My guest this week is Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings.
You may know Director Rallings from leading the Memphis Police Department. After announcing his retirement for the year 2021, I wanted to speak with Director Rallings to understand what it felt like when he accessed and walked with protesters off the Mississippi River Bridge in 2016. This is a replay of an episode that was recorded in the summer of 2020.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- The principles that he has lived by throughout his life
- What a global perspective teaches him about the City he leads
- How to have context for the big picture when you’re thinking about specific challenges
- And more
Please enjoy my conversation with Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings.
1:40 Family, Dignity, Respect, and Loving People
1:57 Being Responsible for one’s own actions
3:08 Why discipline matters
3:39 Only two things I wanted to be: a soldier and an officer
4:36 Parents didn’t want me to join
7:20 The sacrifice others have made
7:35 What others have done for me
8:41 What a true global perspective gives you
12:24 George Floyd
12:41 Actual facts about law enforcement
15:00 Soldier for life
16:45 Look at the whole body of work
21:29 I have a long way to go
24:10 I am not going through anything anybody else hasn’t
24:40 Criticism has few terrors for a man with great purpose
26:30 If it’s good to my boss it’s great to me
27:17 You can’t do it all
28:23 Drown out the noise and do the work
29:44 Only hear because of the grace of God
30:04 Love yourself
33:20 President Obama I made a mistake every day
36:20 Getting in harms way
40:36 Negative Media
42:41 Transitioning career and getting to know Mike
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