Rethinking Your Response
Following public outrage over the death of an unarmed, fleeing suspect by police in North Charleston, the Tri-County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 has released a statement acknowledging the shooting was “beyond comprehension,” while also defending law enforcement and lashing out at the “untruths” surrounding the case from critics.
“Do not allow the professional race agitators to seize this moment to advance their often self-serving opinions of what is wrong in South Carolina,” said the statement, which was issued on April 9.
“Do not allow them to bemoan the lack of trust of police by the minority community,” the statement added. “Do not allow them to beat down the hardworking men and women of the Lowcountry’s law enforcement.”
But amid a rising tide of anger and resentment directed at the police and, perhaps more important, vivid video documentation debunking or calling into question the accounts of officers, police union officials around the country are rethinking how best to get their message out.
The instinct of many is to hold the line against what they see as efforts to undermine the police by focusing on relatively rare failings of officers. But others are considering whether a new, more inward-looking approach is warranted.
“It is important for unions to become honestly self-critical about police conduct and to not blindly defend each and every egregious incident by officers,” said Samuel Walker, a professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, who testified in January to President’s Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing. “But to get there,” he added, “officers within departments must step forward and take control of the unions and point them in the right direction.”
A lot is at stake. Police officers not only need to maintain the respect and good will of citizens to do their job effectively, they also depend on that good will in political battles over salary, pensions and benefits, in which they have been far more successful than other public employees in recent years. So, many officers and officials say, it is essential to put out an effective message and not just a reactive one.
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