Policing Through Recession

There have been a lot of conversations online and in the media, in light of the last year’s events, about the growing crisis of dissociation between police and the communities they are policing. But the main point most of these conversations are missing is that our problem (no matter how hard it is to believe) is not the police. The police force is simply the part of our institutional system in which the real problems in our society are most apparent.

I sat down a few weeks ago with Robert Shilling, the former chief of the New Mexico State Police, over several pints at my "office," to try and gain some perspective from the other side of the badge. Shilling absolutely carries himself with the air of a sworn officer, despite being several years retired from the force. The thing that—at least in my eyes—differentiates him from so many of his former colleagues is his willingness to pay attention to, analyze and discuss the relationship members of law enforcement have with the communities they serve.

"Prior to the recession in 2007 and 2008," he explained, "the 'Holy Grail' in policing was 'community-oriented policing.' It was a mandate that was adopted by many agencies, including the State Police, for several years, of, 'We need to engage our community. We need to hold meetings. We need to get out of our patrol cars and go meet [the people], and they need to get to know us and how we do things.'"

The recession changed all that. With limited funds, in addition to cutbacks, the bureaucrats with their hands on the faucet also demanded justification for how those funds were being spent. On a national level, police departments turned to what is called 'data-driven' law enforcement, justifying their deployment based on where statistics indicated it was most needed. "What's limiting about numbers, is it leaves out the human factor," Shilling tells me. "The data misses the perception of the community at large that you're trying to serve, to a degree. I'm a stats guy, but I was really taken aback, over my career, at how many times [the stats pointed to one issue], but then you talk to the community and that doesn't even come up."

When you run a government like a corporation, these sort of nonsequiturs are inevitable. When the money dries up, the bottom line becomes the bottom line. "As a manager in a law enforcement organization, you start worrying about, 'How do I put gas in my guy's patrol car? How do I have enough officers to cover a shift, so when the 911 phone rings, I have someone to answer a call?' So all those things that law enforcement embraced and was pushing for in the years leading up to the recession went right out the window."

During our discussion of the racial issues whose deep roots differentiate America's urban centers from any New Mexico community Shilling ever policed, he touched on the solution nobody ever wants to hear. "What disappoints me," he noted, "is that you look at the last municipal elections in any of those areas, and you see a turnout of 10 percent."

Law enforcement is a branch of our government, like any other. Our lawmakers, like our police, are nothing more than a selected cross-section of our population. Both branches are made up of specific personality types, and they are all acting on what they believe is in the best interest of what they think of as "their community." If we intend to be part of that community, it's up to us to be vocal about how we want to be governed.

Miljen spends his days thinking deep thoughts about shallow things and drinking good beers with interesting people. Become one of them by emailing miljen@sfreporter.com


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