THE CRISIS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT

Why Nobody Wants to be a Cop Today

If you enjoy this article, make sure to join my mailing list, and pass my Substack address, FXRegan.substack.com to your friends and associates. You can also check out what I am doing in fiction at http://FXRegan.com, and follow me on Twitter and Instagram @FXRegan. My latest work, AREA 51: Project Series Volume I is a compilation of three previously published novellas in one book and came out August 1^st. There is plenty of additional fiction coming later this fall and in 2024, so stay tuned!

A benefit of reaching a certain age is seeing what’s old become new again. I am going to use my experience of thirty-three years in law enforcement to describe my views on the current crisis in policing. I won’t go into my entire background because it is available on other Substack articles, but briefly I was a police officer in a major metropolitan area for several years before spending twenty-five years a senior FBI agent. During that time, I was assigned to five different major cities (one of them twice,) where I worked closely with state and local police officials. I attended three academies including the FBI Academy and was a full-time instructor at a police academy at one time.

I started my career in 1981 when the spike in violent crime and the crack wars were just getting started. By the middle 1990s, a number of crime reduction programs including stop and frisk, Broken Windows theory policing, mandatory minimum sentencing, three strike laws, local and federal task forces, among other things, led to a dramatic reduction in crime. Crime rates generally stayed low for twenty years before things started trending backwards, even though the rates today are still lower than they were in the early 1980s.

A tipping point for a return to higher crime, though certainly not the only point, was the police shooting death of Michael Brown, an African American man, in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. The media helped frame a false narrative that the unarmed Brown was shot by a White police officer while attempting to give himself up to arrest for strong-armed theft at a convenience store. The police investigation determined that while the officer was lawfully attempting to arrest Brown, he reached for the officer’s gun, a struggle ensued, and Brown was shot by the officer. An FBI investigation showed there was no evidence that Brown had his hands up in surrender, nor did he say “hands up, don’t shoot” which became a popular slogan spread in protests across the country. A Department of Justice investigation lead by a Black Attorney General, Eric Holder, concluded there was no evidence the White police officer violated Brown’s civil rights.

Also in 2014, a white police officer in New York City used a chokehold on a Black man, Eric Garner while attempting to arrest him for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Garner died as a result of the restraint. A local grand jury refused to prosecute the officer and DOJ also did not find evidence of a civil rights violation. Six years later, the officer was fired from the department. The next year, in 2015 in Baltimore, another Black man, Freddie Gray died while being transported to jail in a police van. Six Baltimore police officers, three Black and three White were charged in Gray’s death. All were either found not guilty, released after a mistrial, or had charges dropped. A different Black Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, declined to charge any officers federally.

These were all high-profile cases that were heavily covered by the media, and there were nationwide protests because of them. The cases became a rallying point for anti-police rhetoric. In a 2015 speech, FBI Director referred to a spike in crime as “the Ferguson effect.” The notion that police were becoming afraid of being caught in confrontations, which would lead to protests, (or prosecutions), and thus they were disincentivized to proactively do police work, leading to higher crime.

While not a fan of James Comey’s leadership at the FBI, I think he was largely right. I worked in cities that were under DOJ consent decree where police were closely monitored in their daily activities. Most interaction with minority citizens, including traffic stops, arrests, and in some cases even simple interviews had to be documented and sometimes approved by a supervisor. I know the police. They know how to enforce the law and how to sit back. In the case of these consent decree cities, they sat back and did nothing, and crime spiked.

Then in May of 2020 George Floyd died a horrible death at the hands of police in Minneapolis which was caught on video and broadcast around the world. While Floyd was never given the key to the city as citizen of the year, and the officer who kneeled on his neck didn’t intend to kill him, it was a criminally irresponsible tactic by the officer. Police have been warned/taught, and recently in many jurisdictions, outlawed from using chokeholds, i.e., staying away from the neck, (or more accurately, carotid artery restraint,) for 40 years, and it is considered a form of deadly force. I need not say more, everyone knows what followed.   

But this isn’t about race, it’s about why crime is up, and the law enforcement profession is in crisis. A large part of the answer is the (false) media-driven narrative that police are killing Black men in overwhelming numbers, which in part causes potential police-candidates to avoid the profession, (and those already in policing to do less pro-active policing, and leave as soon as possible,) which causes an increase in crime by people of all races. It may come as a surprise to some to learn that more than twice as many Whites are killed by the police each year than Blacks, or that between 85%-90% of Black homicides are at the hands of Black perpetrators. The odds of an unarmed Black man dying at hands of police represents approximately 0.04% of all Black homicide deaths in any given year.

The riots that followed George Floyd’s killing and the calls to defund the police (and the actual defunding of police departments in places like Minneapolis, Austin, New York, and Los Angeles,) created a police crisis that has not abated. Officers across the country have retired or resigned in record numbers, and they are not being replaced. The total numbers of police officers in the country is down 7% since 2009 and 4% from 2020 until today, even as crime goes up. Departments across the country are trying to incentivize officers by offering signing bonuses. Fairfax County, VA, often recognized as a wealthy, modern metropolitan suburb of Washington, D.C. with an outstanding police department that traditionally had a waiting list to join the department, is offering $15,000 bonuses. The City of Alameda in California is offering a $75,000 signing bonus.

These incentives are not the answer. Most of the officers taking bonuses are from neighboring departments, which many offering departments quietly, (and in some cases not so quietly endorse,) because transferring officers are generally already state-certified and trained. Not only does this merely shift the police shortage from one department to another, but it also leaves the officers who are too far along in their careers to transfer for a signing bonus at a new department, with poor morale in their current assignments. And so far, they are not incentivizing new recruits to go into law enforcement.

Another element to the crisis is prosecutors who are not willing to prosecute crimes. It might sound political, but it doesn’t make the following notion false: Several years ago, well-funded liberal interest groups decided locally elected prosecutors were a vehicle to get their liberal agendas implemented. Those agendas included, among other things, less prosecution of quality of life and drug crimes, cashless (or no) bail, less incarceration, and shortening or ending the sentences of those already in the system. A major part of the reason crime went down so dramatically in the mid-90s was that criminals were in jail or prison, not on the streets where they were free to commit further crimes. This has changed dramatically.  

While liberal interest groups promoted and funded these prosecutors, the citizens of their communities voted for them, so they bear some of the responsibility. They also voted for representatives that changed the laws in places like California where stealing less than $950 in merchandise at a time is a misdemeanor resulting in a summons to appear, not arrest. Or, in the case of Ann Arbor, Michigan, passing city legislation declaring that police officers may not enforce state motor vehicle violations at the risk of being terminated, even though they are state certified law enforcement officers.

I said at the top that some of this is making what was old, new again. Among the calmer voices who might not want to see police defunded (or eliminated,) are those saying we need to reform the police. (Or as Vice President Harris said, “reimagine policing,” whatever that means.) They often mention more training and education, de-escalation training, and more social workers to respond to mental health and domestic crises instead of police as viable solutions to the perceived problem of over-policing. Let’s consider each of these things, none of which is actually new.

While it is true that most police departments (used here interchangeably with sheriff’s offices and state police/patrols,) do not require college degrees, it’s because the majority of the 15,000 departments in the country are small. 50% have less than ten officers, 75% less than 25, and 90% less than 50 officers. Approximately 50% of police officers in the United States have at least two-years of college, while approximately 30% of average Americans do. Many, if not most large and municipal departments require at least a two-year degree and many require four-year degrees. Among them, New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and Houston, all arguably high crime cities, require a minimum of two years of college. A majority of larger departments require a four-year degree to get promoted into management. 78% of senior police leaders have a bachelor’s degree, 66% of Chiefs do, and 33% of Chief’s have a master’s degree or higher. The notion that police are undereducated is false.

The next canard concerns “de-escalation” training which is a favorite trope among police critics. Part of the false perception is that so much body camera footage and other video of police in violent encounters is widely available on the news and social media. Rarely are the 99% of their actions that involve minor issues, soft skills, and de-escalation to resolve events shown anywhere. Incidentally, the proliferation of cameras has made many police officers afraid to do their jobs. Even when they know they could/should legally put hands on and arrest a criminal, they also know that doing nothing will almost never cause a negative consequence.

The same can’t be said for the other option. Last week a sergeant in New York threw a cooler at a drug dealer who was attempting to flee arrest on a scooter. He crashed into a parked car and died. (On video of course.) Google it - every major news organization covered the story. The sergeant is on unpaid suspension and there are calls to charge him with murder. As if throwing a cooler at an escaping drug suspect could be logically considered a foreseeable cause his demise. The message to the rest of the police is this; “don’t try and stop fleeing drug dealers.”

I attended my first police academy in 1981, where we were taught the “continuum of force” which starts with verbal messaging and commands. Additional hours of interview and interrogation instruction involved similar soft skills used by law enforcement officers to avoid physical interactions with citizens whenever possible. We learned about mental disease and drug and alcohol abuse, and how to deal with people suffering from both. The next two federal academies I attended also taught “verbal jujitsu” skills designed to avoid confrontation.

The only thing new about “de-escalation” training is the magical phrase “de-escalation.” Politicians, doing what politicians do, have jumped on the phraseology bandwagon and at the end of 2022, President Biden signed into law the “Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training Act of 2022,” the only substantive thing of which it does is to give money to police departments for additional training. No sane police officer goes into a situation looking to “escalate,” and the insinuation to the contrary is ridiculous.

Incidentally, one percent of the public workforce is actually insane, and would be considered clinically psychotic if they were all tested. Ten percent of Americans show up to work every day high or drunk. Because of pre-employment screening and testing, these numbers for police officers are much less than the general workforce. (And way less than the overall population police interact with on a daily basis.) Police officers on the other hand, suffer a higher degree of mental problems including PTDS, chemical abuse, and suicide towards the ends of their careers or in retirement, much of which can be attributed to the constant exposure to the human difficulties they deal with on a daily basis for twenty or more years.

My next favorite reform is using social workers to respond to domestic situations and people in crisis. Again, this is far from a novel concept. The progressive Northern Virginia police department I worked for more than 30 years ago had social workers employed by the department of health who occasionally rode with police officers on shifts. “Occasionally,” because one; there were never enough of them; two, most had no interest in night shifts, (when a lot of calls for service involving domestics and other violent encounters happen,); and three, most had zero interest in the program. The personalities drawn to police work and social work are miles apart. Generalizing I know, but most social workers are much more interested in being in a clinical setting, not responding to people in the throes of what is often a violent, and/or substance induced crisis at all hours of the day or night on the streets of their communities.

Even if cities and counties could hire and deploy enough social workers to respond to domestic situations and others during a crisis, the overwhelming number of such calls would require a police response IN ADDITION TO, not INSTEAD OF, like many critics who have no idea what they are talking about are proposing. Domestic situations are among the most dangerous calls for service that police respond to, and they almost always do so in pairs for safety reasons. When the use of force, sometimes even deadly force is required, the events often go downhill rapidly. Before police could be summoned and arrive to assist social workers.

This past May, the Governor of Illinois deployed 30 “peacekeepers” to Chicago to, in his words “help with de-escalation and people in crisis” over the Memorial Day weekend. 40 people were shot and eleven killed despite the peacekeeping efforts. I’ve heard no more about these peacekeeper efforts the rest of the summer, and as I write this on Labor Day, 37 people have been shot, at least three fatally, in Chicago so far this weekend.

Here is my last point – policing is increasingly dangerous. Through August of 2023, 243 officers have been shot, and at least 31 killed by gunfire. (I can’t see deaths for the month of August.) 69 of these shootings were ambush style attacks resulting in 81 shot and 14 killed (at least.) These shootings are up 22% from 2021 and 21% from 2020. This doesn’t include officers killed by other means including stabbing, dying after being physically assaulted, or purposely hit by vehicles. Or who died during other on-duty events such as motor vehicle and aircraft accidents. I have often said that if these numbers were briefed at the White House every morning, we would call it a war.

I’ll leave you with an anecdotal story. I was talking to a 30-year-old man who comes from a law enforcement family and has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He is an assistant manager at one of the largest grocery stores chains in the country where employees have equity ownership in the company. Store managers often retire with more than a million dollars in company stock. His salary is equivalent to a police officer in the same city with the same seniority. Asked why he did not pursue a career in law enforcement, he responded, “Why should I go out there and get shot at for twenty years for the same money?”

The overwhelmingly majority of Americans support their police, which is a reason the defund nonsense was such a disaster. Politicians, prosecutors, and the media need to reflect this public support by letting the police do their jobs getting the criminals off the streets, prosecuting them, leading to a reduction in crime, which will help fix the current crisis in policing.

UPDATE:   Two weeks ago, I promised an article on Section 702 of FISA which is up for renewal in Congress the end of the year.  I did a ton of research on the subject and a draft is complete. I am working with an attorney co-author on the project, and he is in trial this week, so maybe it comes out next week.

FICTION UPDATE: Next week I will have a major announcement about a new fiction series I’ve been working on most of the year that I am really excited about. If you have not been in law enforcement and always wondered what it is really like to work the streets or conduct complex investigations, this one is going to be for you.

If you enjoyed the article, make sure to join my mailing list, and pass my Substack address, FXRegan.substack.com to your friends and associates. You can also check out what I am doing in fiction at http://FXRegan.com, and follow me on Twitter and Instagram @FXRegan. My latest work, AREA 51: Project Series Volume I is a compilation of three previously published novellas in one book and came out August 1^st. There is plenty of additional fiction coming later this fall and in 2024, so stay tuned!