The Problem with Police

The Problem with Police

Preliminary Remarks

The current discussion about police and what is reported as racism and police brutality is largely based upon two incidents involving six officers currently under the microscope.  Needless to say, there has been a history of isolated incidents of this nature in the past that has led to the buildup of frustration and tension.  Incidents of this nature in the distant past have not been so isolated.  The cell phone videos are clearly damaging.  They may or may not be the whole story in either or both incidents.  Please keep in mind that there are 686,659 other sworn police officers that didn’t make the news in the last month.  Remember also that over the last 20 years an average of 170 police officers have been killed in the line of duty each year.  There has been no rioting.

That does not mean that there isn’t a problem, but fixing the problem by focusing on the police is like swatting a mosquito while overlooking the swamp where the mosquitoes breed.

We need to remember that both incidents under a microscope come as a result of a called-in complaint to the police about a crime and suspicious activity.  Though both incidents will be handled as having occurred under “color of law,” one of the incidents might have been a personal attack.

The problem we face is a complex, complicated one.  What has taken us years to create cannot be successfully remedied overnight but will take as long to fix as it did to create it.  There are no quick fixes.

I loved my policing career.  I would not go back and do it today for anything and I cannot in good conscience encourage young people to enter the field today.  It’s a shame because we need good people in the profession.  I don’t know of any of my retired friends who feel differently.

Introduction

I want first of all to get my biases out of the way.  Crime theorists, criminologists, fall into two major camps: Classical Theorists and Positivist or Positive Theorists.  In very general terms, a classical criminologist believes people commit crimes as a result of free will.  It is sometimes referred to as Choice Theory.  To them, crime is a choice.  The Positive Criminology camp says that a person commits crimes because of influences beyond that person’s control.  This theory includes biological, psychological, economic, sociological, intellectual, learning, medical, and other perspectives of crime causation.  They espouse crime in terms of Strain, Learning, Social Control, Conflict, Radical, Marxist, Critical, Social Justice Theories to name only a few.

I fall into the Classical or Choice Theory camp, though I believe choice is affected to some degree by positivist influences.

Three things need to exist at the same time in order for a crime to occur: a motivated offender, a suitable target, and the lack of a capable guardian.  Remove any one of the three and you will not have a crime.  Period.  This simple little equation is important because most police and citizen interactions occur because some violation of the law has occurred or has been reported as having taken place or is taking place at the time of the report.

Secondly, police candidates have normally gone through a very intense screening process that includes physical testing, a medical examination, psychological screening including appropriate sections of the MMPI and a one-on-one psychological examination, an oral board composed of seasoned police officers, credit history check, a criminal history check, and an extensive background investigation.  Until 20 or 30 years ago, a single experimental use of marijuana could disqualify an applicant from consideration as a police officer.  Some departments disqualified applicants from consideration for visible tattoos.  This, of course has changed over the years and employment of officers who have visible tattoos and have a history of recreational use of marijuana is not at all uncommon.  There is a reason for this, which will be discussed later.

Next, I believe it is important to understand that today’s police academies run anywhere from six months to a year, and focus more on classroom education than hands-on training.  They receive between 120 and 150 classroom hours (the equivalent of 8 to 10 college credit hours) of topics related to criminal law (basic criminal law, statutory law, criminal procedure, evidence).  Police officers are often left to fend for themselves in the courtroom and frequently face defense attorneys in the process.  At the very least, they need to be able to communicate effectively with prosecuting attorneys.  Their academy training, which lasts anywhere from six months to a year, is generally followed by lengthy amount of time, anywhere from six months to two years, with a field training officer.  Occasionally, academy training takes place at a community college or university campus.  Regardless of where their academy is, the training would be the equivalent of 70 to 140 credit hours, sufficient for an associate or bachelor degree.  Seldom are those degrees conferred upon academy graduates because their classroom experience is treated as training and not education.  Unlike many other “jobs,” the probationary period for a police officer can last up to a couple of years or more.  That means they can be terminated at any time for any reason without the rights that are given to officers off probation.  States require annual re-training of around 40 classroom hours.  Annual or bi-annual recertifications are required for various levels of First-Aid, firearms proficiency, radar/laser operation, breath alcohol testing,

Police departments typically foot the bill for an officer’s training, though some states allow a person to put himself/herself through an academy.  When a department puts an officer through an academy, that department will see no return on its investment for at least a year even if the academy training is only six months long.

Contrary to popular opinion today, there is not systemic (universal, complete, total) racism in policing today.  Such a position is insulting and demeaning.  Indeed, there are those in the profession who tarnish the badge by acting on their racist ideas, but they do not represent today’s police officers, their command structures, or their organizations.  Racism is no more prevalent in law enforcement than it is education, medicine, communications, journalism, masonry, religion, law, plumbing, accounting, banking, carpentry, or any other profession, vocation, or occupation.

Finally, it is easy to look at statistics and point out that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of street crime.  However, race has nothing to do with crime.  More than anything else, crime is an outcome of absentee fathers, poverty, and lack of education or vocational training.  Put whites in those same conditions and you will find that criminal and deviant behavior is indiscriminate.  You cannot merely place people into President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and expect crime to go away.

The Problem

I.

Part of the problem with policing today is the megalopolis.  The fact of the matter is that as our cities have grown, government has become too big.  In particular, local government in some cities has become too big.  In the process, we have forgotten the basic foundation of modern policing and of organizational structure.  The basic foundation of modern policing has its origin in the Peelian (Sir Robert Peele) principle that the police are the people and people are the police.  Effective organizational structure requires chain of command, span of control, and unity of command.  The span of control has become unwieldly and totally out of control in large cities.  And in some cases, the principle of unity of command (a subordinate reporting to only one supervisor) has been violated.

The development of the megalopolis has led to a dysfunctional police organization.  There is greater accountability in smaller agencies because of the closeness of the top commanders in the department to the officers on the department and the community as well as the governing officials in that community.  For example, a police chief in a community of 30,000 citizens knows the name of every police officer on the department.  That same police chief has an open-door policy to the public.  Likewise, the mayor, city manager or administrator probably knows every police officer (probably every employee on the city payroll) and also has an open-door policy to the public.  A police chief with 500 officers and 50 civilians will know the names of command officers perhaps down to the sergeant level and supervisors of the civilian staff.  This police chief will probably refer to a sergeant as “what’s his name.”  The probability of a civilian walking into the office of that police chief is slim.

All of this begs the question as to why there is a New York City Police Department, a Los Angeles Police Department, a Detroit Police Department, an Atlanta Police Department, a Dallas Police Department, Minneapolis Police Department, and so forth.  It also begs the question as to why there are mayors for New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis, and so on.  Some of these cities’ populations overshadow the population of some states in the nation.  Their jobs are so big that they are removed from the public and surrounded by deputy mayors, assistant mayors, executive assistants, directors, and walls.  Regardless of city size, mayors and their functional equivalents are more concerned with influences outside their city than they are directly with the city and its employees.  Their roles are political.  They look to state and federal governments for resources.  Their associations and relationships are with other mayors, governors, and legislators for the benefit of their cities.  The real work of running a city rests with a mayor’s subordinates.  The only time the mayor of New York City has knowledge of a police officer is when that officer shoots and kills someone.  It should not be so.  Some of these mayoral jobs are such that they eclipse the jobs of governors and have political clout that matches that of the President of the United States.

Likewise, police chiefs in large departments spend their time coordinating with other city department heads, mayors and deputy mayors, other police chiefs, and lobby legislators for resources.  Day-to-day operation of law enforcement agencies with more than a couple dozen officers, rests with deputy or assistant police chiefs, undersheriffs, and operational and administrative commanders.  The rubber meets the road with shift commanders, sergeants, and lieutenants.  Police chiefs in larger departments are seen at public functions and ceremonies and speak on camera when a police officer has been killed in the line of duty or has been fired for using deadly force.

II.

Years ago, a major shift in the way police could do their work, identified as community policing and problem-oriented policing, were supported by leading policing scholars such as Robert Trojanowicz and Herman Goldstein.  Many communities adopted these policing strategies, primarily on a limited scale and met with success where it was adopted and applied.  The premise behind these models was that it was a proactive approach focusing on crime prevention and intervention and relying upon the community for input when policing had to resort to reactive criminal apprehension.  Both community-oriented and problem-oriented policing relied upon (1) the police as being part of the community, (2) the police identifying concerns with citizens within the community (not just crime) in the community, (3) and marshaling resources to solve the problems identified by the community.  The net result was a reduction and sometimes the relocation of crime.

Several obstacles stood, and continue to stand in the way of these two linked strategies of Community Policing and Problem Oriented Policing, which are listed below.

·       Implementation of these strategies was adopted by police departments in a limited way, assigning only some officers to the task of community policing.

·       The federal government pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into community policing activities.  Departments were awarded millions of dollars to hire and support officers dedicated solely to community policing, but had to guarantee that state and local governments would continue to fund those officers once grant money was expended.  Law enforcement agencies were incapable of finding the funding after the federal dollars dried up and therefore either did not apply for funding, refused funding that was extended, or failed to keep their commitment of continuing the funding.  Therefore, community policing activities were either short-lived or non-existent in many communities.  This is not to say that it does not continue to exist in many other communities.

·       Police officers saw themselves in the role of crime-fighters and law enforcers as opposed to community problem-solvers.

·       Since these strategies focused on community and social problems and not necessarily crime problems, officers assigned to these strategies had to have a full range of knowledge of resources available to address the problems and have access to those resources. 

·       Crime, ranging from petty offenses to major felonies continued to take a major part of police departments’ time and resources, thus diverting proactive community policing tactics to reactive crime fighting.

·       The individual crime victim views his or her victimization as a crime deserving of being solved while at the same time a sense of hopelessness of it ever being resolved exists.

·       The inherent lack of trust between the police and the community (and the community and the police) persisted since community policing is a process, not an end that takes place within a short period of time.

·       Community members where problem-solving or community policing was not implemented wondered where their community officers were.  Why, they asked, had they been left out of the mix?

·       The definition of community had been too narrow and had not been expanded to include the business community in particular.

·       Police officers who were assigned to community policing were viewed by other officers as not real police officers, yet community officers/problem-oriented policing officers required as much street smarts, if not more, as beat officers.

·       Problem-oriented policing and community policing are time-consuming, require the personal involvement of the officer, and often becomes as emotionally draining as it is personally rewarding.

III.

A social-political movement to discredit police has led to decimation of the ranks of police forces.  In today’s climate, police are of the opinion that they are an open target.  This opinion is validated by the fact that officers were murdered by ambush at a rate of 7.6 officers per year during the Obama Administration compared to an average of 3.8 officers per year prior to his administration.  (It has fallen below three officers per year in the first three years of the Trump Administration.)  This social-political movement takes the form of progressivism and so-called social justice (a subset of Critical, Radical, and Marxist Theories) and comes from national leaders accusing police departments of systemic racism and painting police with a broad brushstroke as a result of isolated incidents.  Police are further vilified by “journalists” who have taken it upon themselves to report opinions and facts not in evidence – and never will be – instead of known, verified facts.  Just as the university is the essence of publish or perish, some “journalists” look to the next story as being their Pulitzer Prize winning scoop.  Consequently, we have trial by media and settle for conjecture rather than truth.  Interpretation of the First Amendment is partially responsible for this as we have decided to sacrifice impartial investigations for the public right to know bits and pieces of information that when not properly assembled present a false picture of reality.  But it is what it is.

For example, suggesting that a police officer has had 18 or 19 citizen complaints filed against him does not mean that a finding of “guilt” was ever determined in those complaints.  It simply means that 18 or 19 people complained about a police officer.  As a police executive I have had people claim police brutality because an officer tugged on the trunk lid of the complainant’s car or approached the complainant’s car from the passenger side.  Both are perfectly acceptable, defensive practices by police.  If you want have a heart-stopping experience in a training exercise, approach a car not knowing that a trainer is in the trunk of the car who pops out and fires a blank as you walk past the trunk.  I have a whole list of how police officers are murdered when they approach stopped vehicles.

“What about the positive recognitions police get?” you ask.  There is a universal saying among police that goes like this: A single “ah, sh--!” wipes out an entire page of “atta boys.”  Thanks in part to the media today, it’s true.

In the meantime, the entertainment industry paints an unrealistic ideal of policing and frequently glorifies conduct that would get a police officer fired and prosecuted.  “Go ahead punk.  Make my day!”  Young police officers see that type of conduct and perceives it as what the community wants as they cheer for the officer who steps over the line.  It’s called mixed messages.  There isn’t a police officer out there with a little experience who hasn’t thought that he or she would like to dispense a little curbside justice just once.  I once had a county court judge who privately told me that the worst scene in “Dirty Harry” was when Inspector Callahan tossed his badge into the pond.

Dissatisfaction with the job has led to officers prematurely resigning their commissions.  Negative perceptions of police have discouraged otherwise qualified applicants from applying for police positions.  Police departments across the country are begging for people to apply for police positions.  Consequently, police departments are lowering their hiring standards.  While there are still good police applicants, this lowering of standards for admission to the ranks of police departments has led to continued and even enhanced complaints against officers.

·       Additionally, the lowering of standards has led to the abandonment of encouraging officers with higher education to apply for police positions and to discourage present officers from attaining higher education.  This is in spite of the fact that officers with at least some college education draw fewer citizen complaints, use less sick leave, and tend to be better community problem-solvers.  (The use of sick leave is an indicator of stress-coping mechanisms used by police.)

·       Lowering of standards not only applies to the discouragement of higher education, but also affects areas of physical fitness, emotional/mental fitness, background fitness, and intellectual fitness. 

·       Isolated incidents of police misconduct, brutality, or racism painted all police officers as unworthy of trust.

·       The real threat of domestic and international terrorism has led to the militarization of police.  The reality of the Alfred Murrah Building, the first World Trade Center attack, and the 9/11 attacks, and various assaults on military bases and civilian sites has pushed police departments to be ready to respond to serious threats at a moment’s notice.  This militarization of police has further led to the negative perceptions of police.

·       Recent utilization of police to enforce physical distancing during the COVID-19 has muddied the waters of police responsibility both in the eyes of the public and the police.  Use of police to enforce, cite, and begin prosecution of people for violation of what is seen as personal liberty serves only to alienate the public from the police.

IV.

The country is moving in the direction of a national police force.  Eventually, the public will have to decide if they want to maintain local control of policing or if they want to turn it over to the federal government.  This prediction was made over 30 years ago by former FBI Behavioral Science Unit leader and University of Virginia Professor William Tafoya.  A national police force will simply exacerbate the fiasco of the megalopolis police departments.  In contrast, these major cities and their police departments should be broken up into smaller towns and villages that would be more responsive to local needs, the same way that independent school districts serve local communities.  Continuous use of police precincts for communities is insufficient as there are still layers above precinct commanders.  Of course, no one will buy into this proposal as mayors of large cities will balk at giving up their power and there will be associated costs to breaking up large cities and their services into smaller geopolitical service areas.  Implementing this approach would also require close communication and coordinating with neighboring agencies.

Law enforcement agencies need to hold the line on hiring qualifications for sworn police positions.

Problem Oriented Policing and Community Policing need to be fully implemented and embraced, both by police and communities.

Whereas police abuse of members of minority communities in the past most likely was due to racism, today’s officer comes from a much different generation and mindset.  Today’s officer was raised on the concept of judging a person by the content of character not skin color.  Again, that is not to say that racism does not exist within the ranks of law enforcement, but it is not the most likely cause of abuses we see.

Policing is a stressful job.  Whereas police are killed in the line of duty at a rate of about 170 officers a year, you can double that number of officers who die from suicide on an annual basis.  The average age for a police officer dying from a heart attack is 47.1 years of age.  The average age for a first heart attack for a male in the general population is 65.  The Harvard School of Public Health estimates that a police officer is 30 to 70 times more likely to die from a heart attack than the general population.  Half the police officers who die from a heart attack die several hours or even two or three days following an emotionally disturbing call.  Their study also shows that officers are as much as 51 times more likely to die from a heart attack during a pursuit.

It has been difficult for a few reasons to get psychological or emotional help to police, yet stresses build in police officers.  Suicide, divorce, and alcoholism are typical coping mechanisms for police.  It would not be at all surprising to see police lashing out at people they perceive as being the cause of their stress.  Keep in mind that police aren’t called to watch over garden parties, but deal with a whole host of ugliness day in and day out.  The only time a police officer sees a professional mental health person is at screening during the application process, following an officer involved shooting, and occasionally following an especially gruesome crime scene.  Yet stress is the result of a gradual buildup of negative as well as positive experiences.  Inappropriate police action, brutality, comes at the end of the rope, most likely when someone displays “contempt of cop.”  If you want to reduce the possibility that a police officer will engage in explosive behavior, succumb to suicide, divorce, or alcoholism, or won’t see a situation for what it really is, then send every officer at least once a year to a mental health professional for evaluation and/or treatment.

Disbanding police departments or handing over certain services to other agencies, social service agencies in particular, is a non-starter.  Police already receive tons of training in responding to, recognizing, and intervening in mental health crises.  Mentally or emotionally disturbed individuals frequently become violent and unless social workers are armed, they will become the victims.

Police departments in most communities are already the only 24/7 agency to respond to non-emergency and emergency calls.  Fracturing police department responsibilities will simply increase the number of other agencies that will have to go 24/7.

If you want to focus on crime then you should focus on the family unit.  There should be no absentee fathers.  Absentee fathers, regardless of race, is a recipe for disaster.  Yes, there are many families that do just fine without a father figure in the family, but those are the exceptions.

The other real culprit is poverty, not race.  If there is one thing that will help reduce street crime it is the reduction of poverty.  President Lyndon Johnson had the right idea but the wrong approach.  You don’t simply dole out resources for nothing in return and expect positive results.

Understand that government cannot, and should not, solve everybody’s problems.  In addition, solving the problem we now face with the rift between communities and the police will not be resolved overnight or over the period of a year or two.  You don’t turn a tractor-trailer rig 90 degrees traveling at 70 mph on a dime.

Don’t assume that because a police officer did something that on the surface appears to be wrong that he or she actually did something wrong.  Even cell phone videos don’t tell the entire truth.  I remember the magician on television who made a building disappear simply by moving the camera angle.  When police began wearing body cameras, they were cautioned that their body cameras would not tell the whole story.

Police will enforce the laws we want enforced.  If you want to reduce interactions between police and the public, eliminate the laws that lead to those interactions.  Some facts need to be remembered.  (1) Crimes are defined by those in power.  (2) Those in power will define crime in a light that is favorable to them.  (3) Street crimes are much easier to solve than white collar crimes.  (4) White collar crimes are committed by those who have access to money and power.  (5) Street crimes are committed by those not in power, but present a sense of power to those who commit them.  (6) Street crimes typically have immediate, visible consequences.  (7) There are a disproportionate number of blacks charged with street crimes compared to whites who are charged with street crimes.  (8) White collar crimes tend to be committed more by whites than blacks.

America is going to have to decide exactly what she wants out of our correctional system: revenge, restitution, or reform.  Likewise, America is going to have to determine what to do about its addiction problem, not just to substances, but also gambling, pornography, domestic abuse, violent media, and so on.  Frankly, our correctional system contributes to recidivism.

The criminal justice war on drugs has been a failure.  We need to understand why.  The medical war on drugs has been a failure.  We need to understand why.  The social war on drugs has been a failure.  We need to understand why.

Conclusion

As noted earlier, the problem we now have is complicated and complex.  There are no quick fixes, but my fear is that we will create some Presidential or Congressional Blue Ribbon Commission that will come up (with good intentions) with quick fixes that have nothing to do with the underlying causes.  A thousand-page document will be created that will make the commission feel good, that a handful of scholars will read, and thankfully will sit on shelves collecting dust, never to be implemented.  A critique will follow by those scholars who read it.  Least of all, I hope we don’t continue to have knee-jerk reactions like executive orders.

But if there is a commission, I want to be on it or at least contribute to it.