The Hero Mentality: Rebuilding the Future of Policing One Response at a Time
“The police officer of tomorrow doesn’t carry the weight of every broken system. He/she doesn’t arrive to solve what society has refused to fix. Instead, he/she arrives exactly when needed, prepared, trained, and trusted. In the future of policing, the hero shows up only when all else has failed.”
Imagine building a house where the plumber is chronically unavailable, forcing the electrician to attempt to fix leaking pipes while wiring the home. Inevitably the electrician’s repair is inadequate, and water continues to drip dangerously close to live wires, and disaster looms. This chaotic scenario mirrors many state and local governments – specialists neglecting their roles, leaving the police – the "electricians" – to be jack-of-all-trades tackling issues beyond their expertise. Problems like poverty, educational deficits, and healthcare failures – root causes of crime – ignored by their respective “contractors” have shifted onto policing to address.
The burden on the police derives from two entrenched professional paradigms: the “warrior/guardian” and the “servant” mentalities. Historically, these orientations have been distilled into succinct mottos—To Serve and Protect or similar variation – reflecting a distinct philosophical orientation. Yet neither framework sufficiently accommodates the complexity of contemporary public‐safety challenges.
The reallocation of responsibilities in modern policing has been characterized as “mission creep” – a deliberate and gradual broadening of institutional mandate. Yet perhaps a more troubling phenomenon is “mission drift,” wherein agencies unwittingly stray from their core functions and find themselves questioning the very evolution of their job. Whether this transformation is intentional or inadvertent, it demands a rigorous reevaluation of law enforcement’s proper place within the public safety continuum: What role should law enforcement assume within the broader public safety ecosystem? Should officers abandon strategies intended to reduce or prevent crime and concentrate on responding only after these offenses occur?
The police officer of tomorrow doesn’t carry the weight of every broken system. He/she doesn’t arrive to solve what society has refused to fix. Instead, he/she arrives exactly when needed, prepared, trained, and trusted. In the future of policing, the hero shows up only when all else has failed.
This is the future the Hero Mentality makes possible.
We are standing at the edge of a transformational shift in law enforcement – one where the role of police officers is focused, specialized, and reimagined for the complexities of 21st-century society. Policing is evolving. And what comes next might surprise you.
A Future-First Framework
For generations, the public has expected police officers to be both social workers and soldiers, neighborhood problem solvers and high-stakes responders. But this blended identity – part warrior, part guardian, part servant – has stretched the profession thin and failed to produce consistent results.
Now, forward-thinking leaders are asking: What if policing took a cue from fire services? What if we made police response a specialized, high-impact tool – used only when necessary, never by default?
Enter the Hero Mentality – a new orientation that envisions police as highly trained, surgically deployed responders who step in when other systems falter. Instead of trying to prevent crime through omnipresence, officers respond with precision, integrity, and urgency when the situation truly demands it.
This is not retreat. It’s refinement.
The Power of Specialization
In the Hero Mentality framework, police no longer handle every noise complaint, mental health call, or minor shoplifting incident. These non-emergency tasks are redirected to agencies better suited to address them – social services, behavioral health teams, community responders, and departments of transportation.
This realignment is already unfolding in cities across the globe. Denver’s STAR program, Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department, and even Australia’s reimagined domestic violence response teams all point to a future where police are no longer the blunt instrument of government response.
Instead, they’re the scalpel.
Picture a future where:
AI-driven triage systems sort 911 calls in real-time, using natural language processing and caller profiles to determine the most appropriate responder.
Modular police units, similar to hazmat or rescue teams in fire services, are deployed based on the specific nature of each incident – violent crime, cyber threats, or public safety emergencies.
Non-sworn personnel handle up to two-thirds of all emergency calls, freeing sworn officers for high-risk, high-need situations.
This model doesn't shrink the influence of policing – it elevates its impact by returning officers to their most essential function: being there when it matters most.
Past Paradigms Can’t Guide the Future
The traditional policing frameworks – warrior, guardian, and servant – grew out of 20th-century needs. Each was a reaction to the challenges of its time: rising crime, urban unrest, and calls for community engagement. But today’s society faces different threats: institutional breakdown, social complexity, algorithmic misinformation, and growing public mistrust.
Decades of research have exposed the limits of common policing strategies:
Community policing initiatives often build goodwill but produce minimal reductions in crime.
Data-driven policing like CompStat can improve efficiency but sometimes sacrifice fairness and increase surveillance.
Rapid response times offer little impact on long-term safety when social conditions remain unchanged.
Predictive policing systems have been shown to underperform and exacerbate racial disparities.
These approaches weren’t failures; they were stepping stones. But they weren’t built for the world we're entering now.
The Hero Mentality is.
A Society Rebalanced
This future requires more than a change in police strategy. It requires a shift in how society shares responsibility for public safety.
When schools are underfunded, when mental health care is inaccessible, when addiction goes untreated, when housing is unaffordable – these aren’t policing problems. They are societal ones. But for too long, society has turned to law enforcement as the only responder.
That future is neither sustainable nor desirable.
The Hero Mentality insists on a new deal: Everyone shows up. Everyone plays their role.
Education systems commit to equity.
Courts are modernized to ensure swift and fair justice.
Social services are funded to support mental health and prevent crises.
Media is held accountable for how it amplifies violence and fear.
Only in this ecosystem can policing truly evolve into a focused, respected, and trusted profession of emergency response.
Building the Hero Officer
Imagine the officer of 2035. He/she’s not rushing from call to call, burned out and reactive. He/she is trained in multiple languages. He/she’s certified in de-escalation, trauma-informed care, and advanced tactical response. He/she’s healthy, rested, and psychologically supported after every traumatic incident.
He/she knows that when they’re called, it’s because he/she’s truly needed.
That’s what the Hero Mentality enables:
Time for training and mastery, not multitasking.
Wellness support for long-term resilience.
Clear boundaries, reducing mission drift and public frustration.
Public trust rebuilt through competence, compassion, and clarity.
As each call for service is triaged with intelligence and intent, the public witnesses a law enforcement system that doesn’t overreach – it delivers.
A New Public Covenant
Sir Robert Peel’s principle that “the police are the public and the public are the police” needs an update for the 21st century. Today, we must embrace a shared future where the police are no longer the solitary default responder, but one vital part of a coordinated, just, and resilient public safety network.
The Hero Mentality is not about retreating from service. It’s about refusing to be society’s patchwork fix. It’s about focusing on what policing does best—responding bravely, ethically, and expertly when the stakes are highest.
This shift may challenge old assumptions. It may face resistance. But like any future worth building, it starts with a question:
What if we stopped asking police to fix society—and asked society to show up for itself?
That’s not just a vision. It’s the next chapter in the story of public safety.
About the author: Captain Craig T. Solgat serves with distinction in the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, where he brings over two decades of law enforcement experience and leadership to the nation’s capital. He is also a Fellow of the Future Policing Institute. He holds a Master of Arts in Homeland Defense and Security from the United States Naval Postgraduate School and a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University. He is also a published author whose work has appeared in numerous professional journals, contributing valuable insight on public safety, national security, and police leadership. To read his full bio, click here.