Grateful for the Calling

Throughout time people have answered an intrinsic call to serve others, protect freedom, and uphold democracy. I pray that never changes.

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

“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.” Plato from The Republic

These prophetic words were written in 360 B.C. and defined the critical role those who would stand the line between good and evil would carry. Certainly then and absolutely today. This is the beginning of National Police Week, and it was kicked off by the reading of our fallen brothers and sisters state by state who gave their lives to protect others - to defend the democracy from crumbling.

A Noble Calling

Any student of policing history will discover some key truths. Even before Sir Robert Peel codified the Metropolitan Police Force in London, the shaping for people to engage in the battle against evil was demanded when Cain murdered Abel as recorded in the Bible in Genesis 4:8. So, what drives a society to adopt a “Lex Talionis” approach to interpersonal wrongdoing, which means “an eye for an eye”, and start moving to the evolution of the “Shire-Reeve” (earliest evolution of Sheriff) for conflict resolution. And from there shrugging off the paid bouncer work of the rich industrialists in the early 1900’s to professionalizing police work from the 1960s to 1980s, and morphing into what we see today?

I have spent over twenty years doing this work and that idea has fascinated me. I have been privileged to train hundreds of police recruits in the police academy, develop them through their field training program as both a training officer and administrative field training supervisor, and set career goals for them spanning their first five years to catapult them into success as they would have it defined. And all of them start off with some version of a “why” statement as fragile as a seed on their hire, which grows into a mighty oak through their career. I have been driven to learn and embrace the “why” in my career thus far as I suspect many of you have as well in the same way.

The late Dr. Stephen R. Covey crystallized this “why” when he wrote The Nobility of Policing. One key thought sets the landscape on which we operate:

Policing is one of our most noble professions. The actions of any police officer, in an instant, can impact an individual for life, and even a community for generations. Given this realization, every police officer must be centered on what is important. Service, justice, fundamental fairness - these are the foundational principles in which every police action must be grounded. The nobility of policing demands the noblest of character.

Nowhere do you find servant-leaders chasing money or power, but rather they hold strong to this nobility. It is what sets us apart from any other profession in the world. Just attend National Police Week in Washington, D.C. and be present among the friends and family of fallen officers to hear the drivers for how their loved one served with honor, and you will never have a doubt again.

A Broken World

No one needs a Gallup poll to figure out that our world is doing everything it can to race toward its own destruction. Look around. The intentional defamation of our profession from power hungry fringe groups loudly dominates the heavily biased media cycle. Cowards run agencies with their own self-preservation as the motivation for decision making, while racial tensions have been exaggerated and inflated politically purposely to ignite a fire which never would have occurred.

In this version of “civilization”, when you speak truth you are silenced, when you take a stand for morality you are labeled “racist”, and when you rightly proclaim the truth of using the tools and tactics of our job the way you were trained you get eviscerated and sentenced to prison wrongly. What’s “civil” about that?

Years ago, a major metropolitan agency was being confronted by the neighborhood ombudsman who said that in this area - the highest crime area in the city - the police were wrongly arresting and killing people daily. This made it up to the Division Commander level eventually. In a startling move, the Commander decided they would not provide policing services after a neighborhood council voted they didn’t want the police around anymore. So began the thirty days moratorium. And what do you think happened after thirty days? You guessed it, the citizens were begging for the police to come back. Turns out Donny the drug dealer wasn’t the best at solving the domestic violence issues and street-level robberies which skyrocketed.

A Legacy Worth Preserving

On April Fool’s Day my senior year of high school my parent’s home was burglarized. I was the first home to discover what happened. It was shocking. We had been relatively untouched by crime until that point. When a police officer made an arrest a few weeks later and called, I couldn’t believe it was real. I felt partially vindicated, and the police made me feel safe again. I knew I would have to contribute my life to doing the same thing.

Now, with over twenty-four years in the profession, I am more resolved than ever to take up my mantle daily and engage evil wherever it appears. My youngest son is a police explorer. People have asked if I am okay with him being a police officer with how dangerous and violent society has turned now. With sharp clarity I point out that all we need to do to let evil win is to watch as the good people stand by and do nothing. I explain I can’t picture a more prepared person to wear the badge than a man or woman who has grown up seeing the joy of saving lives and closing cases mixed with the deep sadness of watching people die in your arms and then go back to work the next day. The nobility of policing demands the noblest of character.

During National Police Week take a minute a consider that every time traffic stops at a red light, every time people leave an area in which they were trespassing because a police car drove by, and every one of a thousand different scenarios you walk through daily that doesn’t result in harm to you or your family, remember it’s because our society is swelling at its borders and ready to burst and the only thing holding it together is the police. Join me and a tribe of courageous leaders who are taking stands and setting apart courageous leadership as a principled paradigm to follow through the Courageous Policing Leadership Alliance.

Hold well knowing a crowd of witnesses who have come before is surrounding you waiting for you to take your stand against evil. And along the way spark the inspiration is a kid somewhere because of what you said, how you acted, or how you took a little extra time to care. There is never such a thing as “just a cop” when it comes to passing down a legacy of integrity across generations. Now, it’s your turn. Thank someone for their work in law enforcement today, and if you put on a badge, gun, and body armor just to go to work each day please know my family and I are forever grateful!

***A new opportunity to link arms in proclaiming truth is here! Click the link to listen and download the episodes of the Trust the Truth podcast with Jeff Daukas here, where conversations on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth are chased down!***

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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.