Our P1 Rapid Response articles are intended to provide quick observations, ideas and further questions for discussion regarding significant law enforcement incidents and issues. Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.
What Happened: Officer Ray Tensing of the University of Cincinnati Police Department has been indicted on murder charges for the shooting death of a 43-year-old motorist named Samuel DuBose.
By all accounts, the indictment comes as no surprise. Earlier this week, Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell forecast the news when revealed that he had seen Tensing’s body-camera footage of the fatal shooting and said, “It’s not good.” Further, Tensing’s own attorney, Stewart Mathews, even said that he thought an indictment was likely “given the political climate” and recent comments made by city officials.
Now that the indictment has been handed down, we must prepare for whatever comes next.
Why it’s Significant: In announcing the charges against Tensing, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters released a video of the July 19 traffic stop. This was also probably inevitable. Deters had been under pressure from DuBose’s family, and various news organizations had sued Deters to get it released under Ohio open records law. The video may incite many who already have anti-police feelings, and has the potential to spark civil unrest similar to the mayhem following the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.
Anticipating the possibility of unrest, the University of Cincinnati had already closed its main campus in anticipation of grand jury action in the case, according to the Associated Press.
It is important to note that large-scale protests related to officer-involved shootings are no longer a local affair. Just as the potential exists for people to gather in the streets of Cincinnati, it would be wise for police and political leaders in communities across the country to consider the prospect of sympathetic crowds gathering in the streets many miles from the “City of Seven Hills.”
Top Takeaways: We know from recent experience in Baltimore that a failure of leadership to swiftly put in place strategies and tactics aimed at preventing rioting can result in widespread and long-lasting damage to the community.
As John Stanley recently wrote, “When failures occur in these situations, they can almost always be traced back to poor leadership and misinformed or timid direction from community leaders.”
We can only hope that officials in Cincinnati have learned from the recently released documents detailing the ineptitude of Baltimore’s mayor and other officials, and are lucky enough to avoid having a similar experience. However, because hope is not a strategy and luck is not a tactic, here are some key takeaways to keep in mind in the coming days and weeks:
1. In Baltimore, Kaliope Parthemos — Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s chief of staff — resisted calls for the deployment of the National Guard, writing that such assets are to be used “only when there is a state of emergency.” Wrong. The earlier presence of the Guard very probably would have prevented many of the 60+ buildings from burning to the ground, not to mention the more than 400 other buildings that were damaged during the rioting. By the time the Guard got there, the damage was already done. Remember the adage: You’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Make your calls early.
2. Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said in an email that “we needed to give them space” during the vandalism. Don’t do this to your community. Law enforcement must use appropriate restraint in the use of force, but to withdraw entirely from the crowds is tantamount to announcing an open invitation for looting and violence. As Dan Marcou wrote, “Peacekeeping is a balance between the tolerance of lawful protest and the ability to recognize and respond effectively to criminality, which threatens the peace.” As Chuck Joyner noted here, Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The Tipping Point that “crime is contagious” and it can quickly spread throughout an entire community.
3. The Baltimore documents reveal that the absence of visible leadership from city officials, as well as a lack of tactical equipment needed by officers on the scene, contributed to the rapidly-unfolding situation. Deploy your resources strategically, even while openly engaging in a vigorous dialog with your citizens about how they may and may not act. Create a venue for people to have their voices heard, but be clear about the consequences for people who commit acts of violence and vandalism. Do what Seattle police and political leaders did prior to this year’s Mad Day protests. They clearly stated that should protesters gathering at Seattle City College begin to engage in acts of anarchy on the streets, agitators would be quickly arrested, and the rest of the crowd forced back onto the campus grounds.
What’s Next: With Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters calling the shooting “senseless” and “asinine” and making inflammatory comments like “He purposely killed him” and “He should never have been a police officer,” we can be reasonably sure that the legal proceedings to come will be something of a media circus.
We can also surmise that — as has happened in recent months — mainstream national broadcast media will churn the story, highlighting at every opportunity the fact that Tensing is white and DuBose was black. The effect of this will be to fan the flame of racial tension, anti-cop fervor, and potentially increase the specter of retaliatory attacks on officers such as the murders of Offices Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in New York City.
Remain situationally aware, and stay safe.
Further Reading:
Tale of two rioting cities: What Seattle, Baltimore can teach about police leadership
7 keys to successfully policing a potentially unruly crowd
Why riots won’t die: 3 contributing failures of leadership
A 15-point plan to survive to prevent or survive a large disturbance
5 considerations for improving officer safety during large-scale protests
