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resulted in a sharp decline in proactive policing. Despite what various politicians have said, the “Ferguson effect” is real and now we have data to support this conclusion.
A new groundbreaking survey of law enforcement per- sonnel was conducted for the Pew Research Center, a non- profit, nonpartisan “fact tank” in Washington, D.C., that collects and disperses information on social issues, pub- lic opinion, and demographic trends. In a project called Behind the Badge, launched by Pew some nine months ago, the experiences and opinions of a nationwide, rep- resentative sampling of nearly 8,000 officers were sought on critical issues in the post-Ferguson world of policing. The survey found that officers were indeed pulling back. Whether working in “a quiet suburb or bustling metrop- olis,” more than 8 in 10 officers queried say their job is harder now “as a consequence of recent high-profile fatal incidents involving blacks and police,” Pew reports. And they’re pulling back on their efforts as a result.
Over half (54 percent) of officers in departments with fewer than 300 sworn and 86 percent of those in agencies of 2,600 or more say fellow officers “have become less will- ing to stop and question people who seem suspicious.”
In larger departments, 85 percent of officers say their peers are “more reluctant to use force to control a suspect even when it is appropriate,” with 6 in 10 on smaller de- partments agreeing that’s the case. The majority of offi- cers (87 percent in the largest departments, 61 percent in smaller ones) say that “police interactions with blacks have become tenser.” Roughly 9 out of 10 in departments of all sizes “have become more concerned about their safety,” with more than 40 percent feeling “serious” con- cern for danger “often” or “nearly always.”
In the month before taking the survey, a third of all officers say they “physically struggled or fought with a suspect who was resisting arrest.” White officers were sig- nificantly more likely to have had such an encounter than black officers (36 percent vs. 20 percent), as were males (35 percent) compared to their female counterparts (22 percent). More than half the officers (56 percent) “agree” or “strongly agree” that in “certain areas” of their commu- nity “it is more useful for an officer to be aggressive than to be courteous.” And a substantial portion (44 percent) believes “some people can only be brought to reason the hard, physical way.”
“[R]oughly half of officers (46 percent) say fatal en- counters between blacks and police in recent years have prompted their department to modify use-of-force poli- cies,” Pew notes. This is especially true in larger depart- ments, which are three times more likely to have made changes than smaller agencies.
Although nearly three-fourths of officers say their de- partment’s UOF policies now are “about right,” about one in four think the guidelines are “too restrictive” and a rel- ative handful (1 percent) would like them to become even more restrictive.
The study found that departments are “not exempla- ry” in “training and equipping officers to do their jobs,” according to survey results. Overall, only 30–40 percent of officers say their agency has done “very well” in training them adequately, in “clearly communicating the respon-
sibilities of the job” and in equipping them to perform successfully. Smaller agencies (1,000 officers or less) tend to be most favorably rated.
In the last 12 months, according to the survey:
• Scarcely half (53 percent) of officers say they have had at least four hours of scenario-based firearms
decision-making training.
• Fifty percent have had at least four hours of training
in nonlethal methods for controlling combative or
threatening subjects.
• Just 46 percent have had at least four hours of train-
ing in how to deal with individuals in mental crisis, although three out of four officers consider this task “an important role for police.”
• Only 39 percent have received at least four hours of training in “bias and fairness,” and 37 percent in “how to deal with people so they feel they have been treated fairly and respectfully.”
• And despite the public attention focused on “de-es- calation,” only 44 percent of officers say they’ve had at least four hours of training “in how to de-escalate a situation so it is not necessary to use force.”
We all know that it is easier to blame the individual officer when things hit the fan; however, true leaders will recognize that the blame must be attributed else- where. Officers are only as good as their training and it is about time that our leaders recognize the deficiencies in this area. Officers can’t be held responsible for using the wrong tools when they have not been given the proper tools with which to work. d
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