To Protect And To Serve - Thoughts On A New Police Chief

About a year ago I read, “To Protect And Serve, How To Fix America’s Police” by Norm Stamper. Stamper a career policeman rose within the ranks and served as Police Commissioner in Seattle. He was at the helm of the department when the 1999 World Trade protests erupted in that city and the book is a bit of a mea culpa regarding mistakes he himself made. I strongly recommend reading the book. According to him:

“The police in America belong to the people—not the other way around. Yet millions of Americans experience their cops as racist, brutal, and trigger-happy: an overly aggressive, militarized enemy of the people. For their part, today's officers feel they are under siege—misunderstood, unfairly criticized, and scapegoated for society's ills.”

In an earlier book, “Breaking Rank, A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing” Stamper makes powerful arguments for drug decriminalization, abolition of the death penalty, and radically revised approaches to prostitution and gun control. Written in 2004 it couldn’t consider the changes in the last ten years.

The bottom line according to him:

“Policing is in crisis. The last decade has witnessed a vast increase in police aggression, misconduct, and militarization, along with a corresponding reduction in transparency and accountability…. Overall, our police officers have grown more and more alienated from the people they've been hired to serve.”

So why am I bringing this all up today. This weekend as I strolled past the City of Redwood City’s booth at the Dia de los Muertos festival I was asked for my thoughts regarding what the City should look for in a chief of police. David Cooper, a former police chief has written quite a bit about the subject on his blog:
https://improvingpolice.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/on-hiring-a-chief-of-police/

He believes that among others (read the full list and article by clicking on the link above):

A POLICE CHIEF should have a bold and challenging vision of excellence.
A POLICE CHIEF must be able to select the best and brightest to serve as police officers.
A POLICE CHIEF must be able to deeply listen to others;
A POLICE CHIEF must be data-driven, and not by the old crime statistics, but by real and meaningful data collection.
A POLICE CHIEF must be able to sustain improvements that he or she has made.

Just as interestingly Cooper has a post about making choices between laws and morals. As he puts it “a citizen cannot expect the police to operate only legally — but that they must also act morally. For without moral considerations, policing would become both ineffective and unbearable in a free society.”

For me the bottom line is that a police department and a chief of police do not serve in a vacuum. For them to be effective and remain a police force and not become an occupying army they must serve in an environment where the city council and staff put in place systems that support an overall city mission. Selecting and appointing the best police chief while undermining him or her at the council and staff level is not and cannot be effective. I am thinking here of new or lacking policies regarding drugs, cannabis, prostitution, rent control, living wages, gun control, etc, etc....