Saying that his actions would “go a long way in restoring peoples’ trust in our system of criminal justice,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order under which a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will “review and potentially prosecute law enforcement killings of unarmed civilians or when there’s a question about whether the slain civilian was armed and dangerous,” according to the Associated Press.
Advocates who had pressured Cuomo to sign the executive order had initially wanted the special prosecutor to investigate every incident in which police use deadly force, but the final draft of the measure did not go quite that far.
The news this week in New York obviously has the most immediate impact on law enforcers in that state, but it is an ugly harbinger of what may happen in states across the country where elected officials — who are motivated by their desire to become reelected — are under intense political pressure to create structures for increased civilian oversight of police officers’ actions.
Policing Under Political Pressure
Prior to Cuomo’s action, the most recent case of a politician bowing to political pressure for such oversight was Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s agreement to a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department following a number of officer-involved shootings that made national headlines during Jackson’s time in office.
Cuomo’s executive order and Jordan’s consent decree may have a host of unintended consequences. Here are just three:
1. The practice of proactive policing will become lost to history. The word “demotivation” doesn’t begin to describe how overly restrictive civilian oversight policies can affect officers’ desire to fight crime. If taking the iniative to put criminals behinds bars puts an officer at risk of landing in court, in jail, or in the grave, the obvious outcome is that cops will do the minimum. They will respond to radio calls and file reports, but they’ll be very disinterested in self-initiated crime fighting.
Consequently, criminals will be further emboldened to commit crime. They will also be more likely to resist arrest and commit violence against arresting officers.
2. The cops will become prone to succumb to deadly hesitation. Scrutiny of officer-involved shootings by the press and the public — even over incidents in which those actions are completely justifiable by police policy and existing case law — has created an environment in which law enforcers may end up more concerned about the legal battle after of a deadly-force encounter than surviving the incident itself.
When confronted with a potentially deadly threat, officers working under the threat of the reflexive — and often ignorant — civilian oversight bodies following an incident will have a higher propensity to be hurt or killed in the line of duty.
3. The law-abiding civilians will eventually be the ones to suffer. In cities populated by emboldened criminals and demotivated cops, the innocents are the ones who may suffer the most. They will be more likely to be victimized, and at the very least they will live in a world less safe and less pleasant.
We must remind the public we serve of the adage, “A society that makes war with its police must learn to make peace with its criminals.”
Immediate Action Required
If structured and executed correctly, civilian oversight can be a good thing. If it’s done poorly, it can be an unmitigated disaster. Cops know that bad policing leads to bad case law, which in turn leads to bad policy. When police leaders fail to fully participate in the creation of polices affecting their officers — particularly when those programs are generated by politicians whose understanding of law enforcement is woefully lacking — bad strategies tend to get put into place.
We must embrace the change that is coming and actively participate in it. Consequently, police leaders must engage their local political leaders — sooner than later — to ensure that when the guidelines for civilian oversight are written, people with real police expertise are sitting at the drafting table.
