Soon a committee of 14 people handpicked by the Mayor of Coeur d’Alene will meet to begin the process of selecting Coeur d’Alene’s next police chief.

OpenCdA would like to encourage all 14 of them to do some reading and thinking before the committee meets.

We urge the committee members to read “Good to Great Policing:  Application of Business Management Principles in the Public Sector.”  It was published by the Police Executive Research Forum in 2007.

We also hope the committee member will read “Arrested Development” by David C. Couper, former Chief of the Madison, Wisconsin, police department.    In his book Fr. Couper identifies anti-intellectualism, violence, corruption, and discourtesy as the four obstacles to police improvement.  “Those who police a democracy should be college-educated, well-trained, community-oriented, controlled in their use of force, honest, and courteous to everyone they encounter.”