Ron Palmer Tulsa Police Chief,,, part deux

To Lead, To Learn, To Leave a Legacy.

In one's career, you usually don't double back to a place where you've been before. You move on, hopefully up, or to different pastures altogether. In 2002, Chief Palmer was seemingly moving in one of these directions. So, I thought I would do some searching to see what was the mood and reason for change in 2002. I'm not sure I've found what I'm looking for yet, but I did uncover an article called 'To Lead, To Learn, To Leave a Legacy' that was produced by the Major Cities Chiefs, Federal Bureau of Investigation National Executive Institute, June 2005. The paper is a collection of current and former law enforcement professionals that are describing how their law enforcement careers would be remembered, and in what ways they made a difference. Chief Palmer's section 'Eight Habits of Creating a Legacy' states among other things that:

"...those of us who have been immersed in law enforcement for most of our adult lives usually end up staying immersed or, as a second choice, end up having little interest in true law enforcement issues as time moves to the right. I've turned out to be the latter, sometime much to my amazement."

Later there is a discussion about race relations. That section, "#8 Expect the Race Card to be Played" states the following:

I know that many of my NEI peers have had to deal with those issues. Neither white, black, or Hispanic Chiefs seem to have all the answers to this most important of police issues. I do know that the law enforcement professionals that have participated in the Major City Chiefs Association and NEI expect the race card to be played at any time. They are correct. It can be played when you least expect it.

The whole article can be found here. Chief Palmer's part starts on Page 83.

(It's in .pdf format so you will need Adobe to view it.)
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html