The Fix Is In

 The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

John F. Kennedy

"Fixing the broken policing system."

How could that not catch my eye? How was that not intended to catch the eye of a reader, scanning a social media platform called (by a good friend ) "The Book of Faces?" So-called click bait, it was also a well-meaning but naive article written by another "expert" with just enough experience to say they are a reformer with actual police experience!

Lee County's Dancing Deputy

I'm not a psychologist. Nor have I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express lately (a reference whose relevance I admit is fading). I have to guess, however, that if someone begins an essay with the assertion that America's policing system is "broken," the very people they'd like to reach have moved on to reading memes, or looking at pictures of beach bars.

In 2018 - the last year for which statistics seem available on the internet - there were approximately sixty-one million contacts between police and citizens. I'm not going to bore you with meaningless analysis because I'm also not a statistician, but that seems like an awfully big number. If I'd sold sixty-one million books (I can dream, right?) I'd be saying "I've sold a lot of books." In first class. To my wife. On the way to our beach house in... Well, anyway.

Of that sixty-one million, how many went badly wrong because the police system is "broken?" I'm going to say - and I'm just spitballing, here - none. We can argue all day long about the definition of how a system presents as broken, but that would be silly. You get a gut feeling when you hear the word "broken." It doesn't work. And, with all due respect, for a system that "doesn't work" there are a hell of a lot of people demanding more of it. If you don't think that is true, read some of the comments by people who live in Chicago, Minneapolis, LA.

So things are awesome, fantastic. Full speed ahead. Um, no. Of the sixty-one million contacts in 2018, a number went badly wrong because cops are fallible human beings, tasked to do a difficult and dangerous job. Not all of them are up to it. A handful are themselves crooks and criminals. They are the exception.

I wrote A Guardian's Promise because there are things to do to improve how police services are delivered, and how to minimize the exceptions. And... Let's take a look at some.

Street Supervisors belong on the street.

An excellent officer was once caught in a hot mic moment as I approached a gaggle at the scene of an incident. "Oh, here he comes," the officer exclaimed. Great radio system, right? He and I were (and remain) friends, but he had an intuitive sense of my role in his professional world - quality control. I was there to make sure we did the right thing, the right way. Not because I was perfect, but because I was experienced, and trained to do the job. And, I'd made enough mistakes from which I had extracted hard, but valuable lessons. There was no way I could apply those hard-earned lessons sitting at a desk listening to the radio, buried in agency-created administrative tasks.

Unhitch statistics from being direct indicia of performance.

Police officer performance evaluations are often tied, intentionally and formally, to the number of enforcement actions they take - mainly tickets and/or arrests. In fact, the manual at one large western agency once (and may still) dedicated a significant section to how officers "score" points for arrests, moving violations and other assorted activity. In many agencies officers are paid, indirectly, by revenue generated by tickets, mainly (but not exclusively) traffic. 

Measuring performance mainly by statistics is one of the worst recommendations of the President's Task Force from the late 60s. It is well-meaning - officers who hide (no matter where) instead of doing their jobs are unprofessional. Some form of official police activity certainly suggests that an officer is being diligent, if not effective. But, just because something can be assigned a number doesn't make the number meaningful.

Is "law enforcement" strictly the role officers play? Much energy has recently been expended more accurately applying a name (some of them are, frankly, ridiculous), but the fact is enforcing laws is a tool to accomplish a greater good. That greater good is community safety. Any enforcement action that does not contribute to community safety is being done for other reasons. Often, those reasons are self-serving to government and not necessarily benefiting the community, or contributing to safety.

City officials informed us a few years ago, though the chain of command, that we were "$300,000" behind the previous year in ticket revenues. Oh? Is that how a city measures the effectiveness of its officers in making the community safer? The Justice Department, evaluating the Ferguson, MO PD didn't think so.

Recognize how important the informal reward system is.

I'm as guilty as the rest. I enjoy a good war story. Grit and determination are admirable traits, especially when they result in "the bad guy" in cuffs and "the good guys" prevailing. And, frankly, we all understand that an officer willing to engage physically with an aggressive suspect - a foot pursuit, a fight - is displaying physical courage that cannot be ignored. Heavens, an officer at the Lakewood Police Department recently demonstrated a profound act of bravery and selflessness that is one of the truly great moments in LPD's history.

Those can't be the only moments rewarded by supervisors at roll calls, or at the end of watch check out. Initiative, imagination, empathy. They are often called "soft skills." They are not. Often, it is more difficult to reason one's way out of a brawl, than to engage in one. To wit:

We were executing a court order to take a person into custody for a mental health evaluation. It was not a request. The man stood six-eight and weighed three hundred-plus pounds of solid muscle. He was pleasant enough with us, until one of the officers mentioned handcuffs. Hard no.

An experienced officer looked at the guy and frowned. "See that sergeant?" he said to Man Mountain. He pointed at me. "He's new, and he's an asshole. He's been gunning for me, and if I don't handcuff you he'll write me up and try to get my ass fired. I'm too old to hunt up another job. How about you cut a brother some slack."

The guy looked at me. I shrugged and nodded. He left, muttering about how unfair life was - wearing two sets of cuffs.

Getting in a fight with this guy would have been easy. "Fuck you, we're going to handcuff you" and the fight would be on. We'd win. We might have to kill him, but we'd win. Talking our way out of it took a gift, patience and a desire to do something positive for a person upon whom luck had not been kind.

Reward stuff like that.

Police work is hierarchical, sure. Don't etch that in granite.

"We should turn him over on his side," one of the young, inexperienced officers said, looking at George Floyd. The older, experienced officer ignored him. The entire world knows the result. Don't they? What do you think the English soccer team was kneeling for?

Let me pose a hypothetical. So, the young and inexperienced officer (who has been recently trained about the dangers of positional asphyxia) says what he says, and the older officer says, "Good idea. Help me out, here." They roll George Floyd onto his side and try to calm him. And, he dies, anyway. What is the reaction?

If you are saying the protests would start, anyway, and the riots follow, you might have a point. Officers are often criticized (or worse) after doing the right thing. But, they still did the right thing, the best practice they had been taught. It is not uncommon for police departments to provide body-cam footage to community leaders of their officer acting reasonably, only to have those leaders calm the situation before it gets tragically out of hand.

It's an old cliche, that a new officer gets in the car with their first trainer, who tells them, "Forget all the academy bullshit. I'll tell you how it really works out here on the mean streets." It may actually be true that this happens. And, it's a shame.

I asked an officer, a recent academy grad who had become an excellent street cop, what we could have done to make his training better, more realistic while in the Academy. He said - "Nothing. I should have listened more. Everything you guys said would happen, happened."

The "FNGs" - the friggin' new guys and gals - have gotten the latest and greatest taught by people who have decades of experience, much of it on patrol. FNGs aren't, by any means, seasoned veterans. But, don't treat them like children. They may be trying to save you from prison.

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

There are many more (never make an incompetent, ill-trained and ill-prepared paper-pushing administrator the incident commander at a school shooting) but you get the idea. It isn't about fixing a broken system. It isn't even about emphasizing what is wrong, and making it right. It is often finding things that work, and making sure everyone knows how to make it work for them

Several days prior to Hurricane Ian, the sheriff of Lee County (FL) put his organization on an alpha/bravo schedule. That is, they worked twelve hours on duty, and had twelve off. It provides more boots on the ground at any one time, which certainly comes in handy when a large chunk of the jurisdiction has simply been swept away. Days off? Maybe some other time.

In the meantime, by all accounts, the Sheriff himself was on an alpha/alpha schedule. By the look of him on day four or five, he'd slept very little. But, he was out there, "all hands on deck." Encouraging, cajoling, giving people positive energy in what was an astonishingly negative outcome for his community. And there they were, his family members as he calls them, serving their community with pride, with courage and with honor. Many of them were sleeping in shelters, their family members evacuated, their home demolished. But, they did their jobs with distinction.

Several days ago, there was a benefit concert involving some big name rock bands. This sheriff was invited on stage, and was greeted like he was a rock star. Clearly, the man is doing something right for his people, and his community.

Go tell that crowd lawr enforcement is broken.