Editor’s note: Is your agency culture driving innovation and retention or holding you back? Scroll down to answer six quick questions to reveal whether your agency is leading with vision, at risk of falling behind, or already stuck in a cycle of complacency.
In law enforcement, many believe the greatest threats come from outside. We brace ourselves against public scrutiny, crime trends, staffing shortages and political pressures. But these challenges, while serious, aren’t the ones quietly draining our effectiveness. The real threat is internal. It’s not a protest, a policy or a politician. It’s the silent grip of complacency — the comfort of doing things the way they’ve always been done.
The problem: Complacency disguised as tradition
Complacency wears the mask of tradition. It sounds like experience. It hides in phrases like, “This has worked before” or “We’ve always done it this way.” These words feel safe, especially in a high-risk profession. But safety in process is not the same as safety in purpose. The moment we stop questioning our assumptions, we stop growing. And when law enforcement agencies stop growing, they start failing.
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Complacency doesn’t shout. It whispers. It lives in unchecked routines, in the supervisor who avoids difficult conversations, in the training unit that recycles outdated material, in leadership that resists feedback because “it worked when I came up.”
This attitude is not neutral. It’s corrosive. When we lean too heavily on habit, we stop evaluating outcomes. We treat survival as success, even if the methods no longer meet the needs of the moment. In today’s rapidly evolving social and operational landscape, standing still is moving backward.
What’s worse, complacency becomes cultural. When leaders avoid change, those below them stop suggesting it. Innovation is labeled insubordination. Silence becomes self-preservation. And eventually, talented people either disengage or leave.
Four ways to break the cycle of complacency
Addressing complacency doesn’t require sweeping reforms — it starts with leadership choices that shape daily culture and long-term trust.
1. Leadership as daily discipline
The antidote to complacency is not more rules. It’s not a rebrand or a new slogan. The real solution is leadership — not as a title, but as a daily discipline.
Leadership means taking ownership of the culture you help create. It means being willing to ask hard questions and to hear hard answers. One powerful example is found in the story of retired Navy Captain Michael Abrashoff. When he took command of the USS Benfold, a struggling ship in the U.S. Navy, he didn’t come in with harsh mandates. He asked his sailors one question: “What would you do if you were me?”
That question changed everything. It signaled that rank didn’t have a monopoly on ideas. It built trust. It invited buy-in. And it exposed inefficiencies long ignored because “that’s how we do it.”
Now imagine asking that question inside your agency. What kind of answers would you get? Would your people speak freely, or retreat into silence? If your team doesn’t feel safe offering ideas, the issue isn’t with the staff. It’s with the environment we’ve allowed to fester.
2. Build culture with intention
Internal surveys, exit interviews and national research all point to the same truth: Officers are not leaving just because of external pressures. Many are leaving because of poor leadership, lack of support and toxic internal cultures. When leadership defaults to autopilot, the organization suffers. A 2023 Police1 survey found that a growing number of officers cite agency leadership and culture — not pay or benefits — as the primary reason for leaving the profession.
This is not a call to abandon tradition altogether. Law enforcement draws strength from its principles: discipline, service, honor. But those values are not synonymous with old habits. Honoring the past doesn’t mean copying it. In fact, the most respectful thing we can do with the legacy we’ve inherited is to make it better.
That means promoting based on merit and potential, not just time in service. It means training officers to think critically, not just comply. It means empowering front-line personnel to identify problems — and then giving them the tools to solve them.
3. Embrace progress through discomfort
Culture doesn’t happen by accident. It is shaped every day by what leaders say, what they ignore, what they reward and what they tolerate. If innovation is stifled, if misconduct is minimized, if feedback is dismissed — those are not isolated issues. They are symptoms of a culture that has chosen comfort over progress.
Changing that culture doesn’t require a mass overhaul. It starts small. It starts with how supervisors run roll call. It starts with how we debrief incidents. It starts with recognizing effort, not just outcomes. Most of all, it starts with asking, “Why are we doing it this way?” — and being willing to change the answer if it no longer serves the mission.
There is no progress without discomfort. Change threatens egos. It disrupts habits. It forces reflection. But that is where growth lives.
The agencies that will thrive in the future are not the ones clinging to what was. They are the ones willing to disrupt what is, for the sake of what could be. They are led by people who see complacency not as a shield but as a warning sign. They know that the phrase “good enough for now” is rarely good enough for tomorrow.
4. Choose to lead
Improvement won’t come through policy updates alone. It requires courageous leadership. It requires telling the truth about what’s broken and being willing to fix it — even if you didn’t break it. It requires shedding the illusion that doing nothing is the safest path. Because in this profession, doing nothing is often the most dangerous decision of all.
Whether you are a patrol officer, a sergeant, a deputy chief or a civilian staff member, you have a role to play. You shape the culture around you through your decisions, your silence, your courage or your indifference.
Ask yourself: Are you protecting comfort, or are you building change?
Your people are watching. So is your community. And whether they say it aloud or not, they are hoping you will lead. Not with slogans, but with substance. Not just when it’s convenient, but especially when it’s not.
The question is not whether you have influence. You do. The only question left is: What will you do with it?
Is your culture driving innovation or holding you back?
Answer six quick questions to reveal whether your agency is leading with vision, at risk of falling behind, or already stuck in a cycle of complacency:
Is your agency stuck in complacency?
Take this 2-minute self-assessment to see if your culture is driving innovation or drifting into “we’ve always done it this way.”
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