The importance of mindset in policing | Chip Huth | TEDxTacoma
Summary
TLDRIn this inspiring talk, Chip Hughes, a 24-year veteran law enforcement officer, shares Kansas City's transformative journey in policing. From a zero-tolerance approach that failed to a mindset shift towards seeing people as individuals with hopes and needs, Hughes illustrates how this change in perspective led to significant reductions in crime and community complaints. The story highlights the power of empathy and personal connection in building trust and solving problems, proving that a change in mindset can create lasting, positive impacts on communities.
Takeaways
- 👮 Law enforcement has faced scrutiny and a lack of trust due to high-profile events, prompting a need for transformation in policing methods.
- 🛑 Chip, a 24-year law enforcement veteran, acknowledges his previous approach of 'pleading problems, not people' contributed to the issue.
- 🔄 Kansas City police underwent a transformative journey, learning new ways of policing that focused on community engagement and problem-solving.
- 🏘️ The Westside Community's high crime rate and fear of police were addressed by shifting from a zero-tolerance policy to a more community-oriented approach.
- 🐾 A significant reduction in dogs being shot during search warrant operations was achieved by incorporating a dog expert and technology to restrain aggressive animals.
- 🚐 SWAT team members took initiative to improve conditions in patrol wagons, addressing community complaints about excessive heat and enhancing relations with detainees.
- 🍳 A SWAT officer's empathetic response to a family's ruined dinner during an evacuation demonstrated the humanizing effect of seeing people as individuals with needs.
- 👶 An officer's act of mixing and distributing baby bottles during a chaotic house search illustrates the importance of adaptability and responsiveness in law enforcement.
- 🔑 Two officers on the West Side focused on building trust and differentiating between day laborers and criminals, leading to a significant drop in crime rates.
- 🏢 The community's re-engagement with local businesses and support for the police is a testament to the positive outcomes of a mindset shift in law enforcement.
- 🌟 The SWAT team's transformation resulted in a three-fold increase in productivity and a 100% reduction in community complaints over six years, showcasing the power of a mindset change.
Q & A
What is the main issue discussed in the script?
-The script discusses the transformation of law enforcement practices, particularly in Kansas City, focusing on changing the mindset from 'pleasing problems' to 'pleasing people' to build trust and reduce crime.
How long has Chip, Hugh been a law enforcement officer?
-Chip, Hugh has been a law enforcement officer for the past 24 years.
What significant events led to a lack of trust in the police?
-High-profile events in the country, which are not specified in the script, have contributed to a lack of trust in the police among many community members.
What was the initial approach of the SWAT team in the Westside Community?
-The initial approach was a zero tolerance policy toward crime, with heavy policing, writing tickets, and making arrests for any violation, regardless of how minor.
What was the result of the initial SWAT team approach in the Westside Community?
-Despite the heavy-handed approach, the crime rate increased, and community members began to see the police as the enemy.
How did the mindset of the SWAT team begin to change?
-The mindset began to change through the influence of The Arbinger Institute, which partnered with the Leadership Academy to encourage officers to see the people they serve as people.
What was the impact of embedding a dog expert with the SWAT team?
-Embedding a dog expert led to an 80% reduction in dogs being shot during search warrant operations by learning about dog behavior and implementing additional technology to restrain aggressive animals.
What initiative did the patrol wagon drivers take to address the issue of excessive heat in the prisoner compartment?
-The patrol wagon drivers purchased PVC pipe and duct tape to create a makeshift ventilation system that pushed cool air into the prisoner's compartment.
What was the result of the SWAT team's new approach in the Westside Community after abandoning the zero tolerance policy?
-The crime rate was reduced to an all-time low, and the community became more engaged and supportive of the police, with businesses and restaurants moving back into the neighborhood.
How did the SWAT team's productivity and community complaints change after the mindset shift?
-The SWAT team captured more illegal drugs and guns in a 3-year period than in the previous decade, while receiving zero community complaints for 6 years, indicating a three-fold increase in productivity and a 100% reduction in complaints.
What is the key takeaway from the script regarding law enforcement and community relations?
-The key takeaway is that changing the mindset of law enforcement officers to see community members as individuals with hopes, needs, and fears, rather than just enforcing rules, can significantly improve relations and reduce crime.
Outlines
👮♂️ Transformation in Policing
The speaker, Chip, a 24-year veteran of law enforcement, discusses the transformation in his approach to policing. Initially part of the problem due to a zero-tolerance policy that led to community mistrust, Chip and his team in Kansas City began to apply new methods of policing, influenced by The Arbinger Institute. They started to see the community members as people, not just problems, which led to innovative solutions like reducing the shooting of aggressive dogs and addressing the discomfort of prisoners during transport. This shift in mindset significantly improved community relations and reduced crime rates.
🔍 Personalized Policing Approaches
This paragraph highlights unique and personalized approaches taken by the speaker's team in various situations. From compensating a family for a ruined dinner during an evacuation to serving a warrant in a chaotic household with infants, the team showed adaptability and empathy. They also describe how two officers on the West Side, after abandoning zero-tolerance policies, engaged with community leaders, building trust and differentiating between day laborers and criminals. This led to a system that provided support for workers and community services, significantly reducing crime and restoring community spirit.
🏆 Achievements and Mindset Shift
The final paragraph summarizes the achievements made by the speaker's team, emphasizing the importance of a mindset shift over new policies or technologies. The team's productivity increased threefold, capturing more illegal drugs and guns in three years than in the previous decade, while also achieving a 100% reduction in community complaints over six years. The speaker concludes by stating that if their team could achieve such transformation, any team can, highlighting the power of changing perspectives in law enforcement.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Law Enforcement
💡Zero Tolerance Policy
💡Community Trust
💡Transformational Policing
💡SWAT Team
💡The Arbinger Institute
💡Aggressive Dogs
💡Patrol Wagons
💡Community Complaints
💡Mindset Shift
💡Productivity
Highlights
Chip, Hugh's 24-year experience as a law enforcement officer and the transformation in his approach to policing.
The deep scrutiny and lack of trust in police due to high-profile events.
The journey of applying new policing methods in Kansas City with a focus on solutions.
The initial SWAT team's zero tolerance policy and its failure to reduce crime in the Westside Community.
The realization of the ineffectiveness of traditional policing methods and the need for change.
Promotion and leadership of a new SWAT team with the same ineffective mindset.
Introduction of The Arbinger Institute's ideas and their impact on the team's mindset.
The shift in mindset leading to better results and community relations.
The initiative to reduce the shooting of aggressive dogs by understanding and addressing the issue.
The 80% reduction in dogs being shot due to innovative solutions and technology.
Officers addressing complaints about patrol wagon heat and taking proactive steps for improvement.
The creative solution using PVC pipes and duct tape to alleviate heat issues in patrol wagons.
The SWAT team's responsiveness in unique situations, leading to better community relations.
The story of a SWAT officer mixing baby bottles for infants during a chaotic house search.
The transformation of the Westside Community through a shift in mindset and engagement with community leaders.
The development of a system for day laborers that improved community safety and cooperation.
The significant reduction in crime rate and the revitalization of the Westside Community.
The importance of mindset change over new policies, technologies, or behavioral mandates.
The SWAT team's increased productivity and the complete elimination of community complaints over six years.
The message that the transformation experienced in Kansas City can be replicated elsewhere.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
hello good afternoon my name is Chip
Hugh and I've been a law enforcement
officer for the past 24 years and for
most of that time I have pleased
problems not people as we're all aware
law enforcement has come under deep
scrutiny in the in the wake of recent
significant events in our country so
some of these high-profile events have
contributed to a lack of trust in the
police on the part of many community
members and for most of my career I've
been part of that
problem but over the last several years
in Kansas City we've been on a journey a
journey learning to apply new ways of
policing that have been transformational
particularly for me and the members of
my
team with the real urgency to find
solutions to our biggest problems I want
to share how this transformation
occurred for us and what it has meant in
Kansas City I'm here because I know what
has happened with us can happen
anywhere when I first became a SWAT team
member our City's Westside Community was
deeply burdened with high volume crime
many businesses had relocated and the
streets resembled open
sewers most of the criminals Blended in
with groups of undocumented workers and
prayed on them and other citizens who
were too fearful to cooperate with the
police at one point our SWAT team was
brought in with a mandate to clean it up
we adopted a zero tolerance policy
toward crime of any kind but the
situation continued to decline we
pleased the neighborhood heavily we
wrote tickets and made arrests for any
violation we observe no matter how minor
we were fishing with a net instead of a
spear and many hardworking community
members got caught up in the sweeps
meant to discourage the
criminals despite our work the crime
rate increased and because of our work
some community members began to see us
as the
enemy I remember one critical thinking
officer approaching me and asking chip
you do realize what we're doing isn't
working right to which I replied yes of
course I realize it isn't working but
we're the police and this is what we
do it was my narrow-mindedness that
invited community members to complain
more and cooperate
less a few years later I was promoted
and had the opportunity to lead a SWAT
team of my own I brought the same
mindset I had employed on the west side
with me and it wasn't long before that
team was one of the most complained upon
units in the entire
department I was equal parts blind to
the needs of the community and the
potential of my team
it was in the middle of all this that we
encountered the ideas of The arbinger
Institute through a partnership with the
Institute and our Leadership Academy we
began to ask a question do we really see
the people we're pleasing as people as
we started to ask ourselves this
question our team members started to
consider what it might be like to be
pleased by us as our Collective mindset
begin to shift so did our results let me
illustrate with a few quick
stories our team encounters many
aggressive dogs during search warrant
service operations aggressive dogs dogs
pose obvious danger to the team and the
primary way for the team to address them
was to shoot
them this made the owners of the animals
predictably angry and sad relating to
the dog owners one Squad member asked
this this question of our team he said
what if we could serve a warrant on your
house without shooting your dog would
you want us
to well many of the team members are pet
owners so you can imagine what the
answer was this one question led us to
embed a dog expert with our team to
learn our jobs and to teach teach us
about dog behavior we also implemented
additional technology to capture and
restrain aggressive animals this
initiative to date has resulted in an
80% reduction in dogs being shot on
search one executions in Kansas City
Missouri our team utilizes Patrol wagons
to escort suspects to jail these wagons
are essentially vans that have been
converted to whole prisoners a couple of
officers were operating these wagons not
noticed that people were complaining
about the excessive heat in the summer
months as a result they were often angry
and unruly and when they got to jail
they caused disturbances with the
detention people the wagon drivers
listened to the complaints of these
folks and they actually did an
investigation themselves they took it on
themselves to look into this they
discovered the cabins of the patrol
wagons could heat up to dangerous levels
on some
days but because of the modifications
made to the vehicle cool air could not
be effectively pumped into the prisoner
compartment these off officers went to
the local hardware store and purchased
PVC pipe and duct tape with money out of
their own wallets they used the duct
tape to attach one end of the PVC pipe
to the air conditioner vents in the
driver's compartment ran the other end
of the pipe through the metal mesh into
the back of the prisoner's
compartment this made it possible to
push cool air into the back of the wagon
providing relief from the heat uh to the
suspects as they were being transported
to the Detention
Facility as we started to see people we
were pleasing more and more as people
who mattered the way we mattered
it began to affect what we did as we
responded to Unique situations in ways
we could not have conceived of when we
were operating from an inward
mindset one summer day our team chased a
violent fugitive into an apartment
complex the man hid in the ceiling of
one of the apartments requiring us to
evacuate the entire
building one family was in the middle of
making dinner and in their rush to get
the safety they weren't able to turn off
the
stove once the building was evacuated we
were able to enter the ceiling space and
capture the suspect without endangering
the residence a detective assigned to
our team noticed the ruined dinner on
the Family's stove he took inventory of
everything that was wasted and left the
scene as we began the process of letting
folks back into their homes about 30
minutes later that detective returned
with an armful of groceries which he
delivered to the family whose dinner was
ruined the detective had used his
personal credit card to replace every
single item on the Family's dinner
menu one day we asked we were asked by
the homicide unit to serve a warrant uh
on a house looking for a couple of
murder
suspects uh we did our homework on the
residence I briefed the team and we
rolled out as we made the block we were
immediately compromised by Lookouts uh
our breacher took the front door off the
hinges with the battering ram and we
made our way into the living room what
we encountered on the other side of that
door was complete
pandemonium there were approximately 25
people with small children and infants
in the home toddlers were literally
clinging to our legs as we made our way
through the house there were minutes of
chaos as we rounded everybody up and
Consolidated them into a dining room
room that had been furnished with three
couches I tried to address the group
however with several small children
screaming and mothers frantically trying
to calm them the best I could do was try
to go from person to person to explain
why we were
there it was about that time I noticed
that my point man was
missing uh I decided I was going to try
to find him I imagined he had found some
quiet place somewhere in the house to
call the detectives I walked into the
kitchen and there he was in full
tactical gear standing at the sink
mixing baby
bottles he just looked at me and smiled
and kind of shrugged and he went out to
the dining room and began Distributing
the baby bottles to the mothers of the
crying
infants this one act of responsiveness
changed the entire scene everyone calmed
down and we were able to explain the
situation thoroughly and turn the two
suspects over to the detective smoothly
all because this officer was able to be
responsive in a stressful
situation no behavioral mandate new
policy or technology prescription can
change the way we see others nor can
these sterile measures equip officers
with the ability to adapt in the moment
to provide the approach each unique
situation
requires the change in the way we see
can not only transform a single
situation but can transform an entire
Community let me take you back to the
west side where two officers there began
to see people as
people after we had abandoned the zero
tolerance policies on the West Side the
main responsibility for policing the
community fell to two officers these
officers engage Community Leaders with
humility and an open mind they abandoned
positions and focused on the shared
interests of the neighborhood and the
police department they began by
acknowledging the personhood of each
member of the community they saw them as
people who counted this shift in mindset
opened up possibilities never before
considered they worked to build trust
with all community members they begin to
differentiate between the day laborers
who wanted to work and those who hid
among them that were responsible for the
majority of the crime in the
neighborhood these officers helped
devise a system where the men seeking
work had to report to a community center
where they were issued ID cards and
provided with food coffee restroom
facilities and place to
shower those who weren't picked up for
work on a given day were dispatched out
into the community to perform to perform
Neighborhood
Services these two officers worked right
alongside of them clearing brush
painting houses and even helping
neighborhood matriarchs make tamales all
the while building critical
relationships that were leveraged to
help instill security safety and
prosperity back back into the
community the criminals with ill intent
became easy to identify and the
community began willingly cooperating
with the efforts to reduce crime and
disorder has their fear of the police
dissipated these two officers worked
with the community members and fellow
officers to drive the crime rate to an
all-time low and achieve a national
success story that was made possible by
a mindset shift that allowed them to see
those in the community as people with
individual hopes needs fears and Dreams
A Bank restaurant and other
neighborhoods and other businesses move
back into the neighborhood and the
community is engaged and supportive of
the
police we are facing a huge Challenge
and we must face it together the
solution is simple changing our mindset
more than mandating new behaviors
deploying new technologies or
implementing new policies is what is
needed this mindset shift helped our
SWAT team capture more illegal drugs and
guns in a 3-year period than we had in
the previous decade while at the same
time transforming from the most
complaint on unit in the department to
receiving zero Community complaints in 6
years just a recap that represents a
three-fold increase in productivity and
a 100% reduction in community
complaints believe me if we can do it
anyone can thank you very much for the
gift of your
[Applause]
time
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