Leadership Lessons from Ferguson

Sometime in the fall of 2013, while my husband was out of town, my daughter and I came home one evening to find our garage door open and the door into the house wide open. Night had fallen, and I knew better than to enter our home. So we called our city police and waited at the corner of our street as they did a walk-through. They were highly professional and very helpful, and they informed us that everything was fine. Their day probably ended with a boring walk through a messy home simply because we did not close our garage door when we left.

Often police work does not have the glamour and action of Hollywood movies. The line between good and evil is not clearly marked in real life. Domestic disputes and mental health crises’ may be the more frequent calls the police respond to than brilliantly plotted heists such as what we saw on Die Hard with our silver screen police hero, Bruce Willis.

Yet, in our mundane and messy lives, the police play a key role in our justice system. Some say that the police are the most important agency of our justice system (Larson & Garrett, 1996, p. 253). As first responders and crime scene analyzers, they are the face of our judiciary system. As men and women carrying weapons that can destroy human life, they are people with power who are called to assess situations and make decisions—sometimes in a matter of seconds—that will safeguard a community of people. The decisions they make can turn them into heroes, guardians upholding justice or into tyrants, abusers of power. With authority, power, and influence over the citizens of the community, our police officers are leaders. Their choices and actions cast light on their leadership success or failure.

            Like many people in our nation, with much sadness I followed the events at Ferguson, Missouri, regarding the tragic death of Michael Brown. In a different scenario, if a civilian had yelled at Michael and his friend to get off the road, had backed up his car to assert his statement, had gotten into a brawl with Michael and shot him, it may not have made headline news. But when those we trust to protect the lives of our children take away lives, we are left bewildered, defrauded, and defeated.       

But in crisis situations, we must not pass judgment on all law enforcement officers. We must remember that many police officers hold to their values and honor their calling, even though their lives are in potential danger. Yet, there are police officers who abuse their power and use excessive force to harm or kill innocent people whom they are supposed to protect. Their actions are horrendous and inexcusable. Sadly, this is the plague of humanity, not just of police officers, where the good and the evil, like lottery tickets, are mixed together.    

As I was mulling over the events at Ferguson, I remembered Malcolm Gladwell’s comments (2005): The critics of police conduct invariably focus on the intentions of individual officers. They talk about racism and conscious bias. The defenders of the police, on the other hand, invariably take refuge in what Fyfe (author and researcher) calls the split-second syndrome: An officer goes to the scene as quickly as possible. He sees the bad guy. There is no time for thought. He acts. That scenario requires that mistakes be accepted as unavoidable. In the end, both of these perspectives are defeatist. They accept as a given the fact that once any critical incident is in motion, there is nothing that can be done to stop or control it. And when our instinctive reactions are involved, that view is all too common. But that assumption is wrong. Our unconscious thinking is, in one critical respect, no different from our conscious thinking: in both, we are able to develop our rapid decision making with training and experience."

Michael Brown was not the only one ever shot by an officer commissioned to protect citizens. Just a few months earlier, James Boyd was shot by officers in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A few years ago, 21-year-old Michael Bell Jr. was shot by officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin. These are not uncommon events. Nor are such tragic incidents clustered around one geographical area. Now-a-days they happen all-too-frequently across our country. All of these have signs of split-second syndrome or conscience bias.  None should have ended in death.

Leadership Responsibilities of Citizens

Our nation is the world’s leader of democracy. Our ideals are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for every citizen. We are led by a government that is of the people, for the people, and by the people. Therefore, the Michael Brown tragedy is not the failure of one lone ranger . . . it is the failure of the citizens of a free nation.

Let me explain. The organizational chart of a city has citizens at the top of its government structure. We, the citizens, elect key officials such as mayors, city council members, and the like. Many bureaucrats report to an elected official who is to be held accountable by the citizens. When shocking events, like Michael Brown’s death, shake the foundations of our nation, we must look to see what we, the overseers of our city, our state, and our nation can do.  Indeed, there are three things that you and I can do to make sure that none suffer the price that Michael Brown, James Boyd, Michael Bell Jr., and many others paid.

1. Be an informed citizen. Since you are on the apex of your city’s organizational chart, be a citizen leader, informed and aware of what those you have handed over the keys to the city are doing.

2. Be an alert, involved citizen. If change needs to happen, get involved and make it happen. A great example was the rallying cry from Ferguson of unequal representation in the police department. Ferguson is a racially integrated community (Rodden, 2014). If a racially integrated community does not have all races represented in the city’s community services area of the government, the problem lies with the guardians of the government. Get involved. Michael Bell Jr.’s father fought a one-man war for a bill in Wisconsin to bring about accountability for police wrongdoing and transparency in police departmental investigations (2014). He won. Unfortunately, he chose to get involved only after his son’s death. Don’t wait until tragedy strikes to get involved.

3. Be a responsible citizen. Vote in every city and county election, and encourage your family and friends to vote. Moreover, we must teach every generation the foundation of our constitution that all men are created equal. This lesson begins in our homes. Yes, racial prejudices are an issue. But prejudices are not related to just the police; they are the mind-set of citizens who do not accept the simple truth of equality. It is an age-old problem that leaders such as Washington, Adams, and Lincoln have fought against since the founding of our country.

Leadership Responsibilities of Law Enforcement Officers

When rapid decision-making can lead to life or death of a citizen, leadership has to be exercised in its most excellent form. There are three things police departments can do to promote leadership with excellence and avoid distress to the community they serve and to themselves.

1. Establish the department’s values, vision, and goals around the community. All officers should be aware of the department’s values and be trained to uphold them. Then, trained officers will face hostile or crisis situations holding on to the values of their department. One of the best examples of value-based leadership in a community in crisis is in the writing of a first-century apostle, Paul. He wrote to the fledgling church in Thessalonica, where the people looked up to him as their leader. “Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you . . . we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7, 8, 11). In Hebrew ethics, behavior was filtered through the motive of love. Officers’ behavior should be governed by love for the people they serve. They should regularly dialogue within the department on heavy words like justice, mercy, and compassion to grow and nurture the department’s identity.

2. Provide continued high quality, multi-faceted training for all police officers. Police officers should receive continuous training in 

(a) Ethics, moral values, and leadership. Continued training in ethics, moral values, and leadership is essential for life or death decision making. Add to that the study of American history. The study of American history may even help officers to overcome prejudices they were exposed to while growing up. For example, what a great model we have in our President Abraham Lincoln, who in the midst of Civil war, made compassionate decisions keeping the welfare of friends and foes in mind. Studying our great leaders along with ethics and moral values will allow us to better serve our nation.

(b) Treatment of citizens with mental disabilities. In 1997, Plano, Texas witnessed the tragic death of fifteen year old Michael Clement, an autistic and intellectually disabled teenager, at the hands of an officer. From this horrendous tragedy arose Plano’s Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) program that trains officers to respond to citizens with special needs. Sadly, only two percent of our nation’s police departments undergo this training. As a citizen, you should know if your city’s police officers are trained to assist folks with metal health issues. If not, find out what you can do to bring this training to your city’s officers.

(c) Making rapid decisions. Training in rapid decision making will help police officers to handle unimaginable situations wisely, with a prepared mind. It will teach them to make clear observations and assess situations. It is a dangerous problem in a crisis situation that is charged with adrenaline, when men in uniform, carrying weapons, make quick and decisions without excellent training.

3. Hold every officer accountable for his actions. In the private sector an accountant who was caught in fraudulent accounting will be fired. An inventory control manager stealing products will never be given that job again. A church pastor caught in immorality will have to find a new career. However, when police officers fail, often they are not held accountable for their actions. Officers must know that if they take someone's life, they will be held accountable.

The reality of a healthy democracy is this: we, the citizens, who are guardians of our city and our city’s police officers, who are guardians of its justice cannot operate as silos. We are a team. Before crisis comes into our city, you and I should encourage the guardians of justice in our streets to be leaders of our society – leaders who hold on to high-minded values, who are competent through continuous training, and who hold themselves accountable for their actions. We do that by ourselves becoming informed, involved, and responsible guardians of our city.

References

Bell, M. (2014). Father whose unarmed son shot by police 10 years ago reflects on Ferguson. Retrieved from http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/highlight/father-whose-unarmed-son-shot-by-police-10-years-ago-reflects-on-ferguson/53f261c078c90abf87000550?cn=tbla

Bell, M. (2014). What I did after police killed my son. Retrieved from http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038.html#.U_v8j_ldXT8

Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. New York, NY: Hachettet Book Group.

Larson, C. J. & Garrett, G. R. (1996). Crime, justice, and society. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Rodden, J. (2014). Is segregation the problem in Ferguson? Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/08/18/is-segregation-the-problem-in-ferguson/