The Essence of Leadership

When our law enforcement officers enforce the law, they are demonstrating what is permissible and what is not. That is leadership in action.

By Alfonso E. Lenhardt, President and CEO

What does it take to be a leader? Leaders are sometimes born and demonstrate their capacity for leading very early. But often they develop as leaders throughout life or develop leadership skills. Some become leaders out of support or mentoring. Some learn how to be leaders in the military or through other forms of training. Others have leadership thrust upon them, by circumstance or a necessary heroic act.

Leaders are essential in our lives. They lead everything from our Boys & Girls Clubs to our Neighborhood Watch groups. They include our mayors, state and federal lawmakers, and our president. Children may lionize these people and adults may respect and count on them, even, on some days, when they disagree with them.

Our law enforcement officers are leaders. From walking the beat, they become fixtures of the community, familiar to merchants and residents alike. People know they can go to them for help or knowledgeable advice. And when they enforce the law, they are demonstrating what is permissible and what is not. That is leadership in action.

Grass roots leaders serve at the ground level, but theirs is perhaps the most essential job of all to those engaged in crime prevention. These leaders are the ones who organize neighbors to see that residents know their crime prevention tips and have information about emerging crime trends and the latest scams, ensure that senior citizens are attended to, nip littering and graffiti problems in the bud with community cleanups, lead neighborhood marches to take back the streets from drug dealers and other criminals, and work with local law enforcement on other serious problems such as the proliferation of gangs.

Neighborhood leaders frequently rise through the ranks. Sometimes they are people who have always been silent but decide to speak out about an issue because they feel so strongly. Soon they end up chairing a committee of like-minded citizens. Some already have a background in leadership in some other area and are attracted to crime prevention because of a need in their neighborhood. Some simply have skills they feel could be useful and so they volunteer. However they come to be crime prevention leaders, they are invaluable members of our communities and more often than not, trusted allies of law enforcement.

Preventing crime is hard work. The goals are hard to achieve and measure, and the working conditions are difficult and, frequently, frustrating. Funding is often meager. Volunteers face the added burden of having little or no official status, while salaried professionals, law enforcement officers in particular, are often underpaid in this era of tight budgets.

We owe a debt of gratitude to these leaders, both in and out of uniform, for all the extraordinary work they do to keep us safe. As Plato described them in The Republic, they are the true guardians of our society.