Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4016 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JUNE 2016 OPINION/EDITORIAL by Tom Dominguez A just society cannot exist without those sworn to car- ry out law and order. A just society cannot exist if society’s protec- tors harbor hate and resentment for the very people they are sworn to safeguard. There is no room in the law enforcement profession for racists and bigots. We are nauseated by the revelations in recent weeks of numerous racist and homophobic text messages allegedly sent by a handful of San Francisco police officers. This repulsive behavior does not reflect the profes- sionalism and dedication of the more than 2,000 offi- cers who serve the San Francisco Police Department. Our brothers and sisters in green, blue and tan did not all grow up in the same neighborhoods. They come from different cultural backgrounds. They have accents – or not, depending on how you look at it. Their hair, eyes and skin tones come in all different shades. And they reflect the patchwork of people we are sworn to protect. More than 3 million people live in Orange County. More than 319 million people live in the United States. No two are exactly alike. There are nearly 1 million sworn police officers in the United States. Despite differences in background and culture, every day these men and women put on their uniforms and go to work in big and little cities across our nation willing to lay down their lives for strangers they may never meet. It is unfortunate that the reprehensible words of a few have done more to color society’s opinions of law enforcement officers than the countless graveyard shifts, aching backs and lasting trauma endured by true public servants. Those hateful words – and the sentiment behind them – are not who we are. We must never forget that while we are not respon- sible for hiring law enforcement officers, we are all responsible for protecting society – and our profession – from those who cast us in a bad light. Tom Dominguez is president of the Association of Orange County, California Deputy Sheriffs Association. That’s not who we are American Police Beat I n Salinas, California at least three police officers have recently had their service weapons stolen. Needless to say the chief, who recently announced his retirement, has been fielding some tough questions from local reporters. After a hard hitting editorial in the local paper, Police Chief Kelly McMillin re- sponded in writing to defend himself, the investigation into the theft of the weapons and his officers. “In response to your editorial of 6 May, 2016: Let me start by saying again; nobody is more upset or distressed about the loss of these firearms than those of us who suffered those losses. “‘Upsetting’ and ‘embarrassing’ don’t begin to describe what we are going through, both as law enforcement pro- fessionals and as victims of crime. At my press conference of 29 April to announce my retirement I was not ‘sitting on’ any- I f you read American Police Beat with any regularity, you will surely have noticed by now the two diverging approaches to “restoring trust with the community” and/or the “war on cops.” The first approach is what can be referred to as the official (what the chief and the agency is saying) and the unofficial (which is what association leaders and cops that speak out in the media are saying). There’s a striking example of this tension on the op/ed page of this issue on page 17. If you listen to speeches like the one the incoming chief of police in Ferguson, Mis- souri recently gave to his people, you’ll hear a lot of phrases like “restoring trust,” “we have to do better,” “we can only be effective with the support of the community.” If you listen to many working law en- forcement people and the association and union leaders that represent them, you get basically the opposite. “People don’t respect us, everyone’s beating up on cops and hugging criminals and we’re now society’s punching bag,” are common refrains. This is what might be called a ‘holding pattern,’ for the lack of a better term. And the “new normal” looks like it’s here to stay. The only real question is what impact this will have on police officers, com- munities and the future of the traditional public safety model. Maybe before law enforcement can build or rebuild bridges with the community, we might want to start thinking about bridge- building within the law enforcement com- munity itself. thing,” the chief wrote. Of particular interest to the media is why the chief will not make public the surveil- lance videos of the gun thefts. “We spoke to the investigators on the case and they requested that, for now, we not release the video,” the chief said. “They explained their reasons and their reasons are investigatively sound. We were not stonewalling. We were not hiding. We were not being uncooperative.” And here’s where decisions to release video or not are of such critical importance to decision makers like Chief McMillin. In Boston and San Diego police and prosecutors are releasing police videos involving use of force on a regular basis. It turns out when people see the tape they overwhelmingly back the cops. But with- out any pictures, everything gets left to the imagination. And you can guess what people might imagine. The center can’t hold Transparency is tricky Your future is threatened T he average age of a law enforcement officer is 28 years old. It’s a young person’s job, to be sure – and most young people are not concerned with saving for retirement and don’t pay much attention to the details of their pension. But there are powerful people and inter- ests who are spending a lot of money to eliminate collective bargaining and con- tracts which include defined benefit pen- sions to take care of you after you retire. Police association leaders everywhere are being forced to spend precious resources filing lawsuits, doing polling, and engaging the services of a PR firm, all in order to protect pensions and retirement funds that law enforcement officers earned under the provisions of a contract, which should be considered law. These battles are raging from San Jose, California to Omaha, Nebraska. If you have not been involved in the effort to protect your pension, this is the time to get involved. Your association needs your in- put and support to keep these hard-earned benefits. As Sgt. Aaron Hansen, a pension trustee from the Omaha P.D. put it, “This is a crisis of serious magnitude. If people with underfunded pension plans don’t get their heads out of the sand and deal with it soon, it will be too late.” Chairman & Publisher: Cynthia Brown Chief Executive Officer: Sarah Vallee Editor-in-Chief: Mark Nichols Advertising Sales: Dave Quimby Digital Manager: Jeremy Lange Office Assistant: Brendan O’Brien Designer: Karin Henderson