Gordon Graham here and thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings about managing risk. When Madame Editor sent me a request for this article, I prepared by rereading my earlier submissions, each of them dealing with tragedies and the value of learning lessons from these events to prevent their recurrence. For this writing, I will use a different approach.
As we settle into 2025, I am looking back on my last 48 years of talking in front of groups of public safety personnel. As you may know my speaking career started in 1977 after an LAPD shooting involving Sergeant Kirk Barz. The fellow he killed was naked and acting crazy on the streets of Rampart Division in the early morning hours of August 4. As the sergeant approached, the subject violently attacked him and began beating the sergeant with his baton. Following the incident, some community groups questioned whether Sgt. Barz needed to use deadly force. But several days later the “coroner to the stars” – Dr. Thomas Noguchi – opined that PCP was present in the subject’s system and this drug had caused his extremely violent behavior and “superhuman strength.”
Today, everyone reading this is familiar with PCP. But in 1977 it was a different story. “What’s PCP?” “I’ve never heard of PCP.” “Why does it cause such violent behavior?” PCP was pretty much unknown to the law enforcement community back then.
Those of you who have read my work or been to my live programs know that I had just finished graduate school earlier that year and was off to law school in September. My graduate work at the Institute of Safety and Systems Management focused on “identifying problems and finding solutions.” So back then, I was thinking, “PCP is going to be a problem for cops. What is the solution?”
Small amounts of time and money can save you a lot of grief—and billions of dollars downstream.
I wanted to learn more. With that mindset I wrote down the names of all the “talking head experts” on PCP (all PhDs and MDs) and looked them up in the phone book and visited their offices while I was on duty. Typically I’d be greeted by a receptionist: “Can I help you, officer?” I politely told them, “I don’t have an appointment, but I saw her/him (pointing to the picture on the wall behind the reception area) on TV last night and I would like to talk to her/him about PCP.” Everyone of these experts found the time to talk to me. I took notes furiously and I thanked them profusely.
I compiled all these notes into a little booklet the size of a ticket book – hard stock paper, eight pages long – and I entitled it “PCP – An Officer’s Guide to Recognition, Arrest and Prosecution.” I made 40 copies of it and I gave a copy to all the cops on the shift I was working (B shift – 1345-2230 HRS) and I encouraged them to read it. Somehow my captain got a copy and he directed me to train all the officers in Central Los Angeles. And that spread to the division commander asking me to address all the officers in Southern Division (Los Angeles County), which led to me narrating a videotape prepared by the AV people up at headquarters. And all that led to me being invited to other law enforcement agencies to train them on PCP, which led to me establishing Graham Research Consultants in 1978.
My “menu” of classes increased as I learned various things in law school, including report writing, courtroom testimony, civil liability, scene management and close call reporting. Ultimately, I was lecturing on 25 different topics, all with the focus of, “What can we do up front to prevent problems from occurring?”
This was the theme I presented when I was hired by Rio Hondo Police Academy in 1978, and then California State University Long Beach, and then Chapman University and California Specialized Training Institute and Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angles Sheriff’s Office, and then San Diego Sheriff’s Department and NYPD and FDNY and Chicago Police Department and District of Columbia Police, the FBI Academy at Quantico and the DEA Academy on the same campus. It led to me presenting at the big national shows – IACP, NSA, Major County Sheriffs and Major County Chiefs – as well as to thousands of smaller agencies around our great nation.
Performance Excellence in Law Enforcement: Why It Matters and How Your Agency Can Achieve It with Gordon Graham VIEW NOW
Since that humble start in 1977, I have visited all 50 states and all the provinces in Canada and have lectured to cops from over 50 different countries, all while accumulating millions and millions of air miles, thousands of hotel room keys and more challenge coins and coffee cups than you could possibly imagine.
Why am I boring you with this? I always wonder if my work is worth the effort. Is anyone listening? And more importantly, is anyone doing anything to make things better? To get the answer to that question, I encourage program attendees to either call me or drop me an email (I learn a lot from these queries and comments). And many thousands have done that over the past four decades.
Oddly enough I see the same comments repeated over and over – even from public safety personnel around the world. The most common statements are:
- “While I agree with what you say, I am only one person in a big organization – and one person cannot make a difference.”
- “Spending money up front to address an uncertainty in the future is a foreign concept in public safety operations.”
- “I loved the TV show CHiPs!”
OK, I made the last one up, but the first two are still being asked today. With this in mind, I am asking you to do me a favor – and I will make it very simple for you. With respect to the first comment about the ability of one person to make a difference, please get yourself a cup of tea or a cup of coffee or the drink of your choice and plan on spending 15 minutes as you read these two articles:
NTOA Hall of Honor: Charles “Sid” Heal
Rick Rescorla: American Hero of Vietnam and 9/11
I will address the second comment in my next article but I will give you a “teaser” up front: Small amounts of time and money can save you a lot of grief – and billions of dollars downstream.
Until our next visit, I wish you great success in all you are doing. When you click on either of the above links, recognize that just like you, Sid and Richard were each “just one person” – and they made one heck of a difference.
