Accountability Through Oversight
FACT: The vast majority of police officers in this country and good natured, hard working people, committed to protecting and serving their communities. They are men and women who took an oath to protect society without prejudice. There is bad in every profession and law enforcement is not immune to this problem despite hiring processes designed to weed out people who are not fit to be police officers. Luckily, these bad seeds only represent a fraction of the thousands of police officers who uphold their oath and work honorably serving their communities.
FACT: Police officers are not infallible. They are imperfect people who are susceptible to making errors in judgement. They are no different than doctors, firefighters, pilots, and pharmacists who also make errors that cost people their lives. The difference being, law enforcement in general is highly scrutinized by a society who second guesses every decision made. It’s one of the only profession that the general public weighs in on and dictates what police officers should and should not do. This despite not having any training, having the luxury of hindsight, and second guessing decision that are made during tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving critical moments. That being said, police officers should be held accountable and their behavior should evaluated by the reasonableness of their actions.
SOLUTION: We must establish processes to evaluate the decisions and actions of police officers, especially when those actions include using force (especially deadly force) against a public that officers are sworn to protect. Oversight and accountability are vital components to contemporary policing.
Use of Force Review and Analysis
FACT: Police use of force incidents are rare instances relative to the total number of police/citizen contacts each year. This is contrary to media/public opinion. Even so, use of force incidents never look good to the average citizen who does not understand the dynamics of law enforcement operations in a violent society.
FACT: Police officers in general are grossly undertrained in use of force concepts like firearms, defensive tactics, decision making, and critical incident response. Police training programs are often a “check the box” formality to remain in compliance with state mandates.
SOLUTION: If we want police officers to make better decisions in critical incidents, we must train them better. Training must be purposeful and be based in science and facts known about human performance norms. Tactics must also be tied to principle based decision making.
SOLUTION: We need to base our training and tactics in science; how our brains work and process information under stress. We need to create training programs based in contemporary philosophy and doctrine. We have to choose the appropriate tactics for the given mission. Training programs must be designed based on real world data. We must analyze use of force incidents and identify fact patterns of behavior for both officers and suspects alike. Data collected from use of force incidents must be fed back into training programs with the goal of training out undesirable officer patterns of behavior as well as reinforcing tactics known to be effective and efficient.
Policy and Training Program Review
FACT: Most states in this country have gone through some recent version of police reform. Some states have been impacted more than others. Either way, legislation is constantly changing. These legislative changes affect the way police officers conduct business. Policing in this country today is confusing to say the least.
FACT: Legislative changes mean our agency policies must be constantly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in law. Something as simple as a definition change could greatly impact an officer’s legal ability to use force. Failing to keep up with these changes or not educating officers properly could be catastrophic for an agency. Not only could an agency be civilly liable, but agencies could jeopardize their state certification/accreditation.
SOLUTION: Agency policies must regularly be reviewed and updated to remain in compliance with legislative updates.
SOLUTION: Officers must be educated on legislative changes that impact the way they operate. Training programs must be built with mindfulness of these legislative changes to reinforce a true understanding of the law. Officers operate in tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving events and make split second decisions to use force, including deadly force. Comprehensive understanding of the law is vital to an agency’s success.
Training and Critical Incident Response
FACT: The world is a violent place. Politics aside, murders and rates of violent crimes are at an all-time high across this country. Police officers and tactical teams are forced to respond to these incidents on a regular basis. Mass shooting/killings continue to happen across this country on a frequent basis. Many of these mass casualty incidents end with an ambush on responding officers. That is a current trend that agencies should be preparing for.
FACT: Police officer performance (on average) during high stress, novel, critical incidents is less than desirable. Most police officers / agencies are not prepared to respond to or handle a large scale critical incident. We are constantly being reminded of this fact when we watch news coverage of the latest active shooter, hostage, or response to suicidal person. There is a clear problem in policing because we are actually smarter and better equipped than we have ever been, yet we still perform less than favorably. There is a breakdown in how we are training officers and preparing them to make vital decisions in a tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving critical incident.
SOLUTION: We can’t stop these large scale critical incidents from happening. All we can do is prepare for them. We must understand critical vulnerability points within a society (schools, malls, restaurants, work places, etc.) and anticipate these violent novel events. We must have comprehensive training programs to prepare for a response and quick resolution of these critical incidents, minimizing the loss of innocent life. This needs to be trained to the line-level first responders, initial responding supervisors, middle managers tasked with organizing the mission, and command staff who are ultimately responsible for the outcome of the incident. When we fail during these critical incidents, it’s usually a failure at multiple levels and always contains a failure of leadership.
SOLUTION: Training is paramount. Tactics must be based in science and philosophy. Decisions must be based on sound principles and contemporary doctrine. We must deploy tactics that actually work in high stress situations, based on the safety priorities and our ability to process information and make good decisions.
