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Do you Trust Police?
• Reports indicate a high level of public confidence in Police
Wednesday,
August 12, 2009
In a recent Sun-sentinel column, writer Mike Mayo asks “Do you trust police?” A fairly loaded question and one with no clear cut answer. Bad cops will always make headlines. Good cops go largely unnoticed, save outstanding acts of heroism or interdepartmental awards and commendations.
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Reports from both the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the U.S. Department of Justice indicate, for the most part, that the public holds cops in high regard. Police consistently rank among the institutions and occupations in which the public expresses the highest confidence and trust and a substantial majority of the public rates their police as doing an excellent or pretty good job of being “helpful and friendly,” states one report.
Measuring the public image of police is no easy task, say experts at the Justice Department, and is a complex process involving a number of variables.
Polls of the adult population in the U.S. since the 1960s show the majority of the public have an overall positive view of police – but it’s been a long hard road, say critics.
During the Knapp Commission hearings following the publication of Frank Serpico’s story in the New York Times in the 1960s, large-scale corruption involving bribes and kickbacks of enormous proportion were uncovered in the NYPD. In 1974, the Philadelphia police were accused of engaging in criminal practices at all levels of the police force.
In the 1980’s, 75 Miami police officers known as “The Miami River Cops” were arrested and charged with high-level drug dealing and murder, and between 1993 and 1995 more that 50 New Orleans police officers were indicted on charges including rape, aggravated battery, drug trafficking and murder.
Shortly after the Rodney King beating in LA in the 1990s (King a ‘poster boy’ for the use of excessive force by police) the Christopher Commission identified three LA cops as suspects in incidents involving bank robbery, false imprisonment and the beating of a handcuffed arrestee.
Although such major image setbacks for police have a nationwide impact on the public’s view of police honesty and integrity in years following such incidents, reports indicate a modest effect in communities outside the affected cities and one that does not endure.
A few ‘bad apples’ will always find their way into police agencies no matter how rigorous the selection process may be: “It is the barrel, the culture of the police organization, that can cause the root shaking scandals that periodically face some police organizations,” according to a report by law enforcement trade publication Law & Order.
According to Justice, a citizens’ overall assessment of the police is typically based on their most recent experience with police. If the experience was negative, then their perception may be negative – and previously held views of police do not change easily, say analysts. The same holds true for positive experiences.
In the case of no police contact; citizens surveyed by the Justice Department rate their ‘respect’ and ‘trust’ in police as very high.
Hispanics, and especially African Americans, evaluate police less favorably on the use of force, fairness, friendliness and promptness, reports the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Roughly one in ten respondents in a national survey reported that they had been stopped by police because of their racial or ethnic background. In 1999, 59 percent of Americans perceived racial profiling by police as “widespread” and in 2000, 75 percent viewed it as a problem in the United States.
Since, major steps in policing have been taken to dissuade racial profiling in traffic stops and to improve the racial make-up of the police rank and file.
Factors that lead to a more positive image of police include being older (national samples of high school seniors consistently rate their image of police below that of national samples of older persons), being of higher wealth and socio-economic status, living in suburbia, being white (as opposed to being black) and having positive attitudes about one’s own neighborhood.
According to historical accounts, the Margate Police Department has always been an agency out for the people, with a few bad apples here and there who were effectively dealt with.
Comprised of a single police officer in 1955, paid solely by the number of traffic citations he issued, The Margate Police Department has grown to what is now a force of well over 200 sworn officers and civilian personnel led by Margate’s sixth Police Chief, Jerry A. Blough. The MPD is funded with more than $11 million annually, paid for by taxpayers and with grants from governmental agencies.
Margate City Officials, as well as officers in his own department, credit Chief Blough for turning the department around when he took over in 1996. To ensure the constant and consistent delivery of effective law enforcement, Blough’s agency is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) and the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation (CFA).
Blough says the MPD’s hiring process is both aggressive and extensive in an effort to recruit top talent for the Margate police force. It can take up to three years to recruit an officer and the process is costly.
According to a Sun-sentinel report published in February, Blough presented 50 awards in 2008 and 77 awards in 2007 to officers for outstanding performance. Complaints filed by residents dropped in 2008 and the latest Citizen’s Satisfaction Survey shows that 93 percent of Margate’s residents are confident in the department’s ability to deal with criminal activity and address neighborhood problems.
The MPD’s recent National Night Out against crime was a huge success, drawing in excess of 5,000 people, and preparations are underway this week for departmental review by both the CALEA and CFA as part of maintaining the MPD's highly-prized accreditation status.
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As part of the on-site assessment conducted by the CALEA and CFA, the public is invited to offer comments on MPD services and performance at a public information session scheduled for Sunday, August 16 at 7 p.m. in Commission Chambers at City Hall.
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