If you are not a police officer but got nosy and clicked on this article, go away. Just kidding. You can stay. Just realize this message is for all the law enforcement officers in this great United States of America.
For those of you who have served your jurisdictions honorably through the tragic killing of George Floyd by the hand of Derek Chavin, through the subsequent outrage and protests in your cities, counties and states, through certain organizations calling for the eradication of your positions, through general distrust of society fostered by liberal media, and you are still holding strong to your oath to serve and protect, you have earned my deepest respect. I cannot fathom the enormous pressure these times have placed on you and your families. I hope it helps a bit that you have this old man rooting and praying for you.
God impressed upon me in 2019 that it was time for me to retire. I could have never imagined the cluster and difficulties I would have faced with you but avoided. Was it because God knew I wouldn’t handle it as well as you? I don’t know. But you’re still here. You haven’t given up. I salute you.
I have read somewhere that over 1500 New York City Police Officers have either resigned or retired this year alone. The recruits to replace them are only in the double digits. You are most likely experiencing shortages in your jurisdiction as well. You may have had to work longer hours and have taken on more responsibilities to help plug in the holes left by those who are no longer on the force. Let me say there is no dishonor or bad will to those who have left. At the end of the day, you have to look after you and yours. For those that remain, it may seem like there is no end in sight.
The legislature, the Governor, the Mayor, the City Manager, and the Councilmen may have, in a knee jerk reaction, limited your proactivity through new laws and ordinances. Being a police officer is sometimes no longer enjoyable. You endure more scrutiny now than in all of your career. Even slight mistakes get examined under a microscope and documented. You have less autonomy on how you work your shift. To say it is rough is an understatement.
For those of you that are determined to stick it out, please understand it does not have to stay like this. By policing ourselves, we can earn the trust and admiration of society back, but it will take some work. We may have to break old, ineffective traditions, habits and beliefs to become a more powerful and transparent influence in our communities. You can take or leave what I have to say. But we need to do something now to be able to effectively protect our citizens.
One way is to modify our attitude and emotions with the general public. I am in no way saying to cut corners on officer safety. But it’s been my experience that some officers have the idea that since everyone is a potential threat, that’s the only way they can be treated. They feel like if they don’t present a hard exterior that some will take it as a sign of weakness. For example, I witnessed an officer from another jurisdiction bring a suspect into our magistrate’s office located beside the booking area. The suspect seemed compliant and when he sat down, simply asked, “Officer, do you know what time it is?” The officer turned and in so many words (expletive omitted) to “Shut the f— up!” I walked up to the officer and asked what the suspect had done to him, and he said he hadn’t done anything to him. I asked him what he was arrested for, and I was told it was due to him being behind in child support payments. This hit me the wrong way. I turned to the suspect who was still compliant and I said, “Sir, it is 2:45 am. To which he said, “Thank you, officer.” Why in the world do we need to be so abrasive to people who do what we ask or demand? Dear fellow officer, if you feel you cannot show real strength with compassion and kindness, you may be going through insecurity issues.
Now I’m not saying if your life and well-being along with the public is in jeopardy, that you don’t respond appropriately with the harshness and even violence the situation deserves. But tell me, why does a police officer have to be that way all the time? Why can’t we interact with citizens in a way that shows that we do care about the concerns they face in their communities? If we arrest someone and bring them to jail, and if they are compliant, why do we have to come across to them like they are scum? They are going to be going to jail. You will end your shift, go home, crack open a beer and relax in front of the game. Why do we need to make their lives more miserable than they already are?
Another issue to consider is that we need to participate in better training. Those that know me know that I’m a huge proponent in Crisis Intervention Team training that is put out by NAMI. This is intense training for police officers to assist them in dealing more effectively with those with mental illness or severe crises. It is not in place of officer safety techniques. As a matter of fact, during the scenario training, officers are “gigged” at times about officer safety errors. This is just another tool in your belt that will get the job done. Similarly, there are also various verbal judo schools that instruct officers to, if possible, de-escalate volatile situations by use of “talking subjects down” or even talking them into cuffs. When our department’s instructors (of which I was one) began training our officers in the art of CIT, our uses of force went down dramatically. Officers who were “voluntold” to attend, thinking this was “hug a thug” class, began to realize this training was the best they’ve ever had. Many of them would come up to us and tell us excitedly that it works.
Also, if you are an officer that trains only when you need to re-certify, you are not going to be ready when the time comes to put your training into practice. You need to be proficient in your skills, and the only way to do that is to train on your own and not just once a year. I believe departments need to set aside time for police officers to do this.
Every day you put on your badge, uniform, “tool” belt and pull out onto the streets, you have been given discretion most days on how you police. In our department, we were given zones to patrol and answer calls for service. When we were not tasked with a dispatched event, we pretty much had autonomy of what we did in our zone. In doing so, make sure that you remain consistent in your policing. What I mean is if you normally give breaks for a tail light out when the motorist did not know it was, then do that every time. I have had motorists treat me extremely rudely, yet if I usually give warnings instead of issuing summons for a certain violation, they got a break too. As long as their behavior doesn’t rise to disorderly conduct or non-compliance in giving the proper documentation I demanded, the most they would get is a warning ticket. Their behavior did not dictate my actions. Most times I had already decided, if all of my suspicions were founded, what course of action I was going to take before I even approached the driver window for the first time. If you come across to your fellow officers and court officials as one that conducts his or her police actions based on what mood you or the subject you made contact with are in, then you run the risk of not being taken seriously by those around you. You might be accused of playing favorites. However, if you are consistent in all you do, you will garner respect with all who know you. Just a thought.
One other thing that I believe needs to change is for street sergeants to rethink the way officers hurry through calls. Earlier in my career, some sergeants in my department believed that you shouldn’t spend any more time than “necessary” to clear the call, especially when calls were backed up (this included times when the calls were low priority calls, such as a report of a past crime or the citizen had a question about child custody). In other words, the unwritten protocol was if you get to, say, a domestic disturbance, and you discover that neither party put hands on the other and it was just an argument, you are to just quickly say something like, “If we have to come back, someone is probably going to jail!” (which hardly ever worked), then clear. Almost always, we would come back and either take someone to jail, or tell them again, “If we have to come back again…” blah, blah, blah. Then we’re off once again! Some days we would come back to the same residence four or five times.
There was one time that another officer and I were dispatched right out of roll call to an address we had been three times before in the previous shift. Once we arrived, we separated the parties and we discovered that it was only verbal, but that it had escalated since the last time.It appeared that they were both now starting to destroy each other’s property. Since they were married, this property, although claimed by one or the other, was still common property, so no crime had occurred. We calmed the situation down, and when I thought it was safe, I dismissed my partner to go back on the street and that I would spend a little more time trying to understand what was going on. It appeared that the wife had looked at her husband’s cell phone and found some spicy texts from his ex-girlfriend. I confronted the husband and he told me that he had not responded back to her, but that she was trying to get back with him. After about 15 minutes, my sergeant called me on the radio and urged me to clear and answer calls for service. Knowing that these calls for service were of low priority, I told him it would be another ten minutes. I told the couple that this turmoil in their marriage would not be solved today, but would probably escalate in someone getting hurt and the other going to jail. I finally had the husband agree to go to his brother’s house until cooler heads prevailed in the morning. Once he was gone, I cleared and began answering calls for service.
My sergeant at the time, whose favorite phrase was “hurry up and clear” met with me in a parking lot when calls died out. He began to express his disdain for my refusing to get off the call once it was discovered no assault had taken place. I knew we would have this conversation eventually, so I did the math. I showed him where on the first shift, although very efficient in clearing the call (they were there no more than ten minutes at a time), they still responded six times. I added not only the time at the call, but the responding time as well. It added up to an average of about 15 minutes each time. That meant they (two officers per call) were involved in this call for 1 1/2 hours but when you multiply that by two, it meant three man hours. Then I showed where in ten minutes I released the first officer and I spent another 15 minutes there. Our time was only 45 minutes for both of us, including arrival time, and since I was able to resolve the situation for that night, we hadn’t been back again.
Now, I know that we aren’t psychologists or marriage counselors, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a few more minutes to help people find a way through their problems when all we have is calls that don’t merit an instant response. In doing so, we may save time in the long run and also give the citizens at least the appearance that we care, which we should anyway.
I believe that police officers’ attitudes should reflect that they are showing the citizens they come in contact, respect. Notice, I did not say they needed to respect them. There were those I’ve come in contact with, such as men who physically abuse women or child molesters, that I had not a morsel of respect for. But I showed them respect. There is a difference. Like earlier, when I talked about the officer who told his arrestee to shut up. There was absolutely no reason for that. What would it have hurt the officer to look at his watch and give him the time. It would have cost him nothing. But in the mind of the guy that fell on hard times and couldn’t keep up with his child support payments, just a token of accommodation would probably stick in the guy’s mind that police officers are not as the media displays them as.
One morning I was dispatched to a section 8 housing apartment complex where there was a male and female arguing in front of one of the buildings. No other officer was available at the time, so I had to respond alone. I located the two and was able to de-escalate the situation utilizing my training in verbal judo. When I was there for about 8 minutes, I realized some of the residents had come out of their apartment building and, surprisingly, they started yelling at me. A couple were carrying baseball bats. I found out later (which irritated me we hadn’t gone over this in roll call) was that the night before our officers pursued after a guy known and loved in this complex and, when they had tackled him, had broken one of his legs. Now I was the object of their rage. I called dispatch and told them that I was attempting to make it back to my cruiser, but that the situation was escalating and I might have to utilize my weapons to protect myself. At that time, a very large man appeared to my right. I got down in a defensive position when he told me, “Don’t worry, Officer Cravey, I got this.” He then started yelling back at the guys who had formed a perimeter around me telling them to leave, and threatening to tell their probation officers later, and they would have to come through him first. Frustrated, these irate residents went back into their apartments just in time for the Calvary to show. One officer, as he came out of his car, started barking orders at this large man, but I corrected the officer saying that he had helped me. I turned to him, thinking I recognized him from before, and thanked him for what he did. He asked me, “Officer Cravey, you don’t recognize me, do you?” When I told him he looked familiar, he told me that I had arrested him two years ago for assaulting his wife. But he said that I treated him like a human being,and spent some time explaining that he needed to get some anger management counseling, preferably before his court trial. He told me that I didn’t treat him like an animal as other officers had in the past. . He then told me he still hated cops. If it had been any other officer, he would have probably gone back into his apartment and left the officer to fend for himself. But he remembered the respect I had shown him. Everytime I think of that incident, I truly feel that man saved me that day.
Another thing to consider when attempting to gain respect and cooperation from the public, is to be ridiculously honest in your duties and in court. I believe the biggest reason that officers lie about things is not that their intention is to deceive. They just made a stupid mistake and they don’t want others to know.
So, in the spirit of being ridiculously honest, I will now give you an instance where I did something stupid and was tempted to not say anything. One Saturday afternoon, I was in my cruiser patrolling behind a shopping center. Since there was only one way in and out, I executed a three point turn to leave. When I was in the backing portion of this maneuver, I gently tapped a green dumpster with my rear bumper. I pulled forward and inspected the damage. The only thing I observed was a little bit of paint transfer from the dumpster to my bumper. I was tempted at that time to lick my finger and rub off the paint. But knowing the policy and procedures concerning vehicular mishaps, I reluctantly called my sergeant to inform him of what I had done. He, in turn, called another officer to respond to do the investigation. When both arrived, they both looked at the bumper and were going like, “You mean this is it?” The officer took the photo of the bumper and the dumpster, and sure enough, licked his finger and rubbed the green paint right off. There was no dent. The sergeant was a little irritated that I reported it because that meant two officers were unavailable for calls for service for the time it took to do the paperwork . But in my mind, I did what I was supposed to do. However, the one thing I experienced from this time on was that my supervisors could trust me with even the small things.
Another stupid thing I did was (that’s right, I have no pride), when taking out a radar to utilize for speed enforcement one day, I neglected to check the current calibration form in my radar box when I installed it on my cruisor. It wasn’t until I needed the calibration form for court, that I realized that the calibration of this radar had been neglected and it had been expired for one week when I used it. I had about 40 cases that day in court (around 15 of them were from the day I used this particular radar) and I had to make a decision. Surprisingly, none of my cases had attorneys representing the offenders . It was a very good bet none of them were going to ask for my calibration form for inspection, or even know what it was. I would have probably walked out with convictions on everyone of them and none of them would be the wiser. But the problem was I knew it. So, when the judge called me up for my cases, I made a motion to dismiss all the cases from the day I used this number radar and gave the names to the judge. When asked why, embarrassed, I told the judge what had taken place and that in all fairness there was an element of doubt that the radar was accurate on that day. He asked all who were mentioned to stand. He then told them it was because of the integrity of this officer that they would be receiving a big break today and that their cases were being dismissed. From then on, at least in this judge’s court, if any defendant accused me of lying, the judge would shut them down immediately. Even though I felt stupid that day, it cemented in the mind of this judge, and the other judges he mentioned this to, that my word was golden.
One final thing that I would encourage you about is to never, never tell a citizen there is nothing you can do for them. This statement is usually the one officers give citizens who are dealing with violations of child visitation. What would happen is that one parent would refuse to give over their children to the other parent for his or her scheduled time with their kids, usually for the weekend. One would either cite abuse or that the other parent is not upholding their commitments such as child support payments and they had not been to court yet to address it. At least in Virginia, we, as police officers, cannot go in by force and transfer custody of the children from one parent to the other, even if they show the court documents to prove that today is their day with their children. So, instead of leaving this irate individual with “Sorry”, couldn’t you at least speak with the other parent to find out what is going on? You could then see if you can have them see their way through in complying with their commitment. Even if they say no, the other parent will see that you did everything you could to assist them.
Another instance of going just a little bit further that required dealt with a vehicle recovery agent. While on patrol, I was asked by an officer to respond to his location because he was dealing with a vehicle recovery agent attempting to get possession of a vehicle in someone’s shut and locked garage. He said he had never dealt with this before, but that the agent had a document signed by one of our judges. I told him to stand by and do nothing for now. When I arrived and stepped out of my cruiser, the agent came over to me and I guess either due to my age or my stripes on my lower arm to determine time of service, he said, “Good. At least this officer looks like he knows what he’s doing.” He came to me and explained to me that he was hired by the city to recover all vehicles on this particular list due to non-payment of taxes owed. That was the first I heard about this. But he did indeed have a document signed by a judge giving him authority to do just that. I read the document and gave it back to him. He then said, “Since you have read this document signed by a judge, officer, I need you to force your way into this lady’s house and open up her garage door so I can collect it.” It appeared that his demands to the lady in the home to open up her garage door were fruitless and he thought he would have us make it happen. I told him first of all that he was not going to order me to do anything. Again he pointed at the judges signature. I told him it could be the President of the United States signature and it would mean nothing unless there was a heading on the document that stated, “To any authorized officer…” and it would detail my responsibilities. I told him that what he had was a civil court document and that we dealt with only one civil situation that I knew about and that was the custody of mentally ill subjects in need of evaluation. “But”, I said, “I will go and speak with the lady at the house and ask her if she will open the door for you.” I then went up to the door and spoke with a Navy enlisted woman who told me that she had just gotten back from deployment and she doesn’t know what is going on. I asked her when she was transferred here if she had registered her paperwork with the city stating that this is not her home city. She told me that she was going to do it, but things got in the way. I told her to do this first thing in the morning. I then asked, “I promised I would ask you to open your garage door so he can get your vehicle. Notice I didn’t demand this, but I’m asking if you would.” She replied, ” Do I have to?” I told her, “No, you can say no to me.” She hesitantly said, “No?” And I told her, “Very well, I will give the agent your answer.” When I told the agent, he was furious and wanted to speak with my supervisor. When he met with my supervisor, he got the same answer. But I never told him there was nothing I could do for him.
I trust you are taking this little chat in with the spirit it was given. The fact of the matter is that we need to show the citizens we serve that we can be trusted with their safety and that we are serving them with the understanding that the police need the citizens to do their job. If you have any comments or gripes about what I wrote, please write one in the comment section below.
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I hope this is received in the spirit that is was written. I feel these simple changes could go a long way toward community cooperation.