One of the joys of retirement is having the opportunity to reflect on life lived. And part of that reflection should be an examination; that is, to try to answer the important questions of life and career – What did I do? How could I have done it better? What have I learned and left behind to share and help the generation that followed me?
While engaging in these questions once again this morning, I came to realize all that had happened since that fateful day in Ferguson, Missouri, August 9, 2014. To me, the realization was stunning. Did we have to put cops in jail to improve the way deadly force was used by police in America? Really? Here’s the actual number from 2005 to 2020.
What a failure in police leadership! Instead of remembering our mission (to “protect and serve”) we did neither. Instead of stepping back, listening to our “customers” — those who daily experience the hand of policing — we pulled back.
Instead of building and re-building trust of us, we amplified “them vs. us,” and “Blue Lives Matter!” Instead of taking a deep-dive into Graham v. Connor and investigate how other free and diverse nations were training their police, we took comfort in how an obtuse legal decision protected us.
And, sadly, when we tried to do this by calling together the national Task Force on 21st Century Policing (May, 2015), we dropped it like “hot cakes” among political squabbles of the day. What could of, and should have been, a call for a nation-wide movement to improve policing in America became a much-kicked-around political football. Shame on us!
I won’t lengthen this reflection with more examples, this blog (since 2011) is full of them. I just have one question to today’s police leadership; did you really mean to stand by and watch while your young men (and some women) went to jail? The legal community went after them when what you should have done is to lead… to lead forward… to lead, and demonstrate by example, how a great, free, and diverse nation selects, trains, fields and supervises its police?
Here’s one fact we cannot dismiss. Since 2014, when several journalists started counting the number of citizens shot and killed by police, the annual number of those deaths, despite continued national protest, has been relatively the same – about 1,000 deaths each year since. (A review of police use of deadly force in other free and democratic societies shows that our use of deadly force is extreme and our funding of police mid-range. (See police use of force standards in the European Union. Could it be that our definition of the Second Amendment and lack of regulation is one of the causes of the high level of police uses of deadly force in our country?)
As a result of failing to respond the national cry of those who have the most contact with us (“When will you stop killing us?”) our police officers are being mistrusted, castigated, looked down upon, endangered, and incarcerated. Instead, they need to be led forward because both you and I know that to get the job of policing done, and done well, those who do it must be both trusted and supported. And when they are not trusted and supported, that answer is, unfortunately, to use more force (as Sir Robert Peel’s 4th principle of policing cautioned over 150 years ago — “To recognize always that the extent to which the cooperation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.”).
That’s a good portion of what I learned during my 33-year career as a street cop and leader.
And this is what I am leaving for you to consider and act upon. And you need to do it now!
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 
If a few thousand cops along with their corrupt judges and district attorneys went to prison or were put to death for what they had done, the rest would either quit the force or change their ways and become good cops.
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We might be on that road already!
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We’ve had a crisis in leadership in policing for decades. Police chiefs are appointed, Sheriffs elected based on their ability to assuage the community who have issues with methods of policing applied by their local law enforcement agency. While I oppose nationalizing the police, certainly there should be a minimum standard for selecting police chiefs. These minimum standards should be endorsed by every state POST or accreditation authority. Perhaps this standard could mitigate even nuisance lawsuits filed against a police officer or agency, assuming their conduct is within policy and law. By not applying this standard, municipalities should be held to greater accountability . Apolitical organizations such as PERF and the Police Foundation could feasibly assume the responsibility of development and recommendation of the minimum standards approach.
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Yes, well-said. Nationalization is not the answer — shared values, best practices, and “customer” satisfaction would be good beginnings.
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We need to have longer and better police training. Barbers, hair stylists, people who do nails, and people who are enrolled in various kinds of blue-collar union apprenticeship programs get far longer and more rigorous training, have to pass their tests, and keep their credentials updated. Cops hardly know the law on even basic things and can’t even give reasonable suspicion explanations when they pull someone over nor can they articulate their explanations.
I don’t know about the Swedish police today, but years ago, the Swedish police chiefs had the obtain a law degree if they wanted to become police chief. Of course, the FBI used to require a law or accounting degree; however, it didn’t stop them from violating people’s rights.
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I’m hoping that someone here can answer some questions I have about policing in the U.S.
I’m a police officer in Ontario, Canada. In Canada, each province and territory is responsible for providing police services. In general, there are three levels of policing in Canada: Federal (RCMP, who are contracted to provide policing in areas that do not have their own police service); provincial (in Ontario and Quebec only); and municipal. All three levels do the same job: enforcing the criminal code of Canada; and enforcing provincial statutes (such as highway traffic laws, liquor laws, etc.).
1) TRAINING
We have relatively uniform standards. The RCMP all train for about six months at their Depot. In Ontario, all police officers – be they municipal or provincial – receive the same training at the Ontario Police College. When I went through in ’96, we did three months at OPC; then my service at the time (Toronto Police) gave as another two months of training before we hit the streets.
So every police officer in Ontario gets the same initial training in the law; use of force; de-escalation and scenario training; driver training; etc. After that, each service must run it’s officers through a mandatory use of force requalification once / year; and active shooter / rapid deployment training once every two years. Some (especially the larger departments) will provide more training to their patrol officers.
The Ontario Police College and the Canadian Police College also provide on-going specialized courses in investigations, interviewing, tactical training, etc.
Is this in any way comparable to what occurs in the U.S? Or is every single police agency responsible for all of their officers’ training?
From the videos of police involved incidents coming out of the US, I get the impression that it’s quite a mixed bag. I’ve seen great work by officers in difficult situations; and shockingly lamentable actions by others that indicated to me either a complete lack of training; or someone who should never have been hired as an officer. Is more standardized (perhaps with standards set by the state) part of the discourse on police reform?
2) INVESTIGATIONS OF POLICE INVOLVED INCIDENT
Who investigates the police (such as a police involved shooting) in the U.S? Does it completely depend on the jurisdiction? Is it always law enforcement that investigates law enforcement?
It’s a mixed bag in Canada. In Ontario, there is an independent agency – the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) – that investigates serious injury, death or allegations of sexual assault in which police are involved. The involved police agency MUST by law call the SIU to notify them of any incident that may fall under their jurisdiction.
Having an independent body investigate serious incidents involving police provides the public with some confidence that police are not covering up for themselves. While police weren’t happy about it when it was created in the 90’s, and while the SIU did have growing pains the first 10 to 15 years, it is now accepted by police as a legitimate part of the system.
3) POLICE & LABOUR LAWS
This will probably be one of those cultural differences between Canada and the U.S., but are police officers (or other civil servants for that matter) not protected by labour laws? I’m always shocked when I read about a mayor of a city in the U.S. firing a police officer the day after an incident, when obviously no investigation has yet taken place. This would be impossible in Canada where an employer needs to have grounds to fire anyone.
Officers do get suspended (with pay) while they are being investigated, but firing could only occur after an investigation has taken place and there is due process. I get the sense that in the U.S. mayors have extraordinary powers – almost absolute power – not only in regards to firing police without any apparent due process, but also directing police as to how to conduct their operations. I was shocked when watching the documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis” to learn that it was the mayor who ordered police to give up their precinct to the crowd. Do all mayors have this power?
If one of the factors of police reform involves hiring good quality candidates, or even just getting enough candidates, isn’t this lack of due process an impediment to hiring?
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Dan, thanks for your inquiry… a short answer: policing in America is very local and decentralized and training and standards are, as you wonder, a very “mixed bag;” hence my blog on improving police and my book, “Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off…”
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