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On Friday 19 April 2002 12:42 am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (to the
Mpls-Issues email list):
> There is a problem that exists between community members and police and
> inappropriate action being done by SOME police officers.
No. That is not the problem. The problem is that the police department as a
whole has some directional issues which are part of why some police
officers are even found doing things that upset the community.
If this were only a case of "some" police officers, the ISAG incident would
have been much different, the Critical Mass folks would be handled
differently. I am not clued in enough to know what else the force does
that falls into this category, but these things were not isolated cases of
"some" police officers making bad decisions, these were the result of high
level decisions being made by management.
It is managerial decisions like these that further an us-against-them
mentality which seems to be leading some officers to consider excessive
force an appropriate measure, mostly as a "we need to show them who's
boss" kind of thing.
> It begins with this one because the chief has either condoned and
> protected the actions taking place or he has been ineffective in
> curtailing and reforming them. Either way, the job of leadership is not
> being done. The needs of the people are not being met. Action must take
> place.
But if buying out the Chief's contract and sending him packing is the only
thing that happens, this won't be enough. Many of the things that need to
happen could happen if Olson remains Chief.
The Human Rights Watch report that has been referred to many times in list
discussions on police issues states clearly that Chief Olson has tried in
the past to discipline the more wayward members of the force, only to have
them reinstated by the Courts (often on some technicality). So the Union
is helping dangerous cops get their jobs back it seems. Since the Mayor
was supported by the Federation during the election, I'm not ready to
simply believe this is all a response to public opinion. Is it not the
case that the Federation itself wants to see Chief Olson removed?
The residency requirement. I don't see the state law as an obstacle unless
it's been tested in the courts. Did the City have such a requirement, or
did we back down from such a challenge? Is there any empirical evidence
that shows that police residency in large cities improves police behavior?
Would we not just find all cops moving to one neighborhood? How are you
going to measure the success of such a plan anyway? I think there are too
many extenuating factors. What if the improvement was really due to
economic or other livability issues in the area, as opposed to residency?
Not sure a residency requirement is anything but a feelgood measure that
is backed by real evidence.
Aren't police given pretty intense psychoanalytic profiling when hired? How
about a review of the profiles of officers involved in complaints and
simply not hiring cops in the future who score similarly? We use
standardized testing at all levels of the education system, why not a more
rigorous approach to its use in the police force?
How about annual "checkups" of the psychological state of the police? Are
we even drug testing these people on a regular basis? The police
department is a major proponent of the drug war, let's make sure it hits
home with them. Unlike every other job in the world, police work gives
permission to individuals to carry and use deadly weapons. If any job
should require strict medical and psychological monitoring it is police
work. These standards need to be at or above the maximums found in private
enterprise.
How about stricter controls around outside employment, especially the part
where officers drive patrol vehicles and wear their uniforms when engaged
in what is essentially private business? The police already have demanding
jobs, but then we subsidize their additional income at jobs which probably
just add to their overall stress levels. Why not at least make sure that
when they have outside work that we don't encourage such work to be as
much like their "day" jobs as possible?
I hear often how stressful police work is, yet instead of finding these
officers outside employment that might actually be a good diversion or
help them decompress a little, they heap more of the same on top. And
again, the additional bonus of getting to wear the uniform and drive a
city car is a public subsidy of a job which may be impacting their
full-time job in our employ.
I also think we ought to put some sort of "improved community relations"
objective on the job description for every cop in a management role. The
best way to measure this is to survey people who had an interaction with
the police during a recent time interval (yes, I'm saying we should be
surveying people who get tickets, get arrested, make 911 calls, go to
community meetings, as many and as randomly selected as possible). I'm
thinking four or five questions, a postcard maybe, a two minute phone
call, nothing more. Standard rote, not expensive to implement or analyze.
We can then link incentive pay to improvements in the results.
The key to performance results is to regularly measure performance.
Right now we have what appears to be no measurement at all. Instead we wait
for the cycle of abuse to heat up, we make a few bandaid measures, and
then we wait for the cycle to heat up again. Ineffective and useless
activity. We need a more scientific approach to solving community problems
and this area is rife for exploration along those lines.
I will be watching my elected officials for a scientific response to the
issues at hand, not to see whether they shed a few crocodile tears, wave
their hands, and maybe take one or two high profile actions. I will be
looking for measured, careful, and above-all measurable responses to this
matter (among others). Too often we let our emotions control our responses
to these things, and that just isn't useful.
I agree we have reason to be upset, but do we have reason to fire the
Chief, or is that just blowing off steam? In the long run have we made
things better for ourselves? Is there evidence that changing police chiefs
results in lower reports of police abuse?
- -Michael Libby (Cleveland/Ward 4/North Mpls)
______Michael_C_Libby__{_x_(at)_ichimunki_(dot)_com_}______
| my website: http://www.ichimunki.com/ |
|____ public key at http://www.ichimunki.com/public.key ____|
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