Police Leaders Abandoned their Mission with Empty Rhetoric
Police Leaders Abandoned their Mission with Empty Rhetoric
A Buzz Phrase Corrupts the Perception of Policing
How long would a plumber be in business if he said pipe leaks weep water because they are supposed to leak? How about an exterminator who says living with mass pest infestations is a reality you need to adopt? Or a surgeon who says, we can probably get the cancer out but given enough time, you are just going to die anyway?
Every time a microphone is plugged in, and the white balance is checked, there is a law enforcement leader or politician saying, “We can’t arrest our way out of that problem.” Much worse, it has trickled down to patrol where we have officers saying that drivel to crime victims.
Not our fault, not our responsibility
Topics including homelessness, substance abuse, youth gun violence, and mental illness had conference speakers equipping chiefs and other leaders to stop taking the hits on these issues.
Police leaders who espouse these beliefs are Jack trading the family cow for magic beans.
Law enforcement first responders are the most qualified, experienced, and equipped personnel to safely engage citizens in crisis. I am watching the co-responder models in two major media markets and observed forced successes at an unsustainable cost.
The more data I gather regarding co-responder and community violence intervention strategies, the greater the data indicates that law enforcers are the only practical solution to mitigating acute crisis in communities.
You will ‘no-response’ your way out of business
In the early 90s, it was the officers on the street trying to talk citizens out of filing a report.
Now it is chiefs and sheriffs.
A group of para-professional civilian service officers had a no-response list in the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system of flagged hazards going back decades. There was no regular validation of the list, and without anyone coming off the list, which could include large districts of the city, I pointed out that they were in danger of ‘listing’ themselves out of business.
Today, poor leaders are completely blocking out dimensions of police authority and responsibility. They go further by blocking out non-lethal categories of force to be used in arrests and affirming Campaign Zero propaganda and the National Consensus on Force.
Terrible police leaders are preaching that crime problems are societal, and policing is the inappropriate response. Some even publicly attribute police as a cause.
They describe gun violence, including youth gun violence, as a public health crisis despite them occurring in the cities with the most restrictive firearms ordinances.
It is one hundred percent counter to the mission of law enforcement. And it gives all the defund police activists the toe hold they need to introduce their measures to replace the police.
Vendors of these Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs are receiving untold billions of dollars while pointing to their successes in Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL, St. Louis, MO, and Oakland, CA. These are all cities where Michael Bloomberg would borrow a gun to visit an Everytown convention. It is evident, none of the measures work.
The Scam Revealed
If this was a fair fight, there would be a challenge or a test. Some sort of contest of ideas and practice where at the end we could determine who has the superior strategy on resolving the core issues in the worst parts of our county. Beside those previously mentioned, I would think that the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco and Kensington in Philadelphia would be perfect testbeds for CVI programs and social workers to prove their superiority over traditional law enforcement models. However, as it turns out, groups have been on the ground there for substantial time and the problems have only gotten worse.
A Portrait of Courageous Leadership
Once you recognize courageous leadership, you see the power. In 2008, the whole country was in the midst of a violent crime surge. I was fortunate at that time to work for Chief Val Demings who addressed both the crime on the streets and the disorder within her department. Our newly formed Patrol TAC squads were charged to chase guns, drugs and money. She told them to get out there and do your job, but she mandated the Internal Affairs complaints come to her first. Her love of justice was the control. Her desire for balance let the TAC guys know to color within the lines and be tough, but be fair and respectful. Her efforts were rewarded with success on the streets and accountability within headquarters.
The Big Lie
Yes, Virginia, you can arrest your way out of most problems. Almost all the reports I read in the news are law enforcement scenarios that given a different perspective will result in desistance, disruption, or arrest. In International Human Trafficking training, I was able to study the results of Sweden focusing on ‘Johns’ instead of prostitutes with great outcome in rescuing and restoring (mainly) young females.
You would be amazed at how many criminal problems can be solved with the right strategy. The defund movement has shown their cards, and according to research in my previous articles, they have a pesky problem of additional gun violence from their efforts.
This Police Week let’s deliberately thank God for all our law enforcement personnel and keep all of them in our prayers! (Rom 12:9)
References:
Even if Los Angeles wanted to put traffic enforcement into the hands of civilians, the assumption is that under the state vehicle code, such duties could only be handled by licensed peace officers. But the report argues that there are "plausible legal arguments that the vehicle code does not limit the City's discretion in this area."
The city Traffic Department already employs civilian "traffic officers," who direct traffic and enforce parking restrictions, according to the report. While they are not technically peace officers, they have the authority to issue parking tickets and to "perform other related duties."
Among those responsibilities is arresting "individuals without a warrant for a limited but varying list of civil violations related to taxis and ride-shares and other violations related to streets and sidewalks such as causing obstructions or dumping of prohibited substances," according to the report.
“When it comes to, I guess, teen violence and other teen crimes, I think it’s one of those things — you can’t arrest your way out of it,” Jones said.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/teen-curfew-enforced-dc-area-county-response-troubling/story?id=89405541
Prince George's County Police Chief Malik Aziz called the number of juvenile arrests "shocking" and a "significant" jump from last year.
"The vast number of juveniles are out doing the right thing and living a meaningful and positive life in Prince George's County," he said during Monday's press briefing, calling those who are committing crimes "outliers."
"We can't arrest our way out of this," he added.
Carjacking is one area of particular concern, officials said. Eighty-four juveniles have been arrested for carjackings this year, half of whom were under the age of 15, she said. Among the 84 arrested, 34 had prior arrests for a violent crime or gun offense, she said.
Possible homeless solution in St. Augustine: Establish a homeless camp
"We cannot arrest our way out of this," the St. Johns County sheriff said while proposing a solution to complaints from business owners and residents.
Bauman accompanied deputies on what was going to be their first joint operation with city social workers in an attempt to speak with these individuals on the highways.
“We can't arrest our way out of these situations,” said Officer Leedroige Manuel. “We want to work and see what other options we can bring to the table, other things we can do, collaborate with other agencies and see how we can do to address these issues on the highway.”
However, things didn’t go as planned. Despite Mayor Eric Adams making it a point to fuse law enforcement with social workers in circumstances like these, the city’s Departments of Social Services and Worker Protection did not show up for the event due to internal scheduling problems, according to CBS New York. So, law enforcement took it upon themselves to complete the project on their own.
https://thecrimereport.org/2022/06/15/why-the-white-house-backs-community-violence-intervention/
For the people who suffer most from gun violence, the problem has worsened. It’s not new. And experience has demonstrated that additional policing is not enough to stop the cycles of violence.
Even police know we can’t arrest our way out of this problem.
In many communities, including the one where I grew up, gun violence is an epidemic. In fact, my numerous personal experiences with gun violence—namely losing my own son to a shooting—are what led me to devote my career to community violence intervention (CVI), an evidence-based public safety approach that’s been around for decades, and has proven to reduce gun violence by treating it as a public health issue.
Even police know we can’t arrest our way out of this problem. (sic)
CVI is intended to serve as a complementary strategy to policing. Law enforcement is there to enforce laws. CVI practitioners are there to perform the intervention, mediation and healing required to reduce violent crime over the long term.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said during a Thursday press conference that officials can't simply "arrest" their way out of the rising gun violence that has plagued the city in recent weeks. The mayor said the city also needs to make investments in Chicago's communities to help curb the heightened rate of shootings.
It's obvious: we cannot arrest our way out of this problem," Lightfoot said during the press availability.
Police Offering Drug Recovery Help: ‘We Can’t Arrest Our Way Out Of This Problem’
In the past, Cacela might have immediately read Ligawiec her rights, “because for the longest time, the whole idea was — arrest, arrest,” he said.
Instead, he tapped on the car window and assured her she wasn’t in trouble.
One key player is Angel Garcia, a social services coordinator for the program.
"We can’t arrest our way out of crime. If we could, you know, we’d be the safest country in the world," Garcia said. "This is a new way of doing things."
Garcia said the program is actually addressing underlying root causes of why people do what they do.
Garcia said it’s going to take some time before the city sees the results they’re hoping for.
"It took Oakland two to three years to see fifty percent of their shootings to go down," Garcia said. "New Haven, Connecticut – it took four years to get drastic results. We’ve been operational one year… give us the chance, you know, to water this garden that we’re trying to plant right now."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/cities-try-to-arrest-their-way-out-of-homeless-problems
In the past, the federal government has argued against using arrests and jail to address homelessness. The U.S. Department of Justice, in a 2015 court filing, said “criminalizing homelessness is both unconstitutional and misguided public policy, leading to worse outcomes for people who are homeless and for their communities.”
Ultimately, a Designated Crisis Responder (DCR) determined the man was experiencing a mental health crisis and met the criteria to be involuntarily detained. That’s a high bar. The DCR must find that a person poses an imminent threat to themselves or others, or is gravely disabled.
But, unlike in similar cases in the past, this time the police did not agree to transport him to the hospital.
Great article. This encapsulates my frustrations moving more into this evolution of law enforcement. The arrests that need to be made are not, and the ones that are made are done out of line from reasonableness by civilians. It’s so strange...
Thank you for this! I'll be sharing.
Some police leaders in my area have started responding like this, even writing op-eds (which IMO appear forced). It does nothing to appease persistent cop critics, yet alienates civilians who value law and order.