Thoughts About Better Policing and Healthier Neighborhoods

Chicago IL

07 May, 2021

3:59 PM

Description

Cops—they're mostly ex-cops now because the inexorable match of time has aged us all—are some of my favorite people. They're funny, perhaps because they have to laugh to keep from crying. They're cynical—wouldn't you be if your department's budgets and procedures were scrutinized by politicians who wouldn't know a gangbanger's Glock from a finger-painter's smock? They're sarcastic—you have to be a law-enforcing wise guy to deal with a law-breaking wise guy. They're loyal—no one else covers your back better than your comforter. And they're brave—facing dark nights, darker alleys, shots fired and perps running, never knowing if they'll be going home to their families after their shifts or under a sheet for a ride to a cold slab at the morgue. Full stop here, because cops—my friends and others—are also deeply troubled and deeply conflicted. So this is not an excuse for a knee on a neck or a dubious kill-shot that wiped out suspects—male and female, young and old—in cars, apartments, suburban streets and urban gangways. Some of the lethal force may have been justified, some excessive, unnecessary, misguided and racially-tinged—bang-bang split-second decisions that prompted multiple investigations and demonstrations, occasional charges and convictions and—-worst case scenarios—looting, vandalism and civic unrest. But here we are, a few weeks after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's murder conviction for causing the death of George Floyd, at a watershed moment or an inflection point. Choose your metaphor. So now what? Well, I'll let others tackle the chronic, daunting societal questions of race, poverty and gun violence, which are way above my pay grade, and focus instead on real-time conditions on the ground that I understand from nearly five decades as a Chicago journalist and good government watchdog covering and commenting on all of what I've described above. And as someone who can say, unequivocally, that some of my favorite people are also Black and brown residents of our toughest inner-city neighborhoods—people in communities I spent countless hours reporting from. With all that as prologue, I think we have two basic questions to consider: How do we reform and improve policing? And how do we reform and improve conditions in mostly poor inner-city neighborhoods where illegal activity involving guns, drugs and gangs spark endless confrontations with law enforcement? The first question, police reform, is easier to answer: More minorities in top law enforcement positions; better sensitivity training and mentoring to improve race relations; wider use of gang intervention specialists and de-escalation techniques in volatile situations; and a mandate to use non-lethal weapons like tasers and rubber bullets, and shoot-to-diasable, not kill, whenever possible. Those reforms can also be extended to traffic stops and police chases, which are additional flash points that all-too-often end in tragedy. As for the festering and incendiary conditions in so many of our mostly-minority high-crime neighborhoods? That's much more complicated but I think we have, at this moment, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk-the-walk and not just talk-the-talk. The Biden administration's trillion dollar-plus plan to confront many of our health, welfare, social, educational, environmental and infrastructure concerns is also an invitation to actually implement some of the expensive and generally cost-prohibitive programs change agents have been suggesting for years. That includes: —Expanded community counseling, mental health and substance abuse services, including outreach to troubled teens, young adults and their parents. —Additional counselors, social workers and special ed teachers in public schools, along with expanded enrichment programs and extra-curricular activities. —Full day and evening school and park district programs that give young people and their families additional educational, social and recreational opportunities in safe havens. —Updated job training, including paid internships, to give young people alternatives to gangs, and train adults for jobs in a variety of professions. —More public transportation options between inner cities and job and education sites. —Entertainment venues for fun—movies, plays, musicals and dance—and classes for would-be entertainers. I could probably add a few more things to each bucket: More police department transparency and accountability; more faith-and-civic-based neighborhood interventions before, rather than after, tragedies; and beefed up efforts to interrupt the endless pipeline of illegal weapons from outside to inside our cities. And finally, the most important thing of all: Enlightened leadership from mayors, aldermen, county commissioners, state legislators, governors, congressmen and law enforcement officials committed to turning ideas into realities. The biggest crime of all—beyond the bad behavior of thugs, cops and public officials—would be inaction by those with the power to implement change. Think about my suggestions, offer your own and listen to others' ideas. Please. As many have said before, in a variety of ways, we cannot and should not let this crisis go to waste. That would be the ultimate tragedy. Andy Shaw is a veteran Chicago journalist and good government reform advocate. 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