Who Said Living Out Your Childhood Dreams Would Be Easy? with MPD Director Michael Rallings

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

RESOURCES

• Matt Haaga State Farm
• AB Jets
• Memphis Police Department