Results!

When I meet a new manager, and he/she starts off with some variation of "I'm a process expert" or "I was brought in to help with process", I silently start updating my resume. The group I'm with will be in the tank before long.

So when the Strib writes:

When Minneapolis police Lt. Mike Carlson took command of the newly formed Violent Offender Task Force in January, the unofficial mantra -- focus on results, not process -- seemed like a no-brainer.

...I'd have to add "not to anyone who works in the world of business".

(Aside: I think people in newsrooms have it easy when it comes to this sort of things; the "process" for putting out a newspaper has been one long slow tweak since the late 1800s. They don't have to go through the periodic "process" upheavals that periodically wrack management. I remember calling into one of James Lileks' radio shows in the '90s, trying to explain "'Dilbert"; he didn't like it much, while nearly every one that ever worked in the straight biz world at the time (the early nineties, when Dilbert was still very new) raved about it. Newsies don't know how good they have it).

(Well, no - the news biz spawns a million ulcers a year. But they come from things other than management fads. So far. As the institutions of the daily paper and the network collapse, we may see more infiltration of the vulgate world of business into the cloisters of the mainstream newsroom).

Where were we?

Oh, yeah - gangs in Minneapolis.

The piece is interesting...

Similar initiatives had failed because participating agencies needed to work by a different set of rules, or county and federal prosecutors fought over who handled cases.

But none of these issues has surfaced so far, allowing the task force to wipe out the leadership of two feuding Minneapolis gangs and clear the streets of an emerging young and violent gang.

Excellent.

Of course, Minneapolis is a target-rich environment. But it's nice to see some of the targets going down.

Minneapolis Police Chief Bill McManus said the success of the eight-member task force, which includes the rare assignment of an agent from both the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, has surpassed his expectations.

The numbers don't lie: 26 federal indictments or charges, 23 state felony charges, 45 recovered guns, 29 search warrants and 76 arrests.

The task force has become Minneapolis' proactive gang investigative unit, something that hasn't existed within the police department for at least five years, said Capt. Rich Stanek.

The obvious question: Why?

Why was gang investigation off the table in Minneapolis for five years?

Posted by Mitch at September 29, 2005 06:19 AM | TrackBack