Defunding is not the answer

I must admit that I have not kept up with news much over the past few months. I am conflicted that everything I see and hear appears hyper-politicized. This has led me to eschew myself from negative and one-sided “news” stories. I am also confused at the irresolute public opinions towards law enforcement.  Earlier in the year, when the pandemic caused state and local governments to take drastic action towards keeping the public safe, law enforcement was looked upon along with our esteemed medical professionals as heroes. This feeling of admiration and appreciation quickly evaporated on May 25, 2020, when George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minnesota. 

I am a 27-year law enforcement veteran. I have seen many ebbs and flows in community/law enforcement relationships. However, this new fad to “defund the police” horrifies me. Political leaders may be compelled to take dangerous steps to reform law enforcement negatively if they are not educated properly. I hope that this serves as information for politicians to please consider all of the alternatives before making an incredibly irrational decision to prevent law enforcement from achieving its missions.

“Defund the police” is a term used to reallocate funding from law enforcement agencies to other government entities. It does not mean to abolish police departments (Rushin and Michalski, 2020). However, groups like “Black Lives Matters” have made recent statements that contradict this definition. It is important to highlight this group's statements for they have been held up recently as a martyr organization by several politicians, professional athletes, entertainers, retailers, and other uninformed “role models”. Their direction seems to be driven by the edict of blaming law enforcement for all that is bad with America. In a June 2, 2020 article in “The Hollywood Reporter”, Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of “Black Lives Matter”, made the following statement, “the answer does not lie in holding police accountable with better training and body cameras. Law enforcement must be defunded so that black and brown people can be free from well-funded armies that occupy them” (Sager, 2020, pg. 1). In short, Ms. Cullors uses language in this quote that reeks of slavery and oppression and points directly towards law enforcement as the vile tyrant. In this same article, which Ms. Cullors explains her organization's mission and purpose, she is called an “abolitionist” by the reporter. So, the academic definition of “defund the police” is viewed differently by “Black Lives Matters.” I am very concerned that many segments of business, government, and society have blindly supported the “Black Lives Matter” movement as a default towards solving race issues. The quote from Ms. Cullors uses language that is in dire confliction with what we are told - "defund the police” actually means. How did we go from hero to zero overnight?

In no way, should any of us want to live in a society where someone is treated differently because of their race, gender, or sexual orientation. It is an abomination and ridiculous to presume that any other life is worth more than an African American life. Black lives matter greatly, and in no way should that be dismissed as anything other than fact. The support that the organization “Black Lives Matters” has gained is perplexing. Many people appear to be comingling their agreement and support to the philosophy of the fact that black lives of course matter with a progressive abolitionist agenda. “Black Lives Matter” is using this agreed-upon philosophy as a trojan horse to make dangerous statements and influence smart people into making dumb decisions.

I offer to you that with this obvious contradiction, “defund the police” is not the answer. I could offer pages upon pages of alternatives to defunding the police with the focus actually being on real police reform. I would like to give you three alternatives for consideration. First, there is no national standardized certification process for law enforcement officers entering into the profession. Professions such as law, teaching, medicine, nursing, accounting, and many others offer a standardized national licensing program. Law enforcement is not one of those professions. In the United States, there are over 17,000 agencies comprising around 800,000 sworn officers (Banks, Hendrix, Hickman, and Kyckelhahn, 2016). According to Magers (2005), certification and licensing of law enforcement officers vary from state to state. There is no standardized process. Many departments require minimum standards that range from officers not being convicted of a felony to being 21 years of age (Banks et al, 2016). Furthermore, testing of new officers can be something that may, or may not, be included in the hiring process. There are limited to no psychological or emotional intelligence tests being conducted. Law enforcement work is a high-stress and people-intensive profession. One would assume that the psychological screening of candidates for employment would be obvious. However, this practice is not required in North Carolina, and I would bet that this lack of requirement is replicated across the country. This process of testing a person’s ability to do this job is treated as a suggestion, not a requirement. 

The landscape of law enforcement is ever-changing. It takes more than just technical competency and task completion to do this job (George, 2000). Law enforcement officers that possess a combination of skills, competencies, and traits are more successful. In other words, law enforcement officers that develop healthy relationships, partnerships and alliances, and successfully manage conflict with all of these groups while achieving personal and organizational goals can better face the demands of the job than those missing these traits (Fischler, 1997). Reform advocates have begun to support a national system of standardization for law enforcement. Representative Mark Pocan (D- Wisconsin) recently provided legislation to make funding for law enforcement contingent on their meeting national standards regarding training related use of force, bias, and de-escalation (Marcos, 2020). Support for this standardization is something that should be highly considered. Too many officers are being allowed to enter this profession without being able to psychologically or emotionally recognize their role in society.

A second alternative is to create a transparent structure for identifying officers that violate the public trust. Misconduct in law enforcement is present every day in America. There is no denying that.  Most misconduct involves routine infractions, however, there are thousands of use of force policy violations each year and equally as many criminal violations (Marenin, 2016). Currently, in North Carolina, an officer’s certification is controlled by the NC Attorney General’s Office Criminal Justice Training and Standards Division. Upon due process, an officer’s certification can be denied, suspended, or revoked for several reasons. However, the record will not reflect anything that points to the facts of the action. Expanding public access to these disciplinary records is critical to keeping good cops honest. There is a strong public interest in monitoring and identifying how officers maintain their public service. Law enforcement officers are public servants and should be held accountable for their actions. Having a structure in place that will hold officers accountable for their actions, and will transparently report to the world when they do not, is vital to reform. It is important to ensure that this is reported only upon the due process being fulfilled. As with the certification of an officer, I am certain most states have a similar process as North Carolina.

The last alternative I propose is to understand that law enforcement officers are still, after all, human beings. Recently Professor Daniel Nagin in an interview with Carnegie Mellon University stated that law enforcement is not trained anywhere near the level that they should be. An example was that of controlling emotions during a use of force incident. Professor Nagin concluded that soldiers in the military receive better constructive training dealing with these emotional matters than does law enforcement (Nagin and Telep, 2017). Training, like hiring, is not standardized across the country. Furthermore, very few agencies train outside of the mandated hours they are required. Budget limitations and shortages in manpower create a training void that we must find a way to close.

Another example is that law enforcement does not get the mental health and resiliency treatment that they need. Negative imagery every day can deteriorate law enforcement officers regarding daily human interactions. In no way am I suggesting an excuse or defense of improper action, however, the ability to function day in and day out in this job can be devastating to a person's ability to mentally cope with the world. An example of this is the extremely high amount of suicides within this profession. There are three times more officers committing suicide than being killed in the line of duty (Ramchand, Saunders, Osilla, Ebener, Kotzias, Thornton, Cahill, 2019). Researchers attribute this to increased stress, access to deadly weapons, and witnessed human devastation that officers are exposed to daily. In 2019, 228 officers committed suicide compared to 172 in 2018. This was a 32% increase (Ramchand et al, 2019).

In no way is this an exhaustive list of alternatives. My mentioning of these is to merely offer an education that other options must be considered before making such a vital change to our safety and society. In 2015, President Obama created a task force to study 21st Century Policing. The task force created pillars of policing (Schilling, 2020). These include:

1.        Building Trust and Legitimacy

2.        Policy and Oversight

3.        Technology and Social Media

4.        Community Policing and Crime Reduction

5.        Training and Education

6.        Officer Safety and Wellness

These pillars strongly support the alternatives that I have offered. Each supplement one another and is needed to effectively reform our modern law enforcement. As a society, we must recognize that we will never be perfect. We should try everything to protect our society, all of it! The work of groups like “Black Lives Matters” should be vetted to reveal their true purpose and intent. Defunding the police is not the answer. Please if you have additional alternatives post them below.

References

Banks, D., Hendrix, J., Hickman, M., & Kyckelhahn, T. (2016). National sources of law

enforcement employment data (Report No. NCJ 249681). Bureau of Justice Statistics,

Washington, DC: US Department of Justice.

Fischler, Gary. (1997). Psychological examination of peace officer applicants: Theory and

Practice. Minnesota Police Chief, 17, pp. 35-37.

George, Jennifer. (2000). Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional

intelligence. Human Relations, 53(8), pp. 1027-1055.

Magers, Jeffrey. (2005). Police officer standard and training commissions. Encyclopedia of

Law Enforcement: International (ed. Larry E. Sullivan: SAGE), pp. 349-351.

Marcos, Cristina. (2020). Top progressive lawmaker unveils bill requiring national police

training standards. The Hill. Retrieved from: https://thehill.com

Marenin, O. (2016). Cheapening death: Danger, police street culture, and the use of deadly

force. Police Quarterly, 19(4), 461-487.

Nagin, D. S., and Telep, C. W. (2017). Response to “Procedural justice and policing: A rush

to judgment?” Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 13, 55-58.

Ramchand, R., Saunders, J., Osilla, K. C., Ebener, P., Kotzias, V., Thornton, E., and Cahill,

M. (2019). Suicide prevention in US law enforcement agencies: A national survey of

current practices. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 34(1), 55-66.

Rushin, S., and Michalski, R. (2020). Police Funding. Florida Law Review, 72, 277.

Sager, Rebekah. (June 2, 2020). Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Calls for Defunding of

Police Departments. Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved from:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com

Schilling, T. M. (2020). 21st Century Policing: Building Trust and Communication.