Teddy Roosevelt is famous for many reasons: establishing the National Park System, leading the Rough Riders in the Spanish American War, and issuing the inspiring “Man in the Arena” speech are just a few examples. Roosevelt taking a bullet to his chest during a 1912 presidential campaign speech and not seeking medical care until after finishing his remarks is an anecdote of legend. His post-presidential mapping of the Amazon River alone could have been the adventure of a lifetime. Today, October 27th, marks the anniversary of President Teddy Roosevelt’s birth in 1858, and his example still inspires us.
Roosevelt takes on the Failing New York Police Force
What few remember is his time reforming New York City’s corrupt and failing public justice system. In 1894, Roosevelt declined to run for Mayor of New York City and retreated to the Dakotas to recharge. It was among the Dakota’s rugged landscape, majestic animals, and inspiring people, that Roosevelt received the call to return to New York and address the problem with the police. The spoils system, lack of training, petty corruption, and discrimination against immigrants were the rule not the exception to the City’s police force. The public justice system was little more than a uniformed gang operating with government authority instead of a merit-based elite cadre of officers working to protect and serve.
Clear Assessment and Plan
Roosevelt’s honest assessment of the police force benefited from an intrepid reporter writing exposes about the City’s excesses. Roosevelt’s plan to reform the public justice system included physical fitness requirements, firearms inspection, and merit-based hiring standards. He embraced new technology by installing telephones in each of the City’s police stations to facilitate communication and create transparency. Bribes, petty corruption, and turning a blind eye to criminal enterprises ended.
Incarnational Implementation
Roosevelt did not sit behind his commissioner’s desk polishing his plan for reform. He hit the streets. To everyone’s surprise, Roosevelt started walking the beat with local cops in the morning to see things from their perspective. This habit not only helped him appreciate what good officers endured, but it revealed when officers worked for their own self-interest instead of the public interest. Roosevelt expanded this practice to the evening shift, where he would walk the streets to find officers sleeping on duty or misusing their badges.
Resistance to Change
Roosevelt’s personal involvement with the police disrupted the status quo and yielded outrage from all those relying on the norms: veteran officers, local businesses, and political donors. The uniform application of law led to complaints and public protests. With the light-hearted spirit of a happy warrior, Roosevelt laughed off the public criticism and calls for his resignation. He served as the President of the Police Commission from 1895-1897 and is credited with beginning the process of professionalization of one of the world’s most esteemed local law enforcement agencies. Roosevelt had clarity about the existing problem, developed a plan to fix it, and personally built the capacity of the public justice system to achieve its mission.
Roosevelt in the Arena
There is no way to know if when Roosevelt gave his “Man in the Arena” speech in 1910, whether he was in part drawing from the critics, opponents, and mockers of his justice system reform efforts: “those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
What we do know is that the work of reforming, building, and professionalizing public justice systems around the world remains a critical task. Those on the front lines would be wise to mirror Roosevelt’s strategy of (1) clearly understanding the problem, (2) developing a strategic and practical plan, (3) getting personally involved in developing the system’s capacity, and (4) having a light-hearted approach to the critics who possess the shallow courage to snipe from the side lines, but lack the sustained fortitude to contend in the arena.
