by Wesley Harris
I loved working for the Ruston Police Department. Policing is a noble profession where service and commitment forge a bond between your heart and your community. The pay was poor back then, city politics never seemed to go our way, and the turnover rate often left us shorthanded and frustrated. But I believe we made a difference in making Ruston a safe place for our citizens.
After working under four different chiefs from 1977-1989, I left RPD myself for an out-of-state position with more than double the pay and a considerable boost in rank for performing almost the same responsibilities. The decision to leave was tough–my family came to the area in the 1860s and few had ever left. I told my wife we would never leave Ruston. I couldn’t pass up the offer.
The new job was a wild ride in a major metropolis, and I saw more crime, disorder, and misery in six months than I had seen at RPD in 12 years.
And I learned much. The professional development opportunities surpassed anything I ever imagined in Ruston. With the ability to travel to conferences, network with some of the most visionary leaders in the profession, and try innovative strategies, I think I learned a bit about what makes a good leader.
Ruston is in process of hiring a new police chief to replace the retiring Steve Rogers. A number of candidates, both external applicants and current RPD officers, have been tested. The City is awaiting test scores to proceed to interviews and final selection. I’m acquainted with a few RPD officers, but I do not know who has applied or their qualifications. I was offered this opportunity to give my assessment of what Ruston should look for in our next chief.
So here goes.
What I learned in 43 years in the profession, including 30 years in chief executive and command staff positions, is you cannot maintain the status quo. Either you are moving forward, continuously improving both professionally and as an organization, or you are drifting backward. There is no such thing as standing still in police management. Try that and the world passes you by as your strategies and philosophy become outdated.
As Mayor Ronny Walker said in an interview with the Lincoln Parish Journal, 2025 is totally different from 1995. So our next chief should be someone who embraces continuous improvement both in personal development and in the organizational role. The old ways don’t work anymore. I’m not sure the way of two years ago works anymore.
Thus, the next chief must be an innovator with vision. Someone who flinches when implementing a new idea and hears, “That’s not the way we’ve done it in the past.” I remember hearing a similar refrain when I became a police chief. “Chief, that’s not the way we do it here.” Change must be a constant. That’s the only way to keep up.
I discovered the difficulties in communicating a vision. It must be expressed in numerous ways and repeated often. Which means the new chief has to be a communicator. Not someone who spews out memos or hands down directives by word of mouth but spends an inordinate amount of time with the troops sharing and explaining the vision.
Like him or not, most would agree President Trump is sharing a vision of where he wants to take the country through extended press conferences, speeches, and executive orders. It is constant. It is repetitive. But I think the message is getting through. An effective chief gets the message through but also relies on collaboration with his team in formulating and implementing the vision. The team must buy in for results to be achieved.
One of the most important attributes our next chief needs is the spirit of a servant leader. Serving the community, sure, but most importantly, serving the employees who will serve the community. Give them the tools to get the job done. Whether it’s training, technology, equipment, encouragement, or empowerment, they need more than a gun and a ticket book to accomplish the goals to fulfill the vision.
Take care of your people and they will take care of business.
Caring for the people in the department is part of building an organizational culture. I’ve worked in some miserable cultures where sour moods, grievances, complaints, poor behavior, lackadaisical leaders, and unmotivated workers fouled the atmosphere. The chief, more than anyone else, sets the tone and builds the culture. Lots of ways to do this but some include intolerance for poor performance and misconduct, hiring the right people, rewarding achievements, and dealing with employees in an encouraging and motivating way.
The chief also builds culture through personal attributes like transparency and openness with the community and the staff, keeping promises, thinkings of workers first and self last.
Being a police chief is a big job. It includes establishing and communicating a vision, embracing continuous improvement—both personally and as an organization, using a servant leadership style, and building a healthy organizational culture. If our next chief can embrace these strategies, the team will take care of the rest.
I hope the mayor and council can identify several candidates who can do this. Best wishes to our next chief of police.
