A former police officer explains how to shift cop culture through emotional awareness and empathy rather than preaching. They've chosen to work outside policing because they believe they can create more change from there than from within the institution.
I thought about, how can I be effective in this realm without just standing on a soapbox and without demanding people listen to me? Because that doesn't seem to work or do the job. And this is truly where Brene got to me the most, because I started thinking, if there could be an increase in emotional awareness and an increase in empathy in the law enforcement realm, which truly is working on the person behind the badge, then you're going to see a natural increase or shift in what the police department looks like. You know, a lot of people have asked me, are you going back to law enforcement? Because of the different changes that's happened over the course of my past year. And. And I've said no, because I believe that I can affect more change outside of the career than I can under the confines of the career.
