Committee Report CR-4
The Civic Unity Committee held a public meeting on February 9, 2011 beginning at 6:35 PM in the Sophia Anastos Room, Cambridge City Hall. Although the meeting was initially scheduled to take place in the Ackerman Room, the meeting was moved to the Sophie Room because of an event featuring live music on the first floor. The purpose of the meeting was to hear a presentation from the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) on what action has been taken with regard to the recommendations of the Cambridge Review Committee Report: "
Present at the meeting were Councillor E. Denise Simmons, Chair of the Committee, Commissioner Robert Haas, Cambridge Police Department (CPD), Margaret Drury, City Clerk, Muna Kangsen, Aide to Councillor Simmons, Estelle Disch, Advisory Committee, Professor Larry Blum, Advisory Committee, Attorney Sean Hope, Advisory Committee, Dr. Janie Ward, Advisory Committee, Sally Haslanger, Advisory Committee, Christina Giacobbe, Chief Administrative Officer, CPD, Deputy Superintendent Christine Eloe, CPD, and Lieutenant Daniel Wagner, CPD.
Councillor Simmons convened the meeting at 6:35 P.M. She began with a brief account of the origins of the Civic Unity Committee. She traced the roots of the Civic Unity Committee back to a report titled "Ethnic Attitudes in Cambridge" commissioned in the 1945, which examined the condition of blacks with regards housing, law enforcement etc. Simmons noted that she was the last Executive Director of the Civic Unity Committee and also stated that the Civic Unity Committee of the City Council was established during the Mayoralty of Frank Duehay. Councillors Simmons then thanked all for attending the meeting and invited Commissioner Haas to make a presentation.
Commissioner Haas introduced Deputy Superintendent Christine Eloe, Christina Giacobbe CPD Chief Administrative Officer and Lieutenant Dan Wagner from the CPD Crime analysis unit.
Deputy Superintendent Eloe spoke at great length about the CPD's efforts to build "legitimacy in the eyes of the community." The concept of "legitimacy" in the field of policing and criminal justice refers to the judgments that ordinary citizens make about the rightfulness of police conduct and the extent to which they support the police department or other government agencies that are entrusted by the public to exert authority. A judge can determine if a police action was lawful, and a police supervisor can determine whether an officer acted within the bounds of departmental policy. But citizens will form their own opinions about whether they view the actions of an officer as measured or excessive, as impartial or discriminatory, i.e., whether the officer exercised discretion in a fair manner.
Research in this area involves exploring why people choose to accept or resist the decisions made by others and why people do or do not defer to authority. Deputy Eloe stated that police have the greatest amount of authority where the community sees them as honest, trustworthy and caring about their community. CPD's work to increase legitimacy in the eyes of the community it polices required a change in the traditional approach to police work and necessitated more and different training. She referenced some important concepts in the CPD's campaign to gain legitimacy. Traditional training emphasizes the importance of gaining control and not allowing citizens to question their actions. The CPD's legitimacy-building campaign included a new approach to de-escalating tense situations such as a situation in which a police officer felt that he/she was not being treated with the "deference" police officers are accustomed to having from the public. As part of the CPD's campaign to build legitimacy, the CPD was listening as well as explaining what the police was doing to community members. Now Cambridge CPD has policies and regulations that require officers to explain what they are doing. Deputy Eloe stated that the more the CPD explains what it was doing to the community, the community in turn will become less wary and suspicious of the CPD.
Deputy Eloe noted that an important aspect of this new training is a recognition that everyone suffers from the baggage of perspective, which predisposes one to react a in a certain way to certain things. Deputy Eloe acknowledged that as an African American woman, she can understand the frustration of the black community towards the police. She recounted an incident when a police lieutenant stopped and yelled at her mother, who had Eloe's four year old son in the car. Deputy Eloe expressed the embarrassment she felt when she was asked by her son why the lieutenant was yelling at his grandmother. The training in this area started with the command staff in small discussion groups. Now the conversations are happening at the line staff level. The conversations have been very rich.
Deputy Eloe also stated that the legitimacy training emphasizes the need to listen attentively. In addition, training entails looking for new approaches to resolve conflicts. She described an alternative resolution approach to complaints filed against a police officer which the police officer and the complainant are put in a room together and asked to give their description of the event. Both parties are told that they do not need to respond to the others version, they just need to listen. Eloe averred that through mediation citizens acquired a better understanding of police work and police procedures. In turn, police officers get a different perspective on how their behavior is perceived by the citizen. She related an incidence in which the citizen recounted how frightened he had been and the officer was horrified to hear that he had had that effect. Deputy Eloe stated that since mediation program began in September 2009, no repeat complaint has been made on an officer involved in mediation. Lieutenant Dan Wagner said that an important aspect of legitimacy training is that although there may be cause to arrest a person and thus deprive him or her of their freedom, there is never a reason to deprive anyone of their dignity.
Commissioner Haas noted that the legitimacy training was a 15 weeks long program that also included some training on tactical disengagement while maintaining control and safety. Haas noted that the CPD was currently exploring other tactical engagement tools that can be used to de-escalate a situation so that no one is arrested.
The commissioner also noted that the CPD's legitimacy training was informed among other things by a study conducted by the CPD that examined disorderly conduct arrests. This study was described at length in the report of the previous meeting of the Civic Unity Committee.. Commissioner Haas noted that the new training deviates from many long-held orthodoxies about police training. Haas noted that although one of the first things new recruits are taught in the Police Academy is never to retreat for fear of showing weakness that might undermine their authority, the new training offered to Cambridge Police requires them to exercise their discretion to withdraw from-time-to-time to de-escalate the situation. They are now introducing these concepts in the Police Academy in Lowell.
Ms. Giacobbe spoke about various initiatives aimed at creating a better relationship between Cambridge youth and the CPD. Ms; Giacobbe noted that many of these programs were done in collaboration with the Department of Human Service Programs. Some of the programs mentioned include: Ride Along, in which Cambridge youth rise with the police in their cruiser to get a better sense of what the Police see from the vantage point of their cruisers. Juvenile Jeopardy on the other hand seeks to deter youth from committing crimes by educating them about the penalties that will be incurred by committing certain crimes.
In response to the Committee's recommendation that the CPD do more training with the other police departments in the city, Commissioner Haas said that the MBTA, Harvard, MIT and state police now all sit in on Cambridge training. He described a current training initiative in managing aggressive behavior.
Councillor Simmons asked about police from other communities who work on police details in Cambridge and have not had the kind of training in what is expected of a police officer in Cambridge. Commissioner Haas said that the CPD has an agreement with every community whose police do detail work in Cambridge. If they do not conform to Cambridge standards they cannot come back again.
Members of the Advisory Committee asked how they could be helpful in the efforts to improve community relations. Commissioner Haas said that CPD is experimenting with the Tools for Tolerance program. They are currently using it on their own officers but they would like to try it in a community approach and would be very happy to have community partners. He added that he was astonished by the amount of hatred expressed in the email that he received during the Gates/Crowley controversy, mostly from people who did not live in Cambridge.
Dr. Ward said that there is a great deal of racism in our society. Why not name the elephant in the room and then work on the problem. Deputy Elow and Lieutenant agreed. Deputy Elow said that they are teaching their people to step back, acknowledge that there is racism in policing but that this is not the cause of the particular police action in question and explain why.
Commissioner Haas said that Cambridge is a learning laboratory. CPD is carving out very specific modules on de-escalation and now the Academy is using them. Cambridge also has a 40 hour per year in-service training requirement, which is done by the CPD.
Councillor Simmons thanked all those present for their participation. The next meeting was set for Wednesday March 9, 2011, 6:30 p.m. in the community room of the police station.