First, I had to come to the realization that what we, the police, were doing was not working. We had a long history of baggage between the police and the minority community. How did they come to believe that the police don’t care? Well, the crack house goes on and on despite their calls to police. Or they see us just driving by after they call to report a guy selling drugs on the corner. But we do care.
James Fealy, Former Chief of Police, High Point Police Department
James Fealey is the former Chief of Police, High Point (North Carolina) Police Department
First, I had to come to the realization that what we, the police, were doing was not working.
We had a long history of baggage between the police and the minority community. How did they come to believe that the police don’t care? Well, the crack house goes on and on despite their calls to police. Or they see us just driving by after they call to report a guy selling drugs on the corner.
But we do care. People don’t know the many reasons we might seem to be just driving by. We could be checking the computer, responding to another call, etc. Let’s acknowledge that the police do care; let’s set this straight.
Let’s also talk about what the community does that makes police think the community doesn’t care.
I’ll say, “I realize we have let you down, and I apologize for that.” I’ll start to see some heads nodding in agreement. I’ll say, “Give us one more chance. Let’s work together.” This difficult speech has gone well every time.
I have even told the community that if they didn’t want to do this, we wouldn’t. But I knew the talks were working when, as soon as I finished speaking, a hand shot up in the back, and a woman asked, “When do we start?”
This is important groundwork to do outside the call-ins. In a given community, we’ll have one meeting with about 10 people, then ask them to invite their neighbors to another meeting, growing these meetings to 30-40 people, sometimes as many as 100. It takes about three visits to a community to pass the word and explain the strategy effectively.
For chiefs who don’t want to admit mistakes, they should realize that what they were doing simply wasn’t effective despite their hard work. They don’t have to admit any bad motives, but they can’t continue to claim credit just for effort.
What we were doing was ineffective and unpleasant for neighborhood residents. People might be able to tolerate aggressive and effective policing, but not policing that is ineffective and aggressive.
For us, the payoff is that the city is far safer than it used to be. Everybody wants that.
