As the world emerges from the biggest public health crisis in a century, police find themselves operating in an environment of deep complexity, a fast pace of change, and troubling uncertainty. Social and political tensions are increasingly interconnected, polarized, and magnified; the pace of technological changes seems only to escalate; economies are misfiring; supply chains continue to falter; and even severe weather events appear increasingly the norm. As much as ever in recent years, the future feels like a hotly contested space.

It is no wonder in this operating environment that leaders in every organization— not just police—are spending so much mental bandwidth dealing with the crises of the present and feel themselves with limited headspace to think about the road ahead. Yet it is in this environment that the value of futures thinking—the ability to navigate pathways from the present to a desirable future—is higher than ever.