I challenge government officials to form a decision-making body with authority to review, revise, or create new, nationally standardized policies for all law enforcement to follow. There are nearly 18,000 police agencies in America with varying leadership philosophies: a huge pileup of differing policies and procedures. Atlanta Police Deny Blue Flu Walkout After Rayshard Brooks Officers Charged.After Protests, Just 25 Percent Think Race Relations Are Healing: Poll.Law enforcement agencies need to create opportunities for interactions that foster acceptance and trust. If my friend had been trained by another white officer with his same implicit biases, then the culture that challenges us today would only have been reinforced.Ĭommunities that allow officers to live outside of the area could mandate that as a condition of employment, officers must volunteer a certain number of community service hours. All he knew about African Americans, the trooper said, was learned through news reports, movies and conversations with others like himself. After graduation he attended flight school where there was not an African American in his flight class.
His college had a small percentage of African Americans he had no personal contact with them. He said he'd grown up in an all-white neighborhood and attend schools without any African American classmates. And after we talked, the young trooper began to cry and apologized for his actions with the teen. He perceived me as a "different" African American because of the title of Trooper. We'd never spent time together socially, outside of work, so I had to tell him that I too wore hoodies with matching pants, expensive tennis shoes and jewelry. I asked about it, and he told me his actions were based on the indicators associated with their hoodies, matching pants, expensive tennis shoes and jewelry. He began questioning them in a way that I had never heard him do to any other violator. Because of their attire and the expensive vehicle they were driving -it belonged to a parent -the trooper assumed they were gang members. He pulled over a vehicle occupied by two African American teens and began harshly questioning them. This allows law enforcement officers to see citizens through positive experiences.Ī young man I once worked with, who later became a friend, and I were riding together.
In communities where officers live and work, there is an opportunity to interact with citizens through events like schools, sports, church, dining. In some of these communities, officers are responding to heavy call loads which do not allow for non-duty-related interactions with those they serve. Many police officers are not residents of the communities they patrol. Law enforcement agencies must create internal departmental alert systems that track an officer's physical enforcement interactions, citizen complaints and department internal policy violation investigations. Check-the-box training does not challenge the implicit biases that exist in all of us, or systemic racism, or the racism which manifests in some situations. In more than three decades as a trooper, I never received racial training from a person of color with relatable experience but only cookie-cutter "diversity training." For training around race to have real impact it must be taught with a credible voice. In some cases, outside training consultants must be used instead of in-house training by peers. If de-escalation training is to truly transform law enforcement, then officers must be put through comprehensive personal-awareness training. The larger issue in police culture, though, is why we see de-escalation tactics being used liberally in encounters that do not involve African Americans. We've heard a lot about providing officers with de-escalation training I agree that's very important. Just putting an African American in charge of an agency without giving voice to those they serve will not change the culture of policing in America. Environments of shared ownership must also exist in communities of color. Some will call this unrealistic, but this is the kind of successful policing environment that has always existed in wealthy communities throughout America. Communities themselves -their voices and expectations -must drive policing in America. Law enforcement must not be managed by policies and procedures that are compromises between agencies and unions.
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