[[Originally posted on Core77.com]]

It took a moment of family trauma for Colonel Dean Esserman to figure out how he needed to transform the Providence police department. The upset arose when the police chief’s son made a sad phone call from Washington D.C. to report a stolen bicycle. Esserman was pissed. Not with his son, of course (though he quickly and ruefully realized he’d be the one taking care of replacing the bike). But because it suddenly dawned on him that this type of situation epitomized what’s wrong with the contemporary policing system.

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