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These are actual newspaper headlines from all over the U.S.
I’m having
trouble understanding the sheer force of my reaction; just reading those truncated
accusations cuts through me like a dull blade and makes me feel ashamed. I
didn’t do anything wrong and I didn’t know any of those cops. My
agency wasn’t the P.D. in question in any of them, so why do I have such
a visceral, gut-kicking response when read such things? It’s simple:
because I’m not alone and those cops who crossed the line aren’t
alone either. All of us who wear a badge are members of a profession that is
one of the most honorable in the nation. I have proudly worn a badge on my
chest for more than 25 years and I’ve reached a point where even when
I’m out of uniform and off duty the imprint of that badge is still there.
I take it to heart – my sworn duty to serve and protect; I’ve knelt
by the police memorial wall in Washington D.C. honoring the thousands of cops
who gave their lives in the honorable performance of that same duty.
That’s why I take those headlines personally. Those dishonored cops are
in the same fraternity – men and women alike – as those who have
fallen. That makes me both sad and angered and that’s why I have left
the street to become a trainer in my department. Armed with wisdom, street-smarts,
experience – all of us who are senior officers are in a position to stem
the tide of corruption? provided we can understand how it happens.
As a police trainer, I have studied countless volumes on the Ethics of
Law Enforcement. There’s a lot of material out there. I’ve read treatises
by doctors, professors, police chiefs and street cops. I’ve watched taped
interview after interview with former cops recounting their paths to destruction
and listened to their accounts of the unraveling of their careers, their marriages,
their lives. Despite all this, I’m left with more questions than answers.
Why did these officers make the decisions that they did?
Did their agencies fulfill their responsibilities to the public in the training
of the officer?
And finally, could anything have been done to prevent the actions of these
officers?
These are the key questions. The answers aren’t simple. Where do we
start? With accountability.
The
Three Levels Of Accountability
Accountability in law enforcement has three equally important components that
must work in synchronization with one another. First there is self-accountability.
Each police officer, from probationary officers all the way up to the head
of the agency, plays an important role within the framework of their police
organization. Think of the organization as a living organism, or body, and
the personnel within it as being synonymous with the organs, the limbs, the
circulatory system, the bones, the skin, etc. For the body to be healthy and
performing at its peak, all of its parts must be working in harmony with each
other. When even a minor body part, say like the pinky finger, is not functioning
well, it affects the functioning of the body as a whole. For example, a dislocated
pinky finger will make a hand less agile and useful, creating an inefficient
holster draw, a less rapid response, thereby weakening the entirety of the
body, or the officer, putting his or her welfare in perpetual jeopardy. Therefore,
every little thing in an organism is important; every member of an organization
is important and a factor in healthy functionality. Thus when even one officer
or agent within an agency commits a breach of trust, the whole organization
suffers.
Almost every police agency has an Internal Affairs Bureau and/or Professional
Standards Inspectors but, let’s face it, they cannot force a person to
act honestly and ethically. An individual’s actual behavior,
despite whatever oaths he or she takes to uphold, can only be determined by
that individual’s personal response/action to a given set of circumstances.
Those behavioral choices come from within the
individual and this taking responsibility for one’s actions is determined
by one’s internal set of values. This is the essence of self-accountability.
The next component is supervisory accountability.
When law enforcement officers go through the promotional process and take on
supervisory roles for the first time, there is too often not enough prepatory
training to ready them for their transition. Officers are usually promoted
based on seniority and/or field experience but such a background, no matter
how essential it is for one in a supervisory capacity, does not prepare an
officer for what he will encounter. A promoted officer, usually a sergeant,
leaves behind being “one of the guys” and that change alone is
a difficult change for many. The familiar squad room/locker room banter that
the officer once enjoyed and could participate in suddenly ceases once the
newly promoted supervisor enters the scene. Sometimes the new supervisor faces
resentment from his former peers who believe that the promotion was unearned
and occurred because of “politics” or because he or she was “a
better test taker”.
Another fact of P.D. life is that the majority of police agencies in the country
are small, with far less than 20 sworn officers, so there is too often general
knowledge of everyone’s personal lives, not to mention an in-depth knowledge
of everyone’s professional career. This familiarity can make taking a
supervisory role even more difficult and yet it is essential that the newly
promoted supervisor meet the challenge of above-reproach ethical behavior.
The scrutiny that he or she will be under is both a burden and an opportunity
to set an example. Furthermore, the supervisor becomes the second line of defense
in the battle for ethical behavior. It is he or she who is in the best position
to observe the conduct of their personnel and it is he or she who will most
likely encounter the conduct problems that arise from inexperience within the
ranks of the unguided. To not take firm and decisive action at the earliest
opportunity not only poses its own ethical conundrum but it becomes a lost
opportunity to demonstrate leadership. Supervisory intervention, by setting
clear examples of expected behavior and by correcting the transgression early
in its commission, may actually save the career of the employee down the road.
Ultimately, it is the first line supervisor who truly sets the standard for
departmental work ethic, for on duty behavior and for the treatment of the
community’s citizens.
The final aspect of accountability is administrative
accountability. Law enforcement agencies throughout the country all
have similar hierarchical structures which progress upward to eventually include
the head of the agency, most often a chief or sheriff. If the agency is small,
the administrative staff above the first line supervisors may just include
a captain or a couple of lieutenants or their equivalents. If the agency is
large, there may be a full complement of staff officers or agents who make
up “the administration”. There is no doubt that the entire “ethical
personality” of an agency is determined by the head of that organization
and, accordingly, by those who the leader has chosen to surround himself or
herself with. If, upon appointment or election, the chief or sheriff selects
men or women who are perceived as competent, fair and ethical, the entire organization,
as a body, will respect the decisions made on their behalf and will be optimistic
as to how these decisions will affect their professional, even personal, lives.
If, however, the head of the agency enjoys a less than savory reputation or
if he/she appoints or promotes “administrative bullies”, the less-than-a-leader
will surely destroy morale and set a low bar for ethical behavior for the agency’s
employees.
It is essential that administrative staff truly and decisively “walk
the walk” ethically, if not morally. If they don’t, lower ranking
personnel, when facing discipline for their transgressions, will view any punishment
as hypocritical and as having no value. They will feel unsupported and unsubstantiated.
Furthermore, it is equally important that whatever discipline is to be administrated
is done so in a manner that is Firm, Fair and Fast and that personal grudges
and past relationship issues be put aside when both conducting internal investigations
and in determining and administrating discipline. None of this is possible
if the administration is less than accountable for its actions or less than
stellar in its ethical stance.
Ultimately the question is this: what can we do as a profession to improve
the ethical demeanor of our nation’s law enforcement officers so that
we seldom, if ever, see those damning newspaper headlines again?
First, the creation of an Internal Affairs office and Professional Standards
Bureau, no matter how small the agency, is essential. Also, sending officers
in leadership positions to interdepartmental courses in law enforcement ethics
is an excellent way to bring knowledge back into the agency and encouraging
officers to continue with their outside-law-enforcement education, such as
college degree programs, is helpful in promoting a “think before you
act” ethical mentality. Many agencies, as well, now offer ethical training
as early as the academy level.
Despite these educational resources, however, we have not gone far enough.
We have not set national standards for the hiring of law enforcement personnel.
We have no national clearing house for information on those officers who have
lost their certification or jobs as a result of criminality or misconduct and
too often this leads to inappropriate rehiring. We have never established a
consistent and comprehensive training strategy that addresses ethical issues
in more than a superficial way. Before we can have true accountability in all
three levels, these are issues we must address nationally and not just as separate
agencies.
But what can we do right now? Can we, as police officers and agents, street
cops and administrators, do something that will have an immediate impact on
our chosen profession? Yes. You see, the vast majority of those of us who enter
the field of law enforcement do so out of a sense of purpose and patriotism.
We fully intend to honor our commitment to the ideals of what our badge represents.
It is that commitment that we must build on. We must create a culture
of pride.
A culture of pride is actually a simple concept. It begins with each one of
us realizing that we are important not only as individuals and as members of
a noble profession but also in how we play a vital role in the lives of others.
Once we accept that fundamental truth about ourselves, we need to look at our
colleagues and coworkers and regard them with the same respect. Ultimately,
it’s a belief in what one stands for and pride, of the healthy, expansive
sort, that keeps a person from dishonoring themselves and their profession.
What exactly is this sense of pride? It’s that same feeling one gets
at graduation from a law enforcement academy. It’s the feeling of a crisp
new uniform and a starched shirt and the weight of a shiny new badge on your
chest. It’s the feeling of an awesome responsibility coupled with a soaring
belief that we, the new officer, can meet whatever challenges we face come
hell or high water. There is no feeling like it, no greater sense of optimistic
pride. This is the feeling we all, as experienced law enforcement officers,
need to strive to recapture. We must seek to cloak ourselves in ethical pride
for it is there that we are most invulnerable to our baser instincts.
“ Too simple,” some say. “Too unrealistic,” others remark.
But why not simply believe in your profession, in yourself? You have absolutely
nothing to lose but some stress and maybe some attitude. And on an organizational
level, each of us can play a critical role in building up the pride in our agency.
From the cop on the beat taking a little extra time make sure his or her uniform
is clean and pressed to the top administrator making sure that his or her personnel
is properly equipped and provided with both technical and personal support, are
all ways to instill, foster and promote pride.
Conclusion
Realistically, in a profession that employs approximately 700,000 people, there
will be a certain number who will transgress. Human fallibility has been historically
constant throughout the centuries and this isn’t likely to change despite
our best efforts. But the field of law enforcement is quite unlike any other
profession. Within policing there have been great strides made in recent years
and this is amazing if you take into account that law enforcement is relatively
new as a profession – it’s been less than 200 years since Englishman
Robert Peel began what’s become the modern police force. Yet it will
never be enough until each and every one of us, all sworn police officers,
make every possible effort to be vigilant and innovative when it pertains to
ethical behavior. There is far too much at stake not to take this responsibility
seriously. Quite literally, our law enforcement officers hold the power of
life and liberty over our nation’s citizens. Liberties are the most important
rights that a person can possess and the sanctity of these rights must not
be tread on. Modern law enforcement, in its zeal to protect the people of our
country in the wake of the reality of terrorism, must be on guard against “noble
cause corruption” – doing the wrong thing for “good” reasons.
Administrators and supervisors must do their part and be careful not to send
out the message to our eager young officers that they must get the job done “no
matter what it takes”. Falsifying investigative documents and manufacturing
evidence in support of obtaining search warrants is a major cause of ruined
careers and lives and cannot be justified even when the goal is to take a criminal
of the streets. Such behavior, reprehensible in deed though not in thought,
is a part of the slippery slope from corruption to criminality. And, in fact,
research has shown that in many cases outrageous conduct by law enforcement
officers where termination or criminal charges resulted, much like the headlines
that began this article, were merely the conclusion of behaviors which began
innocently enough but then escalated over a period of time until simple misconduct
became egregious malfeasance. In all probability, had the less serious issues
been addressed effectively in the beginning, many scandals could have been
averted and many careers saved.
Law enforcement in the United States has never faced tougher challenges than
it does today and will continue to face in the future. The rising rates of
criminality and the threats of terrorism within our communities together with
diminishing resources and budget cuts will exert pressures never before experienced.
We must prepare ourselves physically and we must prepare ourselves mentally.
Mental preparedness means taking pride in oneself, one’s agency, and
in the noble profession of law enforcement. By doing so we, as police officers,
can prepare ourselves ethically to handle whatever challenges we face. If we
do this we will truly be “Policing With Honor”.
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