Culture Is the Difference: Why Passion Belongs in Policing

Policing is one of the most meaningful professions in society. At its best, it’s a calling rooted in service, justice, and protection. Yet if you walk into many departments today, you won’t find people talking about purpose. You’ll find them talking about burnout.

Not because the work is meaningless, but because the culture has worn them down.

Why Passion Is Not a Luxury

Let’s be honest. We don’t talk about passion in policing very often. The job is intense. The pressure is constant. And for decades, we’ve conditioned our people to see their job as duty, not inspiration.

But that’s a mistake. Passion isn’t a luxury. It’s the fuel that keeps professionals engaged, focused, and resilient. It’s what allows an officer, dispatcher, or records technician to do a hard job well, not just for a season, but for a career.

Passion doesn’t mean joy every day. But it means believing that what we do matters.

So when passion fades, we should be alarmed. Not because people are soft, but because something in the environment is broken.

What’s Really Draining the Job?

It’s not the paperwork. It’s not even the community pressure, overtime, or societal scrutiny. Those things have always existed in some form. What’s draining the profession today is often internal.

It’s the culture.

It’s the supervisor who shows up to briefings but never checks in.

It’s the senior leader who talks about “valuing people” but rarely models it.

It’s the promotion that goes to someone who never learned how to lead.

I’ve worked with agencies across the country, and the stories are consistent: sworn and professional staff who feel invisible, leaders who don’t know how to listen, and internal politics that drown out purpose. People didn’t lose their passion because of the work. They lost it because they didn’t feel seen inside the organization. And their leaders don’t inspire.

Leadership That Brings People to Life

I’ve also seen the opposite.

I’ve watched as thoughtful, modern-minded leaders created environments where people not only perform at their best, but feel proud to be part of something greater than themselves.

One of those places is the Abbotsford Police Department in British Columbia. Each year, they dedicate an entire week to leadership development. It’s not just lectures and PowerPoint slides. It’s interactive, fun (with volleyball games and activities), thought-provoking, and inclusive of all ranks and assignments. They bring in outside speakers with outside ideas. The message is clear: everyone has a role in shaping culture. Everyone is worth developing. Everyone should learn from beyond the policing profession.

That investment pays off. You feel it in the hallways. You hear it in how people talk about their work. You see it in the way they show up for each other.

Culture like that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when leaders at every level, especially at the top, decide that leadership is not about control. It’s about service.

Culture Is the Daily Experience

What’s culture? It’s the day-to-day experience of the people inside your agency.

It’s whether your team feels safe to speak up.

It’s whether new officers are welcomed or tested.

It’s whether your values show up in daily decisions or just hang on the wall.

And like it or not, culture is always being shaped. Either by intention or by default.

That’s why leadership matters more than ever. Not positional leadership. Real leadership.

Simon Sinek puts it this way: “Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge.”

This is the work. And for chiefs and executives, it has to be the priority. Because no amount of overtime incentives, equipment upgrades, or clever slogans will fix a toxic culture.

What Culture-Building Looks Like

Let’s make it real.

Culture-building looks like inviting feedback and actually acting on it. It looks like empowering middle managers with training in conflict resolution, how to truly communicate (aka: learning how to make people feel truly heard), and psychological safety. It looks like scheduling time to connect, not just correct.

Culture-building is the chief who walks into the briefing room with no agenda except to ask how the team is doing. It’s the commander who knows their personnel by name, including the professional staff. It’s the sergeant who models vulnerability by owning a mistake and asking what they could have done better.

Culture isn’t a memo. It’s behavior. Repeated. Modeled. Reinforced.

Reigniting Passion Across the Profession

Every police chief knows the stakes are high. Recruiting is down. Trust is fragile. Communities are asking more of us, not less. And the challenges don’t have easy answers.

But what we do have is an opportunity to make policing a profession people are proud to join, and proud to stay in.

That starts by creating agencies where passion is protected.

Where the culture doesn’t deplete people, it develops them.

Where we don’t just say “people are our most valuable asset,” but prove it with our time, our attention, and our leadership.

We cannot afford to lose more good people to burnout or bitterness. We have to remind them why they signed up in the first place and then create the kind of culture that lets them live out that purpose with dignity and pride.

One Leader at a Time

Some reading this might feel overwhelmed. Changing culture feels big. And it is.

But it always starts small. One leader. One meeting. One interaction at a time.

You do not need to be perfect to start. You just need to be present.

Ask more questions. Listen without judgment. Share your own learning.

Create space for humanity in your agency, not just heroics. Humanity in how you lead and humanity in how you communicate.

When people feel like they matter, they lead like it too.

And that’s how you build trust. That’s how you rebuild passion.

And that’s how the future of this profession will be shaped, not by slogans or quick fixes, but by chiefs and executives who choose to lead with courage, humility, and care.

About the Author: 

Chris is a founding board member and Executive Director of "The Curve," a non-profit leadership organization co-founded with Simon Sinek and forward thinking police chiefs and sheriffs from across the country. The Curve aims to provide inspiration, leadership development, and resources to modern minded leaders, with the goal of advancing police culture from within the profession. A retired Police Chief with over 30 years of public service in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chris previously led the Mountain View Police Department and later served as Undersheriff for San Mateo County, where he oversaw operations for a department serving more than 700,000 residents.

An internationally recognized speaker, writer, and leadership coach, Chris specializes in organizational culture, adaptive leadership, crisis management, and digital communication. He has authored national articles on modern policing and frequently appears on leadership podcasts and conferences. In addition to his role at The Curve, Chris co-chairs the IACP Human and Civil Rights Committee, is a Board Advisor for the University of Virginia Center for Public Safety and Justice, Board Fellow for the Future Policing Institute, and serves on the Global Advisory Council for the Crisis Ready Institute.