Problem Solvers: My Dream Team Could Turn Things Around

Amazing leaders could save the day, if they were given the support and freedom to do their job

Jul 20, 2024

a police car driving down a city street — Photo by Jasper Garratt on Unsplash

I met with two great law enforcement leaders the day I started this article. Encounters like that remind you what is possible. You can’t leave some of these earnest discussions without a surge of optimism about the future. In my experience, I have about twenty of the great law enforcement professionals that I personally know, who could, with barriers removed, transform cities and metros from generating inhumane violence to communities where citizens thrive without crime and the fear of crime.

True community policing

Broken windows policing has been maligned and often misinterpreted as zero-tolerance policing. The Wilson-Kelling model that has been proven successful by hundreds of thousands of black and brown survivors and their offspring, was not punitive and discriminatory. Individual communities were engaged and asked what nuisances would be tolerated and what would be focused on by the beat cops. The people got to decide what they would acceptable in their neighborhoods and who needed to face a judge. When you look at the numbers, and tremendous number of lives saved, as that this was done through constitutional policing, we need to be open to idea that with proper leadership that cities can be safer.

Proactive policing

Proactive policing is often represented as a focus on preventing crime before it occurs, both by proponents and opponents. Any officer with an effective career in law enforcement would bristle at the suggestion that it has anything to do with the ‘Minority Report’ style identification and resolution of potential future crime issues through intuition. Proactive policing, in my firsthand experience, is making intentional contact with those involved in crime and violence, and regardless of whether or not there is an arrest made, it is established who is a criminal and who is an assertive officer representing law and order on behalf of the community.

Officers, this includes all city, county deputies, and state law enforcement officers, who practice proactive policing, increase the safety of all cops, including the timid ones who present weakness or indifference to the criminal element. In doing so, communities where vulnerable populations can live in liberty, in practice and proud that their neighborhoods are not stigmatized by a reputation of crime, abundantly thrive.

Uncommitted jurisdictions

I know at least twenty law enforcement leaders who are capable, and of that group, ten people who are willing, to provide the leadership necessary to steadily reduce the demand for body bags in troubled cities. Let’s consider why they aren’t hired and not applying. Most of the true problem solvers know better than to apply for these positions where they are limited in their ability to lead. We know the cities where they won’t support courageous leaders by committing themselves to priorities opposite to public safety and supporting their police.

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photo of high-rise building — Photo by Sawyer Bengtson on Unsplash

Chicago

Let me begin by saying that I have not checked Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling’s closet looking for skeletons. I’m pleased that they promoted from within, and I expect he is worthy of my respect. Regardless, city leadership have set him up as the fall guy who must stand before the public in his uniform with stars on his epaulets and explain the hundreds of shootings and dozens of deaths during a holiday weekend.

It is so easy to point the finger of blame at the police and Snelling. Chicago should be one of the safer cities due to its restrictive local firearms laws that make it very challenging to legally purchase or possess a firearm. America’s second city is still clocking the greatest number of murders with 617 in 2023, a reduction of 13% from 2022’s 709 killings.

Paul Vallas, a former mayoral candidate lists the many obstacles that the police face but identifies lax prosecution and no-cash bail as the key factors that demoralize policing efforts. In his article in City Journal, Chicago Needs a Public Safety Act, he argues that within existing authority, the city can create a schedule of ordinances mirroring the state felony crimes that are not being adjudicated by the elected district attorney, can be tried by a city prosecutor with penalties not to exceed 364 days. Yes, crimes of a certain degree can be prosecuted in state court for five years or greater, but because that isn’t happening, cops would be able to arrest criminals with confidence of some accountability.

Los Angeles

Ten finalists are being considered for top job at the Los Angeles Police Department, the third largest municipal agency in the nation. Mayor Karen Bass will ultimately make the choice but not before she receives feedback from the community via a series of town hall meetings. The response will be the reasonable expectation of transparency and the intangible goal of community trust. Then Bass will make her selection. Candidates include former CHP Los Angeles Basin regional chief Art Acevedo, who has also served as police chief in Austin, TX, Houston, TX, Miami, FL, and most recently as interim police chief in Aurora, CO. Five other candidates have been revealed to be ranking members of the department. The remaining four candidates include former Los Angeles County Sheriff McDonnell, Robert Arcos, a past LAPD assistant chief, and two female police executives who are being kept confidential.

Given the climate of working with DA Gascón, Mayor Bass and the civilian Police Commission oversight board, it looks like there will be nine winners and one loser.

According to the Associated Press, covering Gascón’s re-election bid: “During his first term, Gascón immediately imposed his campaign agenda: not seeking the death penalty; not prosecuting juveniles as adults; ending cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies; and no longer filing enhancements triggering stiffer sentences for certain elements of crimes, repeat offenses or gang membership.”

California, of course, makes news by trying to prevent a ballot measure that would gut a portion of the ten-year-old Proposition 47. When it was passed, it was intended to address theft parameters where $300 was the demarcation line between a misdemeanor and a felony crime. Inflation adjusted from the time the law was initially passed, the value of stolen goods would be today $950. According to proponents, it was grossly unfair that crooks stealing between $300 and $949 were being charged with felonies. Following passing, criminals would brazenly use calculators on their iPhones while stealing to stay out of the felony zone. Many drug possession charges were modified to misdemeanors. The ripple effects of Prop 47 have become a humanitarian crisis stretching from the border with Mexico to the Bay Area cities with people literally dying in the streets and retailers abandoning markets due to theft and violence.

In a San Francisco Chronicle Op-Ed Emily Hoevan writes: “Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders really, really don’t want California voters to approve a November ballot measure to roll back parts of Proposition 47, the controversial 2014 initiative that reduced some theft and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. In fact, they’re so desperate to prevent the measure from succeeding that they’re willing to subvert and twist the very process they claim to revere more than anything else — democracy — to achieve their aims.”

New York

Hannah Meyers describes the failed policy cycle that affects distinct neighborhoods and communities so profoundly that they have gone from living in peace and security, to needing someone in the drugstore to unlock the toothpaste.

She explores in her article in Tablet, that the pre-existing pillars fell when “ideology about criminal justice and race has created a bizarre pact of disregard.” Her message is correct. We used to be mutually invested in letting someone’s criminal actions receive judgement, even condemning judgement. But this bizarre social contagion has turned that on its ear.

Judging anyone as bad is taboo, and while they won’t be condemned and ostracized, you will be for judging them. The negative incentive has been reversed. Her insight shows what has gone wrong in so many of these major cities. Out of fear, of being falsely called racist, we are willing to accept crime and victimhood and not say anything.

The turning tide

Recently a commentator noted the contrasting positions between the Los Angeles County District Attorney and the neighboring Orange County (California) District Attorney in their campaign messaging: “I won’t let Orange County become Los Angeles County!” Is it really that easy he mused, “…just get prosecutors to prosecute crimes?”

Leaders exist and are ready to serve but will have no home until the policies that are dooming communities cease. Until then, the problem solvers are left out in the cold.

Please keep all law enforcement officers and support staff in your prayers.