Positive Leadership: Invest in People Building a Culture of Innovation

By Fred Leland

‘The basis of courage is individual initiative. If we cannot act alone, we cannot act together.” ~John Maxwell

For a law enforcement organization to run smoothly it needs positive leadership. Positive leadership when a leader interacts with the frontline. Interaction is not just to get to know those a leader works with and serves, although knowing your people is a important component to leading. Interaction is as well to continually develop and train and develop not only ourselves but those the leader serves in an effort to build a common outlook. In the end positive leader understands that a strong common outlook between the top and frontline establishes trust, or even better mutual trust. The leader's true work: Be worthy of his or her constituents' trust. Positive leaders know the side with the stronger group feeling has a great advantage.

Strong trust encourages delegation and reduces the amount of information and tactical direction needed at the top or strategic level. With less information to process and a greater focus on strategic issues, the decision making cycle at the top accelerates and the need for policies and procedures diminishes, creating a more fluid and agile organization. Mutual trust, unity and cohesion underlie everything.

Positive leaders give objective driven orders. Orders that give a commanders intent or end state of operations over methods. This reduces the need for explicit communications (micro-management) between command and the frontline. This causes little overlap of responsibility and good economy of effort evolves throughout the organization, allowing the strategic, tactical and operational elements to influence the environment, and enabling decision making to be much more fluid in handling conventional and unconventional problem(s). Continue reading

Law Enforcement and the Utility of Force...Why Cops Can't Shoot Like the Lone Ranger?

By Fred Leland

Every time there is a police related shooting, I hear questions: Why did they have to kill him? Why did they shoot him with lethal force? Why did they not shoot the gun out of his hand? How about hitting him in the leg or just wounding him? All questions asked for reasons I feel are related to a serious lack of understanding of what police officers can and cannot do when it comes to life- threatening circumstances and handling their weapons.

First, let’s look at our profession. The law enforcement profession wants to keep things on a need to know basis and “law enforcement sensitive”. The knowledge of what we do, why and how we do it is open to public access via the internet, and hence subject to various opinions and misinterpretation. So why not explain it? Explaining our actions will help the public understand how, when and why we use force. I say we must talk openly about how difficult the utilization of force is, and why it is difficult to implement flawlessly.

Second, let’s look at our society. The citizenry have a high and nearly impossible standard when it comes to cops, use of force, and our ability to deal with conflict and violence. Much of this belief is formed by media coverage of incidents where a weapon is fired. In the movies and on television, the good cop never misses, even at great distances, impossible angles and while in pursuit of a moving target. The TV cop can, like the Lone Ranger, shoot the gun out of the bad guys hand from the back of the horse and always gets his man (and never the horse!). Hell, in the movies a sniper can put a round through the scope of an adversary’s rifle and bullets can turn corners around cover to get their man. The fact of the matter is, in reality, “it isn’t that easy” yet it remains the expectation. The cops I know got into the business of policing to help others. Somewhere, somehow that fact gets lost when cops must shoot in order to protect and serve. Below are some myths about police, use of force by law enforcement, and police shootings, along with my opinion of the truth as I see it that is critically important for the public to understand. For the sake of this article my focus is the street cop.  Continue reading

I reposted this article in light of the effort of New York City has put forth a NO KILL BILL that would require police officers to use minimum force and require police officers in the heat of battle, in rapidly changing conditions to aim for and shoot at arms and legs. In other words they want police officers to shoot to wound!

The reality is that whomever put this Bill together has no clue what we cops do and has no understanding of violent encounters and the physiological effects on those involved in violent confrontations. It it appears obvious to me that they do not understand or did not take the time to understand police use of force, police rules of engagement.

The fact is Cops already shoot to stop! They shoot to stop threats using reasonable and that reasonable force could lead to injuries and or death, but injury and death is never the goal of the police and it never has been. Reasonable force is the standard set by the Courts. Reasonable force is what cops train to use in all encounters they respond to. The rules of engagement in place take into account the complexities involved when attempting to resolve conflict and violence.

You can read the Bill at the link above. I am not going to go over it here. I will let the politicians and legal folks banter over it. Here I want to discuss the large GAP that exists out there still today between people and police and how do we shrink it? ~Fred

Fla. Sgt. charged in beating of handcuffed man

The leader of an anti-crime squad of Jacksonville cops has been charged with repeatedly beating a handcuffed man in the head last summer after being told the man bit one of his officers, Undersheriff Frank Mackesy said.

Sgt. Marc Garza, a 13-year veteran, was already free on bail on a charge of ordering an officer to falsify a burglary report when he surrendered Wednesday morning in the beating case. About the same time, Officer David Cervone was coincidentally pleading guilty in court to filing the false burglary report in August at Garza's behest.

Cervone's plea agreement includes his promise to testify against Garza in the false report case, which police said stemmed from a hunt for drugs that turned up empty.

Both men were part of a special anti-crime squad sent to high-crime neighborhoods to curb ongoing violence.

The squad worked under the Operation Safe Streets program, begun by Sheriff John Rutherford in response to the city's homicide rate.

In the beating case, Garza is accused of using a heavy, metal portable police radio to repeatedly hit Somario Atkins in the head after his arrest in August. Continue reading

Ethics!!! What happened to taking the moral high ground? ~Fred

Terrorism today: Threat level is high

Almost nine years after 9/11, terrorism is a fast-evolving, mostly underestimated worldwide threat, and America may be more vulnerable to attacks today than it was on that sunny September morning.

That grim assessment was the consensus of experts who spoke at a recent journalism conference on terror and security issues held, fittingly, in an office tower on Times Square in New York.

"Terrorists can win and have won,'' said Sebastian Gorka, assistant professor of irregular warfare at the College of International Security Affairs in Washington. To borrow a sports cliche, Gorka's warning can best be summarized this way: We can't stop acts of terror, we can only hope to contain them. To that end, counterterrorism today is a complex exercise in risk management. Continue reading

Troubling issues surround local arms dealership story

It seemed implausible to think that Iranian arms dealers were doing business right here in McMinnville, trading in high-powered sniper rifles, semi-automatic hand guns, ammunition and other equipment. How was that even possible, especially in post 9/11 times? It’s a stark reminder that even here, in small-town America, we need to remain vigilant to the dangers in our ever-shrinking world.

Local law enforcement knew nothing about the business or the illegal activities until last week, when they learned that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had arrested Iranian national, Hamid Malekpour, for interstate possession and transportation of firearms and ammunition from McMinnville to Washington state.

Police Chief Ron Noble and Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree expressed dismay that their departments hadn’t been notified of the investigation by the FBI or ICE, and are looking into the lack of communication from the agencies. Continue reading

Nidal Hasan in court for Ft. Hood attack

FORT HOOD, Texas — The Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding dozens more, made his first military courtroom appearance Tuesday as his attorney sought to delay the case.

Neither Maj. Nidal Hasan nor any witnesses were expected to speak during the hearing, at which military prosecutors and defense attorneys planned to discuss case preparations and other basic matters.

Defense attorney John Galligan said he would seek to delay Hasan's Article 32 hearing, which is similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding in which a judge hears witness testimony to determine whether the case should go to trial. No date has been set, but authorities have said the trial could be held as early as July 1. Continue reading

Law Enforcement and Security Consulting BIO and Training Opportunities

Violence and bad acts can be prevented with the right training and the proper tools. For every engagement and each encounter, LESC combines the wisdom of Sun Tzu, the proven decision making capacities of the U.S. military, and the finely honed interpersonal skills of an experienced law enforcement professional.

Fred T. Leland, Jr. is the Founder and Principal Trainer of LESC: Law Enforcement & Security Consulting (www.lesc.NET), and a certified instructor on firearms, terrorism prevention and response and prevention and managing violent encounters. His focus is presenting training seminars to law enforcement, military, public and private security professionals.

In addition to his work with LESC, Fred Leland is an active Lieutenant with the Walpole (MA) Police Department. He previously worked as a deputy with the Charlotte County (FL) Sheriff’s Department, and before that spent six years with the United States Marine Corp as a squad leader Beirut, Lebanon. Leland is an accomplished trainer with more than 28 years experience teaching law enforcement and security professionals, certified in numerous programs including dynamic encounters; threat assessment; decision making; violence prevention; fire arms; use of force; incident command; and anti-terrorism.

A 2004 graduate of the FBI National Academy Class 216, Fred specialized in terrorism related topics, leadership and management. He is also an instructor for the Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee where he teaches decision making, use of force, terrorism, leadership, ethics, and incident command to veteran law enforcement officers.

He founded Law Enforcement and Security Consulting, Inc (LESC) in 2006 with the focus of bringing these principles to law enforcement and security. Fred Leland is a student of the teachings of the late modern day strategist, Col. John Boyd, and the ancient strategist, Sun Tzu. A key component in much of LESC Training is the Boyd Cycle, also known as the OODA Loop. The cycle consist of a tactical decision making process which, when understood and utilized properly, improves response times, confidence and resolve. Through development of powers of observation, orientation, decision and action (OODA) and the implementation of these individual processes in a repetitive cycle, officers improve both their ability to correctly assess threats and the reaction time needed to deal with them.

LESC is a licensed trainer through the Science of Strategy Institute which focuses on bringing the time tested and proven methods of Sun Tzu to, businesses looking to improve their overall organizational performance.

Fred is the author of several articles on the topic of the Boyd Cycle as it relates to law enforcement and security related issues. His articles have been posted on Defense and National Interest www.d-n-i.net, the Homeland Security Journal www.homelandsecuritygroup.info and the Top Cop International newsletter www.topcops.com his writings and training methods on translating theories into practice have elicited invitations to United States Military Academy West Point and the National Guard Units being deployed overseas.

To arrange training for a company or group: training@lesc.net

To book Fred Leland as a speaker: speaking@lesc.net

For media interviews:
Melinda Mullin, 917-509-2529 melinda@melindamullin.com

Fred T. Leland Jr.
Founder and Principle Trainer
Law Enforcement & Security Consulting
Phone: 508-298-2023
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