40 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: OCTOBER 2017 by Dean M. Esserman I keep reading about how drones, artificial intelligence and fa- cial-recognition tech- nologies are going to take our industry of policing to an entirely new level. Technology will improve safety, they say. Cops will make quicker arrests, they argue. The world will be a better place for all, they assure. That’s all well and swell, but from my perspec- tive, the future of policing remains firmly in the able and quite human hands of the men and women in law enforcement who spend every day of their lives protecting their communi- ties. Want to know why I be- lieve this? What better ex- ample of policing can take place than what happened on a summer day in July when officers celebrated “National Coffee with a Cop Day” by having a cup of joe with community members. It’s such a good idea. “National Coffee with a Cop Day” benefits both sides of the badge. Oftentimes, that uniform and that badge can serve as a barrier. Sitting down and breaking bread or having coffee addresses that bar- rier and what is learned about the other shatters it. I am not surprised. I find that it takes more effort to be silent over coffee than it does to talk. It turns out, relationships matter. It’s hard to hate someone up close. Moments like these en- able citizens to realize that there is a human being wearing that uniform and it allows the officer to know they are not just dealing with a statistic or a sus- pect. I believe you develop trust one person at a time. I know people who don’t believe in their police de- partment that serves their community but do believe in their officers. They won’t call the police station and re- port a crime, but they will call the cell phone of the police officer who has been walking their block for the past month or two. It sounds like a strange notion. But it’s just like people who believe in their pastor but not their church. It may be difficult to ex- plain, but I cannot tell you the number of people I have spoken to over the years and asked them why they didn’t report a crime. Their answer? “I didn’t know anybody there.” At its essence though, coffee with a cop is not about just drinking coffee with a law enforcement of- ficer. It’s a moment where police officers can win over their community members and develop a relationship that the barrier caused by a badge can never tear down. In the post-modern era, post-World War II, the in- dustry of policing got taken by technology – just like every industry did. It has had consequences. We couldn’t believe our good fortune that we could create a 911 system where someone could grab a ro- tary phone, dial three num- bers, and the cops would magically appear. It’s just like when we put a police radio in the car so the officer could keep in touch with dispatch. That meant he or she rarely left the car. The consequence has been anonymity – our of- ficers lost connection with their beats while officers became interchangeable. It turns out, relationships matter. It’s hard to hate someone up close. So, I will say it again because this is impor- tant. Relationships matter. At every department that I had the privilege to be the chief of police – Stam- ford, Providence and New Haven – we instituted the mandatory walking beat after graduation from the academy and the FTO program. Every single officer walked the same beat for a year. Each month, I would bring those rookies in to the conference room and ask them about their expe- riences. The stories evolved the same way: The first week or two, they were eyeballed by everyone in the neigh- borhood, and vice versa. But after a month, they couldn’t get to the end of the block without a wave. Then by another month, they knew their family names and had their cell numbers. Sooner or later I would get the same story. It went like this: “Chief, I don’t Continued on next page Without trust, all hope is lost People trust officers they know. Will they trust the machines that replace them? The philosophy behind community policing is more than 200 years old. But somehow the idea that police officers and agencies can win hearts and minds in communities has become controversial. That’s good news for tech companies with all kinds of “solutions.” Above: An elderly woman crosses “go for a ride-along with that nice officer that checks on me” off her bucket list. It’s hard to hate someone up close. Moments like these enable citizens to realize that there is a human being wearing that uniform. t
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