By Sergeant Jason Devlin
As a field trainer, have you ever tried to explain to someone what good policing is? Sometimes putting things into words can be extremely difficult. If you’re like me, the first hundred times you try to answer this question, you find yourself jetting off into all these tangents — handling calls, traffic enforcement, conducting thorough investigations, making big busts, taking down the “really bad guys” and, somewhere in there, working with the community. By the time you’re done, it feels like you just rattled off a bunch of different tasks and never really answered the question: What is good policing?
One night, I was driving in for my overnight shift listening to the “EntreLeadership” podcast, and they were interviewing a gentleman named Mick Ebeling. As the episode description reads, Mr. Ebeling is the author of a book titled “Not Impossible” and is the CEO of “an organization that develops creative solutions to real-world problems.” What really struck me was when Mr. Ebeling began talking about transactional and relational marketing. That’s when it hit me — the concept of relational marketing is 100% applicable to good policing. Let me explain.
Transactional and relational marketing defined
Transactional marketing is focused solely on the sales process and may include aggressive tactics that alienate the customer. The emphasis is on getting the deal done right now, with little thought about future sales or whether the customer ever returns. For example, think of the typical car salesman who will do or say anything to keep you from getting off the lot without buying one of their vehicles. You either buy the car and feel dirty for it, or you become so alienated that you never return to that dealership again.
Relational marketing, on the other hand, is focused on developing a relationship between the customer and the salesperson or business. Because of that relationship, customers feel loyal to the company and return for future purchases. For example, a nonprofit organization tells you the story of the person you’ll be helping by donating the equivalent of “just a cup of coffee a day.” There’s a relationship built between you and the person you can help — the nonprofit is the intermediary. The relationship is the priority, with the hope that you return regularly to support their cause.
Now let’s take those same concepts and replace the word “marketing” with “policing.”
Transactional and relational policing defined
Transactional policing is focused solely on the process and may include aggressive tactics that alienate the community. This often surfaces when we become overly focused on statistical production: handling calls for service as quickly as possible, writing as many tickets as possible, or making as many arrests as possible — with little regard for the community as a whole.
One excellent example of transactional policing is photo radar. It’s all about the transaction between a speeding vehicle and the resulting fine. There is absolutely no relationship developed, which explains why photo radar tickets often receive such visceral hatred from the community. If you’re thinking, “Yeah, but there isn’t a person involved in photo radar tickets,” my reply would be: Have you ever been pulled over by a motor officer? It often goes something like this:
MOTOR: License, registration, insurance.
DRIVER: Here’s my license—I’ll have to look for the registration and insurance.
MOTOR: Do you know why I stopped you?
DRIVER: No, not really. (Or insert generic excuse for bad driving here.)
MOTOR: You were doing 58 in a posted 45. Wait here.
MOTOR (5 seconds later): Here’s your ticket for speeding, no registration, no proof of insurance, the cracked windshield, and I also noticed you have a white light to the rear. Your options are on the back.
Traffic stop complete in 84.3 seconds, five violations written, and the motor officer pulls away before the driver even knows what happened. This is obviously an exaggerated example, but you get my drift — no relationship developed.
Relational policing is focused on developing a relationship between the community member(s) and the officer(s) they come into contact with. Because of that relationship, the community member feels a sense of loyalty to that officer, and both parties are more cooperative with each other. Over time, this builds a stronger relationship between the department and the community.
Let’s go back to our traffic stop example, this time with a focus on relationship-building:
OFFICER: Good evening, I’m Officer Devlin with XXXXX PD. Do you have your license, registration and insurance?
DRIVER: Here’s my license — I’ll have to look for the registration and insurance.
OFFICER: Other than this, how’s the rest of your day been?
DRIVER: OK, but long. I was trying to get home a little quicker than I should’ve to get dinner ready. (Hands officer registration and insurance.)
OFFICER: I get that. You were doing 58 in a posted 45. We’ve been working traffic enforcement here due to the number of recent collisions. Wait in your vehicle and I’ll be right back. We’re just trying to keep everyone safe.
OFFICER (returns): Like I said earlier, I had you on radar at 58 in a 45. Your options are... (provides explanation) … Do you have any questions for me? Have a better day.
While this example is based on a cooperative driver, many times even an argumentative driver can be won over with basic relationship-building steps like these.
Key points include introducing yourself, asking how they’re doing, giving them time to answer, explaining your actions and outlining their next steps. These simple, respectful actions can be applied in nearly every encounter, when officer safety allows. Obviously, during emergencies, this is secondary to saving lives — but those calls make up a small percentage of our daily interactions.
DO NOT misunderstand this concept — this is not “hug a thug,” only give warnings, don’t make arrests, kiss babies and pretend the world is safe. Relational policing means spending a few extra seconds on each traffic stop, call, investigation or foot patrol to build a connection with community members — whether they are reporting parties, victims, bystanders, concerned neighbors or suspects.
The person you contact will tell others about that interaction. The way they describe it depends on how you treated them.
To date, I’ve physically placed handcuffs on and arrested approximately 1,600 people for various crimes. Of those, only five have fought with me while being cuffed. I don’t credit that to luck — I credit it to the advice I received early in my career: treat everyone with dignity and respect. It’s not easy, but it’s served me well. When I heard that podcast discussion on relational marketing, it gave me the words to describe how policing should be — relational.
Teaching the next generation of officers how to be relational is what our communities are asking for. As law enforcement continues to evolve, I believe relational policing offers a no-cost way to address many of the challenges we face. The challenge is finding field trainers willing to step up and say: This is what good policing looks like. This is who we are. This is how you do it.
About the author
Sergeant Jason Devlin has been an officer with the Scottsdale Police Department in Arizona since 2003. He has served as a patrol officer, DUI officer and patrol sergeant, and currently serves as the training sergeant in the Professional Development Unit. In this role, he supervises the Field Training Program and Leadership Development Program and serves as the department’s lead developer for computer-based training. Jason holds a degree in education with an emphasis in mathematics from Arizona State University. He has been a keynote speaker and instructor at numerous law enforcement conferences, presenting on topics including instructor development, adaptive decision-making, and field training. He is the designer of the NextGen Field Training Model, which is gaining national recognition. Additional resources here:
- NextGen Field Training Website
- NextGen Field Training Website Blogs
- @tbl_leadership
- https://www.facebook.com/tblleadership
- http://tblleadership.com
| WATCH:Dan Greene, executive director of the National Association of Field Training Officers, and Sergeant Jason Devlin of the Scottsdale (Arizona) Police Department, discuss the development and implementation of NextGen Field Training.
