Welcome to Elements of Community!
I am your host, Lucas Root, and in this episode, we are going to talk about breaking authority barriers through leadership. Joining me in this episode is Mark Bustillos. Mark is the Chief of Police in Concord since April of 2020. Previous to that, he spent 29 years in the police department working his way through various ranks, and ended up in Concord. He has been serving the community for about two years now.
Here’s just a taste of our talking points this week:
Creating a Better Place for the Community
Mark has learned a lot of lessons all throughout his career. Including the good and bad. And what works in various communities around language, ethnicity, income, poverty, and commonality of interest.
In law enforcement, when they are working on building a community, they want people to understand that they are there to help them have a better life and let them know that they're in a safe spot to do whatever it is that they're doing, whether it's recreating a business.
Concord has 130,000 residents, Mark has 130 officers, It's not a lot. What do they depend on? They depend on the cooperation and their force multiplier is a community that they can work with and support whether it's a problem or just to make places better.
Helping the Badge of Authority Become Leaders
The core of what Mark wants his folks to be is to become the leaders in the community that people can trust. They can flag down and be independent problem solvers.
He wants to see his officers in the shopping ranch 99 markets buying tortillas, walking through the supermarket, and engaging with people. Which is a simple way of letting the community know that they are not just looking for criminal activity, but they are out there as an asset and to be of service to the community.
Other subjects we covered on the show:
- Some of Mark’s experiences where the elements of the community show up powerfully.
- How does Mark reapply the elements of community framework as a Chief of Police in Concord?
- Does Mark’s force understand what they are working towards?
- How does a common value in a common language issue work in Mark’s community?
- Ways on how Mark deepens the shared value and the shared language in his community.
If you want to know more about Mark Bustillos, you may reach out to him at:
