Ideas in American POLICE FOUNDATION Policing August 1999

On Democratic Policing

By Jerome H. Skolnick

The celebration of the the West regard as the normal millennium invites us to observe tasks of policing, such as the that we are indeed in a time of detection and prevention of crime worldwide political, technological, in the interests of public safety, and social change. With the fall were secondary to the task of Ideas in American Policing presents of the Soviet Union, we see— preserving political dominance of commentary and insight from especially in middle and eastern the regime. leading criminologists on issues of interest to scholars, practitioners, Europe—more emerging The transition from a security and policymakers. The papers democracies and more police force to a democratic published in this series are from the Police Foundation lecture series of consciousness of rights. As such police is not easy. The change in the same name. Points of view in changes happen, there is eastern Europe from centrally this document are those of the author and do not necessarily increasing interest in the role of controlled socialism to represent the official position of the the police as an institution in a democratic capitalism was indeed Police Foundation. democratic society. revolutionary. Virtually overnight, ©1999 Police Foundation and Jerome H. Skolnick. All rights reserved. In February 1999 in as the total control of the state Budapest, I participated in a drained away, life became more Jerome H. Skolnick is conference titled Police in open and free. At the same time, Emeritus Professor of Law, Transition (Koszeg 1999). The artificially maintained general Jurisprudence, and Social primary issue was how to employment—a feature of Policy, University of transform police from their socialism—was to disappear. As California at Berkeley, and formerly authoritarian people lost their jobs, the modest Co-Director, Center for assignments in communist but secure living standards, which Research in Crime and countries to what would be had formerly been a right, no Justice, New York University acceptable in a democratic nation. longer provided an economic School of Law. Under communism, what we in safety net. People enjoyed the benefits of freedom but also democratic police forces are not record. People of color “and experienced its costs, especially in supposed to be insular, self- particularly their teenage sons,” a population where freedom had contained, or cut off from the Bratton writes, feel that they are not been known in this century. communities from which their at risk, not from criminals but From a sociological perspective, power derives. Openness to the from cops. He says that their fear this change was evidently a free and the poor should be a is out of proportion to reality. Durkheimian moment when the master ideal of democratic Bratton finds it “beyond normlessness and uncertainty of policing. imagining” that the officers who anomie began to prevail. This ideal may sound fired the forty-one shots Given the situation, crime abstractly academic, so I will shift intentionally gunned down an increased substantially in the quickly to a contemporary innocent man. He points out that formerly socialist countries. As it example. William Bratton, who the NYPD’s record on misuse of did, police were inclined to revert was New York City’s police deadly force is better than that of to the organizational methods, commissioner from 1994 to most police departments. practices, and outlook charac- 1996, and who is widely credited But Bratton appreciates that teristic of the preceding with introducing strategies perceptions may be shaped more totalitarian regime. So in all of leading to New York City’s by events than by statistics. New those countries, there is a remarkable crime decline, recently York City’s crime statistics for struggle to achieve democratic wrote that there is “a crisis of 1998 show sharp declines in the policing, a struggle made more fear” in New York City’s minority number of murders, dropping to difficult by the lack of a tradition communities (1999). The crisis is an astonishing and gratifying 631. of democratic policing in eastern attributable to the forty-one shots Other crimes that often hit closer Europe. that gunned down Amadou to home, such as auto thefts, Thus, the underlying Diallo, a 22-year-old unarmed burglaries, grand larcenies, questions for the conference— African man who had no criminal assaults, robberies, and rapes, fell and for a series on ideas in American policing—arise: Are there any fundamental principles of democratic policing, and, if so, ...democratic police forces are what are they? not supposed to be insular, Openness self-contained, or cut off from Democracy is a very old and complex idea, but the funda- the communities from which mental notion is that of Aristotle, who, in The Politics (4, 4), wrote their power derives. Openness that “Democracy exists when the free and poor, being a majority, to the free and the poor should have authority to rule.” Aristotle, of course, did not discuss the role be a master ideal of demo- of police in a modern democratic society. Nevertheless, it seems cratic policing. apparent that, as an ideal type,

——2—— as well. Ironically, in light of the present protests, serious crime declines occurred mostly in ...there can be no question minority communities such as Brooklyn’s 77th precinct that color, ethnicity, and (Bedford Stuyvesant), where murders declined from 34 in gender are bona fide 1997 to 9 in 1998. No murders occurred in Manhattan’s 100th occupational qualifications precinct, which patrols Murray Hill and Turtle Bay, the high-rent for urban police departments. areas adjacent to the United Nations complex. Similar comparisons can be made between police precincts in some consensus between whites historical treatment of Africans the South Bronx and Central and blacks. New Yorkers were and African Americans in U.S. Park. Thus, the major asked if they agreed with this history, plus the current beneficiaries of the crime decline statement: “Based upon current disproportionate numbers of have been residents of formerly knowledge, the shooting of black males in American jails and high-crime communities; yet Amadou Diallo was tragic and prisons, it is easy to see why those are the communities most there is absolutely no excuse for blacks mistrust police. Bratton fearful of the police. the way the police acted.” The argues for powerful recruitment We can best explain this response of 89 percent of blacks strategies and the NYPD is paradox by the symbolism of a was yes, with 61 percent of already moving to recruit more thought experiment. Imagine a whites agreeing. Black political minorities. This approach is, of city where most of the police are leaders from the Reverend Al course, a “no-brainer.” Whatever black and are assigned to high- Sharpton to establishment figures one might think of the value of crime areas where most of the such as Representative Charles B. diversity and affirmative action in residents are white. Four black Rangel and former-Mayor some employment contexts, there detectives fire forty-one shots at David N. Dinkins were arrested can be no question that color, an unarmed white suspect, hitting in acts of civil disobedience when ethnicity, and gender are bona him nineteen times. Would whites they demanded the arrest of the fide occupational qualifications not believe that the lives and four detectives. for urban police departments. dignity of whites were devalued Bratton (1999) argues, almost For New York, and by the black police? in a reprise of Aristotle, that “the presumably other large American A New York Times poll (Barry role of police power in a cities, Bratton (1999) advocates a with Connelly 1999) shows a democracy should be the version of the Police Cadet deep racial divide in New York expression of social consensus.” Corps, an idea put forward years City. When asked whether most The more difficult issue is how to ago by Adam Walinsky. Bratton of the police use excessive force, achieve something like a envisions a summer youth 33 percent of whites answered consensus in a society—or a academy that is tied to a public yes, as compared with 72 percent city—that appears socially safety high school (New York of blacks. Still, responses to the fractured. There are no easy City already has a high school of Diallo shooting incident showed answers. Given the ignominious music, art, and the performing

——3—— solve crimes. In the remainder of the chapter, I tried to show the Police should be accountable to limitations—indeed, the potential perversions—of clearance rates. the communities being policed, When I was studying burglary detectives, I saw professional to the taxpayers who pay the thieves—who could offer to clear many cases—negotiate light bills, and to the legal order sentences with burglary detec- tives, who then used those governing their authority. clearances to impress their superiors. Less skillful burglars— who had committed fewer crimes and could offer fewer arts) and that continues all the standings beyond formal clearances—were sentenced more way through the City College “sensitivity training” courses. severely. system. Whatever the details, it is In the 1990s, thanks mainly imperative to take steps to draw to Bratton’s innovations in the Accountability minority youths into policing. New York City subways and later In addition to enhanced If openness is one signpost of in the NYPD, police account- recruitment, a closely related democratic policing, the other is ability moved to using reported strategy might be to heighten accountability. Police should be crime as the measure of educational requirements—and accountable to the communities organizational accountability. This salaries—for sworn officers. At being policed, to the taxpayers shift happened in tandem with the same time, we should shift who pay the bills, and to the the development of Compstat, a many routine tasks of policing legal order governing their sophisticated software program (such as taking accident reports) authority. But how can we tell that compiles and maps crime to what David Bayley and I have whether police are doing statistics. Through Compstat, called “para police,” modeled on acceptable work? This difficult local police commanders and the idea of paramedics and question has long interested their units could be held paralegals (Skolnick and Bayley police executives and people who responsible for controlling crime 1986). This strategy would have study the police. in their assigned area. dual advantages: First, it would In the early 1960s, when I Nevertheless, as Bratton heighten the status, and perhaps was writing Justice Without Trial (1998) himself now argues, the the salaries, of sworn police. (1966), clearance rates were proper ends of policing are not Second, in time, some of the para being advanced as a key measure crime control alone. Recent well- police would become sworn of police performance. Clearance publicized accusations of racial officers. But even if they did not, rates were an earnest attempt by factors in stopping, harassing, we can assume that a majority of O.W. Wilson (who was then the arresting, and sometimes para police would be minorities leading authority on police brutalizing non-white citizens and women. Therefore, they management) to establish an suggest that police should be would bring diversity to the internal control on the work of accountable for the means used police organization and should police, particularly of plainclothes to achieve crime control. influence its cultural under- detectives who were supposed to Complaints against police are

——4—— a possible measure, but they may and Coles recognize that the on hot city nights? When statutes be quite problematic in at least move from windows to people is prohibit low-level conduct, police two respects. One, the less significant and contestable. will maintain broad discretion to confidence that citizens have that Nevertheless, they argue that it decide whom to stop and cite. their complaints will be taken should be part of the broader Citizens from different seriously, the less likely they are concept of disorder. communities will surely maintain to complain. Two, police have Here is where the theory different ideas about when arrests told me that complaints are becomes controversial. Can we should be made, as will the frequently made against the most assume that conceptions of order courts. effective officers by drug dealers in the minds and eyes of police No contemporary urban or who seek to undermine their are shared by the residents of state police department explicitly authority. areas that are being policed? advocates race conscious policing, Hostility toward police in Granted that we commonly share yet it occurs repeatedly. Racial New York City may be related to an aversion to public defecation, discrimination in policing is a philosophy of policing that but do residents who live in engendered partly by cultural stems from “broken windows,” neighborhoods where crowded understandings—or the famous theory that James Q. apartments lack air conditioning misunderstandings; partly by Wilson and George Kelling first also deplore public beer drinking organizational policing published in The Atlantic Monthly philosophies; and partly by (1982). The broken windows constitutional interpretations that theory postulates that a broken permit pretextual stops. A window, when left unrepaired, pretextual stop is a stop, usually signals neglect and lack of Can we followed by a search, that is concern for the neighborhood, ostensibly for one violation but is which, in turn, invites vandalism assume that really for another, usually and further property damage. possession of drugs or guns. The “Broken windows” is also a conceptions of order-maintenance strategy metaphor for a larger conception, advocated by Wilson and Kelling disorder, which includes order in the is grounded in the strategy of disorderly behavior—being drunk arresting people on meaningless in public, loitering, panhandling, minds and charges. As Wilson and Kelling and urinating and defecating in (1982, 35) write, “These charges public. In a more recent eyes of police exist not because society wants elaboration of the theory, Kelling judges to punish vagrants or and Catherine Coles (1996) are shared by drunks but because it wants an argue that order is a normative officer to have the legal tools to concept largely shared by the residents remove undesirable persons from residents in neighborhoods. a neighborhood when informal Disorder includes dirty, littered of areas that efforts to preserve order in the streets and broken windows, but streets have failed.” so does behavioral disorder such are being Pretextual stops are most as being drunk in public, visibly enforced on highway panhandling, and loitering for policed? automobile drivers because purposes of prostitution. Kelling virtually every highway driver

——5—— exceeds the speed limit or true, and he seemed to be equivalent of New York City’s changes lanes illegally. Lawsuits shopping for an expert defense street crimes unit. The police have been filed in Maryland, New witness. When I told him that were searching for gun Jersey, and Illinois, where such statistical differences were smugglers, who, I was told, were plaintiffs have shown that state valid, he seemed puzzled and cast either Albanians or Romany troopers disproportionately stop about for some rational basis for (Gypsies) or both. We stopped at and search African-American the stops. The only basis, I a working class café that was motorists for the so-called crime suggested, was a tragically flawed darkly lit and was permeated by of “driving while black” (Harris syllogism: (1) police are supposed the smell of cigarette and cigar 1997). In some of these cases, to stop drug couriers, (2) drug smoke. Forty or fifty men were the U.S. Department of Justice couriers are black or Hispanic, quietly talking and sipping beer. has filed a friend-of-the-court and (3) therefore it’s appropriate As the police were recognized, a brief on behalf of plaintiffs. to stop and search black and palpable stir arose among those On March 16, 1999, I Hispanic drivers. Why? Because who recognized the police. About received a telephone call from a they might be drug couriers. I a dozen people were asked for perplexed Assistant Attorney offered free expert witness advice: their identification, no one was General in Illinois who was settle the case as best you can and arrested, and the police left. astonished by the gross statistical change the practice. When I was later asked for differences between black and Then I thought of a police my impressions of the Budapest white stops that expert witnesses practice I had witnessed in police, I said that this practice for the plaintiffs had presented. Budapest when I spent an seemed to me to be a holdover He asked whether they could be evening riding with the from the security policing of an authoritarian regime. Democratic policing implies that the police should be required to articulate a reason for stopping and searching Democratic policing implies someone other than on a mere hunch or on a suspicion that is that the police should be based on a person’s racial or required to articulate a ethnic background. reason for stopping and Conclusion More than three decades ago, searching someone other than I wrote in Justice Without Trial (1966) that the phrase “law and on a mere hunch or on a order” can be misleading because it draws attention away from the suspicion that is based on a incompatibilities between the two ideas. Order achieved through person’s racial or ethnic democratic policing is concerned not only with the ends of crime background. control, but also with the means used to achieve those ends.

——6—— Responses to shooting incidents References Koszeg, Ferenc. 1999. Police in often highlight the underlying Transition. Budapest, Aristotle. 1984. The politics. Book fears of the population being Hungary: Hungarian Helsinki 4, Chapter 4. Translated by policed. Those people should Committee. Carnes Lord. Chicago: send a signal to police executives Skolnick, Jerome H. 1966. Justice University of Chicago Press. that the balance between the two without trial: Law enforcement Barry, Dan, with Marjorie ideas may have shifted too much in a democratic society, 3d ed. Connelly. 1999. Most New in one direction. New York: Macmillan. Yorkers see police bias, poll As we approach the ———, and David H. Bayley. finds. New York Times, 16 millennium, most European 1986. The new blue line: March. people are free from the tyranny Police innovation in six Bratton, William, with Peter of fascism and communism. As American cities. New York: Knobler. 1998. Turnaround: most people around the world The Free Press. How America’s top cop are moving toward freedom, ———, and David H. Bayley. reversed the crime epidemic. American policing ideas and May 1988. Community New York: Random House. American police practices policing: Issues and practices ———.1999. Dispelling New inevitably become a model for around the world. Wash- York’s latest fear. New York democratic policing. As Jeremy ington, DC: National Times, 28 February, Sec. 4, Travis wrote in a 1998 speech in Institute of Justice. p. 19. Budapest, “Of all governmental Travis, Jeremy. Plenary address. Harris, David A. 1997. ‘Driving functions, the policing function is Paper presented at the while Black’ and all other arguably the most visible, the Conference on International traffic offenses: The Supreme most immediate, the most Perspectives on Crime, Court and pretextual traffic intimately involved with the well- Justice, and Public Order, stops. Journal of Criminal being of individuals and the Budapest, Hungary, on Law and Criminology health of communities.” 21 June 1998. (Winter) 87:544. Democratic policing is always Wilson, James Q., and George L. Kelling, George L., and in a tension among the Kelling. 1982. Broken Catherine M. Coles. 1996. touchstones of public safety, windows. The Atlantic Fixing broken windows: openness, and accountability. As Monthly, 29 March. Restoring order and reducing the police enforce the laws of crime in our communities. democratic governments in a free New York: The Free Press. society, the balance among these touchstones should be properly maintained to reflect democratic values.

——7—— ABOUT THE POLICE FOUNDATION The Police Foundation is a private, independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting innovation and improvement in policing through its research, technical assistance, and communi- cations programs. Established in 1970, the foundation has conducted seminal research in police behavior, policy, and procedure, and works to transfer to local agencies the best new information about practices for dealing effectively with a range of important police operational and admin- istrative concerns. Motivating all of the foundation’s efforts is the goal of efficient, humane policing that operates within the framework of democratic principles and the highest ideals of the nation.

OFFICE OF RESEARCH BOARD OF DIRECTORS David Weisburd, PhD Senior Research Scientist Chairman Rosann Greenspan, PhD William G. Milliken Research Director Michael Clifton, MA President Director, Crime Mapping Laboratory Justin Ready, MA Hubert Williams Senior Research Associate Edwin E. Hamilton, MA Senior Research Analyst Freda Adler Research Associates Lee P. Brown Steven Bailey, MS Erin A. Lane, MPM William H. Hudnut III Ann Marie McNally, MA W. Walter Menninger Jennifer C. Nickisch, BS Emily Powell, BS Victor H. Palmieri Research Assistants Henry Ruth Joan Crocker, MS Michael Prachar, MA Stanley K. Sheinbaum Heather Sparks Alfred A. Slocum Meredith Walz, MA Wendolyn A. McKoy Sally Suchil Senior Administrative Assistant Kathryn J. Whitmire

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