Risk comes in many forms – the financial cost of law suits, diminished capacity from the drain of poorly lead human resources, the loss of public confidence from scandals in the media.

Policing in a free and democratic society is strengthened by public support – built on the foundation that the police serve the public. In this context, accountability requires police leaders to effectively manage demands that they produce results with equally strong expectations that they achieve those results in a way which reflects the highest ethical standards.

With increased scrutiny and transparency from technology and various forms of social media, leaders in police services must rise to the challenge of these increasing challenges.

As noted by Dante Disparte in the Harvard Business Review article Simple Ethics Rules for Better Risk Management the solution is fairly straight forward. Pursue excellence and strategically oriented results and consistently behave in an ethical way – the rest will sort itself out.

Given the important role police serve in our society this approach does not simply describe how we should approach risk management – it defines who we should be.