Podcast Episode #60 is the second part of a two-parter with retired Lt. Randy Russell of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, an innovator in the use of Lean methods for improving law enforcement (Part 1, Episode #51 is here).
This second part of their discussion highlights practical applications of Lean that directly improved officer safety, efficiency, and community service.
Randy shares compelling stories of how day-to-day problems were solved using Lean thinking, from simplifying the process for issuing pool cars to redesigning the police supply system. By applying concepts like supermarkets for small items and streamlining approvals, officers gained back significant time that could be devoted to policing rather than bureaucracy.
One of the most powerful examples comes from applying 5S and standardization to police vehicles. Initially met with skepticism, the effort quickly gained support when framed around officer safety. Standardizing gear placement in patrol cars ensured that officers could quickly locate life-saving equipment–even in unfamiliar vehicles–during emergencies. Randy makes clear that Lean is not about “neatness” for its own sake, but about ensuring readiness in situations where seconds count.
The episode underscores Randy's belief that Lean provides a structured way to save lives. Whether through eliminating wasted hours, organizing critical tools, or freeing officers from administrative burden, Lean allowed law enforcement to focus on its mission of protecting the community. Russell's stories resonate well beyond policing, offering lessons for healthcare, government, and any sector where waste reduction and respect for people can make a critical difference.
Randy's company, Hyperformance Enterprises, LLC, operates a Lean consulting and training division. Randy's interests include waste identification and elimination, process improvement, transactional systems, and strategic alignment. His hands-on experience with Lean in a broad array of settings as the former Chairman of the (47+ member) Jacksonville Lean Consortium and his two decade career as a law enforcement commander and lead security planner for a Super Bowl provides valuable added experience and insights when it comes to dealing with sensitive and complex projects.
For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.
Transcript:
Announcer:
Welcome to the Lean Blog Podcast. Visit our website at www.leanblog.org. Now, here's your host, Mark Graban.
Mark Graban:
Hi, this is Mark Graban. This is episode number 60 for February 3, 2009. Today we have part two of a discussion we started back in October in episode 51 with retired Lt. Randy Russell of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, an innovator in the use of Lean methods for improving law enforcement.
In part two here, Randy will go through some very interesting and salient examples of the application of 5S and other Lean principles in day-to-day law enforcement. I think he really illustrates the way that Lean tools like this, when applied properly, can really help save lives for both law enforcement and the public they are working to protect. I hope you find this interesting and give some thought in your own organization: how can we apply Lean methods in a way that really impacts those doing the work or really impacts our customers, rather than just going out and implementing Lean tools? Hopefully, you'll find this thought-provoking. As always, thanks for listening.
Day-to-Day Problem Solving with Lean
Mark Graban:
Maybe one other question to tie back into law enforcement. You talk about not just having a continuous improvement team driving improvement but getting everybody involved. What are some examples of the types of day-to-day problems that people in the force were able to help solve using Lean?
Randy Russell:
Some examples… you're a detective and you have a car issued to you. The car breaks down, goes to the motor pool. Now you need to get what's called a “pool car” to drive around and do your interviews. Well, the processes that were in place required you to get a ride back to the station, fill out this form, go see what pool cars were available, go find the chief to okay it, get it signed out, go to the lot where this car is supposed to be, only to find out somebody else didn't fill out the paperwork, the car's not there, and start all over. This could take all day.
Mark Graban:
Yeah.
Randy Russell:
So there's some pain, a lot of pain. Well, we streamlined that process so that there's a common node where we know where the cars are, we know what their status is. You sign it out. It doesn't have to go to a chief; some supervisor at the most junior level necessary is fine. So now you turn a process that took all day to just a few minutes, and you get the car and you know where the car is. That's one small example.
There was a question that you had asked once before: which ones was I most proud of? And it's not the ones that we were involved in. It's the ones where people go to the class, then they go back to their workplaces and go, “Wow, that doesn't make any sense,” or “That's this type of waste.” I tell people your ID card is a hunting license, and you have to know what type of game is in season. Once you do, then you're a much more effective hunter. So they go back to their workplace, and they know what to hunt now.
One of the coolest examples, and it just has this agency-wide effect, is Sergeant Billy Tarkenton was our supply sergeant. You had to queue up at the window at the police station to get anything–a box of markers, a print cartridge, rubber bands, uniforms, whatever. So there was always this long line outside. When people are standing in line, they're not getting their work done.
Billy goes back and realizes that the thing that's tying up the line is people getting fitted for uniforms. So he splits the window: one's a uniform side, one's general supplies. Then he says, “You know what? There's a whole bunch of stuff we're not going to come looking for. We're not coming for a bottle of Wite-Out or a bag of rubber bands.” So he put those things in a supermarket where if you need them, you come and get them. Now, the box of batteries, the print cartridges, things like that you come and sign for after bringing the old one back. The rest of the stuff is in a supermarket.
Now, before I retired, I'd take people down there and say, “Look, we have not alerted them that you're coming, and I'll guarantee you that there will be no lines.” And there never was. We went from a line that was on average 5 to 10 people to no lines ever. And do you know what happened to the shrinkage on the little knick-knacks? It went down. If you know that all you need is one Magic Marker, you're just going to go get one. People aren't having to hoard and keep their own stocks. So they're not overconsuming and then throwing the stuff away when it goes bad.
Applying 5S for Officer Safety
Randy Russell:
There are operational examples. Evidence technician vans, the CSI-type people, we require them to carry all this specialized gear. They were initially in sedans, and then they put them in vans, and now even vans don't seem to be big enough. Well, we had a very bright lady, Norma Buchanan, an evidence technician, who went to the class, went back, 5S'd her van, and got it looking fantastic and organized. Management saw that and said, “Hey, we're going across the board with this.” So they got together, made a few tweaks to refine it even further, and then standardized that. So now the evidence technicians have everything they need with room to spare, it's organized, and they know where everything is. The vans also look a lot more professional.
Now take that, which is a very logical 5S type of thing, and we'll take it to something that's a lot more gut-level. The police do an incredibly dangerous job. The officers are assigned their cars individually, and they have a lot of gear. Some of this gear will save your life or save your partner's life. They're also very particular about how their vehicle is set up, but no two are alike. That's a problem.
If you get 10 police cars together and you time them on finding a random list of items that you would want in a hurry–fire extinguishers, first aid kits, tourniquets–but you gave them somebody else's keys, that's an interesting operation. To find stuff in somebody else's car, right? Well, if you think about it, if somebody goes down and you're closest to their car, you need to be able to find that extra ammo or get to their shotgun or get to the fire extinguisher. If you can't get to that or you don't know where it is, time's a-wasting, and people could lose their lives.
So there was a big officer safety advantage to standardizing the police trunks and gear placement. Initially, it wasn't met with the happiest of officers because they felt like some of their liberty was taken away. But when you frame anything in an officer safety context, they get it, and nobody argues against officer safety. We basically said, “Well, we're just going to organize the things that belong to the sheriff in the car,” which would be 99% of things.
Mark Graban:
Yeah, I love that story and I love that example because I think that's such a nice illustration of using Lean concepts in a way that helps people. I mean, what's more important than helping save somebody's life in a dangerous situation? This was not the neat freaks running around and saying, “We want the cars to look neat for neatness' sake.”
A Structured Way to Save Lives
Randy Russell:
Well, my personal mission is to get Lean into the things that save lives, directly and indirectly. I see this for what it is. It is a structured way to save lives. If you think about the pool car example, yeah, it's frustrating, it's administrative. We can all relate to it. Now think about it this way, and this is how I choose to look at it as a veteran officer: that detective, while he's trying to get a pool car, isn't making the phone call that could have given him the tip that put the child molester in prison. Now something terrible happens because that guy's loose and not behind bars.
The officer who's spending too much time filling out a vehicle storage report on the street instead of watching the intersection where he was going, where we've had a high-frequency crash problem. Now if he's able to do that, the car that was going to run the red light and crash into your family doesn't happen because now he's there. I know what police do. We save lives. We do it directly and indirectly. And anything that takes us away from that only aids our enemies.
Mark Graban:
I love that focus. And there seems like there's a bit of a parallel when hospitals are using Lean in patient care settings with nursing. There's a phrase that's used, “releasing nurses' time,” allowing nurses to spend more time on patient care. It sounds like a very direct parallel to your focus of freeing up officers' time to actually do police work instead of dealing with a bunch of waste.
Randy Russell:
Absolutely, precisely. And I think that those of us in the Lean business, you and your audience, we can influence some of these life-saving activities in a very positive way by sharing these examples. This is not some administrative neat freak thing. No, this is about your surgeon having his tools on the tray next to him. Anything else doesn't make sense. Your life could be saved because he has the right tool in the right place to clamp that artery. The police knowing that that rifle is where it needs to be, ready to go right now, not three seconds later. Really, when you think about it, there's nothing more important than saving blood and treasure. These are lives.
Mark Graban:
And I'm sure there's a lot more we could get into. Maybe a final thought in the last minute or so. I'm wondering if you could talk real quickly about your role now that you're retired from the Sheriff's department, trying to help spread Lean. Can you tell us what you're doing, and if people are interested in getting in touch with you, how they might be able to do that?
Randy Russell:
Well, this podcast would be a part of that. I'm speaking at some conferences, and I'm willing to talk to just about anybody anywhere about this because, like I said, I know that this saves lives. There is a very direct connection to that. Some managers may connect more with the fact that it saves money, and it does. But at the end of the day, it saves lives.
And so your listeners are an army unto themselves. They can influence their law enforcement leaders, their fire, EMS, military, the intelligence community, security inspectors, anybody whose business promotes safety and public safety and life-saving, the medical community. They can influence those people. And if they want to put them in contact with people like you and me, then more power to them. If they want to lead this themselves, more power to them. We're all in this together. We may not know on this earth the good we do, but I think there's a time coming when we will.
Well, thank you so much for the work that you're doing, Mark. I really appreciate you having me. Thanks. God bless. Good luck with what you're doing, and look forward to talking to you some more in the future, buddy.
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