Terry is the newly-appointed Chief of Police in a large, diverse Midwestern city. S/he has decades of experience as a police officer in multiple departments, with years of supervisory, investigatory, and conflict resolution experience. Terry has most recently served as the Chief of Police of a large, affluent, homogeneous suburb of the same large city where s/he is now Chief. While there are some similarities between the two communities and positions, there are more differences. The department Terry will be leading faces many daunting challenges and has been plagued by several high profile scandals, charges of corruption, mis-management of resources, poor relationships between officers and the community they serve, insufficient officer training, lack of leadership development, budgetary cuts, poor equipment, a lack of diversity in the applicant pool, poor recruitment and retention practices, and a host of other issues. However, the mayor hired Terry to be a “change agent” for the department and to “shake things up” significantly. The mayor has dedicated appropriate resources and political will to empower Terry to initiative wholesale, widespread change across the entire organization. There is intense media, city-wide, and departmental scrutiny on Terry as s/he takes office. Terry undertook similar work, albeit on a smaller scale, in her/his last position as Chief of Police, with great success.

1. What should be Terry’s top-three, immediate, short-term priorities?

2. What should be Terry’s top-three, long-term, strategic priorities?

3. What are Terry’s measures of success?

4. How realistic is wholesale agency change?

5. What practical advice can you offer Terry?