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COLUMBUS, Ga. — “To get the best out of your men, they must feel that you are their real leader and must know that they can depend upon you.” — Gen. John J. Pershing.
This is the third article in a five-part series on the recent Operational Assessment of the Columbus Police Department, as presented to city council by Jensen Hughes on February 14, 2023.
As we published yesterday, Police Chief Freddie Blackmon provided a briefing to city council immediately following the presentation by Jensen Hughes. The way in which Blackmon chose to react to that presentation — the deliberate actions he chose to take in that moment — serve to prove the truth of a fundamental principle of martial prowess: we do not ever rise to the occasion, but rather we fall to the lowest level of our training. We fall to our default.
DISGRACEFUL DEFAULT
As demonstrated by Blackmon’s own actions in that moment of stress, Blackmon’s default sought to defend his own failures instead of taking responsibility for the department’s woes while inspiring his troops to help him change them. He placed his own maslowian needs first instead of placing the needs of his troops above his own. He took actions he believed would prioritize his own political position instead of even bothering to turn around and let his officers know they are heard and understood.
Blackmon defaulted to self-preservation as his officers watched. This is not something that listening to Tony Robbins audiobooks nor hiring an on-the-job “leadership coach” can fix. This is a complete lack of the most basic concepts of leadership. These are things that one develops over the course of an entire career, from the bottom-up. They are not the sort of things one simply learns when they are already at the top — and they especially cannot all-of-a-sudden be willfully implanted into someone who has already eroded the trust and confidence of those he was supposed to lead.
For two years, Chief Blackmon has deliberately chosen not to listen to his own officers while simultaneously avoiding the most basic burdens of leadership. He continues to place his own needs above those of his troops. This default response — as has been unchanged for two years — continues to be demonstrated to this day.
THE MARK OF A LEADER
Here’s an example of what Blackmon should have said in response to the Jensen Hughes presentation as his officers sat behind him:
“Before we go any further, Mr. Mayor, and with your blessing, I’d like to insist that I take a minute to turn around and thank my officers for coming here to this meeting today on their own time. Nobody in this room could ever understand how incredibly hard these men and women work to protect this city every day — and I just have to take a minute to make sure everyone else in this room truly understands that. These guys are our superheroes. They are the ones who make this little city of ours go around every day. And if y’all haven't heard, we’ve been having a helluva difficult time with keeping some things together lately.
So before we go any further with this presentation I’m about to give, and after all we’ve just seen in the wonderful presentation from Jensen Hughes, I need to take this opportunity to tell these amazing men and women this:
I hear you, and you guys are right. We have some tumultuous challenges ahead, and all of that is ultimately on me. Clearly, the way I’ve chosen to lead this department — as well-intended as it may have been — has flat-out not worked. I’m not going to stand here and give you excuses of how challenging the times were or any of that other horse crap that some other leaders might try to use to skate their way out of responsibility. That’s on me.
The first place I’d like to look for the answers on how to fix this mess is you. You guys are the backbone of this organization, day-in, day-out, seven days a week. You guys know what “right” looks like, and I need to do a better job of remembering that.
Will you help me build this department into the outstanding organization that you guys deserve? Will you help me to harness the power of the men and women of the Columbus Police Department to build a force that not only keeps this city safer than anywhere else in the nation, but builds a community so strong that we might well one day work ourselves out of a job?
Will you lend me your expertise, wisdom, experience, and genuine love for this great city — our city — so that we can build that department together?
If that’s alright with y’all, I'd really like that, too — and I bet our mayor and city council would really like that, also.
Now, guys, I've got to brief these slides for our mayor and city council, and I know that some of these numbers you're about to see may be reminiscent of the troubles we’ve just heard from Jensen Hughes. I’d just like to remind everyone that these numbers don’t reflect where we are going, but rather serve as goals for us to achieve together along the way — and the success we'll find once we get there will belong to you guys: the brave, valiant, hard-working men and women of the Columbus Police Department.”
That’s what Chief Blackmon should have done, instead of ignoring his troops as they sat behind him.
But he didn't.
Be sure to stay with us for part four of this five-part series on the recent Operational Assessment of the Columbus Police Department, as presented to city council by Jensen Hughes. We’ll be taking a look at how our city’s officials reacted to the findings of Jensen Hughes’ operational assessment of the Columbus Police Department after previously dismissing our officers’ concerns as “racism” for over a year.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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