Sir Robert Peel’s 9 Principles of Policing – Principle #8

March 24, 2021
Billy
Uncategorized
76 Comments

I am continuing my series of articles about Sir Robert Peel’s 9 Principles of Policing.

Today, my focus is on Principle #8.

Principle #8

To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.

The police serve a specific role in the criminal justice system as part of the executive branch. The legislative branch makes the law, the judicial branch interprets the law, and the executive branch (law enforcement) enforces it.

Each branch operates independently, although all three are intertwined.

The separation of roles in the criminal justice system is designed to ensure fair treatment of people in each stage.

Police officers are responsible for arresting individuals who break the law and have the legal authority to take another person’s life under certain conditions.

Offices should not take that responsibility lightly.

Even so, the police should never act as judge, jury, and executioner. To the extent possible, police officers should do everything within their power to preserve life. Deadly force should only be used if there are no other options.

The police must focus on carrying out their responsibility professionally and efficiently.

How can police agencies ensure they are operating professionally and following best practices?

State certification and accreditation can help.

Accreditation and State Certification

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriffs Association (NSA), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and the Police Executive Research Forum joined forces and created the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement (CALEA) in 1979. [i]

CALEA aims to improve the delivery of public safety services by providing a set of standards that practitioners developed to recognize professional excellence. [ii]

The benefits of accreditation include improving the relationship between the department and the community, greater accountability from supervisors, control liability insurance costs, administrative improvements, increased governmental and community support, and the facilitation of the department’s pursuit of excellence. [iii]

There is a cost to be CALEA accredited both in dollars and resources. However, those costs are certainly worth the value received through the accreditation process, especially in reduced liability.

For those agencies that can’t afford the costs of accreditation, many states have state certification programs. These programs are significantly less expensive but provide many of the same benefits of accreditation.

Avengers

Millions of people have watched the popular movies featuring the Avengers, superheroes who fight evil, and in many cases, exact justice. Police officers are sometimes viewed as these avenging heroes, although nothing could be further from the truth.

In 1974, Charles Bronson starred in the movie Death Wish. Bronson stalked and killed the men responsible after his wife was killed and daughter sexually assaulted. Other movies like Law Abiding Citizen and Acts of Vengeance portray similar storylines where the victims’ families avenge acts of violence.

Fortunately, that is not the way our system of justice works. Citizens are not allowed to avenge their loss, and police officers are not allowed to circumvent the criminal justice system on behalf of victims.

Police officers are not Avengers!

Instead, police officers are hard-working people who are put in challenging circumstances and required to make split-second decisions. The majority of the time, officers make good decisions. In some cases, their choices fall painfully short.

Unfortunately, movies like Training Day serve to distort the view and perception of law enforcement. It’s not surprising that some people view police officers as corrupt, abusive, unfair, and people who dispense justice outside of the criminal justice system.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mental Health

Police officers experience the pain and suffering of victims daily. The death, cruelty, inhumane treatment, and suffering of men, women, and children continue day in and day out.

For police officers, the aftermath of these painful experiences continues without an end.

Few individuals are exposed to such ongoing trauma as police officers. Yet, they are expected to keep a smile on their face, act professionally, and make those split-second decisions without a mistake.

The average police officer experiences 188 critical incidents during their career. [iv] This number dwarfs the number of critical incidents experienced by the average person. It’s not surprising that this trauma and ongoing stress leads to various bad life outcomes for officers, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, sleeplessness, cancer, and suicide. [v]

Police officers suffer from higher rates of divorce and alcohol issues as well.

A police officer’s job is not easy, and the consequences of a long-career can be devastating.

Use of Force

A discussion about the police not usurping the judiciary’s authority has to include a conversation about police use of force.

Outside of restricting a person’s freedom, using force, particularly deadly force, is a tangible way law enforcement can bypass the judiciary.

How and when law enforcement uses force is a hotly debated topic across our country. In many cases, the answer depends on your perspective. What is more apparent is the importance of law enforcement getting it right.

The police spend a great deal of time each year, rightly so, conducting firearms training. The mechanics of how to shoot is essential, but the decision of when to shoot is even more critical. Despite most departments’ rigorous training regimen, many critics claim the training doesn’t go far enough.

Police officers are taught to shoot center mass. Not to kill, but to stop the threat. Center mass provides the most prominent target area with the most vital organs; therefore, it makes sense that this would be the area police officers would aim for.

Still, even with this extensive firearms training, police officers have trouble hitting the target in the heat of a gunfight. Although there are no comprehensive studies on this issue, there have been a few limited ones.

The New York Police Department examined the rate at which officers fired their weapon and actually hit the person they were trying to shoot. Between 1998-2006, the average hit rate was 18% for officers in a gunfight. [vi] Forget trying to hit a specific spot on the person.

In 2005, for example, NYPD officers fired their gun 472 times in a gunfight and only hit their mark 82 times, for a hit rate of only 17.4%.

Despite these numbers, some people believe that police officers should only shoot to injure or wound. [vii] In theory, shooting to injure someone sounds excellent. But in reality, that is a tricky proposition.

Accountability

If police officers circumvent the judicial process, they must be held accountable for their actions. You probably can’t find a police executive who disagrees with that statement.

Ironically, one pundit in Missouri believes the answer is for legislators to eliminate deadly force when officers perceive a threat. [xi]

Of course, eliminating the use of deadly force by police is not realistic. Plus, it would undoubtedly make police officers and the communities they serve less safe.

It’s also not the best way to hold police officers accountable.

So how are police officers held accountable? How can you be sure that police departments are operating appropriately?

As has been mentioned previously, one way is to make sure the department is either CALEA Accredited or State Certified.

Another way to hold police officers accountable is to use Body Worn Cameras to record police-citizen encounters. There is some evidence to suggest police use of force and citizen complaints decline when body-worn cameras are used. [xii]

Other studies dispute and contradict these findings. [xiii]

Still, few people would disagree that having the video of a police use of force incident or any incident for that matter brings light to it. The video, although not without flaws, provides an independent, non-biased view of what happened.

Not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but better than having nothing.

Another way for police officers to be held accountable is for the appropriate disciplinary action to be taken when they violate a policy. If police leaders take action when officers commit minor policy violations, it may avoid a bigger problem in the future.

This is true regardless of the violation we are talking about, especially when the police use force.

When police officers act outside the law, they should be held accountable as well. Police officers who break the law should be fired and prosecuted, if appropriate.

Period.

In my experience, I have always known that if a police officer lies, he or she will be fired. While I worked at the Marietta Police Department, that was the case. In my time as the Chief of Police in Dunwoody, it has been true.

Years ago, though, I was at a conference with police chiefs and commissioners attending, representing some of the country’s largest police departments. A well-respected police commissioner stood up and announced that he was going to start firing police officers who lied.

I turned to the person sitting beside me and asked, “Does he not fire them now?” I was shocked.

A system that allows that to happen is broken.

Sadly, it is well documented that police unions, through the arbitration process, get hundreds or thousands of police officers reinstated each year after being fired. It is evident that many of these officers have committed serious police violations or even criminal acts, yet they are allowed to come back to work. [xiv]

Police unions have helped police officers get better pay and working conditions. Sadly, they have failed their membership and our profession in this area.

Ironically, in states that do not have unions or arbitration, police officers who commit acts like those reinstated through arbitration stay fired.

Use of Force Data Collection

Historically, law enforcement has not collected data on police use of force on a national level. Instead, different advocacy and media groups have attempted to create various police use of force databases.

For example, the Washington Post has collected data on police shootings since 2015, primarily relying on media reports to compile their data. [xv] At best, this database and others like it are incomplete. At worst, they have a preconceived view of police use of force.

Approximately 21 states require some form of data collection on police use of force from law enforcement agencies in their state. [xvi] The type of data collected and the reporting requirements vary from state to state. [xvii]

It is difficult to compare one state’s police use of force data to another because of the different reporting requirements.

Although states collecting police use of force data is a step in the right direction, the effort falls short of having a comprehensive national database.

In 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took the initial steps toward creating a National Use-of-Force Data Collection. A pilot program began in 2017. [xviii]

The Dunwoody Police Department, where I serve as police chief, participated in this National Use-of-Force Data Collection pilot program.

The program went national in 2019. Currently, only 40% of law enforcement agencies contribute data to the voluntary National Use-of-Force Data Collection program. The low participation rate by law enforcement is disappointing.

If law enforcement agencies fail to participate in the National Use-of-Force Data Collection program voluntarily, it is only a matter of time before participation becomes mandatory.

Conclusion

There is a reason our Founding Fathers divided our government into three branches. It is appropriate that law enforcement, the people responsible for enforcing the laws, are not responsible for making the law or dispensing justice.

Those responsibilities must be separated.

Sir Robert Peel recognized this truth as far back as the 1800s when his principles were developed. He feared the outcomes, really the damage that would be caused to society and the underlying trust that would be destroyed if police officers took the law into their own hands.

Trust in the police must be restored where it has been lost.

The police must hold themselves accountable when mistakes are made. This is a truth worth repeating.

The police must hold themselves accountable.

If they don’t hold themselves accountable or refuse to, society will do it through legislation designed to correct the continued problems or perceived problems not addressed.

[i] https://www.calea.org/

[ii] https://www.policefoundation.org/calea-accreditation-a-platform-for-excellence-and-reform/?gclid=CjwKCAiAhbeCBhBcEiwAkv2cYymtkJNIOZcupAah9FoMExns7EWppa_8okrVkso7d5HnMyXjyRkVHRoCGIcQAvD_BwE

[iii] https://www.benchmarkanalytics.com/blog/accreditation-101-the-benefits-of-state-and-national-police-accreditation/#:~:text=The%20primary%20benefits%20of%20CALEA,and%20facilitation%20of%20an%20agency’s

[iv] https://www.joinipsa.org/IPSA-Blog/7334025

[v] https://www.ehstoday.com/health/article/21915261/onthejob-stress-negatively-impacts-police-officer-health-study-suggests#:~:text=The%20findings%20reveal%20that%20police,%2C%20suicide%2C%20sleeplessness%20and%20cancer.

[vi] https://www.ajc.com/blog/get-schooled/gunfights-trained-officers-have-percent-hit-rate-yet-want-arm-teachers/mDBlhDtV6Na4wJVpeu58cM/

[vii] https://www.columbiamissourian.com/midkiff-police-are-not-judge-jury-or-executioner/article_08cedc3a-57c6-11e8-a74f-6ff64d6f7075.html

[viii] https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/contacts-between-police-and-public-2018-statistical-tables

[ix] https://www.newsweek.com/ilhan-omar-says-police-cant-judge-jury-executioner-following-rayshard-brooks-shooting-death-1510778

[x] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/machinery-death-when-government-acts-judge-jury-john-whitehead/?trackingId=GBs%2F%2FzdA9MZ7I8zTe7rAsQ%3D%3D

[xi] https://www.columbiamissourian.com/opinion/local_columnists/ken-midkiff-in-missouri-police-officers-should-not-be-allowed/article_c92b9dc2-5165-11e8-a351-4b3789ca2cc1.html

[xii] https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/251416.pdf