by
improving police
What is
good policing? How do you know if your police department is providing it?
There are
over 16 thousand police departments in our nation and there are over 600,000
police with no national standards. This means policing is local in our nation
and, therefore, the improvement of police must be taken on at the local level.
• Quality policing begins at home.
• Citizens determine the quality of
their police departments.
• Quality policing is dependent upon
public approval.
A few
years ago, Michael Scott and I wrote a short piece on these qualities. If you
are unsure about what you should expect from your police, read on:
Qualities
of Police in a Free and Democratic Society
David C.
Couper and Michael S. Scott
• Accountable
Police
recognize the nature and extent of their discretionary authority and must
always be accountable to the people, their elected representatives, and the law
for their actions, and be as transparent as possible in their decision-making.
• Collaborative
Police
must be able to collaborate, as appropriate, with community members and other
organizations in settling disagreements, choosing policing strategies, and
solving policing problems. This collaborative style must also apply to the way
police departments are led and managed. This means police leaders must actively
listen to their officers and work with them in identifying and resolving
department and community problems.
• Educated and trained
All
police officers with arrest powers should begin their career with a broad and
advanced education in the sciences and humanities. Training should consist of
rigorous and extensive training courses in an adult-learning climate that
teaches both the ethics and skills of democratic policing.
• Effective and preventive
The mark
of a good police department and the officers who work within it is that they
continuously seek to handle their business more effectively and fairly,
emphasizing preventing crime and disorder and not merely responding to it, and
applying research and practical knowledge, using problem-solving methods,
toward that end.
• Honest
Honesty
and good ethical practice are essential. The search for and cultivation of
these traits begin with the selection process and continue throughout an
officer’s career. Only those police candidates who have demonstrated good
decision-making so far in their lives should be selected.
• Model citizen
Police
officers must not only be good police officers, but good citizens as well,
modeling the values and virtues of good citizenship in their professional and
personal lives.
• Peacekeeper and protector
The
police role is, above all else, that of community peacekeepers, and not merely
law enforcers or crime fighters. Their training, work, and values all point
towards the keeping of peace in the community. As gatekeepers to the criminal
justice system, police must see themselves as defenders and protectors of
Constitutional and human rights, especially for those who cannot defend or care
for themselves in our society.
• Representative
The
members of police organizations must be demographically representative of the
communities they serve, both because it reflects fair employment opportunities
and because it enables the police to be more effective in achieving their
objectives.
• Respectful
Police
officers should treat all persons with unconditional courtesy and respect, and
be willing to listen to others, especially to those without social power or
status. Likewise, police leaders should treat their workers with courtesy and
respect their employment rights.
• Restrained
The
preservation of life should be the foundation for all police use of force.
Police officers should continually prepare themselves to use physical force in
a restrained and proper manner, with special training in its application to
those who are mentally ill. Deadly force should be used only as a last resort
and only when death or serious injury of the officer or another person is
imminent. Less-than-lethal force should be preferred where possible.
• Servant leader
Every
police officer, regardless of rank, must simultaneously be a good leader and a
good servant, to the public and to the police organization. Servant leaders use
their authority and influence to improve others’ welfare.
• Unbiased
Although
some bias is inherent in human nature, police officers recognize that they can
and should train themselves to reduce their biases and deal with all people
fairly and without regard to their race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic
condition, national origin, citizenship status, or sexual orientation.
