The local media ran a story today about legislators and the local DA endorsing police reform. Now, you may think, given my background that I am against police reform. On the contrary. I believe that there is reform needed. I somehow doubt though that the same reform is needed in Astoria, Madras, Bend, Portland, and Salem. You see, policing is local. Painting Oregon police officers with a brush that is dipped in the preconceptions based on the actions of a Minneapolis, Detroit, or NYC police officer is wrong.
Oregon has been implementing best practices based on evidence for a long time. For almost a decade every supervisor promoted in Oregon has had to attend training in evidence based policing, police legitimacy and procedural justice. The Center for Policing Excellence has worked to implement best practices from education, social sciences, and policing. Supervisors are required to go home and implement an evidence based policing project in their jurisdiction ensuring practice is set along with the knowledge. There is good knowledge out there on what works and it is not just anecdotal information but based on the work of social scientists that have implemented the scientific method to help reduce unintended consequences.
Randomly pulling tools out of the police officers tool box because it feels good, will result in unintended consequences. That we look primarily to witnesses that feel policing needs change instead of those who have actually studied it is a shame. Few people are calling on the society for evidence based policing. Instead we are looking solely to community groups impacted by policing. This is not how good policy gets built. This is how policy that gets repealed gets implemented. Let’s get the social scientists in the room when we start talking policy.
The Embed Educator 