The Impact of Servant Leadership and Christ-Centered Followership On the Problem of Police Brutality Against Minorities

Abstract

This dissertation proposes that a law enforcement leadership model predicated on Christ-centered followership with a biblically based shepherding framework enhanced by servant leadership can shape individual officers and the police subculture. This new model can uphold a Christian deontological ethic—an ethic of duty grounded in peacekeeping informed by the imago Dei, reconciliation, and meekness—for law enforcement that in tandem organically supports methodologies and philosophies that promote harmony, peace, and human flourishing. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to construct a new model of leadership and guiding ethic for law enforcement that impacts the problem of police brutality against racial minorities. The model is intended to serve as an internal safeguard against police brutality in contexts with high concentrations of racial minorities, particularly African Americans.

Core principles and a leadership framework are drawn from Christ-centered followership for the law enforcement context, and servant leadership characteristics are integrated into the framework to enhance the model. As a result of the synthesis, the servant and shepherd model emerges as an applicable construct for law enforcement leaders to address the pattern of social distance, dehumanization, and power abuse that plagues police leadership and the overall police subculture. The new leadership model when coupled with a Christian deontological ethic can transform the police subculture and organically support a philosophy and methodology of policing that promotes harmony, peace, and human flourishing in minority-communities, specifically African-American communities.