Getting Policing Right is About as Important as It Gets

I Am Not Giving Up, But I am Not Optimistic

Why This Is So Important

No one can accuse this blog of only doing easy topics. Policing is one this space has addressed before and will surely revisit again after today. This is a seriously important topic for more than any one obvious reason.

Justice and Trust – A large portion of the American citizenry feels far more threatened than protected by the police. They have little expectation of fairness or justice from the police. Thanks to the spreading use of body cameras and the ever-present smart phone, the rest of us now know – if we choose to watch – that these people are very often justified in their feelings.

Protection and Security – Another large component of our population count on the police to provide protection and security. They count on them to prevent threats and to react appropriately when threats do arrive. These folks worry as they see rising crime rates and reductions in police recruiting and retention.

Here, too, there is evidence to support their concerns. In some cases, this is paranoia, but in many, the concern is valid. We seem to be in an almost-post pandemic period that has brought a dramatic rise in crime and violence in many communities. People do not feel safe.

A Foundational Element – This country is divided on a host of issues, policing being one of them. But even more than many of the ongoing national discussions, policing impacts the rest of our national dialogue substantially. If we allow this topic to be another battle ground rather than a place for common ground, much else we seek to resolve will be tainted.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

I mentioned at the outset that I am hopeful but not optimistic. This is because we are not especially good at national conversations and because we have people with loud voices not especially interested in what others have to say. Some are simply locked into their own perspectives, unwilling to acknowledge others have valid concerns. Others are simply political opportunists, eager to use this as yet another dividing line to fan discord.

This feels depressingly familiar. We tried a discussion not unlike this early in the first Clinton administration, about national health care. Reasonable alternatives and information were on the table. It quickly degenerated into dueling bumper stickers and slick ads. In stunningly short time, it was obvious we were not going to have the discussion we so badly needed.

Policing may go down the same path. What a loss that would be, on so many levels. And I feel this one up close. My own hometown is in the throes of such a conundrum right now, with dueling groups shouting at each other and a demoralized police force down almost 30%. This serves no one in any good way. It is a story being repeated all over this country.

What is Toxic on the Right

The old line of Back the Blue and always, always give the police the benefit of any doubt can no longer be justified. We now know with certainty that there are problems with policing in America that go beyond the occasional bad apple. To follow with this logic is a blank check into a system ripe with corruption and distortion. It underwrites abuse and reinforces racism.

Worse, it rejects in blanket form the calls from communities that have suffered regularly from bad policing. Law enforcement kills about 1,000 Americans every year. Some of these deaths are tragically unavoidable, but now we have all seen the evidence that this is too often not the case.

To ignore this hurts others who are vulnerable. It also undercuts the many good cops who deserve a better working environment. It is intellectually dishonest and keeps a festering wound open. An essential first step is to recognize the problems are deep and systemic and to expect better.

What is Toxic on the Left

The calls against police brutality are clearly justified, as are pointing out much of the system is the problem, not just individual officers. But calls to defund, to simply take away resources at some arbitrary level (often 50%) are useless and serve only to feed the paranoia of those who fear the risk of lawlessness.

Similarly, celebrating the mass exodus of people from law enforcement is short sighted. While likely true that some who leave are in the good riddance group, the numbers that are quitting tell a different story. Too many in law enforcement feel despised and under siege.

Few will choose the risks and sacrifices inherent in this line of work if they feel no one appreciates them or will back them when they are right. Demanding better policing and putting resources into other agencies to deal with particular problems makes great sense.

Trying to get there by tarring an entire profession and seeking mass attrition is short sighted. It also puts vulnerable communities at risk and feeds the right-wing propaganda machine. A good start is to acknowledge the need for good law enforcement everywhere and to acknowledge it where it is found.

 Police Perspectives

Complicated stuff, this part of it. On the one hand, it seems fair to say that police in a lot of places feel hated and under siege. If not a feeling of community service, what rationale makes the job worth doing? Good cops, I expect, feel trapped between people who want them to disappear and people who reinforce all that is bad in current policing. Heck of a place to find oneself. No wonder so many are leaving or deciding not to enter the field.

Police unions have been a large part of the problem. They could, if they so choose, be an important part of the solution. Traditionally, these unions have sought to back every officer against every charge, no matter the evidence. This has hurt the profession, undercut good officers, and underwritten abuses of power.

How about unions that seek first and foremost to set and help enforce professional standards? Unions that encourage and reward ethics and professionalism. If I were a mayor or district attorney, I would join the chorus of those refusing to work any longer with police unions not willing to make that change. The old ways just discourage good cops.

For a good, short article on the perspective of many in policing, check this NPR article: 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009578809/cops-say-low-morale-and-department-scrutiny-are-driving-them-away-from-the-job?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email

Which Approach? “Whole Earth” or “Urban Renewal”?

So, how about it, America? Can we foster a balanced approach that recognizes fears and priorities all around? Or will we take an approach of “To heck with them, let’s level the whole thing and just treat our issues?” An unwillingness to take a wholistic approach seems a formula for permanent strife and a poisoning of the well for so much more that needs to be done.

Can we help define what police have been asked but not trained or equipped very well to do, take the resources needed to build alternatives, and work with good law enforcement to make that happen? I don’t know if we will, but woe upon us if not.

 Solutions: Federal or Local?

 There is much the federal government can do to help, but this will largely be settled at local levels. What would help would be a national coalition, including police, that acknowledge the range of issues and sets goals and standards that communities can get behind.

Perhaps something along the lines of Our Common Purpose (which this blog celebrated a year ago this month), the result of two years of work by the bipartisan Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, could be developed for policing.

 You Can Help on This One

You have a lot at stake in this one, no matter who you are. How about chipping in some effort? Don’t miss an opportunity in your community to demand better. Call out the need for justice AND the need for security. These are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are mutually reinforcing. For your own good and that of fellow citizens, speak out for both, and call out one sided arguments that just do more damage.

             Bill Clontz

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2 replies to Getting Policing Right is About as Important as It Gets

  1. Well said. I will add, it’s time we pay our police more. Unions should want to get rid of the “bad eggs” and promote increased pay for those who do the job well.

  2. As a former police officer and military officer, I can assure you that American law enforcement is fundamentally broken.
    Unfortunately, the dysfunction is not readily apparent to persons with limited contact with the police, which includes the majority of Americans and the overwhelming majority of white, upper middle-class Americans.
    Suburban Americans expect that police in their community will act aggressively to “protect them” from poor people and black people. They are completely uninterested in the reality of policing in urban America.
    Key factors about the police:
    1. Professional and equitable law enforcement is expensive, which is why we don’t have it.
    2. Police are organized and administered in accordance with a model that was first established in the 1860’s.
    3. The last significant technological advance in American law enforcement was the placement of radios in police cars in the 1920’s. Since then, the basic law enforcement concept of operations has not changed.
    4. Police officers are virtually always unsupervised.
    5. No law enforcement executive in America believes their subordinates are properly trained, but no city is willing to pay for effective training.
    6. Police supervisors are selected from among the ranks of patrol officers and they almost always lack supervisory experience or significant experience of any kind in any organization other than the one that employs them.
    7. Newly promoted supervisors – almost always inexperienced – receive virtually no training.
    8. Police organizations neither expect nor desire that their supervisors assume responsibility for the performance of their subordinates.
    9. Police are virtually never held accountable for their actions.
    10. Police “culture” is wildly dysfunctional and no significant police reform can succeed until the current culture is replaced.
    11. No group in America would benefit more dramatically from comprehensive police reform than police themselves. Better training, higher pay, real accountability, professionalism, discipline, effective supervision, competent management, and a legitimate connection to the community would improve performance, morale, retention, and the physical and mental well-being of police officers.
    The bottom line is that American police perform the most demanding and complicated job in America with insufficient training, insufficient funding, no effective supervision, no accountability, and no true support from the governments that employ them and the communities they are supposed to serve.

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