simmering racial tension that often boiled over into conflict between the community and the police department . Tomasic and Villalobos decided that their first responsibility was to “ serve and protect ” that community , so they focused more on old-fashioned peacekeeping and less on arbitrary numbers .
Over time , they developed their own unique brand of community policing and turned that neighborhood into one of the city ’ s bright spots – a place where people viewed the police as allies , rather than occupiers .
Their work became a model not only for the rest of KCPD , but also for other law enforcement agencies in the U . S . and around the world that sought to learn from their example . Their work even got the attention of the instructors at the Army ’ s red teaming school at nearby Fort Leavenworth , who began organizing field trips to the CAN Center as part of their courses to demonstrate the power of contrarian thinking in action .
That ’ s how I met Matt and Chato – and when I started getting calls from police chiefs last summer , I immediately thought of them and the good work they were doing to improve relations between KCPD and communities of color in their city . I also knew they were quite familiar with red teaming . So , I called them up and asked them if they thought a combination of our Red Team Thinking tools and their community policing model could help address calls for police reform while at the same time promoting the mission of law enforcement to serve and protect . They answered with an emphatic yes .
“ Police departments can use RTT ’ s set of tools and techniques to assess their organizations , identify challenges , and build on their strengths as they recommit to their core values of service to their communities ,” says Villalobos .
“ Red Team Thinking is exactly the missing piece for us ,” says Chief Paul Sandman , director of public safety for the city of Highland Park , Texas .
Bryce G . Hoffman is the President of Red Team Thinking ® and author of the book Red Teaming
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