As I reflect on the past year serving our profession as your IACP president, I think back to the Awards Banquet at the Dallas, Texas, Conference in October 2022 when I was sworn in. I have often reflected on that conference and my remarks upon taking the oath regarding my vision for the coming year.

As I was preparing to take on this leadership role, some said that our profession was “at a crossroads” or “in crisis.” It is no surprise that several high-profile police incidents in the United States and beyond in recent years have been the impetus for calls for reform. Negativity around our profession has been at a high level, yet in many communities, if not most, support for the police remains strong. Gradually, extreme efforts under the umbrella of “police reform” resulted in degraded public safety while highlighting the lack of focus on other areas of criminal justice and other systems that also have impacts on crime and safety in our communities. Finally, policy makers were seeing what law enforcement professionals have been saying for years—the social problems resulting from a lack of investment in, or the failure of, other social systems continue to fall at the feet of the police to address. Yet, the police perspective was conspicuously missing in the conversation.

With the hard work supported by the IACP, particularly on the issues of police reform, qualified immunity, and related topics, the pendulum has begun to swing back. We still have work to do, and—due in some measure to the negativity around our profession—we continue to face significantly reduced numbers of qualified applicants seeking to enter the profession. As I traveled the world through my presidential term and hosted six Critical Issues Forums, I learned that challenges like recruitment and retention are not just U.S. problems, and the leadership displayed by police facing an uncertain future is commendable and serves as a model for others to emulate.

While I respect the opinion of those expressing concerns, as well as the issues and situations that gave rise to them, I did not see it from the same perspective. I see hope and promise, because I know the passion, dedication and resilience I have consistently seen from our colleagues throughout the world. And this past year has proven that, collectively, our profession continues to see opportunity in those challenges and works together toward enhancing public safety across a seemingly ever-changing landscape. The leadership displayed by police leaders facing an uncertain future is commendable, and serves as a model for others to emulate.

In many communities, if not most, support for the police remains strong.

This was particularly clear to me as the IACP moderated a roundtable meeting on Cultural Transformation in Policing, hosted by the Malta Police Force. Building on the first roundtable held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2022, and our IACP Executive Board Strategic Planning Meeting held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in early 2023, the Malta roundtable brought together police leaders from nine countries for a frank discussion and deep dive into how those leaders rose to the challenges they faced to redesign their agencies and transform their internal cultures to reflect leading practices in professional policing on a global scale. Their experiences, from identification of the needs to how they addressed them to develop a new focus on agency operations, were truly inspiring, and their efforts resulted in not only improved public safety but enhanced trust from the people they serve, which is the core of the IACP Trust Building Campaign (TBC).

In the October 2022 President’s Message of Police Chief magazine, then-President Dwight Henninger said of the origins of the TBC:

Even before I embarked upon my term as president of the IACP, the five vice presidents of the IACP and I agreed that we wanted to continue to make enhancing community-police trust a priority and that each of us would make a commitment that public trust would be an emphasis in the association’s strategic plan and work. Born out of that commitment was the Trust Building Campaign, which seeks to build relationships and trust with each of our communities. The overall focus of the program is for each of us to take a good hard look at our organization’s culture and ensure we are doing our very best to build trusting relationships.

I am pleased to have had the opportunity to continue the work started in 2022 by Past President Henninger and the Executive Board to make that concept a reality. I am pleased that so many police leaders have stepped up this year and taken the pledge to implement the key tasks in the campaign’s six focus areas. I am confident that each of those agencies and the communities they serve will benefit from those efforts to enhance trust, as we have seen through our Cultural Transformation roundtables.

While the Trust Building Campaign has been the umbrella under which we have focused our efforts this year, the other important work of the IACP has continued. I was particularly encouraged during our policy council meeting when I challenged each of our committees and sections to look closely at the Trust Building Campaign and determine, from the perspective of their particular missions, how they could be a part of advancing trust building. Several reported significant ways in which they could support these efforts, and their work has helped embed trust building into the fabric of the IACP.

Similarly, when presenting the Trust Building Campaign during the World Police Summit in the United Arab Emirates, the Victim Support Europe (VSE) Conference in Germany, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Association, as well as several state associations in the United States and conferences abroad, I was pleased to see the support and enthusiasm for the IACP’s effort to help agencies engage, serve victims, and enhance relationships across the globe.

This year, we continued to strengthen our relationship with aligned associations and organizations, including INTERPOL, ASEANAPOL, GCCPOL, the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, the Pacific Islands Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), the European Police Chiefs Convention, the FBI National Academy Associates, the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, and others, so we can collectively address issues and advance the profession. And this month during the IACP Annual Conference and Exposition in San Diego, we are scheduled to renew our Memorandum of Understanding with EUROPOL, to continue our long-standing partnership.

As we met with police leaders around the world at events like the World Police Summit or the International Forum on Police Cooperation held in Taipei, Taiwan, as well as a series of other events and bilateral meetings, we learned more about the innovative ways police agencies are addressing challenges and the dedicated officers and staff who are on the front lines of crime, disorder, and terrorism, serving with resolve and distinction. From the prototype “Smart Police Station” where the Dubai Police serve their community remotely, to the Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion and Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) units of the French National Police who are actively preparing to protect the 2024 Summer Olympics while addressing public disorder and terrorist threats, to the work of the Dutch National Police on gender equality and community policing in very diverse neighborhoods, to the transnational work in the Asia and Pacific Islands region by the Australian Federal Police and their island nation counterparts, and the work to enhance global road safety in Columbia and Brazil, our profession is strong and rises to the many distinct and diverse challenges agencies face. The IACP is honored to be a part of working with them so that, together, our efforts to positively and globally impact policing and public safety are making a difference.

Of critical importance to every police leader is officer safety and wellness, and the Trust Building Campaign is designed to have a positive impact in these areas as well. Our annual Officer Safety and Wellness Conference had a record attendance of more than 1,000 people, and trust building was integral to many of the discussions. The passion of those who are working hard to enhance safety, focus on wellness for our sworn and professional staff, and help address the tragic facts related to officer suicide has resulted in many resources, toolkits, training, and policies to help agencies take care of their staff.

I have attended National Police Week in Washington, DC, several times, and encourage every peace officer to do so at least once in their career. You will be forever changed by the experience. This year, in addition to visiting the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Wall and the panels where the names of several members of the agencies I have served are engraved, I had the privilege during the Candlelight Vigil to read the names of several officers who served and sacrificed, giving their lives in service to their communities. There is no greater honor than to be a part of remembering these heroes in such a meaningful way. Similarly, during several of my visits to other countries, whenever I had the opportunity I asked to visit their national memorial.  The memorials may be of a different size and scope, but their purpose is the same: honor our officers who died in the line of duty. The IACP is focused on working diligently with you to prevent the next officer injury or death.

During our six Critical Issues forums held this year in Arizona; California; Massachusetts; Minnesota; Tennessee; and Toronto, Canada, we heard first-hand from chiefs, sheriffs, colonels, and other police professionals from federal, state, county, local, tribal/First Nations and campus law enforcement agencies, as well as academic and elected representatives, to learn their perspective of the challenges facing their agencies and the profession and how IACP could help.  I appreciate all who came out to engage in this series of productive dialogues and, as expected, several themes emerged, which were reported recently by IACP and have become focus areas for our efforts going forward.

In addition to these events, I was pleased to be able to participate in the conversation on police reform as part of the Australia/New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency conference, attend the graduation ceremony for the Dubai Police, and meet the graduates of our first police academy exchange program with the Abu Dhabi Police and police representatives from the United States and Canada. I was encouraged by the conversation during the CACP Police Executive Mentorship Program, where I joined a team of IACP board members and staff to engage the emerging leaders of tomorrow. Mentoring, as you heard in my speech during IACP 2022 and saw in the August 2023 issue of Police Chief, is important to the future of our profession and is a responsibility of each police leader. To that end, I again encourage you to explore the IACP Mentor Match Program and give back to the profession in this meaningful way.

Joining several police leaders and staff from the Abraham Global Peace Initiative in their “Darkness to Light” tour of historical sites in Poland, including the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and then travelling to Israel to see the current state of Israel, including the continuing threats to their sovereignty in the region, was a moving highlight to my travels.  While I always knew the police had a significant role in the Nazi occupation, I did not realize until this trip, and my visit to the many museums in Berlin, the extent to which the police were the perpetrators of such atrocities.  I could see the importance of Trust Building from a new perspective.

Through the efforts of our board of directors, staff, and members, IACP membership grew to an all-time high this year, with more than 33,000 members in 170 countries. Our 33,000th member, Rob Gilchrist, Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Executive Director of the Canadian Police College and Centre for Excellence in Police Leadership, received a gift box of IACP memorabilia, including a personal note conveying my thanks for his membership.  Because it is through you, our members, that the IACP can carry out our mission of Shaping the Future of the Policing Profession.  The advocacy weight that our members bring collectively is significant, and is part of why the IACP is the world’s largest and most influential professional association for police leaders.

I thank you for your membership and hope you continue to contribute to our profession through the IACP. We have many opportunities for you to take on a leadership role by serving on a committee, section, division, working group, task force, and so on, or even consider becoming a candidate for elected office. To further this conversation, we reconvened a task force this year to look at those opportunities and determine better methods to increase the diversity in our elected and appointed leadership so that the IACP better represents the full breadth and depth of our membership. To achieve those goals, we need you to become involved or be the mentor who helps an emerging leader engage. Across the globe, police are more similar than different and seem to be cut from the same cloth—one that covers a community in safety and security through the work of dedicated professionals who are called and driven to serve. IACP is steeped in over 130 years of history and our future is bright, but to fully achieve our potential to carry out our mission, we need to ensure broad-based leadership throughout the association.

I had a great opportunity to meet so many of you, make new friends during my term, and learn more about how you and your agencies serve.  Among other things I learned that, across the globe, police are more similar than different, and seem to be cut from the same cloth; one that covers a community in safety and security through the work of dedicated professionals called to serve.  Thank you for your service; it matters to your agency, your community, and our profession.

I also learned more about our dedicated staff and their commitment to the membership and Association.  I trust you join me in thanking them for the work they do to tirelessly serve you and our profession.  Our IACP team at IACP Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, at our offices in South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, and around the globe are second to none!

Finally, I would like to thank my staff at the Thomasville, Georgia, Police Department for the additional work they took on in support of my responsibilities as your president.  They are all true professionals, dedicated to the community and to professional policing.  I would also like to thank the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police for their support of my initial campaign for fourth Vice President when I was a chief of police there, and the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police for their support during my time serving as a chief of police in Georgia. These are two, among many, of our professional SACOP associations, and I appreciate their support.

It has been an honor to serve as your IACP president during the 2022–2023 IACP year, but more so, it continues to be an honor to stand beside you, serving as a police officer in our noble profession. Thank you for your service; it matters to your agency, your community, and our profession. d

Please cite as:

John Letteney, “Year in Review,” President’s Message, Police Chief 90, no. 10 (October 2023).