BG

Radical Accountability: The Key to Changing Police Culture

Dave Durocher
Dave Durocher was arrested for the first time at the age of thirteen. By the time he was thirty-eight, he had been to prison four times for a total of fifteen years. Dave was arrested yet again, and this time he was facing a twenty-nine year prison sentence. Mercifully, the judge afforded Dave the opportunity to go to a place called Delancey Street for two years instead of prison. He stayed for a total of eight years, eventually becoming the managing director of their Los Angeles facility. In 2015, he cofounded The Other Side Academy in Salt Lake City in order to save lives in the way his had been saved.
Joseph Grenny
Joseph Grenny is the co-author of seven books, as well as the co-founder of VitalSmarts, a corporate training and organizational development company, and Unitus Labs, a non-profit that seeks to battle poverty through grass-roots entrepreneurship. In 2015, Joseph co-founded The Other Side Academy, a two-year residential life-skills academy for some of the world's most broken people.
Tim Stay
Tim Stay is the CEO and a cofounder of The Other Side Academy. He was formerly the CEO, as well as a cofounder, of Unitus Labs, among other companies. He was voted as one of the vSpring 100 technology entrepreneurs in Utah and has been awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year from Ernst and Young as well as from Utah Valley University. He has served on a number of boards and councils in his community.

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, cities and municipalities across the nation are desperately trying to find solutions to eliminate police brutality, especially toward black and other minority populations. Clearly, a foundational element of change must be eliminating racism—both overt and implicit. But there is a second key to creating real change. Incidents like these don’t happen in a vacuum. They are rarely about a single bad actor behaving violently. They more often reflect a permissive culture where those with moral reservations about improprieties they watch happen say nothing. Derek Chauvin kneeling on top of George Floyd’s neck is part of the story. Three officers watching haplessly is another. If real change is to occur in the police force, a key must be changing a culture of silence.

The Other Side Academy has some lessons to teach about how to overcome this culture of silence. The Other Side Academy is a residential, two-and-a-half-year program for persistent offenders, addicts, and the homeless. Students have been arrested an average of twenty-five times. They have been incarcerated for years, lived on the streets, and been hopelessly addicted to drugs for much of their lives.

Now, it might seem ironic to draw lessons for reforming police behavior from a community run by felons. But the principles and practices that enable hundreds of people with violent, addicted, and antisocial pasts to create a culture of rigorous integrity are relevant to all leaders. Remarkably, within weeks of their acceptance at The Other Side Academy, students are running world-class businesses, generating millions in income, and earning a reputation for impeccable integrity from neighbors, customers, and community leaders. How? The key to The Other Side Academy’s success is also the key to maintaining impeccable ethical standards in any organization. We call it 200 percent accountability.

200 percent accountability means not only that I am 100 percent accountable for my own behavior, but I am 100 percent accountable for everyone else’s behavior as well. If you see it, you say it. Period.

Not only is there no retribution for pointing out others’ faults, it is seen as a sign of love and selflessness to do so. In fact, the surefire way of getting into trouble in our community is to not speak up when you see someone do something wrong.

Organizational leaders must decide which of two values they prize most in establishing their culture: truth or power. In most organizations, the default is power. When power is the highest value, people often avoid speaking truth to power. As George Floyd gasped for air, a new officer expressed half-hearted concern. He passively expressed dissent by suggesting they turn Floyd on his side. He did so because he worried about giving offense to someone senior to him. Power ruled. Truth suffered. George Floyd died. If 200 percent accountability were the norm in the Minneapolis police force, not one but three officers would have immediately demanded Chauvin stand down.

Organizational leaders must decide which of two values they prize most in establishing their culture: truth or power.

The key to creating a culture of 200 percent accountability is not in the life-and-death moments. The culture and ethical health of an organization is set during low-stakes moments that evince the same value conflicts as high-stakes ones. Moral decline doesn’t come from individuals selling out to overwhelming temptation. It comes from the thousands of moments when people witness small compromises but say nothing. For example, the crucial moment is not when someone is about to embezzle. It’s years earlier when someone watches the prospective embezzler padding his expenses and says nothing. Past research shows that those who speak up about small lapses are six times more likely to confront big ones when they occur. Headline-grabbing incidents of horrific abuse are the inevitable conclusion of years of practiced silence.

One day at The Other Side Academy, a student overheard a senior leader tell a “white lie.” She was trying to get an errand handled on the phone for the managing director. The student surmised the customer-service agent had asked who she was. She said, “I’m his wife.” She wasn’t. Nervous, and yet bolstered by deeply ingrained practices of the Academy, the student called this behavior out for what it was: a bald-faced lie. The student is not just responsible for his own honesty. He is responsible for the integrity of the entire organization. The staff member acknowledged her dishonesty. And the culture was preserved. Truth was once again reenthroned over power.

The strength of the norms of any organization is a function of the likelihood of someone being confronted when they violate the norm. Few would argue with this point. But most quickly add, “Sure, but savvy people know it’s political suicide to speak up and hold others accountable. Especially when confronting those with more power than you!”

The pervasiveness of this fear is evidence of corrupt leadership. It is leaders who, through either passivity or propensity, allow subordinates to conclude that power trumps truth. It is leaders who must relentlessly demonstrate that their ego is not their mission. For those who are serious about reversing the perverse condition, The Other Side Academy has some practical suggestions.

Our students arrive as experts in collusion. The code of the street is that no one tells on anyone. If you do, you’re labeled a snitch and your days are numbered. Most of our students have spent years incarcerated. Prisons are not exactly a finishing school for moral accountability. And yet within days at the Academy, they are calling out others’ infractions unflinchingly. If inveterate felons can develop a culture of exacting accountability, perhaps police can as well.

When students first arrive, they are informed of three cardinal expectations that create this remarkable pivot:

  1. Pull people up. You are accountable for holding everyone you see accountable to every rule of the house. If you see someone do something wrong, you are to immediately “pull them up.” A pull-up is an unadorned verbal corrective. For example, “Don’t swear in front of customers.” We call it a pull-up to remind students this is a way of helping others improve. Students hate doing this. It is uncomfortable. It feels emotionally risky. It is contrary to everything they have done up to this moment in their life. But they quickly learn to do it because if they don’t pull others up, they are pulled up for failing to do so.
  2. Pass information. Once you pull someone up, you pass that information immediately to a leader. And furthermore, the person who has been pulled up is required to do the same. They say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Moral compromises can’t stand the light of day. So, at The Other Side Academy, they are unflinchingly exposed. Recently, a student made a racist comment. He was immediately pulled up. His face turned beet red. And it turned a lovely purple when he had to repeat the same comment to a leader. But that was just the beginning of his moral education. The Game was coming next.
  3. Play the Game. Two nights a week, students sit in groups of twenty to “play the Game.” This is an opportunity for them to expand on the feedback they wanted to give when they pulled someone up. A student might be gamed for fifteen to twenty minutes as their peers let them know how they feel about what they did and point out other examples of their defects. It is not for the faint of heart. But direct and honest feedback are the immune system of any community. Mischief begins when feedback ends. And let’s face it, if you can wear a badge, holster a sidearm, and risk your life on a daily basis, you’re capable of surviving a few minutes of straight talk from your peers a couple of times a week. Rituals like these are essential correctives to break down collusion, invite individual growth, and expose organizational weaknesses. The health of any relationship, team, or organization is a function of the lag time between when people see problems and when they discuss them. Rituals like the Game help bring that lag time as close to zero as possible.

There is a reason that in spite of the gang histories of our students, we haven’t had a single incident of violence in five years. There is a reason that in spite of decades of overwhelming addiction, no student has ever failed a drug test. There is a reason that in spite of lifetimes of exploitive sexual histories, The Other Side Academy’s co-ed campus is as chaste as a convent. That reason is peer accountability.

Direct and honest feedback are the immune system of any community.

Cops know who the bad cops are. They know who is violent. They know who is prejudiced. Yet far too many in law enforcement say nothing, protecting the “blue wall of silence” where police won’t report on a peer’s misconduct, racist views, crimes, or even police brutality. Efforts to disband police agencies, ratchet up punishments for dirty cops, or empower external investigative bodies will fall short because the only enduring solution is leadership. Leaders from within must decide to make truth more important than power. They must create practices that drive a culture of 200 percent accountability. If a group of hardened criminals can do it, so can they.