I've checked into my local police department accountability. Have you?

If you're in a hurry, would you at least read through the section on My Process? It's not too long.

I believe the issue of undue use of force by the police is a road with a ditch on both sides. You can swing too far in either direction and wind up in trouble. I also have good friends with good hearts who might be heading that way, so I want to give all of you a simple task. It won’t cost you much, and it’s possible you could make a big difference. At the very least, you’re likely to learn something helpful.

My friends and I have talked about practical ways to address problems with police using undue force. We’ve generally agreed that police accountability is an important step and a great start. I personally didn’t want to sit passively, and I’ve never been fond of venting outrage, so I reached out to our local police chief.

I’m going to describe my experience 

and encourage you to do the same kind of thing
in your community.

As I was starting, I expected this could go a couple different ways. I believe that many, many police departments (PD) are getting it right. A few are sloppy. A few are doing all the right things and mistakes still happen. Maybe I’m spot on, maybe I’m not.

Either way, my goal was to determine if our PD was doing everything possible to avoid problems. If I felt they were falling short, I would take personal responsibility to tackle this problem right in my town. I would view that as ticking time bomb, and I would encourage you to do likewise - both about the time bomb and the personal responsibility.

My process

1. Research: Find out how the police chief is elected or hired. Try to understand the practices they say they’re following. Think through what specifics to ask about that will lead to a fair and honest evaluation.
2. Talk with the police chief. Set a respectful tone. Ask your questions. Explore further. Invite feedback.
3. Reflect on what you learned. If needed, take steps to address problems.
4. Share my experience and encourage others to repeat it where they are.

(If you're in a hurry, then you've already read the main points. In the end, I got solid answers. I still encourage you to go check out your own community, however!)

My experience

Three core questions

I decided I had three core questions for the police chief:

1. How does our PD identify personnel that might be at risk of using undue force?
2. What would cause you to reassign an officer? At what point do the signs cross a line?
3. How do you confirm that our PD is truly following these guidelines?

I planned out what I wanted to cover so I could honor the time and avoid chasing rabbits. Besides the above, I also wanted to give the chief a sense of who I am, and I wanted to get some demographic info about our PD.

Our police department is the Apex Police Department (APD), and our chief is John Letteney. I was able to do considerable research online. I reached out to Chief Letteney by email, and I assumed he would simply write back with answers, being a busy man. He responded within an hour of my email and recommended a phone call. In hindsight, I’m very glad he did because that gave us a much more effective exchange. 

Here’s what I learned about my core questions. I’ve boiled this down considerably for the sake of brevity.

1. Identifying officers at risk:
   There are multiple practices at work here, not just one. The hiring process does careful screening including a psych exam that’s tuned for this kind of thing. On-going training covers relevant topics, and the training is well-received. There’s a supervisor accountability process, and there’s a shared and personal sense of “Duty to Intervene” woven into the culture in the department.
   
   
2. What’s the tipping point?
   Accumulation of policy violations. APD has 165 policies. Breaches of ethical issues, integrity, excessive use of force, or sustained pattern of minor transgressions all lead toward dismissal. As with other jobs, they’ll try retraining first, but there is a clear decertification process defined at the state level that is followed.
   
   
3. How do you confirm that the APD is truly following these guidelines?
   This question is super important. If it was anything less than external validation, it would be a problem for me. There are three parts of Chief Letteney’s answer that had real teeth, and I appreciate the value of all three. Accreditation that has real meaning (this is the external validation I wanted), leadership that really leads in this area, and that personal sense of Duty to Intervene that I mentioned earlier.

As I said, I boiled that down considerably, and you might have questions for me. I can expand for those who are curious, but I really think it’d be most profitable for you to check out your own PD.

Things our PD is especially getting right:

• Our state (North Carolina) requires a minimum of 24 hours of in-service training per year. On average, our folks get over 100.
• The training is well received. I could imagine officers rolling their eyes and basically going through the motions. You’ve probably had the same co-workers, right? Asking the chief about this would be tricky. Suppose the answer was that it was a joke? There’s no way he could tell me that. And while the truth might be a fine answer, there’d be no good way I could tell if he was snowing me. To my relief, he was able to provide an objective indicator in the form of instructor feedback in recent years. Two officers weren’t taking this seriously, in fact. In the end, the chief said these two “weren’t a good fit for our culture,” and they’re no longer with APD.
• Of the complaints against APD officers, most come internally instead of from citizens. They’re harder on themselves than the citizens are.
• There’s a Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. It’s a national program with 484 standards for law enforcement professionalism and best practices. APD is accredited, up for next accreditation in 2021. About 6% of agencies in NC have voluntarily submitted to this outside independent oversight to achieve advanced accreditation. Furthermore, APD is connected with additional professional law enforcement associations. These people have the best minds in law enforcement, academia, and non-profits. Chief Letteney himself is active in leadership among these associations. 

Extra things that help our PD get it right. I don’t think they can control these directly, but we citizens sure can.

• NC is not a union state. Unions can limit the ability of leadership to discipline. If your PD is unionized, you should look for ways to address aspects that are an obstacle to accountability.
• People want to join the Apex PD, so the leadership can be choosy. Some of that is leadership doing a good job, some is the atmosphere in the community. You can influence both of those.

Feedback Chief Letteney had for me:

Don't assume what you see 

on the news is what happens here. 

• Keep asking questions and engage. Don't assume what you see on the news is what happens here. In particular, the accountability landscape can vary from one region to another. (Ex: As a union state, California’s experience would be different from North Carolina’s.)
• APD is eager to engage, and they have multiple channels for this including virtual meetings. He wants help developing a relationship so we know each other. This is a two-way street.

Postscript: 

I asked about some statistics, but didn’t include them above. In the end, I didn’t feel they were part of the core conversation, not in my case anyway. However, here they are for the curious.

• Number of street officers: 96 full time sworn, 3 part time sworn.
• Years of experience: Average is about 10-15 years. One person just started. Many officers have 20-25 years.
• Ethnic breakdown: It mirrors the community … about 8% Black and 8% Hispanic, and full details are on the annual reports on the website. 

I asked Chief Letteney how I could pray for him. You may disagree about how effective prayer is, but here’s what he requested: For healing. For division to stop. For people to respect different ideologies and find more common ground. For safety for the community and for officers facing difficult circumstances. These officers are people - moms and dads and grandparents. And for my part, I do believe that prayer is effective, and I'll be praying along these lines. Amen, Lord Jesus, bring healing!

Finally, I’m not the first person to approach Chief Letteney like this. Many people are, and most are asking questions like I was. Good work, folks!

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