Big City Community Policing… Isn't
I started my career in the early 90’s as a police officer in a small farming town of about 30,000 people. I was the new kid in town, just 24 years old, and from the “big city.” I wasn't from New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, but in comparison to a 30,000-person town, I was from a raging metropolis. At the time, I marveled at how my reputation built as the “new guy” in town. I knew my neighbors, the grocery store clerks, the teachers, the bank tellers, and every family member on my department by name. In those four years, I made lifelong friends. But, I wanted more action, so I returned to my hometown.
Back then, community policing was the buzzword that replaced directed patrol, or targeted policing. Community policing as we know it today is a slowly-developing philosophy born out of the civil rights movement of the 1960's, when police realized the “we vs. they” division that had been created. The Department of Justice defined community policing as “promoting organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.” Today, community policing is as sterile as the DOJ definition… and will no longer work in big cities.
Broken Windows is broken
By now, everyone knows the story behind the Ferguson Riots. Although the subsequent investigation lacked probable cause to charge the officer, the Department of Justice’s investigation revealed a pattern of contempt between the department and the community that clearly reached in both directions. The police in Ferguson — and departments in many cities like it — have simply lost focus of the purpose behind community policing. They've lost their way. Of course, Ferguson is far from a big city, but it provides a detailed example of how unintended consequence spiral from government decisions.
In the face of budget shortfalls, city leaders are forced to make cuts to services that tend to impact economically depressed areas. At the same time, these leaders demand that the police address “broken windows” issues by increasing enforcement; aka, zero tolerance programs. On paper, this kills two birds with one stone by reducing crime rates and fixing budget shortfalls. In actuality, it kills community policing. Not only does this doubly impact depressed areas, but it also drives a wedge between police and the community.
Community policing programs… aren't
I recently had the opportunity to sit on a promotion board for small, 50-officer police department. In a growing town of about 35,000, many of the police officers either grew up here or currently live here. The officers were all asked to define a community-policing program that could impact the city, and every candidate hesitated. These officers all believe that community policing is a mindset. It can’t be described through a task, project, or program. One officer illustrated the definition in a story about stopping to help a lady change a tire. His story was unmoving until he added that he was off duty when this occurred.
The issues in Ferguson could occur at any big city in the nation, but the problem isn't one of systemic racism. It’s one of proximity. Although it’s undeniable that there are isolated cases of racism in policing, there isn't overall contempt for minorities as suggested by the media and politicians using the Richard III model of gaining power through chaos. Larger departments have simply lost focus on their primary mission among the noise of politics, economic recessions, and the increasing speed of bad news through social media.
I experienced this first hand when I returned to the big city, my hometown. Being a police officer had become institutionalized, programmatic, and linear. Knowing the neighbor, the grocery store clerks, the teachers, the bank tellers, and every family member on my department by name was replaced with policies, manuals, quotas, politics, and noise. I objected at first, but quickly got wrapped up in the massive culture of big city policing. Enthusiasm for making a difference in the community was replaced with complicated policies, discipline, and a separation between the line officers and the command staff. The excitement of helping people morphed into fear of violating a rule. Hiring freezes and cut budgets equated to more work and less pay, and added to the frustration and separation from the mission of the department: to protect and serve the people of the community. This attitude creeps into job performance by negatively impacting the communities that we serve… and eventually leads to a mutual dislike between the community and the department.
It’s a steerable ship
Once the culture sets into the every day operation of a police department, it becomes difficult to change — but not impossible. Even the biggest cruise ships have the ability to change course. It took a two-day promotional process at a little department to remind me of why I joined the police department 21 years ago, and why it’s important never to allow policy policing to replace community policing.
This Scipio Securitas contribution was written by a career law enforcement officer of a major US city police department.
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