In Episode #12 of Real Leaders with Roshini, Minneapolis Police Federation President Lt Bob Kroll opens up, showing a side different from the famously controversial figure so often quoted in the media, as he talks about what made him leave bachelorhood and his plans for succession in the police union as his term winds down in two years.
During his fourth day as a warrant sergeant, Kroll was called to a scene that remains the record for most shots fired in a single incident in Minneapolis. He reminds us that officers are taught to "shoot to stop the threat and to shoot center mass." Kroll wishes relations with the community weren't strained by some "media and certain small groups."
Overall, he asks people to "give police the benefit of the doubt and let the facts play out." He cautions that officers "don't have time to debate or justify on the scene," but if people have grievances, there is a rigorous and formal way to complain. He stresses that community feedback is taken seriously.
He admits he "got in a lot of trouble for calling Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization," but shares he has no regrets for those words. Kroll looks back at his first couple years as president of the Federation and concedes he "shot off his mouth some" but could always back up what he said.
In other controversial areas such as immigration, Kroll says, "You've got to work with what your department manual calls for" whether you agree with it or not. His current focus is cultivating new leadership and hopes his second-in-command takes over for him when his term wraps. Kroll says recruitment has taken a big hit and stresses, "Law enforcement needs good people--no matter what you look like."
For fun, Kroll enjoys Mexico in the winter and motorcycles in the summer. His decision to marry in 2018 took a lot of people by surprise. He says his past life in SWAT and on the beat could not have happened if he had a family then because he was "all in on the job." But now, he's a family guy with a wife and a young stepson he says thankfully, "has a better disposition" than he did growing up.