Read an Excerpt
Hit it with a Bigger Hammer
By Kevin Boyle Balboa Press
Copyright © 2014 Kevin Boyle
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-2269-2
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The problem
Debate around crime prevention is enduring and there are two very simple reasons why better answers are never found. The first is that policing does not and cannot prevent crime. The second is that in not recognizing this and persisting to covet responsibility for the role, policing obstructs better answers from being found.
This book proves that policing cannot prevent crime. And by extension, the policing ideology that is replicated as best practice into security management and other similar applications throughout society, does not prevent the offending it purports to prevent.
It proposes a solution in the antithesis of the policing ideology that does prevent crime and corruption and its very success proves why policing does not and cannot prevent crime and it also demonstrates why policing's coveting of the prevention role is conflicting and has obstructed better answers from being found.
Explained in metaphorical terms; policing is the fence at the top of the cliff as well as the ambulance below. These are opposing ideologies that require conflicting elements to manage. The fence of crime prevention should be proactive and inclusive. The ambulance of law enforcement is reactive and necessarily autocratic and excluding.
Policing can only prevent crime if it is present when crime threatens. It provides a punitive deterrent but this alone does not prevent crime. Courts and prisons also provide punitive deterrents but they do not covet responsibility for crime prevention.
Policing's dual roles expose a serious conflict of interest that for 2000 years has obstructed better prevention answers being found. This manifests in systemic failure as policing is society's only expert purveyor of crime prevention method and advice.
Society relies on policing for expert advice when crime spikes or particularly serious crime occurs. Policing is defensive when questions are raised about crime prevention and its answers are always around policing; from a greater presence of policing and tougher enforcement to being more proactive in communities. Both require increased policing resources; policing cannot look outside its own purview for better answers.
The indicators of policing's failure to prevent crime are; ever increasing crime, ever stretched policing resources, congested criminal courts and overcrowded prisons; all attest to policing's failure to prevent crime but, conversely, success in prosecuting it.
However, the dots are never joined in this way because policing is cast in the conflicting position of defending its own failures; which simply perpetuates ongoing failures and the ongoing problems that never get resolved. Policing's advice and explanations are simply accepted by society, unquestioned and unchallenged.
The consequences
The failure of policing in prevention management is systemic and its consequence goes well beyond the incidence of crime statistics, which in themselves incur needless costs to taxpayers and create considerably more victims than are necessary.
It includes the black economies of countries that account for between 12%-30% GDP in developed countries and up to 80% GDP in undeveloped countries. It includes financial collapses like the latest global fiscal collapse resulting from corrupt practice and greed and excess that cost investors and taxpayers $multi-trillions in losses and bailouts. It includes the $multi-billions lost in corporate collapses like Enron and Madoff in the US and countless others due to fraud and corruption.
The policing ideology is replicated and interwoven into the governance oversight of all of these failures. And ironically, it is the practitioners of this failed ideology who are responsible for remedying what they could not previously prevent, with the same failed ideology, only in greater doses. And their remedy is invariably opposed by those who were responsible for the losses and corrupting the system in the first place.
"Hit it with a bigger hammer" is how the policing ideology remedies its failure to prevent crime and corruption; it is the only method that is available to society.
The widespread adoption of the policing ideology as the best practice in prevention management was firstly replicated from policing into commerce to prevent theft and fraud. It then passed into sports to prevent match fixing, corruption, doping and anti-social behavior, into schools to prevent bullying and anti social behavior and finally into the sanctity of the family home to prevent child smacking and family violence.
In none of these applications is there evidence that policing prevents what it purports to prevent. Public crime is increasing; theft, fraud and corruption is endemic in commerce; match fixing, doping, corruption and anti-social behavior is ongoing in sport; bullying and intimidation is virulent in society; and family violence abounds.
The prevention measures employed by the policing ideology are aimed at people as opposed to with them. It is necessarily autocratic which means it is naturally divisive, polarizing and mistrusting of the people who are best situated to prevent the behavior. It obstructs cooperation that is essential to prevention solutions. It's that simple; but complicated by the fact that policing and society fail to recognize it.
I recognized it - and fixed it and my life has been a battle ever since. I founded an inclusive prevention solution in commerce 25 years ago and conclusively proved its success. However, it suffered at the hands of change management simply because it was not best practice.
I have since been unable to provide the solution proper due diligence as a prevention method and to have it adopted as a new best practice in prevention management that can collaborate with policing's enforcement.
The solution
I did not come by the solution accidentally. I was a security manager in commerce when I recognized that employee theft and fraud was not being prevented and appeared to worsen. I questioned and challenged the methods we used and found that this antagonized my peers, which raised more questions. I began my own quest for better answers that I eventually found in the antithesis of security management and the policing ideology.
I employed the solution in commerce for 5 years, experiencing unprecedented success before change management autocratically terminated it in favor of the best practice. I have since researched and developed it hypothetically into sport and every other area in society the policing ideology is employed to prevent crime and corruption.
Finding a better solution does not necessarily translate to success. The best practice is heavily invested into by society and although my solution proves it does not prevent offending and demonstrates the reasons, it is difficult to affect change.
I included the employees in managing the problem; an outcome the best practice could never achieve and a solution that was imminently more compatible with commercial aspiration and culture than the invasive, divisive policing ideology. It overcame the societal "code of silence" that obstructs the successful management of offending; a code that is ironically brought about by the policing ideology.
In my subsequent promotion of the solution I have been unable to overcome dogmatic adherence to the best practice and obviously was not helped that the solution was terminated in its original application; albeit in circumstances that had nothing to do with its obvious success. I have been unable to get past the management and administrations of organizations to present it to their employees and sportspersons; a demographic it significantly benefits.
This has been frustrating because, without exception the managers and administrators in commerce and sport have received the concept well without adopting it or allowing its presentation to their employees or sportspersons.
This solution is beneficial to everyone; organizations and stakeholders; employees, athletes and players who are criminalized by the best practice; and entire economies that will benefit by reversing black economies through reduced crime and corruption.
The purpose of this book is to introduce the solution to everyone; to provide its full explanation to everyone who has a vested interest so that all can equally consider its merits and have their say in its adoption or otherwise.
The publication of this book will provide for its widespread promotion to every manager, administrator, employee, sportspersons and athletes or any other stakeholder with an interest in preventing crime and corruption in their workplace or sport.
It will build a fence at the top of the cliff for the first time in the history of crime management to achieve optimal crime prevention outcomes. This will allow policing to concentrate its resources on its core enforcement role to provide the opportunity for optimal law enforcement outcomes and in collaboration with the new prevention ideology, optimal overall crime management outcomes will result.
CHAPTER 2
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU LOOK FOR ... YOU MIGHT FIND IT!
I found the solution to a problem that for all intents and purposes did not exist. This bothered me to begin with because no-one listened but its outstanding success encouraged me to continue researching and developing its potential into wider societal application. I can now propose it to society as a much improved method of crime and corruption prevention.
My life has been fate-driven and not always in the direction I would have chosen. If I can finally say that my life's path led me to not only find this solution but to have it accepted as a new best management practice, then the struggle has been worth it.
The first time fate impacted on my life was when I was still at school and I was the dux of forms one and two. I am unsure how I achieved this because my father was an alcoholic and study time at home was disruptive. Our family of five children was fortunate to be balanced by a brave and stoic mother who gave us a good grounding.
However, my success at school was not to last as my headmaster and a proud mother unwittingly conspired to ruin my brief academic success. Mid-stream they agreed to change my curriculum from commercial to language, which was considered superior. I tried to recover the two years lost ground in the new subjects and to maintain success in the core subjects, but failed. I also failed the standard school certificate examination at my first attempt and was too embarrassed to stay for a second attempt.
My mother was heartbroken at my intention to leave school and resorted to blackmail; telling me that our local Catholic church was paying for my education and was expecting better results. I often wondered if she'd sold me into the priesthood as I can vaguely recall whispers about my becoming a priest.
I resolved this by going to the priest and thanking him for his generosity to my family. I apologized for not succeeding and for leaving school early and I was comforted by his response. In his very thick Irish brogue, he said; "Ah to be sure Kevin, that's never a problem. God obviously has something more important in mind for you."
I can never know what would have happened if I had succeeded at school and gone on to further my education. The only thing I am sure of is that this and other similar subsequent fateful events put me on a path to finding this solution. And thereafter further fateful events ensured that I needed to stay on the path of this solution.
I call them my success/failure paradigms because my every success or step forward in life has been met with abrupt, debilitating failure largely not of my own making. And each time it became evident that the success of this solution was my only way out.
Had I been able to capitalize on any of these successes, including the continuation of this solution in commerce, I may not have persevered with the necessary research and development that enabled me to conclude its final potential and write this book.
The book explains how and why I came to look for a better solution in crime management and it provides compelling reasons why my findings and solution should be properly considered and provided proper due diligence.
It describes my personal travails and the professional obstacles that have confronted me, not only in exposing a problem and looking for and finding a better solution in commerce, but in further researching, developing and promoting the solution as a potential universal prevention ideology and new best management practice.
Put simply, it could change the way we as a society manage crime.
"Be careful what you look for ... you might find it".
CHAPTER 3
(1970 - 1975) MY POLICING DAYS & RUGBY
Prior to talking about the prevention solution I will provide a little background about myself before I embarked on a career in security management, as it describes the influencing factors in my life before that time.
Ironically, it was my father who pointed me in the direction of joining the police. This was after a failed apprenticeship in mechanical engineering with the New Zealand Electricity Department at the Meremere power station. This was my time of reckless rebellion as failure to pass school certificate meant I was not qualified to train in the electrical engineering apprenticeship I had preferred.
On returning home to Auckland from Meremere and drifting in a factory engineering job, my father, in one of his rarer moments of sobriety, approached me with a copy of the New Zealand Womens Weekly magazine opened at a full page advertisement for the New Zealand Police. He simply said to me: "I think you should consider joining them before they start taking an interest in you". He had recognized that I was at a crossroads in my life and had the aptitude to go either way.
Up until then my father had not taken a great personal interest in me. His battle with alcohol had begun during World War II where its fortification was prerequisite to his climbing into the tail gunner position of his Lancaster bomber prior to carrying out bombing raids over Germany.
My father's intervention was breathtaking in its clarity and showed an insightfulness and wisdom I never thought he possessed and he had recognized my ability to do better. Thereafter, I took the time to learn more about his war years and subsequent struggle with alcohol and I came to realize that he was otherwise very intelligent.
At that time I was playing rugby which I had started playing in the school first XV. Up until then I had played rugby league for a local club team. I went on in rugby to represent the Auckland Marist club in over 300 premiere games and I represented my province, Auckland, in over 50 games; both were milestones I was proud to achieve.
Rugby was teaching me disciplines I had perhaps missed out on after leaving home to start my apprenticeship. When I read the advertisement in the Womens Weekly for the New Zealand police I knew immediately that it was what I wanted to do.
I had every intention of making policing my profession but it turned out to be for relatively short five year tenure before I accepted a position in security management in commerce. Security management was a new, fledgling industry in New Zealand commerce at that time and promised exciting future prospects.
I enjoyed my time in policing and particularly representing the Auckland and New Zealand police rugby teams. Police rugby was extremely hard fought and incongruous with the spirit of the policing's role in society; it was a convenient outlet for pent-up frustrations. My future employer and mentor in security management, Joe Sheehan, had been the manager of the New Zealand police team I played in.
Rugby helped shape my life as much as any profession might. I met lifelong friends and associates in rugby and encountered some notable coaches like John Hart and Graham Henry both of whom went on to coach New Zealand's All Blacks. But it was my first Auckland coach, Bryan Craies, who perhaps had the most impact on me.
I had always I believed I was confident; after all I was a policeman. I was therefore shocked when Bryan took me aside one day and told me that I didn't have confidence in my own ability. He said that I portrayed an outward confidence that inwardly I didn't believe. He believed this was holding me back from realizing my full potential.
My formative years had not instilled in me any great sense of self-belief and I knew I had to try harder than others to succeed. This perhaps explained why I never held any ambition to be an All Black that all other New Zealand rugby players have. I was simply happy to represent Auckland that many others failed to achieve. However, Bryan's words never left me and I purposefully carried his advice through into my professional life where it provided me the motivation and determination to succeed.
This was tested near the end of my rugby playing days when I withdrew from a world tour the Auckland team was undertaking in favor of consolidating my newly won promotion to the head my company's security division. At the time Winstone Limited was New Zealand's largest public company and my promotion was significant career advancement and responsibility that I needed to put ahead of rugby.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Hit it with a Bigger Hammer by Kevin Boyle. Copyright © 2014 Kevin Boyle. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
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