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Community Policing can help change hearts and minds

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Community Policing can help change hearts and minds

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We have used a variety of community policing ideas in our community for the last few years.  Ideas include police neighborhood outreach efforts in which we take donated food items, a grill, a pop-up tent, and have open dialogue with our neighbors where they live.  This avoids any mindset that we're only willing to talk to those who come to us.  It has worked time and time again because it shows people we care.
In reviewing numerous posts on this site, it is obvious from a few that there are communities that have clear issues that have gone unresolved. Are they real or are they perceived? The answer to that is really where this conversation must be resolved first. In essence, I would guess that most law enforcement agencies across our nation did not wake up on the morning following the death of George Floyd, or any other tragic circumstance, it find themselves for the first time thinking about positive police relations, removing bad cops from their roles, or any other topic that has come out of this. Instead, most would probably give a long list of ways and methods they have tried to work with their community. "Systemic Racism", "Police Brutality" are some big words with heavy definitions. Again, what does it say to all of us is what matters. Of the men and women I have proudly served with for over 25 years, I have never seen police brutality and have never worked with a racist cop. Both are disgusting and needs to be identified early in an officer's career. Politics, lies, and false narratives is what is destroying our nation.

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My perspective and suggestions are based upon 36 years as a cop, served in the Army – Infantry – grew up in inner city poverty and economic hardship, Associate, Bachelor and Master Degrees.

Unions/Bargaining/Arbitration – Collective bargaining has been successful in improving wages and benefits for the Law Enforcement profession.  It is also recognized that arbitration contributes to the retention of bad cops who repeatedly violate policies and the law. The retention of these miscreants affects community trust, morale and the discipline of any agency.  There needs to be a considerable effort to address this critical issue for the profession and those they serve.

Community Oriented Government – Revitalize and update; The Theory of Community Policing, Robert Trojanowicz; Problem Oriented Policing, Herman Goldstein; and Fixing Broken Windows, George Kelling,

Create a National Association of Community Oriented Policing Officers

The Community Policing Consortium an excellent idea should be reconsidered

The National Conference of Community and Justice, NCCJ has a long history of conflict resolution, whatever the outcome their insight is invaluable. A refocus on Human/Cultural Diversity Training

Integrate the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agency standards to include conflict resolution/continuous training.

Taser Mentality –Use of Force Continuum. Question: “have tasers replaced other less than lethal force alternatives i.e. Verbal Judo, Pepper Spray, Rubber bullets, batons etc.?  When Tasers fail, what next, lethal force?

Militarization of the Police – The transition of Law Enforcement tactical/SWAT units from Black BDUs to replicating military combat uniforms has created an image not conducive of community policing partnerships.  This was an unintended product of the Defense Logistics Agency’s effort to provide surplus military equipment under the Law Enforcement Support Office 1033 program.  There is a substantial difference between combat troops and cops, time to change the image.

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The key to improving police relationships with their communities is communication. Police officers today are better educated and more highly trained than ever, but we are horrible at communicating with the public we serve. This is no time for police officers to withdraw within ourselves. While the current environment dictates that we may need to be less aggressive in enforcement, this is a time to engage with our public. We need to take the time to talk with people. Get back to the times of a cop on the beat being a part of the community and getting to know the people. We need to be able to dust people off at times, and always explain to people what we did and why we did it. I’m retired now after a 30 year law enforcement career in California, but I always gave people an opportunity to ask me questions about what happened or what I did, before I left. There are good people in our communities, and if we just take the time to communicate with them, they will be our secret weapon against the mobs.

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Thank you for your service!

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I am alarmed at what's going on in Portland in July 2020 -- heavily-armed federal agents who look like the military (but not the military, so apparently it's legal) quashing free speech as expressed in demonstrations. I know there's a subgroup that are using the demonstrations to stoke violence and rioting, and that they and their tactics are endangering the peaceful demonstrators' lives, etc. But - these paramilitary "agents" are going too far, and the fact that the local and state governments are asking them to leave and they are refusing,... scenes we normally only ever see on TV coming from authoritarian countries. Scary times. The 1033 program plus the hiring veterans preference (plus American voter apathy) is turning us into one of those military states.

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I feel that we need to stop expecting police officers to handle every issue that could be handled civilly whether that be between the individuals themselves or another means. Police should be focusing on criminal matters. We can hold ourselves to the same standard we want to hold the officers to, we are not perfect nor are they; working together can help bridge that gap.

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Create more programs for elementary students to introduce them to various law enforcement careers.

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Heroes live forever 💙

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While we can certainly improve some aspects of our respective training programs, use of force policies, and internal paradigms, we must also better educate the public about Use of Force and Search & Seizure issues that officers encounter on nearly every contact, stop, and investigation. I would like to see more agencies work with community leaders to explain the legal basis of our intrusions into 4th Amendment protections, demonstrate the practice need for such, and engage in a dialogue about the limitations, shortcomings, and consequences of alternatives. These projects should also include role-playing use of force interactions that (hypothetically) place police protractors in an officer's duty boots and force immediate, reactive decisions.

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I am from Hawaii where both criminals/suspects and police officers respect one another. Only in the recent years, officers in Hawaii were forced to shoot criminals that shot at them. We lost one of our best police officers in the recent years due to criminals shooting them down. We mourn them still and love them forever. In Hawaii- mutual respect, a sense of connectedness  and community prevails. Even criminals in Hawaii know a policeman or two that they respect or like. When they are arrested or incarcerated, respect still prevails. In schools, young children often make friends with police officers, having them as guests. Many children aspire to becoming part of the police force. There is less distance between police and ordinary citizens and greeting between them, and showing love is part of being in Hawaii. I am hoping that students all over the US can grow up with that sort of assurance that no matter what, respect will prevail on both sides. Sometimes, suspects are innocent, and police officers will be thanked forever for treating suspects with the respect that they give out.

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Invite leaders of social justice groups to participate in a ride-along on a routine basis.

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Years ago when I was still on the job I spoke several times to a group called "Concerned Black Men in DC ". This was a faith based organization that usually met in a church in DC. I spoke to them several times about gangs, drugs, interactions with law enforcement as well as faith and family. Because I was also a Christian and a father our conversations resonated very well with the group, even though I was a white federal agent who didn't grow up in their community. Using similar faith based organizations to start these conversations is an excellent first step in both sides understanding each other.

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It took many many years to get the police dept's to finally acknowledge and admit that racial profiling and excessive force on blacks to exist. Now's the time to eradicate this methodical injustice and mend the pain caused by this. That starts with communication and work towards righting the wrong that has been inflicted and making strides to accept everyone's color as the same.

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Consider a law enforcement officer/community member version of speed dating across the country.

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We should come together and support our police while at the same time implementing reforms that have proven such as when Camden, New Jersey Rebuilt Its Police Department.  This means that all of us US Citizens must embrace change for good that takes care of all Americans while not making any profession or group of Americans left out.   We need to unify as a country in mutual respect for all people.

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Expand the availability of Citizen Police Academies, including use-of-force simulators. Incorporate more organizational stressors into stress inoculation training for officers.

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Police officers are often associated with fear and tension, when they should be symbolic of safety and comfort. As such, police should find solutions to genuine problems in the community. For instance, instead of shooting someone who was pulled over for a broken taillight, an officer could inform the person of their situation as a friendly reminder, or even be able to fix the light. In this way, police would become active community members who are present as heroes, rather than an angry armed force.

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Law enforcement agencies should focus on ethics and foster a culture of firm ethical values. They must strive to recruit and hire officers who demonstrate strong moral values and train in character development throughout their career. There should be a zero tolerance and severe consequences for unethical conduct.

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While we can certainly improve some aspects of our respective training programs, use of force policies, and internal paradigms, we must also better educate the public about Use of Force and Search & Seizure issues that officers encounter on nearly every contact, stop, and investigation. I would like to see more agencies work with community leaders to explain the legal basis of our intrusions into 4th Amendment protections, demonstrate the practice need for such, and engage in a dialogue about the limitations, shortcomings, and consequences of alternatives. These projects should also include role-playing use of force interactions that (hypothetically) place police protractors in an officer's duty boots and force immediate, reactive decisions.

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Construct a council of established Activist Groups and the Heads of Police in each state or providence to have a quarterly meeting concerning officer involved incidents and complaints for that period. Draft a solid after-action plan to address the most egregious incidents and complaints, and honestly dis,miss the ones that are deemed justified by a separate non-partial committee.

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Educate the public, starting in schools, about the role of law enforcement.  What they do, why they do it that way, and how to have positive interactions with law enforcement. 

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I planted some roses in a publicly visible place in my backyard with a banner of the NLEOMF (and a "Thin Blue Line" solar LED light strip that lights up at night) to show my support for law enforcement in our neighborhood and city of Dayton, OH. This has also became a place of a weekly prayer for our police and especially the widows and families of fallen law enforcement. I'm learning how to take care of the roses and I hope this is a public sign of support and helps me as an Individual-in-Society to remember and pray and support the mission of the NLEOMF.

I think this could be done as a NATION-WIDE program and all it requires is willing citizens to donate a portion of their land and plant some roses and a webcam to link this LIVE to a central website of the NLEOMF as a NATIONAL MUSEUM linked via the Internet all across our nation. We can't guarantee that the roses will all be the same quality, but law enforcement and families could log-on to the site and see LIVE support for them when they need it, during a grieving process, a memorial, or just in the Day-to-Day reality of police life and their families

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HOPE - H=Healing, Happiness, Honesty, Honor, Humble; O=Open our minds, Open our Hearts, Open our whole self; P=Poise,Peace,Partnerships,People, Prosper, Prayer and Patience; E=Esteem, Empathy, Effort, Excellence, Education; Together we create HOPE.

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An independent bookstore in a neighboring town has a weekly children's hour with a local police officer, who sits down with the little ones and reads a book to them. I hope this company will restore the program once we can gather again without having to be hermetically sealed.

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Programs on hiring practices and protocols. Share thorough, effective screening procedures that may be needed prior to hiring potential officers. Maybe even borrow hiring/screening tactics from other industries that have been under scrutiny.

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Law Enforcement should partner with social justice organizations to create trainings across the US on anti-racism and the history of law enforcement. 

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Programs on hiring practices and protocols. Share thorough, effective screening procedures that may be needed prior to hiring potential officers. Maybe even borrow hiring/screening tactics from other industries that have been under scrutiny.

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Make a "best practices" list that communities can use for task forces made up of police officers and community members to solve specific challenges those communities are facing.

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Police and social service agencies across the country have had their funding cut for decades because of the economy.  For example, the number of mental healthbeds that were available in my region was reduced from 300+ beds to less than 100.  This has put pressure on other resources such as law enforcement and jails to take this on.  Most communities do a poor job of funding social safety net programs which would take the responsibility from law enforcement.  Social safety net programs need to be funded, but not from law enforcement budgets.  Local elected officials are hesitant to fund these programs.  I would suggest funding these mental health, job training and housing programs.

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Racism, hate, discrimination, and the likes of are not ideas any of us are born with.  They are ideas that are taught to us.  In order to really bring most community members and LE together, it needs to begin very early on.  Leaving this up to a parent or guardian of a young child is not always going to work, as that parent or guardian may have been taught the very things we do not want them to learn.  It should and needs to become part of the education curriculum from day 1.  Just like learning how to write your name, tie your shoe, or cross the street, children should learn who LE is and why we have them.  I commend our ROs that are in our schools but, it needs to be more than an officer in a HS in a school district that can fund it.  We need to invest in our children's education including the history of LE and it needs to begin from day 1.

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I am a New Yorker who has visited the museum and was greatly impacted by the virtual experience of putting oneself in the shoes of a police officer. I think having one of these virtual experiences in every major city (hopefully in more places soon after) would really help people see what officers must go through on a day-to-day basis, and they will learn that life or death situations are not easily made in fractions of a second. If it is a matter of money, I think donations from the population of police officers alone would provide significant funds. If only half of the NYPD donated just $20, it would amount to $300,000- and that is not including family and friends or others who support law enforcement. My significant other is a police officer and I dont think the public understands that many took the job to protect those in the communities they grew up in as well, and giving people a first hand perspective would help them see things in a different light.

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Don't decrease law enforcement funding - there will need to be partnerships and a transition period.  LE will need funding for more training including de-escalation training.

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Decriminalize infractions primarily related to mental health and substance abuse. Take the burden off of law enforcement and take away the threat of incarceration for these types of issues.  Fund crisis intervention teams nami.org Look at Insite in Vancover as a possible model for some types of intervention.

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Our department has done the Coffee With A Cop Program. It is an excellent way for the community and law enforcement to come together and share with one another.

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Create virtual town halls in every community where neighbors can meet regularly with law enforcement and share their concerns.

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This is not an end all be all and it doesn't even cover that much.  It is just a start on a few areas that jumped out to me right away as a rookie officer even.  We need to get rid of the ant-intellectual, ant-training, nepotism, bunch who are there for the wrong reasons.  I think if we got higher educated, higher trained, higher paid, standardized policing and people there for the right reasons some of the things we have seen might be mitigated.  I am sure this is all just pie in the sky on my part but I thought I would share my thoughts that I have not really seen anyone else saying.

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Metrics.  GET RID OF THEM.  Or at least stop making them the entire way you run your agency.  Statistics or stats or quotas seem to be the only thing management in every profession and industry care about and nothing else.  They focus so much on that they forget to actually do their job and remember the things that actually matter.  That is fine and one thing if you are selling purses or playing baseball.  But stats in law enforcement are not about hits or sales.  They usually reflect PEOPLE.  Those numbers on that spreadsheet managers stare at all day aren't just numbers.  There are how many different lives behind those numbers?  And their lives could now be upended forever because management wanted more traffic tickets this month written or needed some easy cheap arrests.  The numbers should be there so we can see if certain things are working or effective but managers AND PROSECUTORS should always keep in mind those numbers are people and you should not be out there trying to run up the numbers to justify your budget or your job.  Or only going after easy cheap cases while ignoring far more serious long term investigations because the easy ones you can quickly get stats out of and the long term ones you can't.  We should always remember what Sir Robert Peel said, the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.  Which LEOs would study if they majored in Criminology at a university.

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In-service training should be a lot more.  For example, Federally, I had to requalify with several different firearms and get days of training every 90 days.  Many agencies you might just have to shoot an easy qualification course with just a pistol once every two years.  The last training you had was in the academy.  While on the job and throughout a LEOs entire career there should continue to be lots of in-service training and classroom updates.

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Agency policies should also be nationally standardized too.  It doesn't make sense that one agency does one thing and the one right next door down the street does another.  Like this police department chases after suspects but the one next door does not.  Or better yet how some allow chasing but does not allow ending the chases.  Or some allow warning shots and others don't.  Or some allow officers to make arrests by themselves, alone, where others require multiple officers to be there before hands go on.  Even down to 10 codes and how they are different at every agency.  10-50 or X18 mean something different to every police officer reading this.  I had a former Navy SEAL turned FBI Agent and instructor at FLETC just flat out tell my class once that there are a ton of different and BAD polices out there especially at the local level.  Why don't we adopt a nationwide best practices of polices and general orders?

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Training should be standardized across the country.  It mostly is Federally where most everyone goes to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) and has to graduate from the same courses.  Those Federal agencies that do not go through FLETC (looking at you FBI) should be made to do so.  There is nothing like lining up to serve a high risk warrant and some of the guys with you don't know what to do because they did not go through the same training and just run off into the house and disappear once the door is breached.  This gets everyone on the same page, teaches the best practices, and the latest thinking out there.  This should happen at the state and local level too.  Of course the many training academies will still have to be spread across the land but they should come up with Federal training standards and curriculum that everyone has to adopt and pass.  There should be no pushing people through training because they are family or any other reasons.  The failure and new career rate should be higher than it is.  Basic training should at least be 6 months long if not longer.  And that is going 6 days a week for more than 8 hours a day.  Followed by specific agency schooling for how ever many long weeks that agency wants to go and then followed by months and months of Field Training with a Field Training Officer.  It should probably end up being over a year just in training.  I think many do this now but there are some whose FTO is pretty short.

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The person who wants to become a LEO needs to be interviewed in person in their home at some point.  There also needs to be another extensive interview where agencies ask scenario questions and get to the bottom of why they really want to be in law enforcement.  Asking candidates to define a police officer is a waste of everyone's time.  They need to weed out the guys there for the wrong reasons like that they just want to carry a gun, they want to dress up like a soldier and carry a bigger gun, they were bullied or an outcast in high school and they want to get back at people, they are someone's family member already in the agency, etc.  All of these things I have actually seen.  Nepotism was pretty bad at some places I have seen and bad candidates were hired and this should not be allowed.  Family should have to go to other agencies.  Hiring people who want to be there for the right reasons like helping people, making their community better, and safeguarding the country should be a top priority.  

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Adjudication standards of backgrounds need to be high.  They need to be like the person is receiving a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance.  I believe in the military they call this "Yankee White"  standard.  So if someone has a criminal conviction or even an arrest in their history they should not be a LEO.  If someone has drug use in their history they should not be a LEO.  People that are hired need to have pretty near perfect backgrounds.  These same backgrounds checks need to be redone every so many years too.

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Background checks should be real, lengthy, and thorough.  I have only seen a few Federal agencies conduct good background checks.  Local agencies I saw barely did anything.  Actual investigators need to be sent out and actually pound the pavement and look into a new hire's life all the way back to elementary school.  They need to develop their own leads.  They need to just not be talking to old bosses or references but also friends, family, neighbors, classmates, significant others, EX-significant others, coworkers, etc.  A deep dive into the person's life needs to happen and not just a form letter mailed out to a couple of pre-selected references and an NCIC check.  Everyone should be using polygraph and psychological evaluations too.  But not solely relying on them because let's be honest, if someone is halfway intelligent they know what to say to pass both of those tests with flying colors.

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Prior job experience.  We should not be hiring kids straight out of high school and being a police officer is their first job.  It would be great if new hires got some kind of relatable job experience but it doesn't have to be that and then we are only hiring military veterans.  I have seen agencies do this where they will only hire veterans and ignore even more qualified candidates.  Often times the veteran himself will tell you his military experience was not relatable at all to law enforcement.  We should get away from the idea that law enforcement and the military are the same.

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The first area is recruiting and hiring.  Agencies should adopt Federal law enforcement 1811 hiring and adjudication standards.  By that I mean AT LEAST a 4 year bachelor's degree IN A RELATED FIELD (Criminology, psychology, etc.) from a legitimate university.  Encourage higher degrees like master's and law degrees.  Many universities now have Master's of Criminal Justice Administration degrees that top brass at agencies are taking.  You know how the MBA is the gold standard in the business world?  They need to make a "MJA" the gold standard in the law enforcement profession and make it a requirement across the board that everyone from first line supervisor and above has one.  I think the first step is hiring educated law enforcement officers (LEOs) and not being anti-intellectual and not running off smart educated people and calling them names like, "college boy."  Some of the most legal detailed writing I did in my life was as a police officer and those writings had to stand up to lawyer scrutiny in court.  Hiring someone who only barely made it out of high school is going to have a tough time writing like that and that alone is why a BA should be a bare minimum.

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Law enforcement agencies need to up their standards in many areas.  Many in law enforcement don't like this because it will eliminate many from the profession.  The public also doesn't realize that every agency out there is different from the next.  The agency where you live might have totally different hiring, training, and policies than the next agency down the street.  I say we eliminate that and make every law enforcement agency get on the same page in many areas.  

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I think that a solution to a number of issues that were seeing in our departments is the long term stressor of working the same beat areas, becoming complacent, jaded, distancing ourselves from our constituents.  We become less empathetic, less caring when the people, places, and things we see everyday are the same.  It leads to de-humanization.  The solution is to rotate everyone (everyone) out of units, specialized teams, areas every 2-3 years.  Gives officers fresh perspective, renews their batteries, gives a change of pace.  This should be done with the intent of taking high stress officer areas and moving them into lower stress positions or units.  Make everyone do a turn in training, firearms, HR, recruiting, etc.

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Educate the public on why we do what we do when we do it. Knowledge is power.