Day 655: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: ideas worth spreading

“I am not a good speechmaker, and if you became a police officer, you probably didn't become one to hear men like me palavering anyway. So, let me keep it short. If you want to be a race warrior selling Black and Brown bodies down the river for your tired inferior ego, or to fatten your wallet, the Big Loft police department is no longer the right place for you to work. Leave before I fire you, please; save us both some time, especially if you are a mentioned bad actor in the FOIA release.

“For those of you staying, here are some ideas worth spreading: tell your colleagues about the work we are about to get busy doing on behalf of each and every citizen of Big Loft and the surrounding county when called upon. Let's now talk about fairness, honesty, good investigative work, and good enforcement. That is where we're going, and if you are for that, we're going to find a way to reward you more to do it and to bring new people in on that same line.

“Sort yourselves out. Don't make me have to do it for you. Dismissed.”

This was the first address Acting Commissioner Scott gave to the rank-and-file after he had moved up from chief to take on the new post. The sorting began immediately, of course. Those who wanted the new vision began to pick up their work and assert themselves and drop information quietly to Acting Commissioner Scott to help him deal with the folks who did not want the change and were not willing to get out of the way.

In the midst of this, the new commissioner noted that along with the random small information drops, every week or so, someone would drop a synopsis that was a great help to the commissioner in putting the puzzles he needed to solve together before moving on one or more firings.

“I see you, Lee,” the new commissioner murmured to himself, “and I think I understand you now. No personal ambition, but fierce loyalty to your subordinates who are putting themselves on the line with their little leaks. You come through and cover them with more organized data, week after week. If there is any retaliation, it will come against you, not the little leakers. That also fits your pattern in your cold case solutions; you list to the last subordinate who should receive credit for steps to the solution, and deprecate all those hours you must be spending crunching years of data.”

The commissioner thought for a long time, and then took out a piece of paper.

“Maybe,” he said, “we can get this clean-up done in a more organized way. Suppose I pitch all that FOIA data back to you, Captain Lee, and ask you to point out where the data shows the big failures are? That would relieve our subordinates of having to do this bit by bit, and save me a ton of time … yes, I think that is what I am going to do, just as soon as I finish showing you that I am for real. Bad things happen to superiors you don't trust, I hear... ”

(@whatisnew, @owasco, and @scribblingramma -- here you are!)