Hacker Chronicles 2/HACKER2.BIN/803.93JUN005.TXT

Text File | 1993-06-03 | 15KB | 307 lines

                       POLICE VIOLENCE
                     ADDRESSING THE ISSUE

                              By

                       Daniel B. Boyle
                         Lieutenant
            Syracuse, New York, Police Department


     A young man lies dead in the street.  Kneeling next to him,
a woman holds his head and screams "police brutality!"  A crowd
begins to gather as the woman continues her outcry.  The subtle
whispers of "brutality" overcome the onlookers, who believe the
woman but have no idea what actually took place.

     The police officer who shot the man stands alone, visibly
shaken, as he awaits medical and supervisory assistance.  No one
notices that he, too, has been wounded--the cries of brutality
overshadow his injuries.  Coming upon this scene, an uninformed
individual might perceive police brutality.  However, in
reality, the police officer interrupted the man committing an
armed robbery.  When the young man shot at the officer, the
officer returned fire, killing him.

     Oftentimes, citizens believe an incident constitutes police
brutality even though they did not witness the incident or learn
all the facts regarding the case.  In addition, media reports,
eyewitness accounts, and even film coverage may be biased in
their depictions of the event.  Indeed, they may tell just one
side of a complicated story.

     Recent events highlighting alleged excessive force by
police have heightened public awareness of the police brutality
issue.  Consequently, many people believe that the police often
use excessive force.  In reality, police brutality occurs less
often than the public perceives.  The discrepancy arises, in
part, because brutality means different things to different
people.  To some, it means the unjustified use of an officer's
firearm, while to others, it means verbal harassment by an
officer.

     Indeed, no clear definition of brutality exists.  One
researcher who conducted a study on the use of force by police
stated that the use of force is "...a product of interacting
variables that can be traced to the individual, the situation,
or the organization." (1) Consequently, since no two arrests are
exactly alike, what may constitute excessive force in one
situation might not in another.

     The police stand as barriers between the good and the bad
with no clear direction on how to combat the violent criminal.
However, if police officers learn effective ways to handle
specific situations, and they apply these methods consistently,
cases alleging police brutality should decrease.

     This article discusses several methods that police
administrators can use to address police violence.  These
include the preselection and selection processes; police
academy, field officer, and inservice training; evaluations;
community relations; and discipline procedures.

PRESELECTION AND SELECTION PROCESSES

     An effective program to eliminate excessive use of force
begins before a candidate is even selected.  First, the
department must provide the foundation for the program by
establishing and enforcing clearly defined procedures, policies,
and rules of conduct for all behavior, including the use of
force.  The top administrator must commit to the department's
programs and instill the same attitude in all the department's
officers, including the selection officer.  In turn, the
selection officer should attempt to recruit applicants who best
exemplify the philosophy and goals of the department.

     The selection process should involve several comprehensive
stages, including a written examination; an interview;
psychological, polygraph, and physical examinations; and an
extensive background investigation.  When reviewing an
applicant's file, the selection officer should pay particular
attention to any area that might indicate overly aggressive
tendencies.  For example, the background investigation might
reveal that an applicant constantly instigates fistfights.  Or,
psychological testing might indicate a volatile temper.
Obviously, candidates who exhibit such behaviors may not be
suited to serve as law enforcement officers because of their
predispositions to either overreact or underreact to given
situations.

POLICE ACADEMY

     The police academy provides crucial training and education
on the use of force.  This formal training serves as the
foundation for recruits to step into the organization's culture.
Instructors can mold new recruits to fit the agency.  They
advise the recruits of the rules, regulations, policies, and
procedures of the department and the consequences for breaking
the rules.  No one in the department should bend with regard to
the use of excessive force so that recruits do not get a false
image of the organization's policies.

     Like selection officers, academy instructors must believe
in the department's goals, objectives, and ethical policies in
order to instill them in recruits.  Once established,
instructors can move on to formal training in the law, firearms,
philosophy, cultural awareness, etc.  In other words,
instructors set the tone prior to the learning process.

     In the past, training dealt with such mandatory
requirements as criminal procedures, basic law, defensive
driving, and firearms training, just to name a few.  Today,
administrators must ensure that contemporary training in
ethics, human behavior, stress management, cultural awareness,
and sensitivity does not take a back seat to traditional
training.

     One important area of police training that could stand
revision is conflict management.  Most police departments
currently teach their new officers to deescalate, or defuse,
tense situations by using physical defense tactics.  A more
appealing option would be to help officers avoid physical
confrontation entirely.  In fact, one clinical psychologist
suggests that "law enforcement academy training courses,
specifically those that utilize primarily tactical or physical
techniques, should regularly debrief students from both a
psychological and physical standpoint." (2) In other words,
officers should be taught to use diplomacy instead of
aggression, their brains instead of their brawn.

FIELD OFFICER TRAINING

     Once in the field, new police officers start to apply what
they learned in training.  However, through experience, they
begin to realize that the realities of the street do not always
compare to life at the academy.  For the first time, they see
where the thin blue line of excessive force lies, and they will
learn to stay within its boundaries if coached in a positive
manner.

     Now comes the job of the field training officer (FTO),
which is probably one of the most important positions to hold.
FTOs can have either a positive or negative effect on new
officers.  If FTOs abuse their power, new officers will probably
follow along, because they desparately want to fit in and be
accepted as team players.  However, FTOs who adhere to the
philosophies, ethics, and professional demeanor of an
organization set an example that will last new officers
throughout their careers.

     FTOs must also evaluate the new officer's ability to do the
job.  Even with a good preselection process, an unsuitable
candidate can still slip through.  A private counselor for
officers suffering from stress warns that police officers, as
well as supervisors, must weed out those with the inclination to
use excessive force.  He states, "Police are out there looking
for troubled people, they ought to be able to spot troubled
cops." (3)

     Troubled police officers may be easy to spot, but would
their fellow officers turn them in?  Officers rarely inform on
one another for fear of being accused of "whistle blowing,"
"breaking the blue code," or "breaking the code of silence."
Consequently, training and education must change officers'
attitudes regarding the reporting of undesirable behavior by
their peers.

INSERVICE TRAINING

     Even experienced officers can benefit from additional
training.  Therefore, police administrators should schedule
inservices that reinforce the department's policies, procedures,
and directives, especially in the area of excessive force.
These inservices allow officers to brush up on deescalating
and technical techniques, as well as any areas in which they
demonstrate deficiencies.  Quality of training should take
precedence over quantity, and as always, the most qualified
instructors should teach.

     Teaching officers about human behavior can also lessen
claims of police brutality.  Officers who learn what makes
people aggressive can possibly defuse potentially volatile
situations without creating conflict.  If a confrontation
appears to be inevitable, however, police officers can still
help to resolve the situation by thinking before they react.
This, too, can be covered in inservice training.

     Training sessions should also include stress management.
Officers suffering from personal or job-related stress may
overreact in certain situations, becoming aggressive and using
excessive force.  Supervisors should watch out for those who
exhibit this type of behavior.  Teaching officers how to
recognize and relieve stress can reduce the number of such
incidents.

     Stress can be mental, as mentioned above, or physical, as
in the case of the rush of adrenalin that officers experience
during a heated confrontation or a pursuit.  Officers who are
surprised by their bodies' reactions to such situations may be
unprepared to handle these reactions.  Effective training
increases officers' awareness of these responses and provides
practical means to deal with them.

EVALUATIONS

     An effective evaluation program can enlighten
administrators as to officers' performance and can serve to
combat officers' tendencies to use force.  If officers
demonstrate deficiencies in their work performance, their
evaluations should reflect these inadequacies.  Supervisors
should address and correct problem areas through either training
or discipline.  If all else fails, the department might consider
terminating the officer.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS--EDUCATING THE PUBLIC

     In many regards, a police department is only as productive
as the community perceives it to be.  Sometimes, however, the
public's perception of a police department is prejudiced by a
lack of knowledge.  For example, because citizens do not
normally face violent, aggressive criminals, they might not
realize the force required to subdue such individuals.
Therefore, police administrators need to educate the public as
to the nature of the police officer's job, as well as the
department's policy, procedures, and the law regarding the use
of force.  The police and the community should have the same
understanding of what the overall job requires, and residents
should know that force is sometimes necessary to end a violent
confrontation.

     When officers must use force, they should document the
entire incident to avoid misunderstandings by the public or the
press.  The department should also maintain and make the public
aware of statistics regarding situations resolved without force,
as well as the number of officers injured by force against them.
Police managers should investigate all police brutality cases,
keeping the public abreast of the process and the outcome.
Withholding information from the public only clouds the issue by
creating the perception of a coverup.

     Open communication with the public also counteracts the
false perceptions that the public might hold regarding a case.
To many people, a videotape presents undeniable proof that an
act of brutality has occurred.  However, in many instances, the
person filming might not have presented all the facts.  The dead
man in the street, the officer with the gun, the woman screaming
police brutality--what the camera recorded and what actually
occurred may be two different things.

DISCIPLINE PROCEDURES

     All of the issues discussed so far--the preselection and
selection processes; police academy, field, and inservice
training; evaluations; and community relations--are all attempts
to keep citizen complaints of brutality to a minimum.  A police
department that administers these areas effectively and
efficiently, using qualified personnel, should accomplish this
goal.  Ideally, administrators, field officers, citizens, and
the media would all be working toward the same goals--education
and understanding.

     However, should a citizen file a complaint that proves
valid, management should discipline the officer(s) involved.
The department can maintain integrity with the public and its
officers by dispensing fair and consistent punishments.  In
turn, officers will conform to the established policies and
procedures to avoid suffering the consequences, while the public
will trust the department to protect its interests.  As noted
above, the department should advise the public of the outcome of
the case and the disciplinary action taken.

CONCLUSION

     Police violence is a complicated and controversial issue.
Most people do not even agree on what constitutes excessive
force, let alone how to combat it.  Educating the public as to
the complexities of policing can align the community with the
police instead of against them, thus decreasing brutality
charges.

     In addition, police administrators must select the best
possible officer candidates and provide them thorough training,
not only at the police academy but also throughout the officers'
careers.  Furthermore, management must continually evaluate the
policies, procedures, and statistical data on their department's
use of force, revising policy when necessary and disciplining
violators.  Police managers should accept no less than full
compliance from their employees.

     Law enforcement, as a profession, continues to make
headway, even when confronted with difficult issues like police
violence.  Indeed, if dealt with effectively, the issue of
police violence may be reduced to a mere mention in the annals
of law enforcement.


ENDNOTES

     (1)  Robert J. Friedrich, "Police Use of Force:
Individuals, Situations and Organizations," The Annals, November
1980, 82-92.

     (2)  John Nicoletti, Ph.D., "Training for De-Escalation of
Force," The Police Chief, July 1990, 37-39.

     (3)  Lance Morrow, "Rough Justice," Time,  April 1, 1991,
15.