Dirty Mirror Reflections

Cleaning away the grime of what society shows to law enforcement every day

Photo by Jack Finnigan on Unsplash

“Police officers put the badge on every morning, not knowing for sure if they'll come home at night to take it off.”    —Tom Cotton 

“Heroes don’t always wear capes” — Unknown

“Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” — George Orwell

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." —Winston Churchill

“A society which chooses war against the police better learn to make peace with its criminals.” — Unknown

I have heard these quotes and so many more throughout twenty-four years in public safety when referring how to view the job and the people that do it every day. However, I don’t hear these maxims on my profession as much as I used to, and were I be truly honest I had to intentionally search out these ones as our society is turning away from the consideration given to law enforcement in favor of something uglier.

I am compelled to follow the example seen in Biblical text from Peter and John who responded to the governmental authorities trying to silence them for speaking truth by saying, “we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” That’s what a courageous leader firmly planted in the foundation of nobility would be free to say because when you break it down that’s what is required of us today. Plato wrote in the Republic that “It does not matter if the cobblers and the masons fail to do their jobs well, but if the Guardians fail, the democracy will crumble.” Part of our job entails being a vocal proponent of what is right through any forum, condemning what’s wrong, and taking every thought and deed captive to model how to police to a community romanticized with the hope of our failure. Consider some recent headlines which draw a huge following:

• A silencing cacophony created by students and Stanford DEI Dean Tirien Steinbach in an event featuring Judge Kyle Duncan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit completely silenced his ability to deliver his remarks

• A city in Arizona was renamed through a Mayor’s proclamation for two days to “Swift City” to commemorate a two-day tour by outspoken anti-law enforcement proponent Taylor Swift

• The Atlanta Public Safety Training Facility was attacked by terrorist activists who showed no remorse at hurting law enforcement. “They began to throw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers," the Atlanta Police Department said.

Stepping Forward

And so good men and women write articles, go on television, and engage through social media standing against what appears to be a massive wave of hatred threatening to wash over our country. They stand courageously to highlight truth and support the people whose very purpose is defending other’s expressions of discord to take place. The get up, go to work, and put on the badge.

And what is happening to the people serving their communities because of these comments splashed everywhere? Officers are resigning in record numbers to work in other professions, the protection of qualified immunity doing the job is under attack again, sixteen officers have taken their own life this year alone, and the visible sign of support from the community just isn’t there. Why do those in law enforcement continue?

I remember when I started officers would leave to work other places, but it was unusual for more than a couple a year to do that. We didn’t worry about courts treating us like suspects first before investigations were done, no one ever talked about mental health concerns and law enforcement suicide, and the public loved us post-9/11 for a short time.

We came to work across the spectrum from patrol officer to detective to supervisor with a lived out loud sense of loyalty, purpose, and understanding that good people had to stand in between evil people and others if our community had any chance of surviving.

And we were good at what we did. Not just locally, but as a profession - we were as good as we are today but a key difference in the motivation day-to-day was the filter by which we saw ourselves. We were called “heroes, servants, protectors” by friends and family. I remember working a primary Hispanic community on Patrol for two years. They taught me Spanish - I taught them about the nobility of being a cop. They brought trays of tamales and pan dulce to the precinct for holidays - I brought an unbiased equality to the enforcement of the community laws. They needed me and I needed them. It truly was the embodiment of Sir Robert Peel’s premise of policing as he wrote, “the community are the police, and the police are the community.

The Dirty Reflection

How is it that I tested against 734 applicants for four slots in my agency when I started, and recently in 2022 the Phoenix Police Department posted being down over 500 officers with only 66 hired the same year? And that’s not even the worst. The New York Police Department saw just over 3,200 officer leave or resign…just in 2022. With the most staggering statistic showing 1,225 officers left before reaching five years of service.¹

Here is your problem. The mirror reflecting back truth about our law enforcement’s cultural identity has gotten dirtier and dirtier year after year. Whereas I saw patriotism, loyalty, legacy, nobility and support reflected back from the cultural mirror when I started, what I see now is a twisted view reminiscent of the Evil Queen from Snow White showing us the view begged for from the vocal minority chanting, “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, show the cops lies and defund them all.”

It takes intentionality and work every single day to choose to see my profession where it lies. There are approximately 660,288 police officers in our country of approximately 340 million. That’s one law enforcement professional per every 515 people. Consider that. I have a difficult time getting my family of four to agree on a place for dinner routinely. And the expectation is I can manage the response to crime for 515 other people in their community? And I still put on the badge each day. Because maybe only 51 of those people will be the ones to cause conflict, and the other 465 will help me as I look to help them!

The media doesn’t want that narrative. The politicians catering to super PACs don’t want that narrative. The BLM exposure as the criminal group they are doesn’t want that narrative. So, they dirty our mirror and work overtime to get officers believing they serve themselves selfishly only, that no one supports them or their bully pulpit of power, and that the only legacy left in a community is one of brutality and racism. It’s no wonder cops leave.

Pay attention here. The truth can only be seen by courageous people willing to use the back of their sleeve and wipe away the infectious slime trying to sicken us as a culture from the face of the mirror. Courageous leaders chart the course in this! If this is a foreign concept to you, I encourage you to read some of what Dr. Travis Yates explains through the Courageous Police Leader Alliance and through his Courageous Leadership site.

And if you work in an agency where your leadership is either afraid or unwilling to show you what a clean mirror reflecting a legacy of law enforcement modeled through the foundational principles of nobility, service, justice, and fundamental fairness looks like, then you have just identified the most important work you will have in front of you as the main change agent to uphold what you signed up for in law enforcement to do what’s right. And you are not alone in this. Reach out through the chat to me or with others to start building a network of people dedicated to combatting cowardly leadership in our profession. Show your family, your squad, your department, and the community what one person can do when they can rest well each night knowing the person they saw in the mirror that day was a true representation of the legacy building servant committed to putting their life in the gap between good and evil.

And then get up the next day, put on your badge and gun, and get to work.

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Sergeant Daukas is committed to the principles of Courageous Leadership and is the lead instructor for the foundational principle of Courageous Nobility. You can listen to Jeff discuss this vital principle on a recent Courageous Leadership Podcast.  He has over 20 years in law-enforcement working through patrol, investigations, and special operations both at the line level and as a supervisor. Through the last 20 years, Jeff has embraced his passion instructing officers and civilians through the nobility of policing. He is a certified FranklinCovey Nobility of Policing instructor, as well as a certified instructor for the Blue Courage curriculum. Jeff holds a master’s degree in criminal justice with a focus on terrorism and homeland security and teaches in that discipline at the college level.  He is a graduate of the FBI-LEEDA Supervisor Leadership Institute program consistently implementing servant-leadership into training the next generation of law-enforcement professionals in both courageous leadership and followership. 

1. Why Police Officers Are Leaving: Low Pay, Overwork and High Costs - The New York Times (nytimes.com)