Co-chair Greer: “This is the voice of the community.”
Beat cops got a reminder at line-up Tuesday: Citizens have the right to record their actions in public.
That reminder will remain on the agenda at line-ups through this week in the wake of a new task force report calling for renewed efforts to improve police-community relations.
The report was released at a City Hall press conference Tuesday. The task force — which Mayor Toni Harp formed last year in the wake of a controversial arrest of a teenager outside the St. Patrick’s Day Parade — called it “Phase 1” of an ongoing effort to review all department general orders and respond to concerns about police accountability.
“Although NHPD has long been a national leader on community policing and civilian-police relations, work still needs to be done,” the Mayor’s Community and Police Relations Task Force report observes. “Some community policing practices are outdated and address concerns that were more relevant at the program’s initial founding than they are in the contemporary climate of our City. NHPD and the City lack a clear definition of community policing.”
Rabbi Eli Greer, the other co-chair of the mayor’s task force, said that the group included people of widely divergent views. They were able to work out their differences through “heated debate” and “real collaboration” to produce specific guidelines for how to improve relations between police and the public. “This is the voice of the community,” Greer said. “This is not the voice of an individual or the police department or the clergy.” He portrayed the group’s work as an example for how communities can work together productively at a time of intense national debate over policing.
Among the report’s recommendations: “NHPD training should encourage respecting a criticizing citizen’s right to video, as well as instruction on how to continue an arrest or other interaction while being recorded.”
The police department agreed to do the same thing and more in February 2014 when it settled two lawsuits brought by citizens arrested for daring to record New Haven cops in action. The city, a year and a half later, updated its general order guaranteeing citizens’ rights to video, as promised under the settlement agreement, and incorporated the policy into training. (Here’s the rewritten general order, which was approved in October 2015.) But in several instances officers violated either the letter or the spirit of that order or other protections of free speech since then, without any repercussions for the officers involved or public reappraisal by the department.
Leroy Williams, co-chair of the mayor’s task force, was asked at Tuesday’s press conference what he envisions the department doing differently on the issue based on the report’s recommendation.
“We didn’t talk about particular incidents or cases. … The mayor asked us to look at all policies. We looked at every single one of them. We’re trying to find the best practices across the country. We’ve actually done that,” he responded. (Watch his full response to that and another question in the video at the top of the story.) “People have a right to know you have a right to videotape. … Everybody has a right to have respect and dignity at all times.”
Esserman: “We will be the better and stronger” for the report.
After the press conference, Chief Dean Esserman met with his assistant chiefs and his internal affairs chief, Lt. Racheal Cain, to discuss how to “reinforce” the general order. A decision was made to begin the week-long discussion of the policy at roll-call line-ups. Cain said that process began with the 3 p.m. line-up.
“We’ve hired almost 200 cops in the last four years,” Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova, who oversees the training division, said. “We’ve got to remind people, reinforce things: ‘Folks in the community can record us. Get used to it.’”
The Reality Checklist
The new task force’s recommendations provide a list that the public can check in the months to come to see whether the police follow through, or if the task force’s hard work and research will end up buried in the vast graveyard of government reports. In addition to the citizen video-recording recommendation, others include:
• “Adopt[ing] policies requiring officers to provide their names to individuals they have stopped, along with the reason for the stop, the reason for a search if one is conducted, and a card with information on how to raise a complaint regarding the encounter.”
• Training that “emphasize[s] deescalation and alternatives to arrest or summons in situations where appropriate.”
• Creating a “standard procedure for officers on the scene to file a report” on any police use of force, as quickly as possible. The recommendation cites a Maryland policy recommendation that cops file such reports by the end of their shift.
• Creating a general order stating that “officers who witness inappropriate use of force by another officer should be required to inervene” and “report the incident and fellow officer in question.”
• Updating the policy on use of tasers to require cops to wait at least an hour to “attempt to interview a suspect and ask whether they wish to waive their Miranda warnings” after firing.
• “Provid[ing] comprehensive training in First Amendment and protest rights” to officers and “consider[ing] writing a new [general order] regarding citizens’ right to free speech, assembly, and protest that outlines expectations of civilians and police in these situations.”
• Producing “an official definition of community policing … that clearly outlines the role and responsibilities of officers, the role and responsibilities of community members, and the interaction between the two roles,” along with “new goals” and “quality indicators.”
• Appointing a representative from each community management team to the Civilian Review Board, along with two new at-large members appointed by the mayor.
• Training officers specifically in how to deal with immigrants.”
• “Begin[ning] training new district managers and shift commanders well before a vacancy exists, to ensure seamless transitions; to maintain quality of service and relationships with communities and their management teams.”
What about an end to profiling? The NHPD routinely stops vehicles for no reason, or made up reasons in order to search vehicles, inspect licenses and go on an illegal fishing expedition. When will this policy change and be addressed?