Champion For Change with Tom Rink

Have you ever stood at the crossroads of your career, torn between the comfort of the familiar and the allure of the unknown? This is the tale of Tom Rink, whose pivot from a 25-year stretch as a Tulsa police officer to a librarian and educator proves it's never too late to rewrite your story. Our conversation with Tom unveils the remarkable way he discovered his true calling and how his police background enriched his new profession, culminating in the creation of a groundbreaking police department library. His journey is a beacon for anyone contemplating a dramatic career shift, illustrating the power of passion and the unexpected opportunities that can arise from embracing change.

Tom's story is further enriched by the vital role of leadership in fostering innovation within existing structures. A forward-thinking commander's support was the catalyst for Tom's vision of a police department library, highlighting how leadership can be instrumental in bringing about transformative projects. The episode goes beyond Tom's personal narrative to discuss how the deployment of an online library supercharged the efficiency of the Tulsa Police Department.

This episode is a tribute to the leaders who dare to support the unconventional and the trailblazers like Tom who help steer the ship towards uncharted but fruitful waters.


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Transcript

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Welcome to courageous leadership with TravisYates, where leaders find the insights, advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously.

Travis Yates: 0:12

Welcome back to the show. I'm so honored that you're spending a few minutes with us today and I'm excited about today's guest. I think it's going to be unique, it's going to be interesting, it's going to be something that's going to interest everybody. Even though the initial topic you may think to yourself what's going on here You're going to love it.

Travis Yates: 0:31

I have Tom Rink on the show today. He's retired after 25 years as a Tulsa police officer and he's now a full-time librarian, working as an instructor for library services at Northeastern State University. I've got you listening now. You got to know what this librarian has to tell you, and you need to wait to find out Now. Tom earned his BA in criminal justice and psychology from Michigan State University, His basic and advanced peace officer certifications through the council on law enforcement education and training for the state of Oklahoma and his MLS from the University of Oklahoma. Thomas received numerous honors and awards, to include being inducted into the special library association Hall of Fame, and he was a recent recipient of their lifetime achievement award. I'm so honored to have him here. I drug him a little bit to get here, so we're going to give him some love here.

Travis Yates: 1:24

Tom Rink, how are you doing today. So if you're a listener, I'm going to have to get you on here, but I was actually wanting to get you on here anyway. I know it's not something you often do, but I think your story is so interesting, Tom. I just kind of want to just open the floor and say here you are, you're a full-time librarian, but you had an entire life before this. Just kind of weave us through that. How did you get where you are today?

Tom Rink: 1:48

Well, it was a rather unique career journey. I was at the police department, like you said, and getting a little on the burned outside and thinking you know, what else can I do with my life? I already had my bachelor's degree because that was a requirement for employment back when I was hired at the Tulsa PD and I was thinking you know, what else can I do? So I went back to school, had no clue what I was going to do, so I went to Tulsa Community College and took a career exploration course, which is a self-paced interest inventory, skills, aptitude testing, all done online at your own pace. And librarian came out at the top of the list. And I hadn't even considered librarianship as a career because both my parents had been librarians, and who wants to do what their parents did? But it was unique and I thought well, okay, let's give it a shot. And I found out I could get my master's in library and information studies to the University of Oklahoma here in Tulsa without having to leave or go to the main campus in Norman. So I thought, well, let's give this a go. So I went on and earned my master's degree, never dreaming I was going to use it at the police department, and finished my degree in the late 80s, early 90s and decided to start my job search. So I was going to note, leave the police department, start a whole new career. And then I got to the first library conference I went to and realized the salaries they were paying librarians up. I wait a minute, I'm making good money at the police department. Let's let's find a way to put the library career on hold and and use the Pension from the police department to supplement my career.

Tom Rink: 3:18

Moving on, and then I was approached at one point I everyone on the police department knew I got my master's degree and a certain major approached me and said hey, tom, I want you to come build a library for the police department. And of course I just jumped right at that opportunity. And then then they laid the bad news on me saying well, we don't have a budget for a librarian, but we have a budget for a. What was it called then? Research and development, or planning and research, or something like that. So I was going to be a policy writer, but they wanted me to build the library for the police department in my spare time. So of course I had a lot of spare time and the police department was often running with the library.

Tom Rink: 3:54

I had no funding at first, and then, after a couple years of no funding, I Put up the ultimatum saying, hey, you brought me up here to do this job, but I Don't see any support here financially for the building of a library. And and the major said well, to hold on, give us another year, we'll make this happen. So I just happened to be reading the paper one day and saw that the police department had received a A sizable amount of money and drug forfeiture funds, and the chief was quoted as saying he didn't know how he was going to spend it. So I just dusted off my proposal then to back up the chain. My budget was approved and the library became official, and then I used that To get me through the rest of my career at the police department before I retired in 2007 and then switched over to the academic realm, where I am currently working as a librarian in academia.

Travis Yates: 4:45

Well, there's so much to unpack there, tom, because you talk about a very Motivational thing. Where you're on the police department, you knew that police part of what I'm gonna be forever. So you sort of build your resume while you're on the police department thinking you're gonna do this, and then you land the ability to do it right there on the job. And I think that is a fascinating story because there's a lot of listeners out there that we've heard from that have interest in a wide variety of areas and for some reason law enforcement oftentimes is so hesitant to let people use those skills. And I think I have a theory behind it. But you ran across a major division commander, so they were running a division at the time and and I don't know I hope you can tell me who that is in a minute, because I want to. I want to applaud them because he really was thinking outside the box, but he was also doing something else that I believe was probably true. If that major would have gone to the chief and said, hey, chief, we want a librarian, he would have been laughed out of the room, because I've been in those conversations. What do you think? Outside the box? A little too much for a police chief and it's not gonna work. So I bet what he did, tom, I'm just guessing here. He went hey, chief, we need a research and development and a policy writer, sure, and then he, to entice you to do the job, he gives you that carrot right, which is what? What you did, but that's all you need. That's the only spark you needed to make this happen.

Travis Yates: 6:00

Tell us about how important it was for that leader, that that commander, to just take charge of this, to say this is needed. I'm gonna find the best person to do the job, by the way, I'll just, I'll speak my personal experience. It's how Tom and I know each other. He was, from my knowledge, the first police librarian in the country and I spent lots of time with Tom because I'm sort of a book nerd as well and just, tom is a great humble guy. That's why he's a little bit hesitant to be on the show. He doesn't want to talk about himself. But I think the story is important. How important was that one person, that one leader, that one commander, to say Tom, we're gonna make this happen? How important was that for you at the time? Because you were already burned out, you were already thinking about leaving.

Tom Rink: 6:38

Well, it was very important in that it gave me an opportunity To use my degree that I had just acquired in a real-life situation where I actually Built a library from scratch when nothing existed before. And so it gave me all these, not just the soft skills, but the hard skills, the librarianship skills that I was gonna need. I was gonna need moving on in my career after my retirement, to to make me job ready for the, for the future, for the next career after I got out of the police department. So it was invaluable for me as a person and also invaluable for the police department as well, because there the the fact that I was building a library. Yes, we had a library, but even more important than that, it was. It was a Bricks and mortar library.

Travis Yates: 7:24

I had shelves, I had books, I had all this you know, you had a great series of videos as well, and and training videos and I was that's, how did I to me and but what?

Tom Rink: 7:34

what it brought was Very few people came and visited the library themselves, but they they called me or they emailed me and Used me as the resource. So I was kind of like that. We had a resource center, but I was the resource guy. So From anywhere from the chief's office down to the foot patrol beat officer, I was getting phone calls for information and I became the information professional for the police department and it was invaluable for me, for the department and for my future career as well.

Travis Yates: 8:03

So this, this commander kind of lit your flame a little bit. Could you mind telling us who it was?

Tom Rink: 8:10

It was a she, not a he. It was Carolyn Kusler. .

Travis Yates: 8:12

Okay, well, that's pretty amazing, because we're talking what early 90s here? When? When did this happen, Tom?

Tom Rink: 8:18

I think 1994 was officially when I went up the academy.

Travis Yates: 8:21

You must have been the soul you must have been the sole member of the Police Library Association, right, I mean, I had to be pretty unique in the law enforcement at the time.

Tom Rink: 8:31

I was not able to find too many peers at all. I know St Louis had a library, but it wasn't a sworn officer, I think it was a civilian. But very, very few police libraries. A lot of police departments had planning and research or research and development Units, but very few of them. I could find no other that had an actual library with a functioning library.

Travis Yates: 8:55

Well, and the reason and I was, I personally witnessed this success and the reason that initial idea was successful Is they put the right person there. We make this mistake a lot. You know. Somebody champions an idea and Maybe it's a great idea, but if you put the wrong person there as the first person, it's a problem and it probably won't sustain itself.

Travis Yates: 9:15

Now you could mess up on the second or third person that's there because it's already been established, but if the first person doesn't bring it, that's why it's important from a leadership standpoint to find the right person, get the right people on the bus, and it's so awesome to hear that there was one person that recognized that. That said, this is an idea that we need and, of course, as you said, it was used quite often. But as leadership happens and I you know, leaders come and go, commanders come and go how did you, did you find that support throughout your tenure up at the library, tom? You finished your career out there, so this is roughly 10, 12, 10 or 12 years you were there. Did you find that support grew or did the new people come in and didn't see a need for it? You have to keep justifying for it.

Tom Rink: 9:57

The support actually grew. I never, never had to justify myself after at those first few years. But the first few years I had to beg, borrow and steal to just get funding and permission to buy something. And it wasn't until later on that I was actually given a purchasing card of my own that I could use to purchase materials up to a certain dollar amount each month. So it blossomed and the people, once I got in and started doing the job, I think whoever came in the leadership roles following Carolyn saw the benefit. They saw the value I was bringing to the department and to the information process and to, you know, research or if they needed the specs on such and such for a new policy coming up, I could, you know, contact the department to survey them and find out. You know, get the information we needed to make the right decision using the best information available.

Travis Yates: 10:49

You've been out of law enforcement for a number of years. You've seen sort of the environment that's occurred. I know you know leadership is important in what you did. But how important is leadership today compared to back when you were doing it? Because you've seen the oven flows of the profession? Do we have leaders that are still out there, push the envelope doing, trying to do things the right way?

Travis Yates: 11:12

Out of the box resources for officers this was a pure resource for law enforcement, like there were hundreds of officers reaching out to you nonstop getting stuff. I know you mentioned you had a purchasing card. I think you used that for me a few times because I wanted a couple of resources. But how important is that leadership component, tom? Because you would have never done this on your own. You had the skills, you had the ability, but it took somebody to champion that because obviously you're a leader in your own right but you didn't have the authority to make that happen. So how, how vital is leadership today? I think everybody's going to know that answer, but I just want to hear your perspective from it.

Tom Rink: 11:46

Well, that's an excellent point. I I didn't have the authority. You know, I had the expertise but no authority. How often does that happen in this in this life? But having that first champion was critical and and then, once I was able to prove myself and have that success, then the replacement leaders or the next leaders or whoever else were coming up up the pike could see that value.

Tom Rink: 12:11

So it's it's important Not all leaders have the same level of of championing certain causes. If it's not their pet project, they always don't always want to see the value. But but once again, once you've been in a position and established and have a track record, so to speak, then they couldn't really argue with the fact that there was an effective use of of a person, time, resources, so forth and so on. So having having that kind of an open minded leadership and if it's not broke, don't fix the kind of hands off policy with regard to you know this, this is valuable can can be a critical mission, critical for a police department if you're just now to her name, we're talking to Tom Rink.

Travis Yates: 12:55

He is a retired police officer in a full-time librarian and he's just told a fascinating story about how One of the first libraries at any police department the country happened. And it happened Because one leader just happened to be a commander, champion the idea of having a library and found the best person to do it, which was Tom, who had just gotten his graduate degree, and so Tom was the resident expert. He wasn't able to use that skill. They had this. This commander had this idea. They put the right person in place and because Tom made that so good, because he Champion that so well, it was very difficult for anyone else to come through and to get rid of that. And so much good.

Travis Yates: 13:38

I'm just amazed, tom, of how valuable it's hard to describe how valuable was, because most people listening were not involved in this but as an instructor, as a trainer, as a police officer, you were always so valuable and I thought it was just the best idea ever to have that. And of course, most people wouldn't understand that, but it was literally probably a one decision by one person and it all just happened for many, many years. So that power is in the hands of everybody in law enforcement today. And, tom, let's just say you didn't have somebody champion it. You were probably still going to do much of this work or even try to convince people to help you do this work. So you have somebody out there right now listening and they they're an expert in a certain area or they see a need for that in the police department.

Travis Yates: 14:22

I'll make us up Maybe somebody's a videographer, right, and they think their police are, but has a need for that. What would you say to that person? That maybe they obviously they're a leader, obviously they have the expertise, obviously they have the skills, but maybe they don't have the authority to just make it happen. Is there any advice you could give them?

Tom Rink: 14:38

First and foremost, if you can and this isn't always possible but if you're able try to find a champion in in the management or leadership Levels of your department and see if you can't run your idea past them and get them to buy into it first. It's so much easier if you have someone up in the command structure at the decision-making level that understands you, what you can do and what you could bring To help champion your, your cause. If that person does not exist, then I would. I would find a way to, like I said I was a policy writer, I was just doing the library stuff on the side when I had a spare moment here and there, and we're doing policy, but predominantly, and other planning and research functions or other tasks as required whenever they're asked from from the top down.

Tom Rink: 15:25

So Always try to get it in without Of obviously getting yourself in trouble. As long as your, your immediate bosses, know what you're doing and and they're okay with that, then they're gonna see the value and eventually maybe that champion will come around or will become that one spark or that moment where what you've been doing on the side If you used or valuable and someone says, oh, wait a minute, you can really do this. Well, we need to make that more full-time or find a way to make this happen on a more regular basis, or something along that line. So that's the best I could say is find a champion and, if not, just keep having your way in your spare time, and it will get you where you need to be.

Travis Yates: 16:07

Yeah, I think that's probably the best advice anyone could get. Tom, thank you for that. Just find a champion and those folks that are listening that are thinking about this you may have to understand. Just like Tom, you're going to have to do double work for a while. I'll give you one quick personal example, as I thought there was a need for a downtown enforcement unit pretty large downtown area where I worked we didn't have any officers dedicated downtown, lots of businesses and so I went through the proper channels to try to get approval for four officers to dedicate to downtown more of a customer service role but then to obviously make sure the businesses are taken care of down there. And I got told no and got laughed out of the room. So I didn't really have a champion.

Travis Yates: 16:45

But what I ended up doing, tom, similar to what you probably would have done if you didn't have that champion was is. I did it anyway, but the guys had to kind of do double work. Okay, you're going to do your other job, but we're going to also focus on this and put some things together, put an email together, put a way for everybody to contact everybody and kind of get some focus on the area. Well, what ended up happening was the businesses liked it. The business got back to the decision makers, ie the politicians. Next thing I know I'm getting a fairly angry phone call from one of the chiefs saying, well, put out a letter to make it a regular unit now that you've done this Well, so okay, I accomplished it.

Travis Yates: 17:15

Didn't make him very happy because I didn't really go around him. I just saw the need and and, and you know the guys were working double do. They were working their regular jobs and that at the same time. But then we were able to branch it off, like you did later in your career, Tom, and do more full time of that work, and so that's so important. You may have a champion today, but stay humble, keep working, keep your expertise up to date and you probably will have a champion later. You will see that.

Travis Yates: 17:38

And it just takes one person. That's what really people need to be listening to when they hear this, hear this show is you can make a difference. There's one commander you said her name, Carolyn Kusler, is the only reason, Tom. The Tulsa Police Department had one of the first libraries in the country and you helped out hundreds and hundreds of people and that you are now really a foremost expert around the country and doing this full time. But if that one person wouldn't have done that, there's no channel where you would have ended up. I mean, you probably would have ended up being a librarian somewhere, but I would. You wouldn't be able to present your resume saying that you ran a police department library for this many years, you know. So that changed your life, didn't it? That one leader?

Tom Rink: 18:15

It sure did, and I was eternally grateful for the opportunity. And, like I said, I never dreamed I was going to be able to use my library degree at the police department. And this opportunity presented itself and I just jumped at it with full force and effort as I could.

Travis Yates: 18:28

Well, and I cannot detail to the listeners of how good you were at it, how important it was for the department, because people here, library what are you talking about? Well, you just don't know. You had to actually experience it. It's always, tom, in my 30 years of law, enforcement has always been one of the most impressive things I've been around and I saw the work you did. I saw how oftentimes nobody you know it had to have been lonely at times because you're kind of like the library guy in the back of the building and nobody's coming up there to visit you because it's sort of a long drive for everybody. But I mean you had an online resource. Way back before we had online resources. I remember going to the internal net and seeing all of your library resources that you could grab and you had a little button If you wanted something, we can ask you about it. I mean you probably don't know this, Tom, but it made me much better and it made so many other people much better. So that's because of you, but it's also because of that leader that championed that idea, that said I got the right person for this job, tom, take care of it. And you went after it.

Travis Yates: 19:28

So, on behalf of myself and so many others, thank you so much and thank you for discussing it. It's important for people to understand. The lesson here is we make our police departments better by reaching into the expertise that are already in the police department. And so if you're somebody with expertise, make it well known not in an arrogant way, but just that you want to help the police department get better. And if you're somebody that wants the police department to get better and you do have that authority you ought to be talking to every officer, finding out what they do when they're not at work, because you're going to find the expertise to make that agency so much better. And, tom, you certainly did that for the Tulsa Police Department, you did that for me and I can't thank you enough for what you did and for being here today.

Tom Rink: 20:12

I'll be glad to be here and thank you for having me on the show.

Travis Yates: 20:15

Tom Rink, I can't thank you enough for being here and if you're listening. Thank you and just remember lead on and stay courageous.

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