Editor’s Note: This week’s PoliceOne First Person essay is from PoliceOne Member Chief Kenneth Berkowitz of the Canton (Mass.) Police Department.. In PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. If you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members, simply send us an email with your story.
By Chief Kenneth Berkowitz and Deputy Chief Helena Rafferty, Canton (Mass.) Police Department
Recent high-profile, officer-involved critical incidents have stimulated much discussion from many groups about regulating law enforcement. Committees have been formed, articles have been penned, and speeches have been given. All share the common theme of improving police response and fostering better relations with our communities — particularly with minority communities.
From the periphery, these well-intentioned strategies appear to be viable solutions. However, from a practitioner’s lens, many of them miss the mark and would undoubtedly hurt the very communities they are trying to build relations within. Having been a law enforcement officer for 23 years, I believe that the best way to improve policing is to recruit, hire, train, and retain the brightest prospects that each community has to offer.
In order to accomplish this, current and potential members of law enforcement leadership must know that the leadership of our government, the populace they serve, and the citizens of the United States stand firmly behind them. There is no more important mission than the law enforcement function in a democratic, free civilization. This is not to say that we must give the police our unconditional support because checks and balances are also very important. However, if we as a society expect our officers to make split-second, life-and-death decisions, then we must not handcuff them by fear of indictment, litigation or career-ending character/reputation assassination.
The police profession is by far the most regulated industry in the United States. Companies that produce the food that we eat as well as the pharmaceuticals we ingest are not nearly as scrutinized as the men and women who protect us.
The Civil Rights unit at the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are in charge of investigating use of force and misconduct allegations by the police. Their investigators thoroughly examine 100 percent of the cases referred to them. Additionally, every department has rules and regulations, policy and procedures that govern the behavior of their officers both on and off duty. Whenever there is a deviation from these frameworks, the internal affairs officer or unit for each department carefully examines the case.
Moreover, each state has an Attorney General who is tasked with the responsibility of investigating allegations of police wrongdoing. Perhaps the most influential regulations are brought about by the technological age that we live in. Nearly every encounter the police have with the citizenry is captured on cell phone video or surveillance cameras and can be instantly uploaded through social media outlets and then tried in the court of public opinion.
I am 100 percent in favor of all the above, as there should be zero tolerance for the intentional use of force or police corruption within the law enforcement profession. I also firmly believe that officers must know that when they start their shift by donning their badge, their bullet-resistant vest, and their duty belt, that they are going to be backed 110 percent by the people who have given them the authority and the mandate to protect them.
When an officer is operating in good faith and makes a decision based on the facts that he considers in a critically small window of time, then regardless of the outcome, he deserves our support. If we do choose to handcuff the police, the end result will be catastrophic. More community members will die because the police will be afraid to act and more police officers will be killed because they will be literally reluctant to pull the trigger.
However, they will not be killed by bullets or knives, they will be killed by hesitation — handcuffed by the inability to make the necessary instantaneous decision to protect everyone, for fear of being second guessed, sued, fired or arrested by those they were willing to lay their lives down for.
