I’ve received questions about my view on the re-accreditation effort of the Whitewater Police Department under Jim Coan. What should matter most to a person (or an organization) is actual conduct and statements, not the assignment of certification, accreditation, or external honors. The latter cannot supplant or erase the former.
Accreditation should be the effortless outcome of doing so many things right. It should not be – must not be – an effort in itself. It’s not meant to be a like a political campaign or marketing effort, where leaders devote considerable time to making sure that they received the outcome that they want. Effort should go into the day-to-day, and accreditation should simply be a consequence of that day-to-day work.
When an organization has leaders striving to win an honor, rather than committing to the daily work that leads to honor, there one finds only error and poor leadership.
The temptation – the wish, really – to receive external praise and say all is well is strong. It is especially strong when leaders’ words trumpeting accomplishments take the place of real accomplishments.
I am reminded of something that I first read decades ago, about Mark Twain’s view of St. Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe. Scott’s work was full of drama about medieval honor, chivalry, and outward, seemingly noble conduct. Twain argued – only partly in jest – that the popularity of Scott’s writing contributed to the South’s popular embrace of a bellicose code of honor in the years before the Civil War.
The inner virtue matters more than the often vain appearance of honor. In this, Twain was right — we should set aside an outer code of honor for an inner disposition to virtue.
There are some indisputable, unavoidable points worth mentioning. They are unpleasant and unwelcome, but intractable only to those who would set aside accountability for accolades, policy for praise. You may consult them as you wish:
High Fives?
Jim Coan and Larry Meyer’s Shameful Legacy
The Identity Theft Excuse
Against Confidentiality in Municipal Litigation
Police and Fire Commission: Introduction
For Chief Coan’s months-long action regarding lawful speech , please click this link:
Witch-Hunting a Blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
This includes Coan’s apparent use of the TIME system to run a license plate search on someone no other than a blogger — a violation of federal guidelines. (He had the wrong person, in any event.)
We are not without hope — a different leadership would give us a better result:
In the meantime, accreditation matters little, and would mean nothing at all, compared with all that has actually happened here.
We had these challenges under prior accreditation — we’ll have them still until there’s true reform.
Policy is not public relations.