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POLICING THEN AND NOW, SOME REASONS THAT CURRENT POLICING IS OFF THE TRACKS by Calvin Lawrence

Society

There is a different mind set today among our young police recruits.

I will take you back to the days of the TV programs of Dragnet and Adam 12 where the police officers were depicted as showing respect to the public and their supervisors. But then along came the Dirty Harry and Die Hard movies where Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis were the lone cops who made up their own rules and the police officers who went by the rules were portrayed as stupid and out of touch with reality. These types of portrayals found their way into the TV police programs as well. There was a program on the A&E network featuring the renowned martial artist Steven Segal. People didn't watch the program to see him talk to people. They wanted to see him use his fighting skills on the public.

A number of police recruits have no idea what police officers do. They watch these programs and say, “I want to be a cop!” They emulate what they see on TV and in the movies.


Youth plugged in

Youth today are plugged into ipods, cell phones, and computers. They have no idea how to talk to people. People are frequently afraid and angry therefore the police may sometimes have to be able to think for them. In policing, the goal should be to obtain voluntary compliance through positive verbal intervention (VCTVI). Force may have to be used but if the police officer is not seeking VCTVI in the officer/violator contact, the question; “why not?” has to be asked. We expect recruits to be able to talk to people. As I stated, some of these citizens, given their experience or what they have heard of red are frightened and angry. That makes the communication even more difficult and police officers need to be aware of that.


Police Force vs. Police Service

In most of my time in policing, the police agencies were referred to as Police Forces. We had to have on our official police cap, we wore a tie, we did not wear sun glasses except when absolutely necessary. We were clean shaven except for a neatly trimmed mustache. Our sideburns could not go below our ear lobes. We did not wear soft body armor. We did

not wear gloves except when it was cold. We wore pants and police boots. Now the dress of the day is baseball caps, beards, sideburns, sunglasses sometime worn on their foreheads, turtle necks, combat pants, boots and tattoos on all their arms like the image of a biker.

I am well aware that equipment such as vests and gloves are at times required to save police officer’s lives and those of others. But they have become almost ubiquitous, and they are their own barriers. Nevertheless, because of these dress barriers police offices must learn how to communicate more effectively.

Our society cannot deny that our police organizations have become military camps with very little regard or empathy towards the public. Do they look and act like a service?


The Supervisor

Supervisors today are becoming victims of the examples that I just gave. They cannot communicate well to the police that they supervise or to the public. Most of us as new police officers had that crusty old Sgt. to keep us in line when we became power hungry or spoke to the public in a negative manner. Police officers now are supervised by computers in their police vehicles. The supervisors are more concerned with further promotions than mentoring the police officers that they are tasked with supervising.


RCMP Training

I spent five years as instructor/facilitator at RCMP Depot Division, Regina Sask. There was a tradition that the troops upon graduating would design a "T" shirt and wear it to their graduation demonstrations. The "T" shirt was mounted and framed in the Cadet’s Stand Easy Lounge as well. I observed T shirts that depicted Buffalo with an RCMP member mounted on its back breaking down a brick wall; a Mountie sitting on a horse holding his gun with the caption “Unforgiven”. What was the message here? I encouraged my troop to create different messages and they did. Their "T" shirt stated:

“Only the Hard Can Afford the Luxury of Appearing Soft.”


General Barriers to Effective Verbal

· Communication by Police officers

Police presence in populated cities and business areas were symbolized by the police officer walking the beat. That police officer came in contact with the public in a non-conflict environment and they communicated. That is what they call “Restorative Justice” today.

· Beat cops did Restorative Justice right on the spot

This in itself was a teaching tool. The beat approach is not always possible due to rural environments. But police officers can get out of the car and talk to people. Some police

officers engaged with the communities by coaching sports. But there are environments where it is possible to walk the beat.

· Efficiency is not always effective.

In the name of efficiency and cost cutting the police officer on the beat has been replaced with store front offices, cameras on lamp posts, police officers on bicycles or roller blades, and in vehicles.

In major airports the contact with the public involves security guards rather than police officers. This can sometimes be a problem. The general erosion of the police officer talking to the public has contributed to the inability by the police officer to communicate.

We as a society can pay the extra cost of police officers on the beat now or we can pay the cost in inquires, financial settlements, and lack of trust and credibility, later.


Conclusion

In my experience, approximately ninety-seven percent of what police officers do is talk to people. Even if force is used, once the person is under physical control the police officer must revert back to verbal communication to avoid excessive use of force. We spend very little time teaching recruits how to effectively talk to difficult, scared, and angry people.

In 2021 we have the best equipped, educated, and trained recruits that we can find. What’s going wrong?

I suggest that while the issue is complex and there are other issues, the ones addressed in this article are part of the problem.

_____________________________________________

Calvin Lawrence is a retired Police officer with 36 years experience. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario and is the author of, “Black Cop: My 36 years in police work, and my career ending experiences with official racism”. Lorimer 2019

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