For decades, Bill Westfall of The Gallagher-Westfall Group has encouraged tens of thousands of law enforcement leaders to “catch a cop doing something right.” As a part of his leadership training, Westfall has used this phrase with great frequency to encourage those that he trains to reinforce, coach, and encourage their officers as much—if not more—than they criticize, correct, and discipline. He has gone so far as to give out cups to his students with the phrase engraved on the cup with a thumbs up sign as a physical reminder to those who attend his training.

This fundamental concept of leadership and coaching is not a new one—although Bill Westfall’s encouraging phrase is a uniquely powerful articulation of it. Particularly in an era of unprecedented scrutiny for law enforcement officers, when a mistake is very likely to be captured on camera and broadcast for the world to see, it is possibly more important than ever to catch cops doing something right. A failure to do so by law enforcement leaders will inevitably lead to a “hands off” de-policing model that results in a decrease in public safety and public trust in the police.

In this two-hour webinar, Chief Harry P. Dolan (Ret.) will describe the various ways in which he has endeavored to catch his cops doing something right over the course of a 32-year career in law enforcement which included 25 years as a police chief in 4 departments.