Striving for Excellence

This weekend is one of those weekends that comes around every three years here at work.  This is the weekend that assessors from the Commission on Accredidation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) visits the Dublin Police Department to perform their on-site assessment of our department.  Dublin has been an accreditted agency since before I started working here nearly 14 years ago.  Basically CALEA has a set of standards that they use to accredit agencies.  Agencies go through of voluntary process if they wish to be accreditted through CALEA.  On the face of it, it looks good.  Our department complies with a set of standards and we are recognized for it.  But the standards aren't arbitrary.  The standards are set by CALEA in order to help make sure that any agency they recognize are serving their communities in a professional manner, ensuring that these agencies have some of the best trainings and guidelines to make sure they're doing the job that the public expects of them.  As a matter of fact, part of the accredidation process is also holding a community forum.  A time when any member of the community can come in and speak to the assessors and the department about how they think the department is doing. 

The first couple of times that I worked during the assessment process I was a little nervous.  The assessors will walk around the building and talk to the employees.  While they're doing this they ask questions...seemingly because their curious about our department and how we do things, but in reality they're checking to see if we're doing things the way we're supposed to be in order to be compliant with the standards.  After the first couple of on-site visits however, I realized that it's really not that difficult.  We're trained pretty well here and the "standards" that are in place are just part of the way we do business here. 

The last two assessments have gone very well here.  Dublin has been a "Flagship" agency.  Now I can't tell you exactly what that means, other than to say that we did very well in the assessment process.  Preparing for and keeping up with the assessment process is not an easy task.  So I will give credit to Lt. Dejarnette, Lt. Farmer and Sgt. Paez...those are the people who have been responsible for maintaining all the files, because complying with the standards not only involves knowing the standards, but we have to be able to produce records to prove that we actually comply with those standards during our normal course of business...THAT is the time consuming part of the process and involves a lot of work on their part.

So why does the Dublin Police Dept. find it necessary to go through this process?  Their are a few.  Part is cost...insurance companies tend to charge less for liability insurance to departments who have this accredidation.  Part is to show that we are a professional department.  Meeting these standards means that we don't practice law enforcement "by the seat of our pants."  But in the end it involves striving for excellence. 

So why have I spent all this time blogging about the Dublin Police Dept. and the current accreditation process?  Well, it's about the excellence.  During my first few years with the agency we were still a little bit new to the whole accreditation thing.  But as we've continued to go through the process every few years, it seems to get easier and easier.  Going from a place that is less than excellent and trying to achieve excellence takes a lot of work.  But once you get there the road gets a little easier.   That's not to say that you don't have work to stay excellent.  That's also not to say that it's not easier to just relax and go back to being "good enough".  So is being "good enough" good enough?  Or should we be striving for excellence?  There are a few different schools of thought on that one.  Just a little food for thought I guess. 

Today's Run and Other Fun

Well the plan this morning was to run 2 miles at a nice easy pace.  I was able to accomplish that, and like most times when I run, felt refreshed afterwards.  But I do feel myself becoming increasingly bored with the treadmill.  The act of running in place while a belt spins under your feet does not do a good job of keeping one focused on running.  So I can tell that I will have to start running outdoors soon.  I'm looking forward to that.  Especially now that the weather is cooler.  When I started running my biggest problem was knowing how much to wear.  Running wear in the summer was easy to figure out...a pair of shorts and a good wicking technical shirt.  However, running in the fall and winter was a little more difficult.  I would always start off dressing comfortably, but by the time I was half way in to the run I was always way too warm.  A co-worker gave me a good piece of advise.  "Dress like it's 20 degrees warmer than it really is."  Once I started doing that, my comfort level during runs increased dramatically.  I never found myself getting too warm.  That served me very well while training through the winter for my first marathon.  I expect it will serve me well as I get back in to running through this fall and winter.

The cost of running is pretty minimal, unless I want to actually run in some events.  The cost of running in those events have gotten a tad bit more expensive.  It actually seems that most of the runs done in support of charities seem to cost less than the runs that are done just as promotional runs/money makers for running companies.  So I think it will be a while before I start running multiple events in a month (or a weekend) like I used to.  I'm thinking right now that I'll probably budget to do one run a month for now.  I'm really thinking about possibly doing the Myrtle Beach Half-Marathon in February...but that's a risky proposition.  In 2009, when I ran the marathon there, the weather was great.  It was unseasonably warm for Feb. and I was able to spend a week actually enjoying the beach.  But the following year they got snow and had to cancel the marathon.  Not something I'd be happy about if I actually spent the money to register, travel and stay in a hotel in Myrtle Beach.  So that's up in the air.  But I do plan to run the Columbus Half Marathon next year with one of my co-workers.  She didn't hit her goal of running the half in under 3 hours, so she's determined to do that next year.  For my part, I want to get back to the point of pushing myself for that extra distance.  Not sure that I'd ever do a full marathon again.  But the half marathon is long enough to require a lot of preparation and discipline, without being so long that I end up regretting it when it's too late. 


 

The Running Bug

Anyone who knows me knows that I was, for a couple of years, a pretty avid runner.  I wasn't a FAST runner...just an avid runner.  Over a couple of years I had run several 5K's, 3 Half Marathons and 2 Full Marathons.  Then I got away from running.  It's not that I stopped enjoying running.  As a matter of fact, for the time that I've been away from running, I've really missed it.  I finally got to the point where I put myself back on the treadmill.  I've signed up for a 5K next month, and am setting a goal of running the Columbus Half Marathon next year.

During the time that I was really enjoying running I was asked by my HR Rep. at work to write an article for our employee newsletter about why I run.  I'm re-posting that article here as a reminder to myself.  A reminder of all the things I love about running and a reminder of why I run.  As you read the article, please remember that it was written in 2009.

Anyone who knew me three years ago would have found it difficult to believe that I was a cross country and track runner in high school.  They may have also found it difficult to believe that I spent three years as a military policeman in the Army, where running and strenuous physical activity was an everyday thing.  As a matter of fact, running had been such a dominant part of my life for so many years that I had grown to purely hate the thought of it.  I didn’t just hate the thought it…I hated doing it.  I hated going to cross country practice.  I hated going to track practice.  I hated waking up at 4:00am to run and words “double-time march” were words that I grew to despise.

However, the fact that I hated running is not why those who knew me would have found it difficult to believe that I’d ever done it.  Not that my current physique would bring to mind “runner”, but three years ago I was 200 pounds heavier than I am now.  With a history of heart disease on both my mother’s and father’s side of my family I was, at 440 pounds, on the fast track to an early grave.  I got winded walking from the justice center parking lot to the communications center, so the thought that I would, or could, run anywhere was unbelievable.

I made a decision three years ago that, if I wanted to live more than ten years, I had to take drastic steps.  Within a year, with the help of diet, exercise and weight loss surgery, I had lost over 200 pounds.  My blood pressure, which was borderline, is now good.  My blood sugar levels, which were close to becoming diabetic, are now normal.  My LDL cholesterol level, which was high, is now normal.

While I can certainly attribute most of my weight loss to the effects of the surgery and the restricted diet, I have to attribute the amount of weight lost and the short amount of time in which I lost it, to the exercise that was promoted by my bariatric surgeon and his staff.  There is no doubt in my mind that maintaining my weight loss over the last two years can only be attributed to the exercise.

But something happened during all that exercise.  I started to actually enjoy it.  I started to realize when people say that exercise is the best way to deal with stress, that’s not just a line to get people to exercise.  It really is true.  As you can imagine, working in a 9-1-1 communications center can be a stressful environment.  Instead of turning to food to deal with the stress, something I had done in the past without even realizing it, I turned to exercise.  Instead of an order of the house Lo Mein, I would put in a couple of miles on the treadmill.  What was more amazing to me was that I was enjoying my time on the treadmill, I had started to like running and in time would run anywhere from two to six miles on the treadmill each day or every other day. 

Then, last spring, some friends encouraged me to register for a four mile run at Alum Creek.  I was leery about running out on the roads.  Afraid of what might happen to my knees, which had spent years supporting my 300-400 plus pound frame.  I was also afraid of how I would look, with all those runners.  After all, I wasn’t really a runner.  I was just someone who ran for exercise.  I couldn’t possibly keep up with people who register for these four mile road races and run for the competition.  What I found out though, was that the running community is not like that at all.  People of all abilities come out to run, or walk.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t run the entire four mile course.  I ran about three miles and walked for about a mile, but no one laughed at me, no one ridiculed me.  I wasn’t the only one to slow down and walk part of the course, other runners were doing the same thing.  Another thing that I found was that the running/walking community is very supportive.  As I approached the finish line, those who were there to support other participants and those who had already finished the course cheered me across the finish line.  They didn’t know me, they’d never seen me before, they didn’t know that this was my first race since high school.  All they knew was that I was finishing, and that was all that mattered.  From that point on I was hooked.

Throughout the remainder of 2008 I participated in more than thirty running/walking events.  During that time I found that the City of Dublin has its own running community.  Within the Justice Center there are at least three police officers and a mayors court clerk who have run marathons, and several other employees who run for exercise, recreation or both.  It’s not just the Justice Center either.  Employees from all over the city run or walk.

Recently I did something that I would have never thought was possible.  Even when I was running two or three or even four 5K events in a weekend, I would have never thought it possible that I would run a marathon.  People who were in much better shape than I was in ran marathons.  I ran 5K’s.  Competitive runners ran marathons.  I ran 5K’s.  But I read a book and it inspired me.  The book, “Marathoning for Mortals”, was written by John Bingham and Jenny Hadfield.  John was someone I identified with.  He was someone who started running to lose weight.  He was someone who didn’t run very fast but had gotten hooked by the running community.  He was also someone who had completed thirty marathons.  After reading the book I decided to give it a shot and registered for the 2009 Myrtle Beach Marathon.  I trained using a 20 week training program in the book, then on February 14 I participated in the Myrtle Beach Marathon.  By mile 16 I was wondering why I had taken on such a challenge.  By mile 20 I swore that I would never do it again.  But I finished.  I crossed the finish line 5 hours 38 minutes and 21 seconds after I started.  I came back home, proud of the finishers medal I had received.  I took a week away from running, then signed up to run seven 5K and 4 mile runs.  Then, remembering my promise to myself that I would NEVER run another marathon, I registered for the Columbus Marathon this October.  My training starts tomorrow.      

What do we believe?

I read an article yesterday talking about the "literal translation of the Bible".  There are many different ways to look at the Bible, and many theories concerning its interpretation.  Some say that the Bible is the word of God, no ifs ands or buts, what is says is what it means and there should be no question about that.  On the other end of this spectrum are those who believe that the bible is a group of fairy tales.  Fables made up by a group of authors who were too ignorant to understand how life was formed, so made up their own versions and wrote them down. 
Then there are those who fall at various places between those two groups.  Many believe you can't take the Bible literally, and many believe that some of the Bible was meant to be literal, while other parts were not. 
Now for where I fall on this spectrum. 
A little over 200 years ago a group of people sat down and penned a document meant to be a guide or a set of rules for how the government of the United States is to be run.  Within that document they set up a procedure to be used for making changes.  They knew that times would change and that changes would be needed.  My belief is that we are so far removed from what those founders intended when they started this country that they might be turning over in their graves if they had seen some of the ways in which the things they wrote have been misinterpreted.  So...if over a 200 year time span we have misinterpreted what was written in English, then is it unreasonable to believe that books written over 2000 years ago, in languages that are no longer spoken have been misinterpreted?  Or at least their intent?  Add to that the fact that (and anyone who has ever learned a 2nd language knows this) a literal interpretation from one language to another is often impossible.  For example, in German the phrase "Was ist los?" means "What's going on?" or "What's up?"  The literal translation is "What is loose?"  So sometimes, when translating from one language to another requires knowing the original intent. 
One example of this was part of the sermon the pastor at my church gave last Sunday.  The Bible says “Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.”  Rev. Steindham went on to discuss some things about how the Bible was written and interpretted.  He went on to say some of the same things I had come to believe, that being that the Bible was written by men.  Also, that the Bible was translated from one language to another, and that language itself has evolved greatly over the last 2000 years, and the language being used at that time had fewer words, and fewer ways to express the information they were trying to get across.
So, did God really mean to say that if you worked on the Sabbath you should be put to death?  Ironically, I didn't see this sermon, I read it later....because I was at work on Sunday morning and unable to attend church.
When it's all said and done, my belief is that, when I find myself in heaven at the end of my earthly life, I will find out that no one on earth today had it completely right.

Running Again

Well, after quite a while of not running, I finally got back on the treadmill.  I woke up at 4:30 this morning to come in to work and run.  Having not run in quite a while, I had set the goal at a very slow 1 mile run on the treadmill.  I jumped on the treadmill to do a quick 5 minute warm-up run, planning on stretching, then getting back on the treadmill and running the 1 mile I had set out to do.
Instead, the warm-up turned in to the actual run, and after running the 1 mile I had planned, the music hadn't stopped, so I kept running.  Well...after that song ended another good running song came on the iPod, so I kept running.  I ended up running 1.5 miles.  Now it was a SLOW 1.5 miles, but it felt really good.  It felt great to get the heart rate up again, to feel those endorphins that are released when I run and to run 50% further than I had intended. 
I'm also registered for my first 5K event of the year.  On November 19 I'll be running the "Beat Michigan 5K" around the OSU campus area.  I'm thinking about registering for a couple more events before the end of the year, but not sure if that will happen as the registration costs for 5K's seem to have gone up quite a bit over the last couple of years.  I think the days of running 2, 3 or 4 events in a weekend are gone, but the joy I get from running is not. 

Paying for the Sins of Another

My director has a sign on the window to his office that says "A.P.I. - Don't your co-workers deserve it?"  The basic premise is that A.P.I. stands for Assume Positive Intent.  Too many times people assume the worst.  What we typically find, if we take the time to look in to it, is that more often than not, the intent of the person you're questioning is positve.  However, more often than not, we assume that their intent was negative.  So, if we know that the intent is usually positive, why do we usually assume the intent was negative until proven otherwise? 
Probably because we tend to remember the negative much more easily than we do the positive.  The negative tends to have a much deeper impact on us than the positive.  Basically, we're paying for the sins of others.  When other people did "A" it was because their intent was "B".  So when we do "A" then the assumption is that our intent is "B"...when in reality the intent of most people is really "C". 
We've become very cynical, and while it bothers me to be the "victim" of the cynicism, I've also found myself being cynical of things I'm told by others.  Assuming the intent to be something other than what it probably is.  In the end, I'll do my best to take people at their word, put it in God's hands, and hope that it doesn't end up burning me in the end. 

You choose your mood

Occassionally I teach a class at the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.  The class I teach is Public Safety Telecommunicator I.  It's, for lack of a better term, a "Dispatching 101" course.  I teach some of the basics of dispatching, call taking and the technology used in the profession.  But the day I like best in the class is when we talk about the stress involved in the profession and discuss some techniques for dealing with stress.  One of the things we talk about is "choosing your mood".  I am a firm believer that, most of the time, you choose your mood.  You can choose to be in a good mood, you choose to be in a bad mood.  You choose to focus on the negative.  You choose to focus on the positive.  The biggest examples I can give in my own life on the Cincinnati Bengals and the Ohio State Buckeyes.  The Bengals haven't had a decent team in years, which makes it difficult to be a Bengals.  And the Buckeyes...well, if you watch the news around Columbus at all then you know the deal there.  I could focus on the negative, I could whine and complain about everything that's going on.  But what difference does a winning season in Cincinnati make in my life?  Not a bit.  What difference does it really make in my life if Ohio State has a losing season this year?  Not a bit.  Yeah, it makes it a little less fun to watch the games on Saturdays and Sundays, but it's not going to change who I am, or I have around me.  Who I associate with.  How I spend my free time.  As a matter of fact, it really gives me more free time. 
You choose your mood.  So next time you're focusing on the bad day you're having at work...remember this...you have a job...nowadays that's a fortunate thing.  Next time you feel yourself focusing on the negative choose to look at the positive.  Next time someone starts to tell you about the nasty things someone said about you behind your back...tell them to stop telling you.  If knowing negative things people are saying about you behind your back accomplishes nothing more than to put you in a bad mood, then why listen to it?  Being in a bad mood only accomplishes one thing...it puts you in a bad mood.  Choose to be happy.  Choose to focus on the blessings in your life and discard those things in your life that serve no purpose other than to frustrate you and put you in a bad mood.