The Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic (57 page)

Essential to resolving these issues is increased respect and understanding. For many people who live in the inner cities, almost the only whites they encounter are the police, and some white cops encounter minorities only on the job. Inner-city kids go to largely minority schools and might have some white teachers, but the neighborhoods they come home to are all minority; the stores are minority staffed, the life is a minority life. If police leadership and individual police officers do not understand and respect the social mores and cultures of the neighborhoods they are policing, cops will continue to provide the spark that ignites unfortunate flash points.

There is undeniably great legitimate frustration with the behavior and attitude of some individual cops in minority communities. However, if we reduce crime and disorder, while at the same time walking the streets in a respectful way, we can begin to help society deal with its racial tensions. There is a great amount of work to be done in this area, but the potential for success certainly exists. As police leadership has accepted responsibility for reducing crime and fear, so too must it accept responsibility for dealing with racism, brutality, and inappropriate attitudes in the ranks. The first step is to admit there is a problem.

Drug abuse was once felt to be largely a societal problem. The police were often told the most we could hope to do was contain its effect. However, because of strong political support and our willingness to stick our necks out, the police and our partners in the criminal justice system and the communities have begun to get drugs off the streets while reducing the violence associated with their sale and use. In city after city we have begun to return control of the neighborhoods to their law-abiding citizens. In much the same way that we have played a leadership role in dealing effectively with the issues of drugs and crime, American policing can and must be an essential and significant force in addressing the issues of race and police behavior. American police can be the instrument of government that really does light the way toward addressing these societal problems.

To achieve these goals it is essential that police identify and train new leaders. Under consideration is a national Police Leadership Institute, privately funded, that would identify a number of current and potential future leaders and provide training, operational, and educational experiences
that encourage a broad outlook. Mike Julian often said, “We tell cops not to do the wrong thing; we need to show them how to do the right thing.” We have become better managers, we have the potential to become much better leaders, but we need creative leaders who are able to see beyond their own police departments and the police profession and think nationally and globally. Leaders must keep their minds open, not move into rigid and predictable conservative or liberal ideologies, and be available to all ideas dealing with the crime problem, much as we were in New York. Everybody in the city, liberals and conservatives alike, benefited from the tremendous decrease in crime.

We will develop leaders by improving their selection, mentoring, and education so they fulfill the promise of community policing, in which they are a part of the community and act with it, not on it or for it. The Leadership Institute would focus on teaching managers to deal with crime, drugs, and fear reduction, but it would also expose them to the most advanced thinking on race and police behavior and attitudes. It would be a way of ensuring that the American democratic principles, which also have to be the foundation of policing, are fully understood, accepted, and practiced. It would present ideas that work and flag ideas that don't. Compstat, for example, is a reflection of this process. We provided an opportunity for people to come up with creative new ideas. We empowered them to do great things, and they did. Encouraging the ideas that will improve human interaction is my dream, and ultimately my goal.

There are not many optimists in this country. I am an optimist. An organization is always reflective of its leader, and if there is no belief at the top echelons, there will be none below. I fully believe that with able police leadership, political will, well-trained cops, and community participation, we can take back America state by state, city by city, borough by borough, block by block. And we will win.