Future Policing and Organizational Development

Police leaders today, and in the future, must go beyond simply “serving and protecting” their communities. Their responsibilities must also include leading their organizations to ensure they keep adapting and evolving with changing societal needs and events. They must prepare the people they leader are prepared to protect their communities in increasing uncertain times. Organizational development encompassing aspects such as organizational change, cultural transformation, leadership training and community integration are of utmost importance in preparing policing for an increasingly uncertain future.

As crime and community and political expectations change, police departments must adapt accordingly, recognizing that stagnation can damage both efficiency and community trust and confidence in the police. Organizational change ensures adaptability while cultural transformation aligns values with community desires and expectations. And community integration fosters collaboration and trust between police departments and their constituents.

Leadership development equips officers for future challenges and teaches them how to learn about the future. A sage Asian proverb captures leaders’ obligation to prepare their organizations to police in environments that do not exist today. It states, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him today. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him his entire life.” Similary, an unwaivering obligation of police leaders is to help their organizations develop a forward-leaning, anticipatory posture that enables them to operate in effective, empathetic and just ways, irrespective of the policing challenges or operational environments they face in the future.