Recommendations for best Practices, Policies

and Training for Police Departments

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 To build better relationships with law enforcement and the community they serve. It is the goal
of our organization to present the best practices and recommendations for Police Departments
across the nation. The mission is to create a revolutionary change in how communities are
policed, especially communities of color and the poor.

It is our goal to improve the assignments of White, Hispanic, Asian and even Black police
officers to police poor, predominantly black neighborhoods who have had little or no social
contact with members of these groups. The failure of Police managements throughout the
nation to create specific training in how officers should effectively interact in such
environments has been an ongoing recipe for disaster. History has proven, that in many cases,
Police officers from each of the groups mentioned above sometimes bring negative attitudes
and or stereotypes to these communities that can adversely affect their decisions and the
fairness of their enforcement actions.

The following recommendations are based on best practices suited for Police Departments
from President Barack Obama's 21 Century Policing, 2009 Use of Force Training for the
Westchester County Police Academy, 2009 New York State Task Force on Police-on-Police
Shooting, 2008 report, The Effect of Collective Bargaining on the Use of Innovative Policy,
University of North Florida and Robert Peels Nine Peelian Principles.

BUILDING TRUST AND LEGITIMACY

“Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law
to be able to obtain and maintain the respect of the public.” Robert Peel.

1. Police Departments must embrace a guardian mindset in policies, procedures and training to
build public trust and legitimacy. Toward that end, Westchester County should adopt
procedural justice as the guiding principle for internal and external policies and practices to
guide their interactions with the citizens they serve.

How officers define their role will set the tone for the community. As Plato wrote, “In a republic
that honors the core of democracy—the greatest amount of power is given to those called
Guardians. Only those with the most impeccable character are chosen to bear the responsibility
of protecting the democracy.”

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 Law enforcement cannot build community trust if it is seen as an occupying force coming in
from outside to rule and control the community.

There’s an old saying, “Organizational culture eats policy for lunch.” Any law enforcement
organization can make great rules and policies that emphasize the guardian role, but if policies
conflict with the existing culture, they will not be institutionalized, and behavior will not
change. In police work, the vast majority of an officer’s job is done independently outside the
direct oversight of a supervisor. However, consistent enforcement of rules that conflict with a
military-style culture, where obedience to the chain of command is the norm, is nearly
impossible. Behavior is more likely to conform to culture than rules.

2. Police Departments must establish a culture of transparency and accountability to build

public trust and legitimacy. This will help ensure decision making is understood and in accord
with stated policy.

To embrace a culture of transparency, police departments should make all department policies
available for public review and regularly post on the department’s website information about
stops, summonses, arrests, reported crime, and other law enforcement data aggregated by
demographics.

3. Police Departments must promote legitimacy internally within the organization by applying
the principles of procedural justice.

The organizational culture created through employee interaction with management can be
linked to officers’ interaction with citizens. When an agency creates an environment that
promotes internal procedural justice, it encourages its officers to demonstrate external
procedural justice. Moreover, just as employees are more likely to take direction from
management when they believe management’s authority is legitimate, citizens are more likely
to cooperate with the police when they believe the officers’ authority is legitimate.

Internal procedural justice begins with the clear articulation of organizational core values and
the transparent creation and fair application of an organization’s policies, protocols, and
decision-making processes. The leadership must embrace the policy development; workers are
more likely to use these same principles of external procedural justice in their interactions with
the community. Even though the approach to implementing procedural justice is “top down,”
the method should include all employees to reach a shared vision and mission best.

4. Police Departments must proactively promote public trust by initiating positive non
enforcement activities to engage communities that typically have high rates of investigative
and enforcement involvement with government agencies.

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 In communities that have high numbers of interactions with authorities for a variety of reasons,
police should actively create opportunities for interactions that are positive and not related to
an investigation or enforcement action.

In recent years, agencies across the county have begun to institutionalize community trust
building endeavors. They have done this through programs such as Coffee with a Cop (and
Sweet Tea with the Chief), Cops and Clergy, Citizens on Patrol Mobile, Students Talking It Over
with Police, and the West Side Story Project. Joint community and law dialogues and truth-
telling, as well as community and law enforcement training in procedural justice and bias, are
also occurring nationally. Some agencies are even using training, dialogues, and workshops to
take steps towards racial reconciliation.

Agencies engaging in these efforts to build relationships often experience beneficial results.
Communities are often more willing to assist law enforcement when agencies need help during
investigations. Moreover, when critical incidents occur, those agencies already have vital allies
who can help with information messaging and mitigating challenge.

5. Police Departments must track the level of trust in the police by their communities just as
they measure changes in crime. Annual community surveys, ideally standardized across
jurisdictions and with accepted sampling protocols, can measure how policing in that
community affects public trust.

Trust in institutions can only be achieved if the public can verify what they are being told about
a product or service, who is responsible for the quality of the product or service, and what will
be done to correct any problems. To operate effectively, law enforcement agencies must
maintain public trust by having a transparent, credible system of accountability.

6. County and State governments must oversee the initiative should help localities learn best
practices for recruitment, training, and outreach to improve the diversity as well as the
cultural and linguistic responsiveness of law enforcement agencies.

7. Police Departments must strive to create a workforce that contains a broad range of diversity
including race, gender, language, life experience, and cultural background to improve
understanding and effectiveness in dealing with all communities.

We cannot to blind to reality. History has shown an all white majority male police force with no
supervisor or management of color cannot and will not police community of color fairly. Many
agencies have long appreciated the critical importance of hiring officers who reflect the
communities they serve and also have a high level of procedural justice competency. Achieving
diversity in entry-level recruiting is important but achieving systematic and comprehensive
diversification throughout each segment of the department is the ultimate goal. It is also
important to recognize that diversity means not only race and gender but also the genuine
diversity of identity, experience, and background that has been found to help improve the

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 culture of police departments and build greater trust and legitimacy with all segments of the
population.

A critical factor in managing bias is seeking candidates who are likely to police in an unbiased
manner. Since people are less likely to have biases against groups with which they have had
positive experiences, police departments should seek candidates who have had positive
interactions with people of various cultures and backgrounds.

As America becomes more of a military state, law enforcement careers are more appealing in
most communities. However, the number of black recruits is dramatically declining. Whereas,
the number of black males with criminal records before 18-year-olds is on the incline as the
result of overzealous policing policies like “Stop N Frisk and “Broken Windows”.

Additionally, many African Americans, male or female, that are eligible for law enforcement
jobs do not look to law enforcement careers because of the overwhelming resentment and
distrust towards the police that exists within the Black community. Where will we find young
black men and women to fill the ranks after our senior black officers retire? If this pattern is
allowed to continue, within the next 60 years, there will be almost no Black Law Enforcement
Professionals within our departments throughout the United States.

8. Police Departments must institute residency incentive programs such as Resident Officer
Programs.

Resident Officer Programs are arrangements where law enforcement officers are provided
housing in public housing neighborhoods as long as they fulfill public safety duties within the
neighborhood that have been agreed to between the housing authority and the law
enforcement agency. In order for officer to truly respect the community they serve; they should
be stakeholders and investors in the community.

POLICY & OVERSIGHT

The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police
actions.” Robert Peel

1. Police Departments must collaborate with community members to develop policies and
strategies in communities and neighborhoods disproportionately affected by crime for
deploying resources that aim to reduce crime by improving relationships, greater community
engagement, and cooperation.

The development of a service model process that focuses on the root causes of crime should
include the community members themselves because what works in one neighborhood might

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 not be equally successful in every other one. A commitment of resources and personnel to
areas of high poverty, limited services, and at-risk or vulnerable populations through creating
priority units with specialized training and added status and pay.

2. Police Departments must implement in Use of Force Policy, An Officers Duty to Intercede.

To amend Use of Force Policies to require Officers to intercede when witnessing other
officers violate Use of Force or Deadly force training and departmental policies. It is the duty
of an officer to stop any criminal act even if a fellow officer is committing the criminal
offense, violating departmental policies, procedures or training. (Baltimore Police update
their policy after the death of Freddy Gray)

3. Police Departments must have comprehensive policies on the use of force that include
training, investigations, prosecutions, data collection, and information sharing. These policies
must be clear, concise, and openly available for public inspection.

4. Police Departments policies for training on the use of force should emphasize de-escalation
and alternatives to arrest or summons in situations where appropriate.

These policies should also mandate external and independent criminal investigations in cases of
police use of force resulting in death, officer-involved shootings resulting in injury or death, or
in-custody deaths.

5. Police Departments policies that mandate the use of external and independent prosecutors in
cases of police use of force resulting in death, officer-involved shootings resulting in injury or
death, or in-custody deaths.

Reliable systems and policies that encourage the use of an independent prosecutor for
reviewing police uses of force and for prosecution in cases of inappropriate deadly force and in-
custody death will demonstrate the transparency to the public that can lead to mutual trust
between community and law enforcement.

6. Police Department policies on use of force should also require agencies to collect, maintain,
and report data to the Federal Government on all officer-involved shootings, whether fatal or
nonfatal, as well as any in-custody death.

In-custody deaths are not only deaths in a prison or jail but also deaths that occur in the
process of an arrest. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) implemented the Arrest-Related
Deaths data collection in 2003 as part of requirements set forth in the Deaths in Custody
Reporting Act of 2000 and reenacted in 2014.

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 7. Municipalities must establish a Serious Incident Review Board comprising sworn staff and
community members to review cases involving officer-involved shootings and other serious
incidents that have the potential to damage community trust or confidence in the agency.
The purpose of this board should be to identify any administrative, supervisory, training,
tactical, or policy issues that need to be addressed.

8. Police Departments must implement no punitive peer review of critical incidents separate
from criminal and administrative investigations.

These reviews, sometimes known as “near miss” or “sentinel event” reviews, focus on the
improvement of practices and policy. Such reviews already exist in medicine, aviation, and
other industries. According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), a sentinel event in criminal
justice would include wrongful convictions but also “near miss” acquittals and dismissals of
cases that at earlier points seemed solid; cold cases that stayed cold too long; wrongful releases
of dangerous or factually guilty criminals or vulnerable arrestees with mental disabilities; and
failures to prevent domestic violence within at-risk families.

Sentinel events can include episodes that are within policy but disastrous in terms of
community relations, whether or not everyone agrees that the event should be classified as an
error. In fact, anything that stakeholders agree can cause widespread or viral attention could be
considered a sentinel event.

9. Police Departments must collect, maintain, and analyze demographic data on all detentions
(stops, frisks, searches, summons, and arrests).

10. Police Departments must establish some form of civilian oversight of law enforcement to
strengthen trust with the community. It is vital for city, county, state and federal agencies to
define the appropriate form and structure of civilian oversight to meet the needs of the
communities they serve.

Many, but not all, state and local agencies operate with the oversight or input of civilian police
boards or commissions. Part of the process of assessing the need and desire for new or
additional civilian oversight should include information from and collaboration with police
employees because the people to be overseen should be part of the process that will oversee
them. This guarantees that the principles of internal procedural justice are in place to benefit
both the police and the community they serve.

11. Police Departments must refrain from practices requiring officers to issue a predetermined
number of tickets, citations, arrests, or summonses, or to initiate investigative contacts with
citizens for reasons not directly related to improving public safety, such as generating
revenue.

12. Police Departments must require officers to seek consent before a search and explain that a
person has the right to refuse consent when there is no warrant or probable cause.

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 Furthermore, officers should ideally obtain written acknowledgement that they have sought
consent to a search in these circumstances.

13. Police Departments must adopt and enforce policies prohibiting profiling and discrimination
based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, gender identity/expression,
sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, housing status, occupation, or language
fluency.

14. Police Departments should adopt model policies also, best practices for technology-based
community engagement that increases community trust and access.

Law enforcement agencies should proactively promote public trust by initiating positive non
enforcement activities to engage communities that typically have high rates of investigative and
enforcement involvement with government agencies.

In communities that have high numbers of interactions with authorities for a variety of reasons,
police should actively create opportunities for interactions that are positive and not related to
an investigation or enforcement action.

15. Police Departments should acquire national accreditation by the he Commission on

Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

CALEA is a credentialing authority (accreditation), based in the United States, whose primary
mission is to accredit public safety agencies, namely law enforcement agencies, training
academies, communications centers, and campus public safety agencies.

The purpose of CALEA’s Accreditation Program is to improve the delivery of public safety
services, primarily by maintaining a body of standards, developed by public safety practitioners,
covering a wide range of up-to-date public safety initiatives; establishing and administering an
accreditation process; and recognizing professional excellence.

There are only 10 law enforcement agencies in the state of New York that has national
accreditation through CALEA. Only one (1) law enforcement agency in Westchester County;
Scarsdale Police Department.

16. Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA)

Law Enforcement Policies and Procedures must be looked at as a living document. In the age of
social media, police encounters, good or bad, are uploaded for the world to see. As city
governments and Law Enforcement management are more aware of situations and how they
reflect on their departmental policies. It is imperative for municipalities, and Law Enforcement
Management to have the freedom and consciousness to change the policies and, if necessary,
add to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 A collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written legal contract between an employer and a
union representing the employees. The CBA is the result of an extensive negotiation process
between the parties regarding topics such as wages, hours, and terms and conditions of
employment.

If negotiations of proactive policies and police accountability fail through negotiations of the
CBA, the municipalities or state and federal agencies must pass legislation to make necessary
changes into law.

The Gothamist reported in July 2019; New York City had spent nearly $40 million on police
misconduct settlements. The amount of money spent by municipalities to shock the conscious
of any concerned taxpayer, but it should also raise a red flag on how we stop the policing that
leads to the lawsuits through policies, procedures, legislation and Collective Bargaining.

COMMUNITY POLICING & CRIME REDUCTION

The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of
police action in dealing with it.” Robert Peel

1. Police Departments must develop and adopt policies and strategies that reinforce the
importance of community engagement in managing public safety.

Community policing is not just about the relationship between individual officers and individual
neighborhood residents. It is also about the relationship between law enforcement leaders and
leaders of key institutions in a community, such as churches, businesses, and schools,
supporting the community’s process to define prevention and reach goals.

Law enforcement agencies cannot ensure the safety of communities alone but should seek to
contribute to the strengthening of neighborhood capacity to prevent and reduce crime through
informal social control.

More than a century of research shows that informal social control is a much more powerful
mechanism for crime control and reduction than is formal punishment. Moreover, the best
evidence for the preventive power of informal social control may be the millions of unguarded
opportunities to commit a crime that are passed up each day.

Community policing should be infused throughout the culture and organizational structure of
law enforcement agencies.

Community policing must be a way of doing business by an entire police force, not just a
specialized unit of that force. Community policing cannot be a program, unit, strategy or tactic.

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

 It must be the core principle that lies at the foundation of a police department’s culture. The
only way to significantly reduce fear, crime, and disorder and then sustain these gains is to
leverage the most significant force multiplier: the people of the community.

Community policing emphasizes working with neighborhood residents to co-produce public

safety. Law enforcement agencies should work with community residents to identify problems
and collaborate on implementing solutions that produce meaningful results for the community.

2. Police Departments must establish formal community/citizen advisory committees to assist

in developing crime prevention strategies and agency policies as well as provide input on
policing issues.

Multiple committees should be established to ensure they inform all levels of the organization.
The makeup of these committees should reflect the demographics of the community or
neighborhood being served.

TRAINING & EDUCATION

“Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to
usurp the powers of the judiciary.” Robert Peel

1. It is imperative that Westchester County Government take full control of training and
education of all 43 municipalities. The mission is to have a properly educated and trained
officer throughout the county of Westchester under one complete training standard.

2. Police Departments must develop replicable model programs that use adult-based learning
and scenario-based training in a training environment modeled less like boot camp.

3. Police Departments must establish partnerships with academic institutions to develop

rigorous training practices, evaluation, and the development of curricula based on evidence-
based practices.

4. Police Department must provide leadership training to all personnel throughout their careers.

Standards and programs need to be established for every level of leadership from the first line
to middle management to executive leadership. If there is good leadership and procedural
justice within the agency, the officers are more likely to behave according to those standards in
the community.

5. Police Departments must institute a more culturally diverse academy staff.

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

6. Police Departments must implement ongoing, top-down training for all officers in cultural
diversity and related topics that can build trust and legitimacy in diverse communities. This
should be accomplished with the assistance of advocacy groups that represent the viewpoints
of communities that have traditionally had adversarial relationships with law enforcement.

7. Police Departments must implement Undoing Racism Training class within academy curricula
and remedial training.

Undoing Racism Training for police recruits will provide an opportunity for cities and police
agencies to save the lives of police officers and citizens, protect the careers of law enforcement
officers, save cities millions of dollars in litigation, and prevent life-long trauma to police
families and residents that frequently occurs after fatal police/citizen encounters. Police
candidates will learn how the role of law enforcement contributes to the oppression and
suppression of people living in Black and Brown communities.

Officers will walk away with a historical perspective on how the criminal justice system
functions to preserve racial inequities and maintain white supremacy. Attendees will develop a
better understanding of the anger and resentment that People of Color experience as a result
of most encounters with the police and officers will develop strategies to repair deteriorating
relationships between the police and Communities of Color.

“When it comes to police officers, I believe that learning to undo racism is just as important as
learning first aid. Police officers in Duluth who have attended People’s Institute training often
act differently in situations where issues of racism come up. They are less likely to personalize
the situation. Instead of becoming defensive, they will show more empathy. Officers who
haven’t gone through the workshop often make the situation with community worse”
Robert Grytdahl, Duluth Human Rights Officer, Retired Duluth Deputy Police Chief

8. Police Departments must implement training for officers that covers policies for interactions
with the LGBTQ population, including issues such as determining gender identity for arrest
placement, the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities, and immigrant or non-English
speaking groups, as well as reinforcing policies for the prevention of sexual misconduct and
harassment.

9. Police Departments must fully adopt and put in place recommendations made by the 2009
Use of Force Training for the Westchester County Police Academy.

10. Police Departments must full adopt and put in place recommendations made by 2009 New
York State Task Force on Police-on-Police Shootings.

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC

For more information:
Blacks In Law Enforcement of America
455 Tarrytown Rd. # 1318
White Plains, New York 10607
914-525-5288
Email: bleausa11@gmail.com

Blacks In Law Enforcement of America Safe and Secure Communities LLC