next five years in regards to leadership?
Oh, that's an interesting question. So.
There'S a lot of agencies that
promote officers to leadership positions
(11:38):
without ever giving their officers training
until sometimes years after they've been
promoted into that leadership position. I would like to see it
mandatory for officers to get leadership training
prior to being promoted into leadership because
leadership is a skill and it's a learned skill that takes time and
(12:00):
practice to implement. And if they don't get the training
beforehand, then they're getting a crash course when they get promoted.
So I'd like to see more requirements to having that training
prior to promotions. Yeah, I, I can agree with
that wholeheartedly. They really don't
(12:20):
think that's too hard to implement. It's just a lot of
agencies either want to save a few bucks
or they don't want to send them until they're for sure they want to put
them in that role. And I understand that to a point. But you're right. If
you step in day one and you're not prepared, what happens if
something happens day one and you're not prepared?
(12:41):
So yeah, I wholeheartedly can get on board with that.
What would you like to see in five years for leadership?
The implement implementation
of survey feedbacks at your agency.
And you see those a lot at bigger agencies right now.
(13:05):
But I want them anonymous because
I feel like you would get a more true representation of
people's feelings if they don't know who they came from.
But I feel like they would, they would be very effective
at smaller sized agencies because
(13:25):
people are more willing to put their
time and effort, I think into like being
a part of the department. Smaller agencies. At bigger agencies, you
don't have as much of the camaraderie with the whole agency. It's more
of, you know, hey, like my whole squad, like we're, we're tight
but you know, I may not see anybody else. Smaller agencies, you're gonna see
(13:48):
everybody and like people get more invested in being,
you know, a small town police officer. My opinion could be wrong, but
I feel like those surveys would allow
leadership to be able to know about things that are going on
that people sometimes wouldn't tell necessarily.
(14:09):
Maybe new technology that's appearing that, you know, they think hey, we could use
and you know, just general feedback on like hey, we might
want to go to Fords instead of Chevys or.
You. Know, and that was actually one of my
big complaints at an agency that I had an interview at was,
(14:30):
was the type of vehicles they were using. And
so like that matters to your people. If that matters to your people. Then it
should matter to you as a leader because you're there. They
should definitely be driving Chevys. Yeah.
Because I mean, honestly, you're there to serve the citizens, but you're also there to
serve your officers because you have to have a balance of both.
(14:53):
You have a workable relationship. And
so I think you just need to be, as a leader, open to new
ways of feedback and ideas. I feel like that'd be a good way to
get them out there, like that idea.
You. I like that because sometimes we promote
people and they might have looked
(15:15):
like the best candidate, but then they don't make the right adjustments
and they take different approaches and everything looks good on
paper. But the truth is
they're not really being selfless and they're not really leading their people.
They're managing them. And it can be hard to tell the difference
from, you know, that office space above them as opposed to
(15:38):
when you're down below them and actually working with them on the streets. So
that'd be interesting feedback to see. Yeah, for sure. And I,
I really think that
moving forward in law enforcement, kind of like we talked about
previously with managing of the personalities,
(15:59):
is that departments are going to have to realize
that this generation of officer is not tied to,
to one agency like they were in previous generations.
And so they're gonna have to get creative to keep
retention up. And so whether that may be, you know,
(16:19):
fringe benefits, like extra money for degrees or, you know,
certifications, picking up extra part of your health
insurance or extra part of your pensions,
agencies are gonna have to be creative to keep your people, because they're not tied
to one agency for 25 years anymore. For the most part.
(16:40):
Yeah, I would. I almost have a different perspective on that,
honestly, because I like to hear it. This, this is a
discussion. Yeah. I don't think officers leave
the department. Officers lead or leave their
leaders. So it's, it's not about the
benefits at all. The benefits may be worse
(17:02):
somewhere else, but if the leadership there is better, they're going to go there.
If the environment, if the camaraderie is better somewhere
else, they're going to go to that place whether the benefits are
good or not, because that's what they want. They want the connection.
They want the rapport. They want the
emotional, personal benefits, not the
(17:24):
physical benefits. I can get behind that, actually,
because I know some people's done that
a. Lot good over the years. Yeah, maybe I'm guilty of that.
But, you know, you're, you're right on that for sure.
That poor leadership will run people off
(17:45):
quicker than pretty much anything else. So
as we wrap up, what's one
thing that you are grateful for from your time in law enforcement?
You know, I'm going to keep it on the leadership realm. I had an old
sergeant. He was, he was a
(18:08):
great leader. I'd almost say he was a coach as
opposed to a leader. And that's the great thing about coaches, is
coaches don't just lead or manage.
Coaches inspire change.
And that's what he did with me. He inspired me. He taught
me things that no other sergeant or supervisor
(18:30):
ever thought to teach. And it made me a better
police officer for it. I knew my,
looking back on it, I didn't realize my own strengths and weaknesses,
but he did. And some of the things he said and did
helped with my strengths and weaknesses. So
that's, that's what I'm thankful for. I can get behind
(18:53):
that. I think I'll, I'll go two
because now I want to keep one on top of the topic of the podcast
too. You always have the good ideas.
I will say if my one for leadership purposes
is always be fair as a leader and
don't forget where you came from. I had a
(19:16):
sergeant that I still to this day adore.
And he was never a bush shaker. He
probably studied a lot of policy in a dark corner somewhere.
But when push came to shove and I needed somebody
there with me, he was there every time. And if I did something
that, you know, wasn't up to policy or, you know, maybe needed to
(19:39):
be corrected a little bit, he would correct me, but he would do it respectfully.
And there was a lot of people that talked bad about him
that never had actually worked with him. And then I actually worked with him.
And I mean, to this day, he's good as gold.
So I would just remind people that people remember
leaders who are fair and, you know, treat
(20:03):
them with a little bit of respect at times. So that's my
number one. But I will say my second one, my, that I'm
grateful for in law enforcement is the ability to
solve crimes to help citizens out.
I, A lot of guys hate it, but I love working property crimes because
(20:25):
there's that tangible thing that you can get back to the citizen, say, look, we
got your property back that you were, you know, was stolen from you.
And I just, I love being able to get out
there and actually do stuff to show that we want to help
people. And that was always my favorite
thing. A lot of guys hate it because it's kind of slow paced and
(20:49):
you got to put a lot of elbow work in, but there's
nothing more rewarding than getting someone stolen property back. In my opinion,
those were good cases. Well, Sergeant
V, it's fun, as always. Stay safe, and we'll see
you guys next time. Go inspire some change.
Yep.
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