Shobak Castle, the first Crusader castle in the nation of Jordan, presented a great opportunity to talk about criminal strongholds. Our driver, Ashrf (pronounced Ashraff) from Jordan Beauty Tours took us off-road to a hill overlooking this site while we were on our way to Petra. The wind presented a bit of a challenge to the audio, so my faithful cameraman and travelling partner, Gary Curry, suggested we move off of the hill onto a ledge just below. It cut the wind noise some, but as you can hear, I still had to compete with it…

Just like the Crusaders of the early 12th century used Shobak as a base of operations to control the surrounding countryside, criminals will use a stronghold that they have created to invade surrounding neighborhoods and expand their territory (not to compare Crusaders with criminals, but you get the point). Just like playing chess on a giant chessboard, this is how criminals are gaining ground on us in America (and other countries) today.

The ineffectiveness of Reactive Policing can be illustrated by how we respond to crimes committed by criminals who venture out from the stronghold into other neighborhoods. We find ourselves rushing from call to call: go to a call, take a report – go to the next call, take a report – go to the next call, take a report… Interestingly, as we chase our tails in this endless cycle of reactivity, we start to measure our effectiveness not by what we did to solve the problem that generated the call, but by how long it took us to get there!

Criminal strongholds and the cycle of reactivity can only be broken by coactively attacking the Fear, Apathy, and Tolerance for crime that allows strongholds to exist. How do we do this? Through community relationships that are fueled by trust and powered by the character of police officers who are properly aligned under authority…