ILEETA 2008

29 Mar 08

The "Habit" of Excellence!

Next week, Vicki and I will be attending, and participating in, the 2008 ILEETA (International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association) Conference in Wheeling, IL.

This quotation from Aristotle sums up ILEETA's mission:

"Excellence is an Art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue and excellence, but rather we have those, because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

No amount or type of training can substitute for personal experience, but training can provide a level of ability that will allow you to live throughyour first "experience," However, you must bring your own courage and determination, which you either have or don't.

A modern LEO has the individual responsibility to acquire and maintain personal competence. When one takes public money to do a job, he must be able to perform adequately. It has always been a point of honor! This has nothingto do with "departmental training." It is an ethical responsibility, a matter of personal integrity and character. The legal power OF arrest requires the competence TO arrest. Bottom line: become truly competent, with your weapons and yourself, or find other work.

When, during Roman times, one carried the title of "Legionnaire," he bore upon his shoulders his family's name and the reputation of his Regiment. It was a profound burden! Legionnaires knew and understood their place in history, and they characteristically went about their duty with a fierce pride. Threats to the Empire were seldom distant and theoretical. They were realand immediate. It is thus with all empires!

"The pervasive expansiveness of the Empire which we see today did not come about as a result of some accident nor precipitous good fortune. Legionnaires do not sit around congratulating themselves in the wake of every victory, nor are they idle in peacetime. Rather, they are constantly training and refining their warrior skills, so as to be ready to act at a moment's notice. Indeed, they seem to have been born with weapons in their hands!"

Josephus Flavius, circa 90AD

We're looking forward to this year's Conference and gettingtogether with my brother Legionnaires!

/John