Practice what you teach—that’s the motto retired Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueermann lives by.
“I have been in fights with people on the street. I have arrested them, and then after the dust settled and we calmed down and I took them to county jail, we shook hands,” he says. “When I’d run into them later on the street, we got along fine. I truly believe that’s because when the fight was over I didn’t treat them poorly.”
This principal not only framed how he conducted himself as an officer, but how he ran the entire Redlands Police Department.
“You can apply this to the adult correctional system and our judicial system, where we need to hold people accountable for inappropriate behavior,” says Bueermann. “But the sanctions we give them shouldn’t be so disproportionate that they fail to learn the lesson, because then they’re just mad at the unfair system.”
Bueermann believes elected leaders should also be held accountable–that’s why he supports California Forward’s Government Performance Accountability Act.
The GPAA will reengineer, from the ground up, how state budgets and major policies are enacted, implemented and kept accountable over time.
“Given the state of things in California, there’s never been a better time to create a more responsive and accountable form of government… The Government Performance and Accountability Act will help re-engineer government to forge effective partnerships at the local level and create better outcomes for all Californians—a crucially needed step in the right direction of returning California to its former greatness.”
To read Jim’s full profile, click here. You can also learn about all of our Forward Thinkers, helping fill a void in their community and move California Forward.
