In a conference room located in the heart of Chicago, thirty-six police captains pair off, engaging in a unique game of improvisation. Their task? Each individual must commence a sentence using the final word of their partner’s previous utterance. With many of the conversations spiraling into a series of absurdities, laughter, and competition to exhibit complex vocabulary, the game can seem absurd on the surface. It’s only as the game progresses that its purpose gradually becomes evident.
Kelly Leonard, who facilitates the activity, reveals the underlying objective, emphasizing the importance of attentive listening by comparing sentences to a human arm. According to Leonard, most people stop listening halfway through, akin to stopping at the elbow of an arm-long sentence, resulting in the loss of critical information. This resonates with the participating police officials hailing from departments scattered all across the nation, leading to reflective acknowledgments echoing across the room.
The interactive endeavor was a collaborative effort between officials from the University of Chicago Crime Lab’s Policing Leadership Academy and The Second City, A renowned improv theater in Chicago. Introducing key principles learned in improv—such as adaptive thinking, delayed judgment, and active listening—the academy aims to broaden the range of skills possessed by police leaders over an intensive five-month workshop. Not all these principles may directly apply to field operations, but they are believed to be essential in molding better leaders.
Leonard, who serves as the Vice President of Creative Strategy, Innovation and Business Development at The Second City, uses an apt metaphor to describe the initiative. He refers to it as ‘yoga for social skills,’ highlighting its aim to cultivate mental flexibility and interpersonal effectiveness amongst police leaders. The academy’s curriculum deals with a wide spectrum of subjects, from data-driven decision making to officer trauma management.
Tree Branch, a strategic partner at The Second City Works, concurs with Leonard. Branch believes that these newly tendency towards empathy and inner calm, gained from the improv sessions, might not address every policing situation, but they could potentially foster better leadership and community engagement.
The history of improv and The Second City itself traces its roots back to social work, particularly owing to Viola Spolin’s innovation. Spolin, a worker assigned to help immigrant children connect with local Chicago children in the 1920s, is the creator of several exercises still active in improv today. The legacy of these exercises lends credibility to the academy’s belief that such skills can significantly enhance community relationships, boost officer morale, and control violent crime.
The Policing Leadership Academy is not solely committed to nurturing improve skills within the police force. It strives to ensure an equilibrium between community engagement, officer morale, and reduced crime rates. The comprehensive curriculum focuses on developing transparent processes, efficient use of data, stress management techniques, and building constructive community partnerships.
So far, the academy has seen participation from 130 police leaders representing around 70 departments. The diverse range of attendees includes heads of tribal police departments and even a police inspector from Toronto. The training program, therefore, seems to be more comprehensive than regular law enforcement training, catering to the elevated nuances of the leadership role.
For instance, a police captain from the Philadelphia Police Department lauded the academy, entrusting in it a transformative potential. He found a perspective-altering lens through which he evaluated the established way of doing things, questioning why things have been done a certain way and how they can be improved.
Upon returning home, the captain invited his family to partake in some of the improv activities he learned. The outcome was a revelation of unexpected deeper communication channels within his family, signifying how the exercises extended their influence beyond the professional sphere into personal life.
Similarly, an Albuquerque Police Department Commander recounted the lasting influence of the training. He mentioned that he still frequently pondered the lessons learned several weeks post-training on how he communicated. The lesson resonated with him about having empathy while solving problems presented to him and pushing aside his personal biases in order to lead effectively.
The academy underlines that learning extends beyond the workshop’s duration. Measures such as initiating channels for continuing communication among trainees encourage decentralized peer learning. They also stimulate police captains to conduct similar inter-departmental training, becoming ambassadors of the skills learned.
Additionally, participation mandates each trainee to undertake a capstone project addressing actual issues plaguing their departments. The project continues well beyond the academy’s duration, aptly exemplifying its commitment to continuous learning and self-improvement while cementing the theoretical learnings in real-world practice.
The nature of these capstone projects varies greatly, reflecting the unique challenges faced by different police departments. While some focus on crime prevention through communal cooperation, others experiment with the use of technology, such as drones for first-response services.
One such capstone project identifies potential risk factors to officer well-being. Orchestrated by a recent academy graduate from the San Jose Police Department, the initiative flags indicators of occupational stress among officers. The project uses feedback from departmental supervisors and peers to monitor officers with excessive investigative load and turbulent experiences.
The San Jose Captain underscored how the proposed mechanism effectively bridges training, wellness, and internal affairs. By assisting officers in distress, the procedure could potentially mitigate excessive force complaints and allegations, enhancing training quality, and boosting service delivery of the department.