1 minute read
Police Governance and Service Delivery
The Challenges of 2020
This year was expected to bring with it the continued challenges of community engagement, reducing gun violence, and embracing technologies to better support our personnel. However, 2020 brought the unfathomable challenges stemming from COVID-19. These challenges included enforcing COVID-19 restrictions, employee wellness, fiscal impacts, and community and commercial impacts, as well as overwhelming uncertainties due to the 2020 election cycle and the tragic death of George Floyd and its aftermath.
Adapting in 2021
Where there are challenges, there are opportunities. Though 2020 brought forth the aforementioned challenges, 2021 will provide local government and police leaders the opportunity to carry out effective and efficient responses to sustained challenges such as COVID-19 contact tracing, personal and commercial social distancing and mask restrictions, property evictions, unemployment, and the never-relenting increase in mental health incidents.
Opportunity
The phrase, “Out with the old and in with the new,” is ripe with the promise of achieving a sustainable new normal in our communities—a normal that ushers in tantalizing opportunities to help us address our challenges as they relate to employee and community wellness programs, mental health, and community engagement opportunities to showcase businesses doing their part against the fight against COVID-19.
Key Takeaway
Other challenges facing professional policing in 2021 and beyond include employee recruitment and retainment, generational leadership management, artificial intelligence and cloud-based data management, community apathy, and enhancing community private and public partnerships. Each of these challenges are not insurmountable, but rather solid opportunities for current and future police and government leaders to embrace, which invariably will result in a more efficient, sustainable, and effective organization.
