The panel included chiefs and superintendents from the United States and abroad, including Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who took over the position six months ago. In that time, he said it has been imperative to reach out to the community to regain trust lost by recent police shootings. He also said that of the 579 murders to date, most are committed in three districts by about 1,400 known gang members.
Johnson said police know of the gang members because they track arrests and contacts with police through algorithm software, and not by where they live or their ethnicity. He said that the level of disrespect toward police is unprecedented and that police are asked to do far more than their fair share. “All of society’s ills are dumped at the doorstep of law enforcement,” Johnson said. Housing, mental health, poverty and the like are situations that can’t be corrected by “arresting our way out of the situation.”
A key point made by Johnson and others was that police are only “as successful as the faith people have in you to do the job.”
Catherine De Bolle, commissioner general for the Belgium Federal Police, said that trust with the community has to be a two-way street. De Bolle responded to and investigated the three suicide bombings in March 2016 that killed 32 civilians in Brussels.
She said it is imperative that the community trust law enforcement. She gave as an example of what happens when there is distrust the terrorist who was able to hide out in a local community after the attacks for four months. “We have lost some communities and we have to get them back,” she said.
The panelists also highlighted training as key to recent responses. San Bernardino, Calif., Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said although local jurisdictions hadn’t necessarily trained together, they had all been trained on what to do during an active shooter scenario.
When a husband and wife opened fire, killing 14 in December 2015, officers were well prepared to respond and soon had tracked and killed the suspects.
“The lesson learned was that training time is of the essence,” Burguan said. “Everyone has trained since Columbine and knew what to do.”
Emile Perez, director of international cooperation for the French National Police, said training is just as key in France, but that police there move immediately to help victims first before engaging suspects.
Superintendent of Louisiana State Police Col. Michael Edmonson echoed what others said about police being asked to tackle societal ills. “A police officer is not a doctor,” he said. “The public expects first responders to be perfect.”
In a keynote, Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock talked about a “globalized world” in which global events create local devastation. For instance, the Mexican drug cartels have seized control of the U.S. drug market, terrorizing cities like Los Angeles. And terrorism, spawned in the Middle East, finds its way to cities like San Bernardino and has a devastating local impact.
He said such events call for a global response and global cooperation. “We live in the age of the butterfly effect,” he said, “where a local crime may be part of a much larger global chain.”
