The Socialization of Police Officers
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If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. .. ·U,S.DepartmentofJustice .. ConununityRelations Service :,' -' .... Principlt~s. of Good Policing: .. Avoiding Violence ,Between· . Police and Citizens . Revised Marchc1993 '. , 0 ,.' . :.i.-_ $' .,, ,,] N N N' ex:> 1/ ~ !i I j, > '." ~ [.. ,) I ! 'J' ~.J .. i:'" I, '. 'i i ~ , :AlJoutCRS....' \. ". .', '\ .(i. , . ..···Tli~CommtinityReI~tions .Sewce (CRS); 'a tlniq~e '. Wotkiug with v~ilip;tary, and govemment'agt;mcies, ·comp()hent of tbe l)epartlnentofJ'tistice, seeks 10 pre- ,CRS;als'o provides humanitarian s¢ryjces forthe vent or:resolve community conflicts ,and tensionsaris- ... ., successfui resettlement ofCuQan and Haitian entrants. m,~frofua'1tiQns; poliCie~h and Prac.tices'j?¢tcei\iedto,be· . TheseservicesinClnde slie)tercare,,' chUd welfare, and . 'di~criI:pinatoryohthe basis ofrace~ colot~orna~onal' ..;faillilyr~\lnifica~onfor th()~eindividua1sfoll()wing '. ()ri~;CRSprovjdes' services; .ihc1t1ding ~Qnciliation! .. ' .their release fJ:omI:mrn,igrauon.C\nd Naturalization·· .. :mediatioir, and; teqhnical~sistar1cedirecit1y to. :l>epple . Service, cnsto,dy, . •. ., H, . .,. "q', . -. :.,,' ~d thekcOnmiu~ties to ,help them resolve Gpnflicts . ..' ...' P9lice-citizencotifliq.taccoullts for Rmajorporf;ion , '·;thatte~at Uiefabric ,of an mcteasm,gly<;1l:'\fetse so¢iety.· ·offue ,cUsputes to which CRS, responds.'rheagency . .... CR~qoesnotmke Sldesafiioilg. disput;pig,PartJeS" .. '., '.' . provides a wide range;of~iollciliation~d technical· .,. ~.: ·and,inpromQtfug.the,prlndpl~sandidea1s' or nOll-clis~ ·~sistaUce tQ,4t1P pr,eyenti;Qr tes()lvedisagre~Inehts crhnmation~ applies skills that aUowp~es tQ;coine to· ;over:allegedp))iceus~ of.e~cessive .force arid o$er .'. Uielr.own agr~eInellt .. Inpenorinh1gthismissl,op;CRS issl,les.ORScames'optWostof ,its,licuvities itlfoirUally 'de~loyshigh1ys~ed prof~siollal conciliator$,wl1o " ,":hut will COIldu((f f01mhlnegotiatioris.itthe. disputing are 'able tQassist peppleofdjv~r~e I;~cial and.cultutal,. ...parties believetbat apProach offers the best oppottUmty , b~ckgrQuhds, 'Jorreaching a ill,tttuaJ,lysatisfacto:r;ysettlement'of'theJr '... mtrerences'; ,. .'. ", '" ." . '., ~ ' ... ,~ .~, U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service Principles of Good Policing: Avoiding Violence Between Police and Citizens Revised March 1993 148222 U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice . t has been reproduced exactly as received from t~e ~~;~o~o~~~~~nization originating It. Points of view or oplnl~lns stated ~ this document are those of the authors and do not necessan Yr.eprese the official position or policies of the National Institute of Justice. Permission to reproduce this:;ulgl t material has been ~~~llc DOmain/Community Rela~ions Services/U.S. Dept. of JUstlce to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires permission of the ...... owner. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328 ISBN 0-16-041712-0 Foreword Over the years, the Community Relations Service In 1979, CRS organized one of the first major (CRS) has assisted police depat1ments and communi national conference ever convened to examine the ties allover the country in coming to grips with the dif deadly force issue and the safety of police officers. ficult task of maintaining law and order in a complex The League of United Latin American Citizens and the and changing multicultural society. Frequently, these National Urban League cosponsored the conference. It efforts have involved resolving disputes related to involved some of the nation's top police executives, minority citizens' complaints about police behavior, national civil rights leaders, criminal justice research use of force, and hate groups. ers, local community leaders, and rank-and-file police In the following pages of this revised edition, the officers in extensive discussions about the use-of-force staff of the Community Relations Service, together issue. Those discussions laid the groundwork for with knowledgeable law enforcement executives, has unprecedented cooperation on action programs by set out guiding principles that should govern police conference participants when they returned to their work in the community. home cities. The underlying assumption is that a police force Since then, CRS has made the development and and the community it serves must reach consensus on implementation of innovative approaches to the deadly the values which guide that police force. Those values, force problem - and dissemination of information while implicit in our Constitution, must embrace as through other conferences, training workshops, and clearly as possible the protection of individual life and publications - a major focus of its eff0l1s. In the mid- liberty, and, at the same time, what is necessary to 1980s, as one pat1 of that effort the agency invited four maintain a peaceful and stable society. To accomplish of the Nation's outstanding law enforcement profes this, a police executive must be familiar not only with sionals to join in exatlHning the police function with his or her own police culture, but with the community an eye toward identifying techniques, tactics, and culture as well, which is no easy task in neighborhoods approaches that should help to minimize violent police experiencing major demographic changes. encounters with citizens. Those professionals were The Community Relations Service's involvement Frank Amoroso, then Chief of Police of Portland, in police-citizen violence stems directly from the Maine, and now Director of the State of Maine Drug agency's mandate to assist in resolving conflicts that Enforcement Agency; Lee Brown, then Chief of Police threaten peaceful race relations in communities. of Houston, Texas, later Commissioner of Police of Among the causes of such disputes, none is more New York City, and now Professor at Texas Southern volatile than alleged unwarranted police use of deadly University; Charles Rodriguez, then Professor of force against minority citizens. Even a perception that Criminal Justice at Southwest Texas University, and police follow this practice is cause for concern, Chief of Police of San Antonio, Texas, and now a because the negative impact on police-citizen relations Special Education Instructor at Memorial High School, will be the same as the actual unwarranted use of force. in the Edgewood Independent School District in San These issues have been a central concern for CRS Antonio; and Darrel Stephens, then a fonner Chief of since its inception. During the late 1970s, the agency Police of the Newp0l1 News, Virginia, and Executive stepped up its programming in this at'ea during the late Director of the Police Executive Research Forum in 1970s when its case10ad began to increase. A number Washington, D.C., and now Chief of Police of St. of national leaders cited police-citizen violence as a Petersburg, Florida. This group and CRS' own staff serious problem, and several independent studies indi developed the recommendations and suggestions that cated that minorities were disprop0l1ionately the vic were presented in the first printing of this publication. tims of police use of deadly force. In 1991, a citizen's The current presentation is an update of the earlier videotape of police officers beating Rodney King publication. It maintains the strong emphasis on police caused many departments and communities to reexam values and their effect on officer behavior and on the ine police values and practices - again resulting in a community served by a department. New sections on major increase in CRS casework in this area. the ROLE OF POLICE, COMMUNITY POLICING, IMMI GRANTS AND CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS, USE OF FORCE i AND ALTERNATIVES, CITIZEN COMPLAINTS AND OTHER predominant importance in the overall equation of REDRESS SYSTEMS, MUNICIPAL LIABILITY, USING police-citizen relations. COMMUNITY RESOURCES, POLICE ACCESSIBILITY, HATE Finally, while this publication is directed primarily VIOLENCE, and DRUGS AND GANGS supplement the text toward police departments, CRS also encourages of the first edition of the publication which has been police executives to use its contents to explore their widely used in law enforcement training. relationship with representatives of the communities in CRS is well aware that citizens bear a major part of which they work. In the Community Relations the responsibility for the nature of relations with the Service, we have always appreciated the benefits of a police. In fact, through its casework and publications, preventive response versus a reactive one. Police exec the agency has frequently addressed steps which citi utives will find this publication helpful in devising zens and police can take cooperatively to reduce racial techniques to prevent racial conflict and disharmony in tension. The object of this publication, however, is to the communities they serve. focus exclusively on the police function, because of its l-W~ Jeffrey L. Weiss Deputy Director ii Preface The relationship between the American public and good policing must take into consideration two equally the police, particularly its often violent nature, has been important factors: the values on which a police depart under intensive reexamination. Police-citizen violence