Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
February 2015
This publication was supported by the Motorola Solutions Foundation. The points of view
expressed herein are the authors’ and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the
Motorola Solutions Foundation or all Police Executive Research Forum members.
ISBN: 978-1-934485-28-6
Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................................ 1
Conclusion........................................................................................................................57
About PERF................................................................................................................................................. 61
About the Motorola Solutions Foundation............................................................................................. 63
Appendix: Participants at the PERF Summit.......................................................................................... 64
Acknowledgments
The Critical Issues in Policing Series has well as their own defining moments that tested their
produced much of PERF’s best work on the lead- leadership skills. (Later, in December 2014, Com-
ing edge of new issues facing police chiefs. In just missioner Ramsey was chosen by President Obama
the last few years, this series has produced ground- to co-chair the President’s Task Force on 21st Cen-
breaking reports on the heroin epidemic and tury Policing, along with former Assistant Attorney
marijuana legalization, the role of local police in General Laurie Robinson. The Task Force’s mission
preventing and investigating cybercrime, changes is to “identify best practices and otherwise make
in how aggressively police respond to active shooter recommendations to the President on how polic-
situations, federal civil rights investigations of local ing practices can promote effective crime reduction
police, de-escalation of police encounters with while building public trust.”)
mentally ill persons, remedies for weaknesses in Once again, I am deeply grateful to the Motor-
police handling of sexual assaults, the wide variety ola Solutions Foundation for supporting the Criti-
of new technologies in policing, and more effective cal Issues in Policing Series, and for giving PERF the
approaches to managing large political demonstra- flexibility to respond immediately to this emerging
tions and other major public events. issue. I’m grateful to Motorola Solutions Chairman
Whew! and CEO Greg Brown; to Mark Moon, Executive
But never has the Critical Issues Series taken Vice President and President of Sales and Product
on a more pressing and important issue, on very Operations; Jack Molloy, Senior Vice President for
short notice, than in the report you are holding Sales, North America; Gino Bonanotte, Executive
now. This “Defining Moments” report is about the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Robert
various experiences of police chiefs in handling Hoffman, Corporate Vice President, Government
the incidents that they consider the toughest chal- Relations; Domingo Herraiz, Vice President, North
lenges they ever faced. This report is also about a American Government Affairs; Matt Blakely, Direc-
national “defining moment” affecting police depart- tor of the Motorola Solutions Foundation; and Rick
ments nationwide—namely, the police response to Neal, retired Vice President at Motorola Solutions
demonstrations and protests following the officer- and now President of the Government Strategies
involved shooting of Michael Brown on August 9, Advisory Group, for their continued support and
2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. advice.
As I write this, more than four months after that Thanks also go to all of the police leaders who
defining moment in Ferguson, large-scale demon- participated in our Summit in Chicago, telling the
strations are continuing across the nation and stories of their defining moments and sharing their
around the world. The events in suburban St. Louis, wisdom about the lessons we all can take from the
along with more recent incidents in New York City, defining moment of Ferguson. The strength of the
Cleveland, and other locations, have raised ques- Critical Issues reports comes from the willingness
tions about public trust in the police, especially with of police chiefs and other experts to come together
regard to police use of force. and discuss the issues, and to be quoted in these
Only five weeks after the shooting in Ferguson, reports.
PERF President Chuck Ramsey covened our Criti- A number of PERF staffers also deserve rec-
cal Issues Summit in Chicago, where 180 police ognition for this report. Chief of Staff Andrea
executives discussed the implications of Ferguson as Luna and Deputy Chief of Staff Shannon Branly
Acknowledgments — 1
managed the Defining Moments project, with help report, which is one of the most significant in the
from Research Associate Sunny Schnitzer, Research Critical Issues series. Communications Coordinator
Assistants Matt Harman, Sarah Mostyn, and Chris James McGinty took the photographs, and PERF’s
Coghill and Membership Coordinator Balinda graphic designer, Dave Williams, brought his skill
Cockrell. Once again, Communications Director and attention to detail to designing this document.
Craig Fischer superbly organized and edited this
Executive Director
Police Executive Research Forum
Washington, D.C.
2 — Acknowledgments
Introduction
By Chuck Wexler
The position of police chief has always In the summer of 2014, PERF decided to hold
been a demanding job. A police chief must know a national conference to address these issues. We
how to run a complex organization, in many cases decided to name the conference “Defining Moments
a very large organization. Chiefs must have strong for Police Chiefs.” We wanted to ask leading police
leadership skills and a vision for meeting the needs officials, “In your career, what was the one criti-
of the community. And the stakes are high, because cal moment when you really felt tested? What did
police have unique power and authority over peo- you do that worked well? And looking back, is
ple. The consequences of a mistake by any member there anything you wish you could do over and do
of the organization can be catastrophic. As a result, differently?”
police departments undergo closer scrutiny than As we were planning the Defining Moments
other types of organizations. conference, the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by
Since PERF’s creation in 1976, one of our prior- a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9,
ities has been to work with police chiefs to identify and the large-scale protest marches and riots that
best practices and policies for meeting the chal- followed, brought international attention to many
lenges of the job. Our goal is to help police depart- of the issues we were addressing.
ments learn from each other about the critical issues For example, a key issue for a police department
they face. in any critical incident is how effectively it shares
And one thing we have seen is that even in a information with the public and the news media.
well-run department, a department with good poli- Traditionally, police have often held back on releas-
cies, thorough training of officers, strong leaders, ing information, believing that they should exer-
and solid management systems, things can go disas- cise caution until they are certain of all of the facts,
trously wrong at any moment. A single officer can or that they should never release information that
make a bad decision in a split-second, or a natural might be used later in a criminal case or lawsuit.
disaster or large-scale criminal incident can over- At our Defining Moments conference, police
whelm a department’s capabilities. chiefs told us they are finding that that approach
A police chief who responds well in a crisis can is no longer viable, because a narrative is created
mitigate the damage, and sometimes the storyline within a few hours of a critical incident happening,
changes as a result. Instead of focusing on the disas- and the narrative is written whether or not the police
trous incident, the community remembers how contribute any information to the story. Too much
hard the police chief and the police department damage can be done if police miss their chance to
worked to handle it. explain what happened and correct wrong informa-
Unfortunately, in other cases, a slow or ill-con- tion that can spread in the immediate aftermath of
sidered response makes the situation worse. an incident.
Introduction — 3
So today’s police leaders try to get out in front of The bulk of this document consists of quota-
the story, rather than being dragged into it against tions from police chiefs and other leaders who
their will. They provide preliminary information participated in our conference, and who offered
with a strong cautionary note that as more infor- valuable guidance about these issues.
mation becomes available, the story may very well I’d like to highlight one key issue that seems
change. Chief David Brown of Dallas talked about new to me; I haven’t heard this discussed in previ-
the importance of getting this preliminary informa- ous PERF meetings. That is the question of whether
tion out in the first news cycle. we need police officers to take on a fundamentally
Another critical aspect of “defining moments” different role than they have had in the past.
for police chiefs is whether they have a reservoir One central theme that grew out of the confer-
of trust in the community that can help everyone ence was the importance of developing a culture of
to get through the difficult situation. Police chiefs policing that recognizes when officers should step
must develop personal relationships with com- in and when they should step back from encounters
munity leaders and people from all parts of their with the public. For example, in active shooter situ-
jurisdiction, well before any incident takes place. ations, we now expect officers to make split-second,
The work of building these relationships of mutual life-or-death decisions when lives hang in the bal-
respect must be done constantly, and especially dur- ance. (This goes against the pre-Columbine think-
ing “non-crisis” times. A critical incident is not the ing, when officers were taught not to rush in but to
time to hold your first meeting with community assess the situation and get additional help.)
leaders. On the other hand, when the stakes are not high,
Many police chiefs believe that the Ferguson when police are dealing with a relatively minor situ-
incident was a defining moment for the entire ation, we want police officers to recognize that step-
policing profession. As PERF President and Phila- ping back from a contentious encounter and getting
delphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said assistance from other officers is a sign of strength,
at PERF’s Defining Moments conference, “All of not weakness. In these situations, slowing down the
us have been in this business for a while, and we encounter and using de-escalation and crisis inter-
all have had incidents that fundamentally changed vention skills can help prevent a relatively minor
how we think about things. And sometimes there incident from cascading into a bad result that no
are incidents that occur outside our own jurisdic- one expected or wanted.
tions that affect all of us.” So there are times when we expect police to
At the request of PERF’s Board of Directors, “step up,” and times when we expect them to “step
we extended the Defining Moments conference back,” and knowing the difference may be as impor-
from one day to two days, in order to include a tant a lesson as we can teach officers.
full discussion of the Ferguson incident, while I believe you will find these discussions use-
maintaining our original plans to discuss a wide ful and interesting. The final chapter of this report
range of other defining moments. summarizes the lessons we learned in this project.
4 — Introduction
Ferguson, Missouri:
A National “Defining Moment”
for Policing
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEuZiTcbGCg
Wexler: Do you think Ferguson will change So on the ninth day after I was sworn in as
your standard? police chief I had this video dropped on my desk.
Holley was part of a group of prolific burglars who
Chief Dyer: I don’t believe we have a choice had broken into 20 or 30 homes. One of our tac-
because of what the California law is. However, I tical teams had been conducting surveillance for a
think it’s going to cause police chiefs to think twice
couple of weeks trying to catch these individuals.
about what they do. I think Ferguson has changed
These officers caught the group of kids as they fled
policing forever. Quite frankly, I think we all are
a burglary, and they decided to extract a little street
going to live with some of the things that occurred
justice, in my opinion.
there for many years.
Wexler: So this videotape is dropped on your
Houston Chief Charles McClelland: desk? What did you do?
right:
New York Chief of
Patrol James O’Neill
far right:
Cincinnati Chief
Jeffrey Blackwell
far left:
Sparks, NV Chief
Brian Allen
left:
Boston Police
Commissioner
William Evans
Wexler: And what happens if the history shows difference between “could” and “should.”
that the officer has a long record of complaints or
uses of force? Commissioner Ramsey: Terry Gainer and I
were there at the time and we had this discussion.
Commissioner Ramsey: Well, you know we That was a big part of our training: “Just because
have officers who work in high-crime areas, and you can doesn’t mean you should.” In other words,
they may have more complaints because their job is you may be legally justified technically, but is a situ-
more intensive than in a low-crime neighborhood. ation at a point where you have to use deadly force?
I think we need to carefully evaluate things like hav- And I have been in a couple of these situations,
ing a use-of-force review board, to make sure we and they evolve fairly rapidly. At a given moment
don’t have people out there who are unnecessarily in time, deadly force can be a legitimate option, but
resorting to deadly force. And rather than making two seconds, five seconds later, maybe not.
this a judgment about whether or not there is a big And so I think we need to spend more time with
outcry from the community, I think we have to look scenario-based training and training our officers on
at it closely ourselves. what is appropriate. And it’s not just from the stand-
I also think that we fall short in training offi- point of the department and the controversy it cre-
cers to tactically retreat in some situations. Many ates. You’ve got to live with this yourself afterwards,
cops don’t feel like they can ever have a tactical and taking a life is not an easy thing.
retreat; they have to meet everything head-on. So I think we need to really focus more on the
training and also have very objective reviews of
But sometimes stepping back is the better option
these shootings and call them as they are. Not every
that you have available to you.
police shooting is a justifiable shooting. That’s just
So I think we need to look at our training as
the fact. Yet the reality is: How many are actually
well as our policies to make sure we keep our offi-
judged that way?
cers safe, but at the same time recognize the sanc-
tity of life and the fact that taking a human life
must always be the last resort. Minneapolis Chief Janeé Harteau:
Wexler: What about the officer that was seen on Austin, TX Chief Art Acevedo:
top of a truck with a rifle and scope? Keep Explaining What You Are Doing,
Chief Fitch: Basically he was using the scope as So the Community Will Not Misunderstand It
binoculars looking into the crowd. They had a lot of I think that ongoing situation reports to the media
intelligence information about armed people buried can help, where you explain your tactics and exactly
in the crowd, mixing with the peaceful protestors, what you are going to do. I remember when Occupy
and so they were looking out over the crowd. And I hit Austin, and we had about 4,000 people on the
think most of us will agree that did look bad. first day, which for us was a big crowd. And we had
Chief Jon Belmar: I was standing on West Flo- SWAT guys with binoculars serving as spotters, to
rissant in Ferguson when I looked up at the BearCat avoid a situation where an anarchist gets in the mid-
and saw I had a sniper up there glassing, and I said, dle of a peaceful group and starts throwing things.
“What’s he doing up there on the top of the truck People were angry and thought our SWAT
glassing these guys?” So they checked and the offi- officers were soldiers, so we explained that what
cer said there was a guy out there with a gun. I asked we were trying to do was avoid having to use tear
if the guy with a gun was still out there, and the offi- gas. I think my takeaway was that if we can give
cer said no, that he had disappeared into the crowd. that explanation on a regular basis every couple
So I said, “Take the rifle down, put the binoculars of hours, it helps people to understand what’s
up.” happening.
It’s also important that we clarify that police Elk Grove, CA Chief Robert Lehner:
departments are paramilitary entities and how this The More We Look Like Soldiers,
enables us to keep the peace even as we work to The More We Will Be Criticized
address issues of crime and disorder. While it is true
that we use tools and tactics similar to those used This debate that’s going on about “militarization” of
by the military, where we should rightly focus our policing is not about equipment, it’s about appear-
attention and concerns is on the mis-deployments ance. It isn’t just the fact that you are marching in a
or misuse of those tools and tactics; that’s where the line down the road carrying weaponry. We have to
true issues and concerns rest. understand that we are not talking about tactics, but
about how all this looks.
I have to say that I found those military-like
If you’re an urban police department and your
tools and tactics to be quite valuable for us last year
purpose is camouflage, you probably ought to be
as we resolved a spree shooting in which the suspect
wearing business suits, not jungle camouflage. If
killed five people before he was killed by respond-
our purpose is to have clothing that is comfortable
ing officers. Mass shootings, like ours, the one at
and that will protect us and will allow us to hang
Sandy Hook Elementary, and a myriad of others, all sorts of equipment on our belt, why not have a
absolutely demonstrate the need for the police to be police-specific tactical uniform that is recognized as
properly equipped. civilian police uniform?
The more we look like soldiers, the more we will
Nassau County, NY Chief Thomas Krumpter: get this criticism, especially in certain communities.
We Can’t Ignore How the Public Perceives
Our Military-Style Equipment and Weapons Cincinnati Chief Jeffrey Blackwell:
There have been people talking about militariza- It’s Not Only What We Do,
tion of police for 10 to 15 years, but with Ferguson It’s How We Look Doing It
it seems to have gained a lot of momentum. We’ve I agree wholeheartedly with Chief Lehner. It’s not
all had to face these questions like “What do you only what we do, what our departments do, it’s
use this equipment for? Why do you have it?” We how we look doing it. And so when you wear black
have a lot of heavy equipment and weapons, and gloves in July, and you have that aggressive stance
going forward, I think the question we have to focus and those dark glasses on and there is a MRAP
on is how we use that equipment. We can’t ignore behind you with a sniper on the roof, and then you
the missteps and the impressions we leave with the are talking about engaging the community in dia-
public. logue, it just doesn’t make sense.
Wexler: But we’re hearing that Ferguson did not I know this is a controversial area to wade into.
Our returning veterans need to be given the medi-
have surplus military equipment.
cal and the psychological care they deserve for serv-
Darrel Stephens: It looks like military equip- ing our country, and the education and job skills
ment and it’s portrayed in the media as military training to work in the field of their choice. Maybe
equipment, so people accept that. That’s the educa- we shouldn’t be shoehorning veterans into public
tional process we have to go through. safety jobs. Police chiefs have been getting the mes-
sage, whether it’s through the Vets to Cops hiring
Chief Jon Belmar: The other thing that I think is program or state agencies that guide them on their
notable, and we shouldn’t lose sight of it, is that I can recruitment and hiring, to militarize their ranks. So
show you pictures of bullet marks on our BearCats. I question whether an absolute veterans’ preference
There were people inside of those at the time. allows us to achieve the right mix in the people we
2. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/21/us/ferguson-poll.html
hire, and how that militarization of our ranks affects assignments; instead, they were in the Class A uni-
decisions regarding the procurement and deploy- forms they share with patrol officers.
ment of the surplus gear, as we’ve discussed today. Our partnerships and communication with
protest leaders on the front end allowed us to accu-
rately predict the number of demonstrators who
Raleigh, NC Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown: were going to elect to be arrested each Monday
Working with “Moral Mondays” Protest Leaders night from the overall group. There were occasions
Helped Us Manage Demonstrations Peacefully in which a small segment of the crowd was vocal
in terms of trying to confront law enforcement offi-
The North Carolina NAACP is the largest of the
cers; however, Rev. William Barber, the head of the
organization’s Southern chapters, and for the past NAACP chapter and leader of the protests, very
two years it led “Moral Mondays” protests, which quickly and publicly said, “This is not about law
sort of followed on the heels of the Occupy move- enforcement; they are our partners.” That message
ment.3 During 2014, thousands of Moral Mondays resounded throughout the protest community as a
demonstrators gathered at various locations in whole, and it made a huge positive difference in our
North Carolina on a weekly basis to speak out con- city’s ability to peacefully manage these protests.
cerning a variety of social and political issues. Many
of those demonstrations took place at the Legisla-
Milwaukee Chief Edward A. Flynn:
tive Building in Raleigh, and more than 1,000 peo-
ple were arrested there without incident. Congress Defunded Community Policing
The volume of arrests made it impossible for the And Pushed Military Equipment, and Now
General Assembly’s small police force to handle the Is “Shocked” that
situations on its own, and assistance was provided Police Have Military Equipment
by members of the Raleigh Police Department’s I was the Secretary of Public Safety in Massachu-
tactical teams. Our SWAT officers did not wear setts back in 2003, when all the money started
BDU [battle dress utility] uniforms during these going to Homeland Security. Part of that job was
3. http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/24/2985465_first-wave-of-moral-monday-protesters.html?rh=1
Fargo, ND Chief
Keith Ternes
4. See, for example, An Integrated Approach to De-Escalation and Minimizing Use of Force. 2012. http://www.policeforum.org/
assets/docs/Critical_Issues_Series/an%20integrated%20approach%20to%20de-escalation%20and%20minimizing%20use%20
of%20force%202012.pdf
Chief Blair offered his perspective This young man was clearly
on the July 2013 fatal shooting of in emotional disturbance. There
Sammy Yatim by Toronto police. was a strong indication he was
Yatim had been behaving strangely suffering from mental illness, and
on a streetcar and had threatened it turned out he was also high on
passengers with a knife, but the drugs, which wasn’t known to the
passengers had escaped and Yatim police when they arrived.
was alone on the bus when he was The first officer on the
approached and shot eight times by scene was standing in front of
a Toronto officer. the streetcar, engaged with the
fellow. The streetcar doors were
We often take a very legalistic open, but everybody was off the
approach to these incidents where streetcar except the man with the
a police officer takes the life of knife. After just a few moments
an individual, particularly when of verbal interaction between
it involves a person in crisis, somebody suffering them, the officer fired three times, and the young
from a mental illness. man dropped to the ground. After a pause of six
I can’t tell you the number of reports that I seconds, the officer fired six more rounds into the
have received over the years that said a use of individual as he was lying there.
force was “justified under the circumstances,” but I received a phone call about 15 minutes after
which didn’t review the circumstances that led to this event took place from my duty officer, saying,
the use of force. “Chief, we’ve just shot a guy.” And when I asked
I believe that our training of officers should what happened, he said, “The best way for me to
bring not just the legal element, but a moral describe it is just to tell you to go on YouTube now
element, to the decision to use deadly force. We and watch it.”
have had discussions about this moral element, There were 17 individuals who had held up
and it has helped to produce some significant their cell phones and videotaped the incident.
improvements in our organization, because now There were four cameras on the streetcar, and one
our officers look to see if there is an opportunity to on a building, so we had 22 video recordings of
disengage, to deescalate, to step back. this event.5
In active shooter situations, our officers The shooting was highly questionable. The
immediately go to the location of the shooting first three rounds I think we could have discussed
because we have a duty to preserve life. We’re from a legal standpoint, but not the six rounds that
making a choice: If you don’t go in, more people followed.
are going to lose their lives, so you go in. And so we had a very quickly evolving crisis.
But most of these use-of-force situations don’t As Chief McClelland and Chief Brown said, you
involve those circumstances where you need to have the news cycle, and you have to respond
rush in, or else more people will lose their lives. quickly. This was a national and international
We had an incident last summer. A young man, incident. The video was compelling, and there
18 years old, was on one of our streetcars, and was lots of it. In the previous 18 months, we had
he had a knife in his hand. He had threatened the shot and killed three other mentally ill people
people on the streetcar, and all of them had run with edge weapons. In all of those cases there
off. was video of the event, and there was a great
6. “Police Encounters with People in Crisis: An Independent Review Conducted by the Honourable Frank Iacobucci for Chief of Police William
Blair, Toronto Police Service.” July 2014. http://www.tpsreview.ca/
After the discussion of the implications But it was not something I spent a lot of time think-
of Ferguson for policing, participants at PERF’s ing about.
meeting in Chicago told stories about their own So when I was put in charge of the CAPS pro-
individual “defining moments” as police chiefs, and gram, I had to get up to speed quickly. And I had
the lessons that they took from these moments. my concerns and doubts as to whether or not it was
The defining moments were in three gen- a viable strategy in a city like Chicago, which had
eral categories: engaging the community; internal significant crime problems and gang issues.
issues, such as working with police union leaders; We put together a community policing strategy,
and working with the news media. and we made a mistake at first in being a little too
philosophical in terms of how we were training our
police officers to do community policing. After one
Engaging the Community of our training sessions, an officer came up and said,
“Hey, this is nice and all that. But why don’t you try
just telling us what you want us to do?”
Philadelphia Commissioner Chuck Ramsey: And I thought that was a good point, so from
“Warrior” vs. “Guardian”— then on, we focused exactly on how an officer’s day
Defining What We Want from Officers would be different after community policing was
implemented.
Commissioner Ramsey began his policing career in
Believe it or not, we had an easier “sell” with
Chicago, where he was instrumental in designing and
older officers than with younger officers. Older offi-
implementing the Chicago Alternative Policing Strat-
cers had come on the job at a time when we still
egy (CAPS), which became a national model of com-
engaged in foot patrol. We had “beat integrity,” as
munity policing.
we called it, where you had to stay on your assigned
When we started implementing community beat. As a consequence, officers got to know people.
policing in Chicago, we were way behind the curve. You worked the same area every day, and sometimes
A lot of cities had already made significant prog- that beat was only two blocks by four blocks—a very
ress. I was one of those officers coming up who had small area. So you couldn’t help but get to know the
always worked in operational units, where your community.
activity was measured by indicators like the number The bottom line is that community policing has
of arrests you made. So I didn’t have a lot of expo- to happen at the ground level. It is not about the
sure to community policing and relationship-build- chief and the deputies and the bosses understand-
ing. I always believed in treating people respectfully, ing what it’s all about; it’s about how the officers do
and I was taught that way when I came on the job. their jobs.
8. Lamberth Consulting. “Traffic Stop Data Analysis Project: The City of Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.” September
2013. http://media.mlive.com/kzgazette_impact/other/KDPS%20Racial%20Profiling%20Study.pdf
Tallahassee Chief
Michael DeLeo
Camden County, NJ
Chief Scott Thomson
Nashville Chief
Steve Anderson
Following is a summary of the lessons as soon as the officer has had time to tell his family
that emerged from the stories told by police chiefs about the incident. Some police executives said the
at PERF’s Defining Moments Summit: decision is not difficult, because usually the name
of the officer is quickly leaked to the news media in
any case. Some agencies said they are careful about
releasing a name if credible threats have been made
Lessons for American policing against the officer. Others said that if measures can
from the events in Ferguson be taken to protect the officer and his or her fam-
ily, there is a public interest in releasing information
Try to release information as quickly as possible: sooner rather than later.
If a police department is not part of the narrative
that is written by traditional news media and social Build strong relationships with community
media in the first hours and days of a critical event, leaders during non-crisis times: A crisis can erupt
it will lose the opportunity to present its perspec- at any time. The police response will benefit immea-
tive on the story, and probably will never regain that surably if police leaders and officers have a strong
opportunity. relationship of trust with the communities they
As a police executive, you often will receive serve. If a critical incident casts doubt on a police
advice from lawyers in your department or local department’s credibility, it will help if there are
government to be cautious and release informa- community leaders who have met and worked with
tion only when necessary. This advice is designed to police officials, and who thus have a basis for know-
minimize legal risks, but it often does not account ing what to expect from the police and whether they
for the damage that can be done to police-commu- can trust what they are told. These relationships
nity relationships if police do not answer questions must be built on an everyday basis.
during a crisis.
“Militarization” of the police: A distinction
Releasing an officer’s name: When there is a can be made between police equipment that is actu-
controversial officer-involved shooting, commu- ally surplus gear from the Department of Defense,
nity members and the news media often want to and equipment that merely has a military-like
know the identity of the officer, because they want appearance. This includes vehicles, weapons, officer
to know if the officer has any history of prior uses clothing, and other equipment.
of deadly force, citizen complaints, or other issues. However, the distinction between “military”
Police agencies have different policies and practices and “military-like” matters little if community
on releasing officers’ names. Some chiefs reported members believe that their police department is too
having a strong tradition of releasing officers’ names militaristic in appearance.
Conclusion — 57
A number of police chiefs noted that police strategies. When there is a controversial use of force
agencies have a legitimate need for certain types of by police, the incident is typically reviewed in terms
heavy equipment that can be critically important of whether the officer’s conduct was “justified by
in responding to natural disasters, terrorist acts, or the circumstances.” But a number of police lead-
large-scale criminal incidents. What is important, ers are saying that the inquiry should also include
several chiefs said, is how the equipment is used, a review of whether the officer missed opportuni-
and whether there is an appearance that heavy ties to de-escalate or disengage from the incident
equipment is used appropriately. Police agencies before it reached the point where a use of force was
should have policy guidelines defining the circum- justifiable.
stances under which various types of equipment Police officers traditionally have been trained
can be used. never to back down from a confrontation, but
police leaders increasingly are seeing a need to train
De-escalation of incidents and knowing when officers to recognize that sometimes, it is safer for
to disengage: Many police have worked for decades everyone if the officer steps back. In some minor
on policies and training of officers to reduce the cases, the officer may completely disengage and do
use of force, deploy less-lethal force options, and nothing more. In other cases, the officer may decide
de-escalate encounters with persons who behave that further action at a later time is a better option.
erratically and dangerously because of mental ill- For example, in the case of a suspect whose iden-
ness, mental disabilities, or drug abuse. tity is known to police, if the person flees from a
PERF has published a number of reports in confrontation and is not considered a threat, police
recent years outlining strategies for reducing use of can consider whether to arrest the person later at
force, including the following:9 his home, rather than engaging in a potentially dan-
gerous pursuit.
• An Integrated Approach to De-Escalation and Or if a group of suspects at a scene all flee at
Minimizing Use of Force once but at least one is apprehended, in some cases it
may not be necessary to pursue the others, because
• 2011 Electronic Control Weapon Guidelines
the suspect in custody can be questioned about the
• Civil Rights Investigations of Local Police: Lessons others’ identities.
Learned “Reality-based” or “scenario” training exercises
that involve role playing by officers in dynamic
• Comparing Safety Outcomes in Police Use-of- situations are effective in teaching officers about
Force Cases for Law Enforcement Agencies that de-escalation skills and making decisions about
Have Deployed Conducted Energy Devices and whether to remain in a situation, disengage from a
a Matched Comparison Group that Have Not: A minor confrontation, or defer action for a later time.
Quasi-Experimental Evaluation
• Strategies for Resolving Conflict and Minimizing Learning from incidents is not “second-guess-
Use of Force ing”: In the aftermath of a controversial shooting
by an officer, it is not unusual to hear police say,
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection Use of Force “The officer had to make a split-second decision; we
Review: Cases and Policies shouldn’t second-guess that decision.” And it is true
that police often must respond quickly to complex
At the Defining Moments Summit, a number situations. However, it is not “second-guessing” to
of chiefs discussed a relatively new concept: eval- learn from tragic incidents in order to prevent the
uating officers’ conduct in terms of de-escalation next incident from happening. This is how police
58 — Conclusion
departments learn, develop new policies and tac- Soliciting input from the public results in a
tics, and take lessons from each other. community that supports the police: Police who
listen and respond to what the community wants,
and who solicit public opinions about issues such as
Lessons from Police Chiefs’ whether to deploy a new technology, tend to enjoy
greater support from the community than agencies
“Defining Moments” with an autocratic approach.
Conclusion — 59
Be careful not to shade the truth for different media, such as Facebook and Twitter, for some time.
audiences: A number of chiefs said that as they take Social media offer police agencies opportunities to
on various issues with employees, it is important to disseminate information efficiently to community
speak honestly and to say the same thing regard- members or anyone else who has an interest in the
less of the audience. Not everyone will agree with police. In fact, even the traditional news media
the chief all the time, but it becomes impossible to now receive a great deal of their information about
move forward if people think they can’t trust what the police from the police agencies’ social media
the chief says. platforms.
It is a good idea for all police departments to
Try to ensure that reforms will outlast your develop a familiarity with social media, because
tenure as chief: It is not enough to implement better the public increasingly looks to social media for
policies and practices; a chief also needs to develop timely information in the midst of a natural disas-
support for the policies so they will remain in effect ter or other major crisis or incident. Twitter is often
after the chief leaves the department. The best chiefs the preferred medium for police departments and
devote attention to developing the next generation other organizations to disseminate minute-by-min-
of leaders. And employees are more likely to sup- ute updates about an unfolding situation, such as a
port reforms and better practices if they feel that major demonstration, a natural disaster, or an active
there is “procedural justice” for employees within shooter situation. Thousands of people who are
the department; i.e, if they believe they are treated interested in the situation simply monitor the police
fairly and even-handedly and are given opportuni- department’s tweets and easily obtain the continu-
ties to voice their concerns, and that their views are ous updates with no delay. This can be much more
given real consideration by the department’s man- efficient than trying to disseminate information via
agers and leaders. radio or television news operations.
Some police departments with the most active
social media programs have hundreds of thousands
The News Media and Social Media of followers. Thus, social media can serve as a sig-
Avoid getting into disputes with the media: There nificant channel for police to share information.
is broad consensus that even when police chiefs Police departments increasingly are develop-
believe that one or more news media outlets are ing multiple social media accounts, such as separate
unfairly critical or factually incorrect in their sto- Facebook or Twitter accounts for the chief of police,
ries, it is pointless to stonewall or ignore the media. for precinct commanders, for the public informa-
No one can “control” the media, but chiefs who tion office, and other units. In this way, information
actively engage the media can usually achieve some can be tailored to subgroups, such as residents of a
success in getting their views included in stories. certain neighborhood.
As a general rule, young people seem to be
Make yourself available to news media report- more likely than older generations to be familiar
ers: Many police chiefs report that they share their with social media, so some police departments are
cell phone numbers with reporters. Local televi- seeking assistance from local university students as
sion news programs and newspapers often are glad they expand their presence on social media.
to invite police chiefs to their studios or offices for The flow of information goes in both direc-
exclusive interviews. tions. During times of crisis as well as on an every-
day basis, police can learn a lot by following the
Social media are changing the entire land- postings of journalists, community leaders, elected
scape: Most police departments in medium-size officials, and others on Twitter, Facebook, and other
and large cities have been experimenting with social social media.
60 — Conclusion
About the Police Executive
Research Forum
The Police Executive Research Forum • Social Media and Tactical Considerations for Law
(PERF) is an independent research organization Enforcement (2013)
that focuses on critical issues in policing. Since its • Compstat: Its Origins, Evolution, and Future in
founding in 1976, PERF has identified best practices Law Enforcement Agencies (2013)
on fundamental issues such as reducing police use • Civil Rights Investigations of Local Police: Lessons
of force; developing community policing and prob- Learned (2013)
lem-oriented policing; using technologies to deliver • A National Survey of Eyewitness Identification
police services to the community; and developing Procedures in Law Enforcement Agencies (2013)
and assessing crime reduction strategies. • An Integrated Approach to De-Escalation and
PERF strives to advance professionalism in Minimizing Use of Force (2012)
policing and to improve the delivery of police ser- • Improving the Police Response to Sexual Assault
vices through the exercise of strong national lead- (2012)
ership; public debate of police and criminal justice • How Are Innovations in Technology Transforming
issues; and research and policy development. Policing? (2012)
The nature of PERF’s work can be seen in the • Voices from Across the Country: Local Law
titles of a sample of PERF’s reports over the last Enforcement Officials Discuss the Challenges of
decade. Most PERF reports are available with- Immigration Enforcement (2012)
out charge online at http://www.policeforum.org/ • 2011 Electronic Control Weapon Guidelines (2011)
free-online-documents.
• Managing Major Events: Best Practices from the
• Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Program: Field (2011)
Recommendations and Lessons Learned (2014) • It’s More Complex than You Think: A Chief ’s Guide
• Local Police Perspectives on State Immigration to DNA (2010)
Policies (2014) • Guns and Crime: Breaking New Ground By Focus-
• New Challenges for Police: A Heroin Epidemic and ing on the Local Impact (2010)
Changing Attitudes Toward Marijuana (2014) • Gang Violence: The Police Role in Developing
• The Role of Local Law Enforcement Agencies in Community-Wide Solutions (2010)
Preventing and Investigating Cybercrime (2014) • The Stop Snitching Phenomenon: Breaking the
• The Police Response to Active Shooter Incidents Code of Silence (2009)
(2014) • Violent Crime in America: What We Know About
• Future Trends in Policing (2014) Hot Spots Enforcement (2008)
• Legitimacy and Procedural Justice: A New Element • Promoting Effective Homicide Investigations
of Police Leadership (2014) (2007)
Motorola Solutions is a leading provider The Motorola Solutions Foundation is the char-
of mission-critical communication products and itable and philanthropic arm of Motorola Solutions.
services for enterprise and government customers. With employees located around the globe, Motorola
Through leading-edge innovation and communica- Solutions seeks to benefit the communities where
tions technology, it is a global leader that enables it operates. We achieve this by making strategic
its customers to be their best in the moments that grants, forging strong community partnerships, and
matter. fostering innovation. The Motorola Solutions Foun-
Motorola Solutions serves both enterprise and dation focuses its funding on public safety, disaster
government customers with core markets in public relief, employee programs and education, espe-
safety government agencies and commercial enter- cially science, technology, engineering and math
prises. Our leadership in these areas includes public programming.
safety communications from infrastructure to appli- Motorola Solutions is a company of engineers
cations and devices such as radios as well as task and scientists, with employees who are eager to
specific mobile computing devices for enterprises. encourage the next generation of inventors. Hun-
We produce advanced data capture devices such as dreds of employees volunteer as robotics club
barcode scanners and RFID (radio-frequency iden- mentors, science fair judges and math tutors. Our
tification) products for business. We make profes- “Innovators” employee volunteer program pairs a
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of markets, and we also bring unlicensed wireless profits receiving Innovation Generation grants, pro-
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Chief Art Acevedo Lieutenant John Blake Deputy Chief Eric Carter
AUSTIN, TX POLICE DEPARTMENT ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT
Chief Michael Anderson Lieutenant David Bowen Deputy Chief Ann Clancey
METROPOLITAN NASHVILLE GREENVILLE, NC POLICE DEPARTMENT DULUTH, MN POLICE DEPARTMENT
POLICE DEPARTMENT
Policy Analyst Melissa Bradley Chief Demitrous Cook
Captain Anthony Ashy COPS OFFICE, U.S. DEPT. OF JUSTICE GLENWOOD, IL POLICE DEPARTMENT
LAFAYETTE PARISH, LA SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Chief David Brown Deputy Chief Brendan Cox
Major Paul Baggett DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT ALBANY, NY POLICE DEPARTMENT
POLK COUNTY, FL SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Deputy Police Chief Program Director
First Assistant General Counsel Allwyn Brown Elycia Daniel-Roberson
William Bazarek RICHMOND, CA POLICE DEPARTMENT TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT
Lieutenant Joe Browning Commissioner Ed Davis (Retired)
Chief Jon Belmar GREENVILLE, SC POLICE DEPARTMENT BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
Chief Jarrod Burguan Deputy Chief Pamela Davis
Chief Brian Benton SAN BERNARDINO, CA ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD
JOLIET, IL POLICE DEPARTMENT POLICE DEPARTMENT POLICE DEPARTMENT
Chief Jeffrey Blackwell Deputy Chief Keith Calloway Director Ronald Davis
CINCINNATI POLICE DEPARTMENT CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT COPS OFFICE, U.S. DEPT. OF JUSTICE
Titles reflect participants’ positions at the time of the meeting in September 2014.