Leadership and Culture

IntroductionPart 1Part 2Recommended Best Practices

Introduction

Organizational culture and leadership are central to policing in America. Leadership plays a critical role in establishing, influencing, and maintaining police culture, and culture plays a critical role in the effective operation of police departments.[i] Exactly how leadership influences departments has been the subject of some study.

Organizational science posits that police organizational culture — with its hierarchies,incentive systems,andsocial values — influences the reasoning and behavior of officers in systemic ways that have important implications for police reform.[ii] Indeed, police misconduct doesn’t occur in a vacuum, with individual officers deciding to ignore norms, rules, and expectations on their own.[iii]It arises out of organizational culture, which influences officers’ judgment , biases, decision, and conduct.[iv]

Healthy departmental cultures are inclusive, position officers as “guardians” of public safety, and hold officers accountable for their actions. Toxic departmental cultures, on the other hand, create and perpetuate an “us-versus-them” mentality that pits officers against communities; position officers as “warriors” against anarchy and chaos; and do not mete out swift and appropriate discipline when necessary, which allows misconduct to fester.[v]

Department leaders shape departmental culture. Strong leaders committed to the values of fairness, equity, procedural justice, legitimacy, transparency, and accountability will put in place the systems to promote these values and address behaviors in contravention with them. Indeed, to improve public safety and create stronger human connections with the communities they and their departments serve, leaders must set the foundation to instill these values in their officers.[vi]Without strong leadership, what’s taught through policies and training, and broader police reform, won’t take hold.

[i]See, e.g., President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 11-12 (2015) [hereinafter President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing],https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf (recommending that procedural justice serve as the underpinning of a change in culture that will contribute to building trust and confidence in the community); Int’l Ass’n of Chiefs of Police, IACP National Policy Summit On Community-Police Relations: Advancing A Culture Of Cohesion And Community Trust 12 (2015), https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/CommunityPoliceRelationsSummitReport_web.pdf (noting that the lack of truly integrated community policing into police department culture inhibits true community-police cohesion and poses a challenge to community leaders and police); S. David Mitchell, Chair, Missouri Advisory Committee, Columbia, et al.,Missouri Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commissions on Civil Rights, The Impact of Community/Police Interactions on individual Civil Rights in Missouri 19-20 (2016), https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/docs/MOPoliceRelationsReport_Publish.pdf (observing that community mistrust developed at least in part from the Ferguson Police Department’s culture of racial bias nurtured by the department’s leadership regarding as it pertains to the “pack mentality”).

[ii]See, e.g., COPS, How To Support Trust Building In Your Agency (change requires an organizational transformation, led by police leadership); Kami Chavis Simmons, New Governance and the ‘New Paradigm’ of Police Accountability: A Democratic Approach to Police Reform, 59 Cath. U. L. Rev. 373, 381 (2010).

[iii]SeeKami Chavis Simmons, New Governance and the “New Paradigm” of Police Accountability: A Democratic Approach to Police Reform, 59 Cath. U. L. Rev. 373,376- 381 (2010), http://www.complaintsantaclara.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-Governance-and-the-New-Paradigm-of-Police-Accountability.pdf.

[iv]Kami Chavis Simmons, New Governance and the ‘New Paradigm’ of Police Accountability: A Democratic Approach to Police Reform, 59 Cath. U. L.Rev. 373,376-381 (2010), http://www.complaintsantaclara.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-Governance-and-the-New-Paradigm-of-Police-Accountability.pdf;Bennett Capers, Policing, Race, and Place,44 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 43, 71 (2009).

[v]Kami Chavis Simmons, New Governance and the ‘New Paradigm’ of Police Accountability: A Democratic Approach to Police Reform, 59 Cath. U. L.Rev. 373, 387-388 (2010), http://www.complaintsantaclara.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/New-Governance-and-the-New-Paradigm-of-Police-Accountability.pdf.

[vi]Sue Rahr & Stephen K. Rice, From Warriors to Guardians: Recommitting American Police Culture to Democratic Ideals, New Perspectives in Policing, Harvard Kennedy School, National Institute of Justice 3, 4, 6 (2015), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248654.pdf.

Observations on Leadership and Culture

While substantial research has been conducted on leadership in the private sector, research on leadership in law enforcement remains comparatively underdeveloped.[i]When discussions of police leadership do occur — whether in institutional reports, in conversations among chiefs, or in op-eds in the news media — the consensus is that police executives are the key actors in shaping departments’ effectiveness and culture and ensuring that departmental values reflect community values of fairness and justice.[ii]

There is no single leadership approach to running a successful police department. Indeed, the approach taken must be tailored to the individual leader, the organization, and the community. There are, however, some common practices that police leaders pursue to meet the needs of both their employees and the communities they serve.

Within departments, chiefs have unique powers and responsibilities, including serving as the public face of the organization. But chiefs, command staff, and senior leaders cannot do everything alone, and officers play important leadership roles as well. “It is an established principle in policing that firstline supervisors — sergeants — play a critical role in directing and controlling the behavior of officers in police-citizen interactions.”[iii]

In most medium and large departments, patrol officers rarely interact with senior leaders. For these officers, the “boss” who is most influential and important — that is, the one who approves vacation requests, supports their work, and holds them accountable — is their immediate supervisor, the sergeant. Sergeants are on the front line of delivering quality service, implementing departments’ strategies and programs, and ensuring accountability among the rank and file. They also directly supervise approximately 85 percent of agency personnel, serve as the “eyes and ears” of the officers on the ground, train and mentor officers, and help reinforce department policies.[iv]

Generally, police culture refers to departmental beliefs and processes that influence how officers do their jobs. Culture manifests formally, in policies, procedures, and training programs, and informally, in the decisions and actions of those who are recruited and hired by the department.[v]

Leaders seeking to advance community policing must attend to culture because, ultimately, policy is only as good in practice as it is on paper if it is embraced and implemented throughout departments. In other words, “[o]rganizational culture eats policy for lunch.”[vi]Training and formal rules, of course, can’t cover every situation that officers face. In the absence of rules or procedures, officers will fall back on behavior that conforms to their department’s cultural norms,[vii]many of which are set and shaped by leaders.

Officers face new and unique situations daily, often on their own and without supervision. With so much discretion over their actions, officers’ beliefs, attitudes, and biases affect how they interact with the public. “Patrol officers most directly impact the community’s perception of the agency[,]”[viii]which is why values and ethics matter. Police departments must practice the values of fairness, equity, and justice, both internally and externally, with the communities they serve.

Police departments, like other organizations, can be resistant to change. Indeed, the culture of “the thin blue line” — the idea that police protect society from anarchy and chaos — is deeply embedded in many police departments. This mindset heightens tension and widens the separation between departments and communities by propagating an “us-versus-them”mentality.

Generally speaking, however, law enforcement and the public share the same goal: to live and work in safe communities. Reframing the narrative of police-community interaction away from opposition and around a shared set of goals will promote a healthier policing culture and a stronger society.[ix]

[i]Debbie Demon-Berger, U.S. Dep’t. of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services, Leadership for Public Safety: Professional Dimensions of Leadership in Law Enforcement 16 (Marilyn Simpson ed., 2011), https://ric-zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-w0633-pub.pdf.

[ii]See, e.g., U.S. Dep’t. of Justice, Community Relations Service, Principles of Good Policing: Avoiding Violence Between Police and Citizens (3d ed., 2003), https://www.justice.gov/archive/crs/pubs/principlesofgoodpolicingfinal092003.pdf[hereinafter Community Relations Service]; Police Exec. Res. F., Critical Issues in Policing Series, Advice from Police Chiefs and Community Leaders on Building Trust: “Ask for Help, Work Together, and Build Respect” 35, 63 (2016) [hereinafter PERF, Advice], http://www.policeforum.org/assets/policecommunitytrust.pdf;William J. Bratton, How to Reform Policing from Within, N.Y. Times (Sept. 16, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/opinion/william-j-bratton-how-to-reform-policing-from-within.html(“What changes police culture is leadership from within.”).

[iii]Samuel Walker, National Institute of Justice, Police Accountability: Current Issues and Research Needs 12 (2007), http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/218583.pdf;see alsoLt. Sean E. Moriarty, The Leadership in Police Organizations Program in the Delaware State Police: Recommendations for Law Enforcement Leadership Development, Police Chief Magazine (2009), http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/the-leadership-in-police-organizations-program/(noting that supervisors “essentially determine[] the efficiency and effectiveness of the [police] agency”).

[iv]Police Exec. Res. F.,Critical Issues in Policing Series,Promoting Excellence in First-Line Supervision: New Approaches to Selection, Training, and Leadership Development 5-6 (2018) [hereinafter PERF, New Approaches], https://www.policeforum.org/assets/FirstLineSupervision.pdf.

[v]U.S. Dep’t. of Justice, Community Relations Service, Principles of Good Policing: Avoiding Violence Between Police and Citizens (3d ed., 2003), https://www.justice.gov/archive/crs/pubs/principlesofgoodpolicingfinal092003.pdf;see alsoBarbara Armacost, The Organizational Reasons Police Departments Don’t Change, Harv. Bus. Rev. (Aug. 19, 2016), https://hbr.org/2016/08/the-organizational-reasons-police-departments-dont-change(“[P]olice scholars have agreed that the organizational culture of policing — the set of informal, cultural norms that are unique to the occupation of law enforcement—is the most important determinant of police behavior.”).

[vi]The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 11 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf.

[vii]The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 12 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf (“Behavior is more likely to conform to culture than rules.”).

[viii]Police Exec. Res. F., Promoting Excellence in First-Line Supervision: New Approaches to Selection, Training, and Leadership Development 12 (2018), https://www.policeforum.org/assets/FirstLineSupervision.pdf.

[ix]SeePolice Exec. Rese. F.,Critical Issues in Policing Series,Promoting Excellence in First-Line Supervision: New Approaches to Selection, Training, and Leadership Development 60 (2018), https://www.policeforum.org/assets/FirstLineSupervision.pdf(“[I]t is a narrative that largely shapes and defines a culture.”).

Best Practices in Leadership and Culture

Chiefs and other department leaders are uniquely empowered to shape departmental culture and ensure it reflects community values. But they cannot create culture change on their own. To adopt the values of 21^st-century policing in their departments, they must work closely with colleagues and community members. Chiefs and other department leaders can create buy-in for culture change via procedural justice — that is, through transparency, communication, and opportunities for input — during the decision-making process. This will guide how department members view their roles and behaviors and enable them to communicate to community members that their voices are heard. Ideally, leadership, organizational culture, and communities work together toward the common goal of public safety.

Recommended Best Practices

Recommended
Best Practices

9.1 Ensure that core departmental values reflect community values and communicate them to all department members.

FOUR CORE PRINCIPLES OF PROCEDURALLY BEHAVIOR:

Treat people with dignity and respect.
Give individuals ‘voice’ during encounters.
Be neutral and transparent in decision-making.
Convey trustworthy motives.

Source: President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 10 (citing Lorraine Mazerolle, et al., Legitimacy in Policing: A Systematic Review, The Campbell Collection Library of Systematic Reviews 9 (2013)), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf.

Chiefs and other department leaders are responsible for establishing a set of departmental values and communicating them throughout their departments. The most credible and enduring way to do this is to consistently behave in a manner that reflects the department’s stated values; that is, leaders must “walk the talk.” Additionally, they ensure that officers at all levels have ample opportunity to provide meaningful input and to participate in conversations about organizational culture. Internal legitimacy hinges on two factors: leadership behavior and opportunities for meaningful input. External legitimacy is achieved when leaders work with community members to develop values that reflect the community’s priorities, ideals, and concerns.

Effective leaders also ensure that administrative and operational functions reflect departmental and community values. In the administrative arena, this means they make sure that departmental values are reflected externally in official policies, procedures, and rules, and internally in regulations, audits, performance reviews, and disciplinary processes. Values provide the framework for evaluating the performance of both individual officers and entire departments.

9.2 Develop specific and actionable strategic plans.

“Officers who operate in a procedurally just culture are more likely to reflect that culture in the field. Leaders must be intentional in building an internal culture based on trust so their officers can do the same in the community. Building trust requires both courage and skill.”

Sue Rahr, Executive Director, Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission; Former Sheriff of King County, Washington

Strategic plans help departments establish long-term goals and develop action plans to ensure success. Effective strategic plans state the department’s commitment to addressing community concerns and goals or priorities, such as preventing crime, strengthening community partnerships, and increasing transparency. When developing strategic plans, effective leaders first survey the community to understand community members’ values, needs, and views of the department’s performance. Because there is rarely one monolithic community perspective, effective leaders engage with all segments of the community — especially those who don’t have a strong voice or are disenfranchised due to race, poverty, or lack of opportunity.

Effective leaders also survey officers to ensure that strategic plans incorporate their on-the-ground experiences and desires. Once community and officer views are collected, leaders can host community planning sessions, where community leaders and members can learn about and offer input into the department’s goals. To ensure that all members of the community have the opportunity to participate, leaders can hold sessions in a variety of locations and provide opportunities for the public to access information and offer feedback in person, by mail, and online. Departments can begin to execute their strategic plans by implementing three to five priorities each year and regularly assessing progress.[i]

[i]See Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Annual Reports, https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx. Each annual report begins with a statement of the department’s vision, mission, values, and goals. The goals change every few years, reflecting the department’s current priorities and strategies.

9.3 Create opportunities to actively develop leadership skills for all personnel.

The skills that make for a good patrol officer differ from those that make a good police executive. In the field, officers react to the world they encounter and must respond quickly to service calls or community problems.Running a police department, meanwhile, requires forward-thinking, strategic, and deliberate action; it requires actively steering the organization and its personnel toward a vision of success, rather than reacting to a situation, stabilizing it, and moving on. Strategic leadership manifests in a number of ways, from implementing a strategic plan that emphasizes both building community relationships andaddressing crime to developing programs to improve interactions with vulnerable populations.

As direct supervisors, sergeants occupy critical leadership roles in police departments because they are responsible for ensuring “that the vision and goals of a police chief or sheriff are put into effect at the street level.”[i]As they transition from officer to sergeant, leaders must develop new skills in management and development.[ii]These skills are especially needed if they are managing officers who were formerly their peers.[iii]Yet, officers promoted to sergeant rarely receive much, if any, specific training in their substantial, new responsibilities — even though they have the most direct involvement with officers and are responsible for ensuring accountability, evaluating performance, and promoting the agency’s culture.[iv]

Police departments that cultivate effective leaders develop initial and ongoing training for new sergeants that provide general skills in leadership and supervision as well as department-specific skills. Training might address how to properly handle a force incident, reinforce desired officer performance, or identify officers who may be struggling with personal or professional problems.

Although there is no national standard-bearer for law enforcement leadership training, effective leaders often look to local academic partners, nonprofit organizations, and other community partners to develop a set of standards that reflect evidence and research-based practices as well as community values.[v]

Police departments usually offer training upon promotion, but these trainings do not typically focus on leadership skills, which teach officers how to influence groups and systems to address complex problems and needs.[vi]For this reason, effective leaders develop standards and training not only for sergeants but also for members at all departmental levels, from recruits to executives.[vii]Ideally, these standards are easily accessible to all department personnel, as well as to the public, so that expectations for leadership are set by both law enforcement officials and members of the community.

One program that focuses on training police leaders to intentionally establish a procedurally just culture is the WSCJTC’s 21st Century Police Leadership Program (21CPL).[viii]21CPL is built around three foundational leadership capabilities: emotional intelligence, effective communication, and agency culture. It focuses first on understanding and managing one’s own motivations and behavior to influence the behavior of others.

With use of personal assessments, e-learning modules, customizable self-study, innovative classroom design, and virtual peer learning groups, the program gives officers the skills they need to create just relationships with the communities they serve. Emotional intelligence, for example, is a skill that officers draw on when they interact with members of the community. The program is being pilot-tested as of this writing and will be offered as an open source course in the summer of 2019.

Leadership training also promotes diversity at the command and executive levels. Ideally, leaders reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, but, unfortunately, this is rarely the case. One reason is that departments frequently use systems that promote officers based on seniority, which disadvantages people of color and women, who are relative newcomers to policing and who have historically been excluded from senior positions.[ix](For more detail, see Chapter 10.)

[i]Police Exec. Res. F.,Critical Issues in Policing Series,Promoting Excellence in First-Line Supervision: New Approaches to Selection, Training, and Leadership Development 3 (2018), https://www.policeforum.org/assets/FirstLineSupervision.pdf.

[ii]SeeCleveland Police Monitoring Team, First Semiannual Report 62 (2016), http://www.clevelandpolicemonitor.net/s/First-Semiannual-Report-2016-06-02-FOR-RELEASE.pdf(noting that “effectively managing, supervising, and leading individuals who were only recently a new sergeant’s direct peers involves a significant and sometimes-foreign skill set for newly-minted supervisors”).

[iii]SeeCleveland Police Monitoring Team, First Semiannual Report 62 (2016), http://www.clevelandpolicemonitor.net/s/First-Semiannual-Report-2016-06-02-FOR-RELEASE.pdf.

[iv]SeePolice Exec. Res. F.,Critical Issues in Policing Series,Promoting Excellence in First-Line Supervision: New Approaches to Selection, Training, and Leadership Development 3-4 (2018), https://www.policeforum.org/assets/FirstLineSupervision.pdf(“[D]espite the critically important roles that sergeants play, our systems for selecting new sergeants, training them, and developing them as leaders have never been very good”). Additionally, in many jurisdictions promotions are limited by civil service regulations or union contracts resulting in a limited ability “to promote the most qualified officers with the skills and aptitude to be strong 21st century leaders.” Id.at 3. Jurisdictions should bear this in mind when negotiating contracts to allow them to make promotion decisions based on character qualities that reflect the agency’s values.

[v]See, e.g.,Police Exec. Res. F., Senior Management Institute for Police, Preparing today’s police executives for the challenges of the next decade and beyond, http://www.policeforum.org/smip; Edward A. Flynn & Victoria Herrington, Toward a Profession of Police Leadership, New Perspectives in Policing Bulletin, Harvard Kennedy School, National Institute of Justice 6 (2015), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248573.pdf(“Highly regarded programs and schools that provide leader development opportunities for mid- and senior-level managers include the University of Louisville’s Southern Police Institute, Northwestern University’s Center for Public Safety, and Johns Hopkins University’s Division of Public Safety Leadership. In addition, the FBI National Academy, the Police Executive Research Forum, and individual organizations utilizing the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Leadership in Police Organizations (LPO) course . . . offer opportunities specifically for police leadership development.”).

[vi]SeeEdward A. Flynn & Victoria Herrington, Toward a Profession of Police Leadership, New Perspectives in Policing Bulletin, Harvard Kennedy School, National Institute of Justice 1-3 (2015), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248573.pdf.

[vii]SeeThe President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 54 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf. (recommending an investment in leadership training “for each level of leadership” to focus on “procedural justice, community policing, police accountability, teaching, coaching, mentoring, and communicating with the media and the public”).

[viii]21st Century Police Leadership Program, Executive Leadership Flyer (on file with Leadership Conference).

[ix]U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services,How to Support Trust Building in Your Agency, 3 Police Perspectives: Building Trust in a Diverse Nation 32 (Caitlin Gokey & Susan Shah, eds. 2016), https://ric-zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-p346-pub.pdf.

9.4 Develop performance-based requirements for promotion.

In many jurisdictions, becoming a sergeant is simply a matter of applying for the position, meeting minimum standards, and passing a civil service examination, which typically tests knowledge of jurisdictional policies, rules, and regulations. Promotion — at least to the lower leadership positions — usually hinges on these criteria rather than on past performance.

Promotional decisions should, of course, be based in merit. But department leaders should also consider the performance, qualities, and characteristics that officers exhibit throughout their careers. They should ask themselves: Do candidates for promotion have positive work histories? Have they engaged the community and participated in positive outreach to build relationships? Have they engaged in misconduct and received discipline? Do they have a particularly significant history of commendations or complaints from the public about their performance? Do their former supervisors regard them highly? How do officers and subordinates who have served with or under them regard their performance?

Ultimately, even if an officer scores well on a test or proceeds with high marks through a civil service process, promotion in a police organization should depend on additional factors. It should be based on the type of holistic decision-making that informs promotional decisions in the private sector, which consider performance history, productivity and results, and alignment with organizational culture.

9.5 Prioritize diversity and create a culture of equity and inclusion by working to eliminate racial, ethnic, and gender bias in the workplace.

People of color and women have long been — and still remain — underrepresented in policing. As discussed in Chapter 10, increasing diversity should be a priority in every police department, and efforts to do so must be coupled with policies and procedures that ensure fair and just treatment toward candidates from groups traditionally underrepresented in policing. Effective leaders recognize that racial, ethnic, and gender bias in police-community relations can manifest within departments, so they work to eliminate workplace biases, promote diversity, and create a culture of equity and inclusion.

This is an important goal, as the U.S. police force remains predominantly White. In 2016, roughly 79 percent of police officers were White, 13 percent were Black, and 2 percent were Asian.[i]More than half of all officers (56 percent) believe that officers are treated the same — regardless of race or ethnicity — when it comes to promotions and assignments in departments, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center.

But officers respond differently to this question depending on their racial background. Sixty-one percent of White officers believe that officers of color and White officers are treated similarly.[ii]But more than half (53 percent) of Black officers believe White officers are treated betterthan officers of color.[iii]Racial and ethnic diversity matters. It increases trust between police and the communities they serve, helping to defuse tension and increase the perception of fairness and justice.[iv]

Disparities in workplace diversity are similar for women.[v]In 2007, women comprised only 18 percent of officers in agencies with 2,000 or more sworn personnel.[vi]This yawning gender gap is the result of discrimination in the hiring process and is compounded by the fact that “women [officers] often face discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and are maliciously thwarted, especially as they move up the ranks.”[vii]The male-driven culture of policing, coupled with the lack of internal support systems for women, causes female officers to feel unsupported.[viii]

Studies show that women have a positive influence on how departments interact with communities and the tactics that officers use. Female officers, for example, generally use less force (lethal and nonlethal) than their male counterparts.[ix]The reason for this is unclear, but experts suggest it may be because women are more likely to use communication skills to de-escalate confrontations, which encourages alternatives to force and improves community relations.[x]

To recruit more women and people of color and ensure fair and nondiscriminatory treatment on the force, leaders should strive to eliminate racial, ethnic, and gender bias in the workplace. Chiefs and other department leaders are responsible for setting a tone of inclusion and respect within departments and creating a culture in which racism, sexual harassment, and discrimination are not tolerated. (For more detail, see Chapter 10.) This can be achieved through policies that prohibit discrimination in the workplace and trainings that address bias in the workplace.

[i]DATA USA: Police Officers, Diversity, https://datausa.io/profile/soc/333050/#demographics (citing Census Bureau data).

[ii]Rich Morin et al., Pew Research Center, Behind the Badge 37 (Jan. 11, 2017), http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/01/Police-Report_FINAL_web.pdf.

[iii]Rich Morin et al., Pew Research Center, Behind the Badge 37 (Jan. 11, 2017), http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/01/Police-Report_FINAL_web.pdf.

[iv]Vanita Gupta, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Jenny R. Yang Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Advancing Diversity In Law Enforcement ii (Oct. 2016), https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/file/900761/download (“[W]hen members of the public believe their law enforcement organizations represent them, understand them, and respond to them – and when communities perceive authorities as fair, legitimate, and accountable – it deepens trust in law enforcement, instills public confidence in government, and supports the integrity of democracy.”).

[v]See Vanita Gupta, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Jenny R. Yang Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Advancing Diversity In Law Enforcement 39 (Oct. 2016), https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/file/900761/download (approximately “43% [of] women say men are treated better . . . but only 6% of men say the same.”).

[vi]Lynn Langton, U.S. Dep’t. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Women in Law Enforcement 1987-2008 3 (2010), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/wle8708.pdf.

[vii]Dr. Kim Lonsway et al., Equality Denied -The Status of Women in Policing: 2001, National Center For Women In Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, at 3 (2002), http://womenandpolicing.com/PDF/2002_Status_Report.pdf;see alsoCarole G. Garrison et al., Utilization of Police Women, 32(7) The Police Chief 4 (Sept. 1998).

[viii]See, e.g.,U.S.Dep’t of Justice, Civil Rights Div. & U.S. Attorney’s Office, N.D. Ill., Investigation of the Chi. Police Dep’t, at 122 (2017), https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/925846/download(“Women officers…feel particularly unsupported in the Department, both because of its culture and because the available support systems do not take into account the particular needs of female officers.”).

[ix]Margo Frasier, We Need More Female Police Officers, N.Y. Times (Aug. 17, 2016) (citing Steven Brandl et al., Who are the complaint-prone officers?: An examination of the relationship between police officers’ attributes, arrest activity, assignment, and citizens’ complaints about excessive force, 29 J. of Crim. Just., 521-529 (2001) https://www.wifle.org/pdf/Who_are_the_complaint-prone_officers_Examination2001.pdf),https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/08/17/how-can-police-do-a-better-job-of-recruiting-officers/we-need-more-female-police-officers.

[x]See Amie M. Schuck & Cara Rabe-Hemp, Women Police: The Use of Force by and Against Female Officers, 16 Women & Crim. Just. 96 (2007), https://doi.org/10.1300/J012v16n04_05 (“In theory, female officers may be better able to communicate with citizens, thus, deescalating a situation and lowering the need to use force”); Steven Brandl et al., Who are the complaint-prone officers?: An examination of the relationship between police officers’ attributes, arrest activity, assignment, and citizens’ complaints about excessive force, 29 J. of Crim. Just., 521-529 (2001), https://www.wifle.org/pdf/Who_are_the_complaint-prone_officers_Examination2001.pdf(noting that the “the relationship between gender and complaints about excessive force is rather clear” and though “the reasons for the relationship are subject to debate” there is evidence that “female officers are more adept at avoiding violence and de-escalating potentially violent situations”).

9.6 Ensure that field training incorporates core values and communicates them to new officers.

As the U.S. Department of Justice noted, “[P]olice officers tend to becomethe type of officers they are socializedto be.”[i]Just as academy training needs to emphasize and reflect departmental and community values, new recruits’ next step — field training — must do the same.

Perhaps no other role is as vital in setting the tone for new officers as the field training officer (FTO). Academy curricula and instructors who adhere to and promote departmental values are important, but academy training cannot match real-world experience. New officers first interact with the public during the field training program. As such, FTOs model the behavior that officers will learn and replicate, for better or worse.

To effectively promote a culture that reflects their departments’ and communities’ core values, effective leaders carefully screen and select FTOs who exemplify these values. They understand that FTOs who share departmental values will instill them in their trainees. Furthermore, they select FTOs in part on the basis of positive relationships and interactions with community members so that trainees can watch and learn how to engage constructively with community members. In sum, FTOs are an avenue by which departments can infuse their culture in new trainees.

RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND GENDER DIVERSITY IN LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS (2013)

Racial, Ethnic and Gender Diversity graph

73% – White
3% – Other
12% – Black
12% – Latinx

87.8% – Men
12.2% – Women

Source: Brian A. Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and Practices, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics 9 (May 2015), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/lpd13ppp.pdf.

[i]U.S. Dep’t. of Justice, Community Relations Service, Principles of Good Policing: Avoiding Violence Between Police and Citizens (3d ed., 2003), https://www.justice.gov/archive/crs/pubs/principlesofgoodpolicingfinal092003.pdf(emphasis in original).