In violent climate, a call for cultivating cop relationships

While police officers have body armor and fire arms, communication may be their most powerful asset. A senior officer recently said he'd like to think that his relationships with members of the community would prompt 9-1-1 calls or physical assistance if he was in trouble or getting "his behind whipped" by a suspect.

The importance of community policing isn't just feel-good psycho-babble. Those relationships could mean the difference between an officer working a beat in which he feels appreciated or a beat in which he feels like everyone has their crosshairs trained on him.  

I'd ask fellow urban stakeholders to pretend for a moment that their color is blue. Inner-city duty means a sea of camera phones and witnesses loudly proclaiming that an officer has used undue force in their community. Those officers risk—depending on the political climate within their departments—their careers going up in smoke or becoming the latest poster boy for police brutality. Racial profiling is horrible. But imagine the weight of prejudice based upon the color of your uniform. It's possible that both police officers and urban stakeholders feel discriminated against. Our clashes make headlines and sometimes they force police departments to rethink their purpose and change their policies. Officers and the people they serve have every good reason to cultivate relationships. They have no good reason to avoid them.

Nadra Enzi; New Orleans

America has a problem with its police. In big cities and small towns across the country there have been unjustified shootings, deaths in custody, wrongful convictions, false arrests, rapes and beatings. The problem is not just “a few bad apples.” The entire criminal justice system deserves scrutiny. 

The police act as if they can do anything they want—and in some instances they are proven right. Community members are helpless. Sometimes the best we can do is file a complaint (I did, and I can still hear the police laughing). We can sue, but it seems that the most successful suits happen only after the victim has been beaten to a pulp or killed.  It is rare for cops to get prosecuted. The deceit within the justice system runs deep. Testimony is coerced and evidence is withheld. There are some cops who don't find the suspect based on the evidence. Instead they force the evidence to match the suspect they have already found. 

I was almost a victim of our justice system. My lawyer obtained police video, and on it, I appeared to be committing a crime. The video even had sound. It was so convincing I was doubting my own memory. Luckily, I obtained store security video that refuted the police's version of events, and the charges were eventually dropped. But how many defendants get that lucky? Even if the suspect is found innocent he still loses. He loses bail money and maybe his job. He loses thousands of dollars in legal fees. This is not justice. 

If we can’t believe in the police, who can we believe in? 

Mitchell Diamond; Nacogdoches, Texas