Within every profession there are small groups of people who strive harder, learn more, shoulder increased responsibility and constantly work more diligently. Predictably, they progress farther down their professional path.
Such progress has zero to do with promotions or rank, or how many stripes or stars adorn one’s sleeve or collar. The ones who ascend this lonely path are few, yet their impact within their craft is often exponential and their legacy becomes legendary. These people evolve into the pillars of their trade, often becoming subject matter experts, leaders, teachers and icons within our grand profession.
Nearly every profession has this ascendant internal path, freely available to all who enter, and policing is no different.
Over my 27 years in the trade, I’ve recognized three stages along this path: competence, commitment and legacy. Like most professions, very few ascend to the pinnacle of this evolution.
This progression is wholly distinct from the typical promotional scale from rookie to sergeant to lieutenant and beyond. While many aspire to climb the traditional promotional ladder, in my opinion this evolutionary path is far more crucial to providing optimal service to our communities.
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Competence is where the journey begins
Initially, every man and woman who enters our profession must seek competence. Becoming solidly competent in the key role of law enforcement is essential to serving and protecting our citizens. A small and courageous minority make the choice to enter our noble yet challenging profession, and fewer still successfully pass the litany of background checks, psychological exams, physical testing and academic requirements necessary to don a badge. Then the real education begins.
Officers must learn to answer calls, competently take reports, conduct investigations and become stalwart pillars of responsibility within their communities.
At this stage, officers should seek wise counsel from trusted peers, listen more than they speak, soak up knowledge and apply it all to their daily work. They must build a foundation strong enough to withstand the inevitable tests that come with this profession.
Competent officers make up the backbone of law enforcement in our country. They nobly serve with dignity and uphold our precious rule of law. But for some officers, competence is not the destination. It is the starting point.
Commitment demands more
The next rung on the professional ladder, and one fewer officers choose to climb, is true commitment. These professionals possess an innate desire for additional responsibility, more potent impact and greater fulfillment. They are not satisfied with merely becoming capable at the job. They want to continually become better at it.
These officers are the precious few who are not content merely responding to crime, documenting injustice or managing retroactive follow-up investigations. They want to stand between righteous society and darkness. They want to spearhead work that actively pursues those who prey upon others.
You can generally find them in the gym preparing their bodies, on the range refining their skills or reading and pursuing knowledge to ready their minds for honorable action.
They seek out difficult assignments. They join special teams. They shoulder additional responsibility. They also take on the roles of coaches and trainers within an agency, passing along hard-earned knowledge while identifying and honing the next generation.
These men and women are often far less concerned with rank or climbing a promotional ladder, choosing instead a deep and personal fulfillment that grants its own rewards.
Officers pursuing true commitment accept the monotonous yet vital burden of training new officers. They consistently seek to refine their tradecraft. They deliberately place themselves in positions where more is expected of them because they want to become more capable of serving when the moment demands it.
If more officers successfully graduated from competence and transitioned toward the pursuit of true commitment over the course of their careers, our agencies and our communities would reap the benefits.
Legacy exists in rarified air
The pinnacle of our profession exists in rarified air and is achieved by few. These are the men and women who leave their mark long after retirement and simply cannot be replaced. Their stories are told and retold after they are gone because they leave behind something greater than a title, badge number or line on a résumé. They leave true legacy. These giants successfully graduated from the arena of mere competence into commitment, then continued to progress and evolve. They constantly sought to offer more of themselves to the profession and eventually became leaders of leaders.
Some are chiefs. Many more are 25-year first-line corporals or sergeants serving with dignity, purpose and clarity while pulling others farther down the same path.
These icons master the fundamentals, invest in the next generation, continue to study their craft, listen and learn even as they lead and always leave their agencies better than they found them. Their legacy does not come from rank. It comes from how they show up.
A long-retired assistant chief in my agency, and a true legacy leader, is remembered lovingly not for the stars on his collar but for humble acts like showing up to assist on late-night vehicle stops or offering kind words of encouragement to young and impressionable officers.
I remember him showing up to a shooting scene when I was a young officer. He asked permission to enter the crime scene, then approached the lead detective. I was stunned to watch this assistant chief ask a simple question: “What can I do to help?”
The lead detective, to his credit, told the chief about a piece of evidence that needed to be collected and logged. Without another word, the chief marched directly to the spent shell casing, collected and bagged it and later wrote a supplemental report like any other cop. There was no speech about leadership. There was no announcement of his presence. He simply saw work that needed to be done and did it. In moments like that, he built a legacy of service and selflessness that has long outlasted his tenure.
Another lifetime field training officer I know personally trained scores of rookies over 20 years. At his retirement ceremony, he stood before a packed room and was thanked by generations of officers for his guidance, dedication and mentorship. Key to this story is that his retirement ceremony was held on a Saturday night at 8 p.m. He requested that time because he was a career night shifter. That small detail says everything.
His legacy was built over thousands of nights, countless calls and years of showing up for young officers who needed someone to teach them how to survive and thrive in this profession.
Legacies like these are rare and precious, and they should be our target to strive toward.
You can’t fake showing up
When most command-level officers leave the training of rookies and police academies to line officers, I know several captains who continue to invest in the next generation. These selfless leaders continually rub elbows with twentysomethings, and in doing so build credibility, trust and lasting legacies. Not surprisingly, when these rookies graduate from the police academy, many line up to work for the same captains with whom they’ve sweated and hustled in training. These rare command officers are trusted because they are present, continually pouring into new officers. I’ve heard one of these captains say, “You can fake caring, but you can’t fake showing up.” Legacy leaders understand that bonding and trust require presence.
Our legacy officers are our sages, our fountains of policing wisdom and our compasses, keeping us focused on the priorities of this profession. They have served in hazardous and challenging positions, endured difficult seasons and thrived, and they understand that society’s hope lies in the continued pursuit of that mighty struggle. Oh, that more officers craved the path toward lasting legacy.
Where are you on the path? Are you progressing? Are you surrounding yourself with those who epitomize proper growth and development, or have you become stagnant, comfortable and lazily content? It is never too early or too late to self-assess and pivot toward building a legacy that will outlast your tenure. New officers must single-mindedly pursue true competence as they learn the art of policing. Some will choose to climb toward professional commitment, and a mythic few will continue onward and build true legacy.
Strive to progress. The path is challenging and often treacherous, but righteous. Better yourself, and bring others along with you.
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