In Hot Pursuit of Community Trust

You Can’t Fake Sincerity

May 05, 2023

The Flat Tire

Recently I saw a social media post by a law enforcement agency of an officer changing a tire for a citizen. The officer in the photo is a friend of mine for more than two decades and knowing him well, I was not the least surprised with his kindness and initiative. But there were other details in the post that made me think. The officer was on lunch break at a training class in another county when he encountered the motorist with the flat in a parking lot. Looking through the fourth wall, obviously there was someone taking the picture and sending it to the public affairs office, who then composed the post and shared it on all the social channels. After giving this too much thought, I was left with the same question: What does this have to do with law enforcement and how does this enhance the image of the agency or the profession?

The officer is a genuine gentleman and would have done the same off duty regardless of whether he was wearing an agency polo.

Police social media fans will love it because they love everything we do, and our enemies and critics will be incensed as they consistently are. But this time we have armed our assailants with facts that we would prefer not to hear read back.

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Do Anything but Police Work

In 2017 and 2018, there was a humanize the badge directive from the top down. We started seeing more and more social media posts of officers doing a wellness check and then cooking breakfast on the stove. Others show cops in uniform mowing a lawn or tackling a sink full of dirty dishes. Obviously, there were always photos confirming, so you have one officer pushing the mower and another taking the photo and uploading it to media relations. I followed senior staff to the homeless shelter to take pictures of them reading to children.

As a taxpayer, and a friend to many of these officers, my least favorite is jumping out of the car to join a pickup game of basketball on-duty in full uniform and gear. I advise every person considering a career in law enforcement to have a career plan B that is equally satisfying as you are only a twisted ankle or torn meniscus from not being a cop anymore. Even President Obama got a broken or bloody nose on the court. It comes with the territory, but is Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer going to be a valid charge when it happens intentionally on the court?

Coffee with a Cop

My last rodeo of forced community engagement was in 2019 assigned to the Media Relations Office. There was a planned ‘coffee with a cop’ event at a location of a Seattle based coffee store chain. We had a briefing before more than a dozen of us stormed the coffee shop. The briefing culminated in a Braveheart inspired charge: “Let’s Go Engage the Community!” That literally actually happened.

These coffee shops have small parking lots, and we all have our own city cars so we didn’t carpool, so we took up the better part of twenty spaces. There weren’t many seats in the little store, but we took them all. We churned semi-willing citizens through a forced exercise of police-community relations. None we engaged were there for the event. The coffee shop looked more like a crime scene with all the cops inside. I was there to post on social media. It was hard to get a smile out of the citizens.

Coffee with a cop began in 2011 at a McDonalds in Hawthorne, California. Twelve years on, this feel-good program has done a great job of acquiring fiscal sponsors from Axon (Tasers and Body Cams) and Carfax for Police but special note is made for the website. Coffee with a Cop is a 501(C)3 however their website is maintained by the Hawthorne Police Department and the website is funded by Target Corporation and Crown Family Philanthropies. Target is not shy about funding and promoting causes in opposition to traditional family values and in favor of extreme social causes. The work of the Crown family is dedicated to the Jewish tradition tikkun olam or ‘repairing the world.’

We need to restore our dignity connecting with citizens. In the late 1990s, I located a hit-and-run driver and called for backup. The officer who responded was one of our best. Immaculate uniform, peerless tactics, and quiet confidence. The driver started giving me serious attitude and he came over very calmly and told him, “I don’t know what you think is funny here, but this isn’t a joke.” Without even mentioning arrest or jail, the officer’s pure professionalism and seriousness caused the driver to become appropriately respectful.

Community Trust as an Investment

Five years ago, I had the opportunity to discuss these concerns with chiefs, senior staff members, and academy directors and they described back to me the process of developing community trust was an investment, a coin deposited in a piggy bank, accumulating and drawing interest, until that woeful day comes, and an officer shoots a murderous criminal, and then we will make a withdrawal and our investment will pay off because we have community trust to bank on. Several friends also came back from FBI Academy with the seed planted to get a marked police ice cream truck to give out free Choco Tacos and Creamsicles to children.

This failed spectacularly. It didn’t work before 2020 and it certainly didn’t work during 2020. Mobs descended on our headquarters (and so many others around the country) and friends got hit in the head with broken pavement and frozen water bottles. Leaders kneeled with activists demoralizing officers and deputies.

In my time, I have seen sincere trust between the police and the community at large. Early on, I knew white and black officers working majority black communities that were celebrated when they arrived on scene. There was nothing fake about them and everyone knew the right people were going to jail that day. They didn’t go to classes to learn ‘procedural justice’ but instinctively practiced the real thing. Even criminals can tell whether you are true and authentic.

Long term investments, a dragon boat team as one example, where young adults and law enforcement professionals work together for a common achievement can work. Quite frankly, more programs like that are the only long-term solution to the recruiting crisis.

Keep all of our officers in your prayers!