The CopDoc Podcast - Season 10 - Episode 173

Guest: Chief Ryan Johansen, Apex Police Department, Apex, North Carolina

Most police chiefs walk into a new department and tell people their vision. Ryan Johansen asked questions and took notes for 90 minutes with every single one of his 200 employees. One-on-one. No agenda. Just listening.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Chief Ryan Johansen of the Apex Police Department sits down with Dr. Steve Morreale for a wide-ranging conversation on what it takes to rebuild a police department's culture, restore officer confidence, and lead with both conviction and humility.

Ryan came to Apex, North Carolina about 15 months ago after five years as chief at the San Bruno Police Department in California, just south of San Francisco. He made the move with his wife and family, driven by a desire for a different environment and a chance to do something meaningful. What he found was an agency with purpose-driven officers who had pulled back on proactive policing, and a community watching crime numbers rise as a result.

He walked in with a clear belief: most of what ails policing starts inside the organization. If officers are treated as numbers, managed through policy, and punished more than developed, it shows in how they treat the public. Johansen flipped the model. He spent 90 minutes one-on-one with every one of his 200 employees, asking questions, listening, and taking notes. He made clear that the org chart runs the other way: everyone in the building, including him, exists to support the officers answering calls.

The conversation covers a lot of ground. Ryan talks about his early days at the San Diego Police Department and what he learned by leaving a 3,000-officer agency for a 50-officer department in San Bruno. He talks about taking the chief's job in San Bruno just two days before Covid lockdowns, and then navigating George Floyd and the calls for reform that followed. He describes walking into the Apex roll call room, tattoos and all, introduced only as "Ryan, from California," and what he said to a room full of officers who weren't sure what to make of him.

He and Steve dig into the managing versus leading debate, the difference between policy and culture, the false safety of no-pursuit policies, and what servant leadership actually looks like when it's time to discipline someone. Johansen is candid about the tension between institutional pressure and personal courage, and why he believes most police chiefs live in fear of the average three-year tenure rather than leading the way their people deserve.

This is a refreshing, honest conversation with a chief who isn't performing. He says what he believes. And the people around him are proving it works.

KEY TOPICS COVERED

• Career path from San Diego to San Bruno to Apex: what each stop taught him
• Why he believes policing "breaks good humans" and what he is doing about it
• The recruiter's words that brought him to Apex ahead of schedule
• What a real listening tour looks like: 90 minutes, one on one, with every employee
• Managing versus leading: where chiefs spend their time and why it matters
• The discipline dichotomy: development versus documentation
• Command and control culture and its effects on officers in the street
• Extracting a vision versus dictating one: how to earn genuine buy-in
• AI in policing: low-risk value versus high-risk shortcuts

Hey there! Send us a message. Who else should we be talking to? What topics are important? Use FanMail to connect! Let us know!

Contact us: copdoc.podcast@gmail.com

Website: www.copdocpodcast.com

If you'd like to arrange for facilitated training, or consulting, or talk about steps you might take to improve your leadership and help in your quest for promotion, contact Steve at stephen.morreale@gmail.com

The CopDoc Podcast - Season 10 - Episode 171

In this episode of The CopDoc Podcast, Dr. Steve Morreale sits down with Christian Quinn, retired Fairfax County Police executive and founder of Fulcrum Innovations.

Christian traces his path from Massachusetts summer police officer to one of the technology leaders in one of the nation's largest county police departments. The conversation then dives into the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence in policing.

Steve and Christian explore:

1. How AI is already affecting police operations and investigations.
2. Why agencies need governance, policy, and training before deploying AI tools.
3. The risks of deepfakes, synthetic media, and digital evidence manipulation.
4. How leaders can use AI responsibly to improve efficiency without surrendering critical thinking.
5. What police executives should be doing right now to prepare their organizations for the future.

Key takeaway

This is a candid discussion about the opportunities, blind spots, and ethical challenges that come with AI in public safety. If you lead people, manage policy, or are trying to understand what AI means for policing, this episode offers practical insights from someone who has been on both the operational and technology sides of the profession.

Hey there! Send us a message. Who else should we be talking to? What topics are important? Use FanMail to connect! Let us know!

Contact us: copdoc.podcast@gmail.com

Website: www.copdocpodcast.com

If you'd like to arrange for facilitated training, or consulting, or talk about steps you might take to improve your leadership and help in your quest for promotion, contact Steve at stephen.morreale@gmail.com

The CopDoc Podcast - Season 10 - Episode 170

EPISODE SUMMARY

What happens when a police chief walks into his first department meeting and tells the staff, "I'm here to serve you — not the other way around"? For Chief Tom Wetzel of the University Circle Police Department in Cleveland, Ohio, that statement was not a slogan. It was a commitment he has carried through three decades of policing, from dispatcher to lieutenant to chief.

In this conversation, Tom shares a leadership philosophy built on servant leadership, dignity, and what he calls the "sweet spot" between accountability and motivation. He is direct about what he has seen: too many police departments creating more stress for their officers inside the building than on the streets. The politics, the gossip, the nitpicking, the heavy-handed discipline — it follows officers home, sits with them at the dinner table, and follows them to bed. He believes that is not just a morale problem. It is a leadership problem, and it is fixable.

Tom also discusses his book, A Cop and a Coffee Cup, a short, practical blueprint for police supervisors and leaders. The concept is simple: imagine a wise, seasoned officer sitting across the table from a young leader, with one cup of coffee and one shot to pass on what matters most. That is the book. It covers how to develop inspired and accountable officers, how to handle discipline with grace and discretion, and why the word "clemency" belongs in every chief's vocabulary. If you lead people in blue — or aspire to — this episode will give you a great deal to think about.

Hey there! Send us a message. Who else should we be talking to? What topics are important? Use FanMail to connect! Let us know!

Contact us: copdoc.podcast@gmail.com

Website: www.copdocpodcast.com

If you'd like to arrange for facilitated training, or consulting, or talk about steps you might take to improve your leadership and help in your quest for promotion, contact Steve at stephen.morreale@gmail.com