I have written extensively on this blog about the absolute necessity for police to be respectful to those whom they contact. I have even said that police must be “respectful to a fault;” that is, civil and courteous to absolutely EVERYONE they encounter — even those who do not deserve to be respected because of their behavior.
Interestingly, Prof. Sam Walker made this argument and some specific recommendations on how to accomplish such a feat in his testimony to Pres. Obama’s “21st Century Policing Task Force” yesterday.
Many of us know and respect him for his continuing high-level, academic contributions to the field. I hope the task force hears his voice, its weight, and follows his recommendations.
If you are interested in police, or are a police officer, YOU NEED TO READ WALKER”S TESTIMONY HERE.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 
Big fan of Sam’s too, but I’m not convinced that mandated annual training and a model policy will fix the problem, are you? Also, strictly speaking, I doubt the accuracy of his claim “There is ample evidence that on a routine basis police officers in this country use disrespectful and offensive language in encounters with people on the street.” I would agree it’s not rare, but “on a routine basis”? That would mean at least 100,000 times a day, which I don’t think is the reality. Maybe I’m naive.
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Gary, I agree, I have my worries with in service training. That will not do it. It will take committed leaders who will lead by example and demand respect be given every person police encounter. As to demeaning and disrespectful language, I am afraid it all depends on where you live, your class and your race. The problem is real. I’m not so sure about the solution.
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There was a story on the police website Officer.com a few years ago where the FCC threaten to banish a police department in Indiana (can’t recall the name of the city) from using the airwaves because they were constantly using profane language on a daily basis.
You can go to the website photographyisnotacrime (PINAC) where they have plenty of videos of cops using offensive language and if they are not using profane language, they (the cops) are certainly escalating the situation when you hear the tone of their voices and look at their body language.
I believe that there are about 900,000 cops in the USA and if each one of them, half of them or even 15% of them use profane language once a day, it would exceed 100,000 times a day.
It took a long time to get rid of profanity, racial, and sexist remarks towards both male and female military recruits but even today, you have many female military personnel getting sexist remarks from their male counterparts plus many guys being subject to being called gay because they supposedly they don’t meet the standards of what is a “man” by their fellow male soldiers.
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Don’t mean to be picky, but one police department out of 18,000 getting cross-wise with the FCC doesn’t make it routine. None of us know how many police officers use profanity each day with the public, I agree. But I’m pretty sure that there are a lot of officers who never do, even whole departments in which it’s rare or never occurs. So I’m just objecting to Sam’s statement that it’s routine. I can’t prove it’s not routine, but I don’t think he can prove that it is, either.
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Okay, maybe the fair thing to say is that in my experience we could be more respectful and civil in our work-day language. Too much TV and movies, “Up against the wall, M.F’s!” and stuff like that. Maybe things have changed since my day and newer officers are more controlled in their language, but I have my doubts. I know one thing: when top leaders say the street-talk must stop, there will be no use of foul language in our contacts with the community, and we talk respectfully to one another in the locker room and staff meetings, and some folks get counseled, and repeaters disciplined, things have a tendency to change.
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I just report what happen and I don’t know who dropped the dime on that police department but I am probably sure that person(s) probably got tired of listening to that language on their police scanners and did some research on who to file the complaint regarding the cops’ language.
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It would be nice if there was a call for respectful policing regarding the police having more respect for the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution as well. Our Founding Fathers did not create those two documents because they decided they had nothing else to do
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“It will take committed leaders who will lead by example and demand respect be given every person police encounter.n his book,”
You are right about that Reverend Couper about committed leadership..
Chief Reuben Greenberg in his book Let’s Take Back our Street, stated he ended police profanity immediately by suspending an officer for four days for cussing, and his officers were shock by it. Greenberg also stated in his book that cops are very carefully about who they are cussing out because cussing out the wrong person (like a US Senator) will get them in trouble.
Nowadays, cops don’t seem to be too careful about hitting and/or arresting people either. They arrested Democracy Now Amy Goodman because she dare asks to speak to a supervisor regarding the arrest of two of her co-workers and were attacking reporters at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin about 5 to 10 years ago and at an immigration rally in Los Angeles a few years ago even though the reporters at both events had their press IDs in full view of the officers.
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