Police Reform and Community Policing Ethics: LA and Pittsburgh

Introduction: Policing and the Social Contract

Policing is a difficult endeavor, but it is also one of the central functions of government, providing security for the citizenry and protecting the individual from the bad intentions of others. Arguably, the policing function in its broadest sense could be described as the rationale for the social contract that formed civil society in the first place, when people came together to form government in order to assure the individual protection from his or her neighbors. Inherent in the policing function is a requirement for ethical behavior on the part of the police themselves, who are expected to be spotless as they guard against the crimes of others.

Because those who become police are no more than human, however, ethical lapses and even outright criminality are not unheard of in spite of the culture of policing, laws governing police behavior, internal investigation systems, and so on. Often, in response to the discovery of unethical behavior by the police in a given city, the department responds by creating a new mechanism of control, issuing a statement of ethics to which officers are expected to adhere, creating a new oversight office, conducting internal investigations, and taking other actions to make the department more ethical. The issue will be considered in general and then examined in two departments that have instituted some form of control in response to a perceived problem.

Delattre (1989) notes the pressures placed on police across the country along with the need to maintain a strong ethical system in order to assure public confidence. The police have considerable power, but that power derives largely from public acceptance. When that confidence is undermined, the job becomes that much more difficult. Recognizing this, the police have been professionalized over the last half century following problems that were apparent in an earlier era, when officers were not as thoroughly trained. The International Association of Chiefs of Police published a Law Enforcement Code of Ethics to promote ethical behavior, which begins:

Police Ethics and the Challenge of Misconduct

"As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality, and justice" (Delattre, 1989, p. 31).

Some police objected to this code because they saw it as either too demanding or too vague, and changing times made some requirements unclear in meaning, such as "I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all" (Delattre, 1989, p. 31), causing officers to ask whether this meant they should not live with a partner outside of marriage.

The way the rank and file responds to criticism has itself been criticized and is often seen as a barrier to real reform. The police community often responds to corruption charges and investigations as an intrusion by "outsiders" into police business, leading to a closing of ranks that makes it more difficult to assess actual officer behavior. Another common reaction was to propagate the "bad apple" theory:

"That is, in response to documented cases of corruption and brutality, police administrators would declare them merely isolated deeds by 'bad apple' officers. Bad apples were morally corrupt individuals, rotten on the inside and hiding under a skin of respectability, and who were only out for themselves" (Cohen & Feldberg, 1991, p. 10).

The prescribed answer is to remove the bad apples so that other officers will not be contaminated, with no acknowledgment that the department itself might be at fault.

As Lashley (1995) notes, "Only when the police fail to adhere to standards of ethics and duty will they obstruct the cause of justice they are sworn to serve" (p. 13). The recognition of this fact can be seen in numerous investigations into police corruption, brutality, and misconduct at various levels, including both federal and local inquiries. An unfortunate response to much of the new criticism of police has been for officers to disengage from their duties. Many urban departments find it impossible to recruit new officers because of lowered morale, and many officers avoid enforcing the law in certain areas because they believe doing so will only invite complaints (Grigg, 2001, p. 10). In other cases, however, the response has been more constructive.

A number of police abuse cases in recent years led to commissions in New York and Los Angeles offering suggestions for changes to reduce racism in the ranks and to control excessive police aggression. The efforts to accomplish these goals have been mixed. Lambert (1995) writes about the use of psychological tests to screen out officers who may have psychological problems. Critics note that such tests have not accomplished the desired result of identifying those likely to engage in racist behavior or use excessive force. A report by a community group known as Police Watch, which monitors complaints of police misconduct in Los Angeles County, shows that complaints did not diminish after these tests were instituted. The use of these tests was offered in response to public pressure to address racism and brutality:

Community Investigations and Racial Tensions

"A commission appointed to investigate the Los Angeles police recommended that officers be retested for psychological problems every three years. Other police departments around the country also beefed up their psychological screening" (Lambert, 1995, p. 1).

In addition, Black officers charged that these psychological tests were so subjective that they were used to discriminate against minorities, making the instrument itself racist (Lambert, 1995, p. 1).

The number and influence of Black officers has increased considerably since the beginning of integration efforts. Since 1972, the number of Black officers nationwide doubled to more than 60,000. Between 1982 and 1992, the 50 largest police departments saw an average increase in Black officers of 36%. In the last decade, cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Detroit have all had Black police chiefs. However, the mere act of hiring a larger number of Black officers does not solve the problem of racism within a police department and does not create an equal playing field for Black officers relative to their white counterparts (Kaufman & Gaiter, 1995, p. 1).

Relations between the police and the Black community have long been tense. In some regions, the police are viewed as an occupying force present not to protect residents but to control them. Numerous civil disturbances in recent decades can be traced to tensions between police and the Black community — from the riots of the summer of 1965 to the Los Angeles riots following the first Rodney King verdict, and from the disturbances in Crown Heights, New York, to disputed police shooting incidents in cities across the country. Even without a specific triggering incident, there is often an underlying tension between poor Black communities and the surrounding society, with police serving as a symbol of that society:

"The very complex, diffuse, interrelated, but still independent nature of the social, political, and economic institutions within American society, supported by layers and layers of public and private bureaucracies often manipulated by elusive, anonymous power brokers, perpetually frustrate the attempts of Black Americans to modify and reorder societal arrangements in their favor. Therefore, the 'system' is identified as the culprit" (Wintersmith, 1974, p. 2).

The fact that the police are the most likely target for Black hostility and aggression, however, does not mean Black Americans lack genuine reason to fear the police or the rallying cry of "law and order":

"For Black Americans this slogan connotes oppression, police occupation of Black communities, inequitable and selective police treatment, disregard for human and constitutional rights of Black citizens, and continued denial of equitable opportunity" (Wintersmith, 1974, p. 2).

Conclusion

The programs in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh both come under the heading of Community Policing, but they differ in structure precisely because these are very different communities. The approach taken in Pittsburgh fits with a city where the beat cop continues to be of great importance, while in Los Angeles, officers do their jobs largely from a two-person patrol car. Los Angeles is simply a much larger city in terms of area, with more varied terrain and more spread-out neighborhoods than those found in Pittsburgh. The mini-station approach fits the type of neighborhoods found in Pittsburgh but would put too great a strain on the Los Angeles Police Department, which already operates at a lower officer-per-capita ratio than other large American cities.