Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. STREET LEvEL JOHN MORRISON STRAIGHT TALK ON SUPERvISION & LEAdERSHIP ON THE fRONT LINES — THE STREETS. MORALE BUILDING: omewhere in the basement there’s a cigar box containing military medals and commendations. The only mementos of that period on display in my home are the lone surviving photo of my best friend, killed on the DMZ in 1966, and a wooden boat paddle bearing a small plaque from 1st Recon, delivered thirty years late by a younger generation of warriors. Two boxes full of police awards are … somewhere; I’m not sure. Items displayed from that era are an “Animal of the Year 1981” prize from my S No Programs, Please! SWAT troops, and the “Coveted Copper Turd Award,” which brings smiles and is nobody’s business but mine. Why? Sure, I’m proud of both my military and LE service, but many of the ego sheets and gaudy gongs of those days amounted to awards for staying alive, unintentionally violating some laws of physics, and Because Everybody Else Got One trinkets. I’m under whelmed by them, but worst are some awards given by high-ranking officials who really didn’t know or understand what I did and didn’t give a damn — they were just tokens tossed in the name of “morale building.” According to a half-dozen of you readers, it’s still happening, and you’ve learned it’s actually bad for morale. I wrote about “morale-building programs” in the July-Aug 2007 issue — maybe the editor will re-post it on the web site? — explaining how morale-building programs work or don’t work, and the elephant sex connection. FYI, elephant sex is any overly loud, seemingly meaningless activity, which involves ponderous, noisy thrashing at higher levels, and often results in small critters being trampled underfoot. That’s “morale-building programs” in a nutshell. Two of you said you routinely write up your officers’ extraordinary performance in fields like “putting crooks in jail” — how quaint — to courageous life-saving acts — and they’re just as routinely shot down by figures higher in the food chain, who then turn around and decorate their little sycophant suck-ups for cleaning their plates and “celebrating diversity.” So, what can you do to give your people recognition? With all those arrests last quarter, you must have worn out your old cuff key. Here’s a new one for this quarter. Admit it, you love bathroom humor. It doesn’t get much better than this. irst, recognize an honor doesn’t have to come from an Ivory Tower to have great meaning — in fact; baubles dropped from higher levels can be suspect. Never underestimate the chest-swelling, prideproducing power of the least impressivelooking honor — its value established by its source, and magnified by the light of those who witness it being awarded. If you’ve done your job, that source is you. If you’ve built a good team, they’re the right audience. Try a few of these, which worked for me: Imagine this scene — you’re briefing your troops prior to putting them in the field. Concluding business, you advise, “I’ve just gone over our activity for the past quarter on second watch, and con32 Recognize Achievement F sidering the arrest figures … Williams, Franklin, stand up please.” Reaching into a shirt pocket, you produce two shiny-new handcuff keys. “Seems to me you two may have worn yours out, and you could use new ones.” Toss `em to the recipients, and start the handclapping yourself. Have someone standing by to grab a couple of photos of `em smiling, holding those cuff keys. Do not pose for stiff, bullshit “presentation photos.” Make sure prints get to the recipients, but don’t make a big deal out of it. If you have a division bulletin board, post copies without comment. Word will get around. Don’t overdo it, or you can sour the effect. Got a real hard-charger for the year? Give them a nice ASP extended cuff key — one of the cool ones with a medallion. For the officer or team who handled that screwed-up rape-homicide scene when there were no CSI tech’s available, big four-inch magnimagni fying glasses run about nine bucks, worth WWW.AMERICANCOPMAGAZINE.COM • JULY/AUGUST 2009