PERSPECTIVE ON POLICE : A Finger in the Dike as Cities Decay : The collapse of societal structures forces officers to work with more fear, despair, doubt and loneliness.

Police officers patrol the streets of America’s cities today with more fear, despair, doubt and loneliness than ever before.

Police are fearful of the violence brought about by the proliferation of handguns and a new willingness on the part of their owners to use them, even against police officers. They feel outgunned, knowing from both experience and folklore that gang members and drug dealers will not hesitate to shoot them. They patrol the streets knowing that there is an ever increasing cultural acceptance of violence as a means of resolving disputes.

Police are in despair because each day they are called on to manage the human debris of social and institutional collapse. This collapse includes the failure of primary and secondary schools in too many cities. It includes the collapse of affordable housing and the lack of access to health care for poor people. There is an absence of residential care and treatment for the mentally ill. Society’s ultimate safety net, the family, has also been damaged, with more and more households headed by single mothers, living in poverty.

Police know how thin and inadequate their response to these problems is. They see the weight of these problems come through in the anger of the people. So, they keep their collective finger in the dike while our society fails to deal effectively with urban decay. Police are full of doubt because the problems they face are more complex and demanding, and they act with less confidence that their response is the solution. Police deal with emotionally disturbed people, who until recently would have lived in a state-run hospital. Police deal with vagrants without the benefit of vagrancy laws. Police deal with people made homeless by drug and alcohol addiction, with too few places to refer them for shelter or treatment or a job. Police deal with angry, violent teens who often have no hope of breaking out of the cycle of poverty. Police respond to racially and ethnically charged disputes, with little or no control over the factors that give rise to the bias, resentment and fear. Many officers struggle to maintain a sense of justice, to act fairly and compassionately.

Finally, police feel alone and abandoned. They respond to public pressure to make the streets safer, but they are not given the resources to get the job done properly. They see a failing criminal justice system where those arrested are back on the street in record time.

There is great pressure from their organizations never to make mistakes, and officers fear that they will not be supported if they make an honest error, not to mention a serious mistake. Consequently, many police see the world they work in as more dangerous and less supportive.

Left alone to battle in a hostile environment, police often turn inward for support. They develop the most closed occupational subculture outside of the military. They work together. They socialize together. They are isolated from the public. Many officers’ sense of trust extends no further than their cruiser and backup units.

There is a need to institute a major change in American policing that breaks down those factors that perpetuate an “us versus them” attitude in the minds of many officers. This can best be accomplished by an institutional commitment to community policing--a style and philosophy of policing that fosters a closer relationship between police officers and the law-abiding people they serve. In neighborhoods where police and people feel connected to one another, there is less fear and often less crime. There is less apprehension, hence the police are less likely to overreact and the community is less likely to be hostile toward them.

Community policing offers a connection. By giving officers and supervisors permanent responsibility for a neighborhood, the police get to know the community and its residents. Officers can come to know and understand cultural diversity. Residents and business people can come to trust the police and take a stand against crime and violence.

For this to happen, there must be some organizational change. Police departments must be willing to establish permanent beat and shift assignments. Police forces should more closely mirror the racial and ethnic communities they serve. Officers must have access to the knowledge, technology and skills required to police a complex society. Perhaps most important, police must come to view the communities they police as partners in coalition to build safe and secure neighborhoods.

Police in American cities need the support of the public more than ever. The good, law-abiding, hard-working people who live in our cities need the police. Community policing is the way to build new partnerships against crime, drugs and hopelessness.