84: Leadership Through Crisis

On this week’s show, Chris and Shaun welcome back Retired Chief Tony Pustizzi (Episode 58):

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1342087/episodes/9698408

Chief Pustizzi discusses some of  the reported leadership issues associated with the tragic school shooting that occurred at the Robb Elementary School on May 24th, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. 

Chief Pustizzi’s shares his unique and unfortunate experiences in the realm of school shooter response to shed some better light on some of the crisis leadership that is now impacting modern policing. 

 Chief Tony Pustizzi (Ret.) began his career with the Coral Springs Police Department in 1988. Over his 30-year tenure, he supervised every unit within the agency with a strong emphasis on investigations, including homicide and special victims. Tony served on the SWAT team for 15 years where the last eight he was team commander. Tony rose through the ranks to ultimately become chief of police in 2012. He also served as the city’s interim city manager and retired in March 2018 as the chief of police/deputy city manager.

In January 2019, Tony came out of retirement to serve as the special counsel to the new sheriff of Broward County upon his appointment by the governor of the state of Florida.

During the school massacre on February 14, 2018, where a former student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida and killed 17 innocent people and injured another 17 students, Chief Pustizzi, along with members of his agency, arrived at the school within minutes of being notified and was instrumental in organizing a complex law enforcement approach, including stopping and capturing the killer and extracting victims from within the school was initiated.

Tony now conducts trainings nationwide on school and workplace violence preparedness as he is a firm believer that seconds save lives and can attest that the Hero911 app for police would have alerted his officers minutes earlier, possibly saving lives during the incident he was directly involved in. 

Resources/Links/Websites:

https://fourstarstrategies.com

tonyp@fourstarstrategies.com