In a conference room in Chicago, thirty-six top echelon police officers engage in an unusual activity: a game of dialogue relay where they begin a sentence using the final word of their partner’s last sentence. The result is an array of comical exchanges filled with competitive wordplay and shared amusement. As the game of improvisation progresses, its objective becomes clear. Kelly Leonard, who conducts the exercise, clarifies, ‘The task here is to encourage you to stay focused until the very end of the statement.’
Leonard wants them to understand a sentence like they would consider an arm—from its start to its very end. According to her, there’s a tendency for people to lose engagement midway, similar to losing interest at the elbow of an arm. But, this can lead to missing out on crucial information included towards the end. The police captains, coming from various departments nationwide, express their agreement and perceptions on this behavior.
The novelty of this activity stems from a controversial collaboration. The University of Chicago Crime Lab’s Policing Leadership Academy has partnered with The Second City, a time-honored improv theater in Chicago. Their goal is to foster a more diverse set of skills, such as agility in thinking, suspension of judgement, and attentive listening, in police authorities through improvisational tasks.
This workshop, which lasts five months, ventures into serious areas of interest as well, including data-based decision-making and coping mechanisms for occupational trauma. As Leonard, The Second City vice president of Creative Strategy, Innovation, and Business Development puts it, it’s akin to ‘yoga for social skills.’ These skills may not be universally applicable in every on-field police situation, but they can potentially lead to better leadership.
Tree Branch, a strategic client partner from The Second City Works, believes these newfound skills such as improved listening and patient response can greatly improve leadership qualities. Interestingly, both improvisation and The Second City have their roots embedded in social work resonating back to Viola Spolin, a resettlement worker in the 1920s who helped immigrant children connect with the local kids in Chicago via innovative exercises that are foundational to modern improv.
The program pioneers of the Policing Leadership Academy believe that these improvisation exercises can play a significant role in their goals––increasing community engagement, boosting officer morale, and reduction of violent crime. They aim to prove that all three objectives can be achieved synchronously without any compromise among them, as explained by the Crime Lab’s director of programs.
The program involves numerous distinguished professors, researchers, and police leaders providing training on a variety of topics including creating transparency in policing culture, making efficient use of collected data, stress management, and building stronger community relationships.
The institute has had the pleasure of hosting around 130 leaders from approximately 70 departments, encompassing tribal police departments and even including a police inspector from Toronto. According to an officer from the Philadelphia Police Department, this comprehensive training significantly broadened his perspective compared to his two-week job training that took place just over a year ago.
One universal human habit that struck the officer was the tendency of allowing certain actions simply because that’s how it’s always been. This realization sparked new strategies for potentially transforming the culture of the police district – by changing the mindset around certain actions. Interestingly, he practiced some improvisation exercises with his family back home and found the communication dynamics pleasantly surprising.
Another participant, a Commander from the Albuquerque Police Department, found himself evaluating his communication skills weeks after the improvisation class had concluded. It raised awareness about the importance of setting personal ego aside when interacting with people seeking assistance. He considered this understanding to be a critical aspect of effective leadership.
The program doesn’t end at graduation. The academy encourages continued learning and support among its graduates. They establish communication channels that allow classmates to maintain contact and support one another post-program. Additionally, they inspire the captains to conduct training sessions within their departments.
A graduation requirement is implementing a real-world tangibly impactful project in their respective districts or departments that goes beyond the last day of class. Many of these initiatives involve community engagement activities, prevention of auto theft, and first-responder drone missions.
A recent graduate, a captain from the San Jose Police Department, is developing an early intervention system that focuses on officer wellness rather than merely noting citizen complaints or cataloging driving mishaps. His revolutionary program aims to leverage input from colleagues and superiors to detect when an officer might be dealing with an excessive amount of on-duty trauma, such as handling multiple murder or shooting cases within a short timeframe.
The captain likens it to a Venn diagram interfacing training, wellness, and internal affairs. Through this method, he believes the department can mitigate allegations and the use of force complaints, provide better training, and upgrade the department’s overall service quality.
The primary focus of these strategies lies in the enhanced training, the maintenance of wellness, and the streamlined processing of internal affairs. In helping the officers deal with these challenging situations, the departments hope to reduce allegations, improve training protocols, and ultimately enhance the nature of services offered by the police department.