Richie's Police Report

The Sunshine State I was in Jacksonville, Florida this week, the home of Lynard Skynard .  Where I was at the University of North Florida .  What a great place it was too.  I was really flattered to be contacted a couple of weeks ago by UNF and asked to go down to speak to their students about the work I’ve been doing during my Fulbright adventure.  They had me speaking to a couple of large classes as well as a seminar presentation.  All of which was great and whilst I’ve banged on about guns enough, it was fair to say many of the students I met could not get their heads around the fact we had crime in Scotland, including drugs crime without perpetrators always having a gun.  It’s just a different culture here.  There was lots going on down there.  The UNF hosts the Institute of Police Technology and Management .  Like the rest of the States, Florida comprises vast numbers of police departments from sizeable organisations to one ...

Where police performance was born I headed up the New York last weekend, home of the Yankees , The Ramones , where the line from the title was written about and of this chap... He’s called Jack Maple.   Its unlikely, unless you’ve looked at the pictures already, you know who he is but for the cops who are reading this, he has had a profound effect on our lives - he was the architect of COMPSTAT.   Maple was the man who envisaged, then developed the practice of bringing local commanders together and holding them, to account in front of their peers.   This was not always a pleasant process for those under the spotlight.   The COPMSTAT room at the NYPD headquarters is large and at one end there is a podium for those under scrutiny to stand at in order to be questioned on their performance by more senior leaders.   Whilst I am told, it’s “not as bad now” (!), in the early days this was a brutal process.   Think about that for a moment, being req...

Mates in Mathews We travelled a bit south of DC last weekend to see a friend and former colleague, Carmen Chesney!   We always thought she was a Canadian, but it turns out she’s from Virginia, who knew? Recently she took the big decision to return home to Virginia taking her husband and dogs with her.  And what a great home it is! We stayed right on the river, the kids got to kayak and we got to enjoy a beer watching the sunset, all of which was brilliant.   The town we were in was called Mathews , which came fifth in the best small town in America contest a few years ago.  That’s a pretty big deal, given the huge number of small towns there are across this continent.  It was a nice place, it was also like stepping back in time.  We ate at a place called Richardson’s . It was straight out the ‘50s.  Thick milk shakes and wee milk bar to sit at.  If the Fonz walked in I’d not have been surprised! What I really noticed was...

Vocation and learning is alive and well in Maryland I had a great day out last Wednesday.  I was invited to speak to a group of 16 to18 year olds at  Frederick County Career and Technological Center  This is a vocational college which local kids attend for half a day, every day and spend that time training for a career after school, usually one that doesn’t include college or university.   I think we used to have such places in the UK and called them technical colleges.   What a great place it was!   There were classes for everything from hairdressing to car mechanics; from computer engineering to cake making.   There was also a class on medical biosciences which is often taken by kids wanting to go to medical school and is something medical schools like to see on applications.   Over and above the subjects on offer, the students learned business skills.   They managed this through running businesses using the college facilitie...