Ferguson as a Catalyst for Constructive Change

            The St. Louis county Grand Jury’s decision not to indict Officer Wilson in the incident involving the altercation with Michael Brown which lead to Brown’s death has caused a great deal of animosity and protest throughout the United States.  As protests are playing out, interviews are being conducted with experts across all mediums of media, and every person within reach of a computer is weighing in with their thoughts.  It has become abundantly clear that the case involving Officer Wilson and Michael Brown has come to embody more than just what transpired during those fateful less than 2 minutes of their encounter.  For many, this case has become a referendum on desired ethical change to municipal police departments across the United States as well as the United States criminal justice system.  Officer Wilson and the county prosecutor have become a representation that embodies all perceived injustices of how police forces fail to uniformly apply the law to minority groups and the perceived biases present in the criminal justice system against minority citizens.  The grand jury’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to indict Officer Wilson is seen as a referendum on the much larger issue of systemic problems within many municipal police forces.  Since the incident in Ferguson has touched a deeper problem in the United States, it is logical for us to focus on solving this deeper problem.  Even if the evidence had been sufficient for the Grand Jury to indict Officer Wilson, his indictment would not have solved the larger problems with municipal police departments across the United States.  The national attention and debate given to Ferguson should be used as a catalyst for the constructive, effective reform.  For the previously mentioned purposes of finding constructive reform, I will seek to offer three ways of correcting problems between municipal police forces and the communities they serve. 

I will argue that municipal police departments need to drastically increase engagement with the communities they serve through outreach programs, municipal police departments need to be adequately funded so they do not need to rely on ticketing for funding, and proper mental health counseling and resources need to be offered to police officers to help them handle stress and recognize bias that result from their jobs.  If we can use the energy and attention garnered from the tragic incident in Ferguson, Missouri between Officer Wilson and Michael Brown to affect constructive reform, we will take steps toward greater social cohesion and preventing another Ferguson type event from happening again.

            In regards to increasing engagement and outreach between the municipal police and the communities they serve, we can look to London for constructive examples.  The London police in an effort to improve relations with the Pakistani communities they serve, designed specific outreach programs to improve relations with Pakistani communities.  London police began attending community meetings and functions.  They specifically targeted Pakistani young men, the most likely to commit crimes and have negative attitudes towards police forces.  London police organize billiards and soccer games where police and Pakistani youth play together, which allows each get to know and to familiarize themselves with each other.  These initiatives produces a greater degree of familiarity between the police and members of the community.  In this fashion, young men on the streets know the police officers as people and not just nameless faces behind badges.  And police officers know young men on the streets as people, not just stereotypes.  The community engagement initiatives undertaken by the London police have resulted in lower crime rates among the Pakistani community.  The Los Angeles police department has enacted several programs in the model of the London police designed at greater engagement with the community of Watts.  Their efforts which include a youth football team, have dramatically lowered crime rates and increased the rates of solved homicides.  We need to integrate municipal police forces into the communities they serve    

            We need to provide adequate funding for our municipal police forces.  One of the largest complaints of many minorities in dealing with the police is that they are unfairly targeting for petty fines and tickets.  Many people are then unable to pay the fines issued to them, resulting in warrants for their arrest, and too often their entry into prison as a result.  This is most likely a symptom of a much larger problem.  Ferguson, like many other municipal police departments, is underfunded.  In order for the Ferguson police to meet their operation budget, they must rely on proceeds from fines and tickets issued to citizens.  In addition to the police force, the city of Ferguson derives a large portion of their revenue from fines and tickets.  According to The Economist, in 2013 a fifth of the city of Ferguson’s general revenues, about $2.6 million, in a city of 21,000 people, were derived from fines and asset confiscation.  The way cities derive their funds and the lack of funding giving to municipal police departments creates not just incentives, but needs in regards to using ticketing and fines to derive income.  Municipalities must find other means to fund themselves and police departments.  Increasing taxation would be the most efficient way to raise more funds that could be used to adequately fund police forces.  We call our police officers heroes, yet we pay them peanuts.  Until municipal police departments can receive enough funding to operate without needing the income derived from ticketing, they will continue to target citizens in the community for ticketing and fines. 

            Taking a proactive view of mental health is especially important when considering municipal police forces.  Today, for the most part, mental health is still stigmatized and approached reactively.  Those who seek counseling are viewed in a negative light and when mental health counseling is deemed acceptable, it is usually after a traumatic event has occurred to the person in question.  Police officers are giving counseling after they have fired their weapons.  The nature of the jobs of police officers leads one to have a reasonable expectations that they will encounter events well outside the realm encountered in traditional society creating mental health problems arising from these events.  Police officers experience the possibility of death every day, especially if they work in a large city, there is a reasonable expectation they could die.  The stress of the real possibility of death day in and day out must be oppressive, it certainly effects the way they view the world.  We need to provide counseling and mental health support to address this predictable stress and perhaps allow our police officers to deal with the stress better and, in a best case scenario, alleviate a degree of the stress.  We give support and counseling to our police officers once they fire their gun, but we should be giving support before they fire their gun as well.  General society in the United States calls our police officers along with firefighters and teachers our heroes, it is time society gave our heroes the support they need before a predictable negative experience happens to them.

Particularly in regards to the tragic events in Ferguson, it is important to note that police officers are dealing with the worst people in our society on a daily basis.  They are dealing with murders, rapists, pedophiles, and other criminals every day.  Most people consider being mugged a traumatic experience that they will never forget, police officers deal with far worse traumatic experiences every day.  This adds to their stress level and colors the way they see the people of the communities they protect, which can very well lead to stereotyping.  A community’s police officers will interact every day with the worst elements of that community.  If a community is comprised mostly of Eastern Europeans, that community’s police officers will interact every day with the worst elements of that Eastern European community.  The majority of the police officers interactions with Eastern Europeans will be with the worst of that community, giving a strong negative association with Eastern Europeans.  This negative association can happen with any community, African American or Hispanic as well.  Communities throughout the United States need to provide counseling and metal health programs that allow police officers to realize and deal with the development of powerful bias.  Perhaps if police officers are more aware about the psychological effects of their surroundings and experiences, they can manage bias and bias behavior more effectively. 

            Due to separation of powers clauses, what I have proposed cannot be done from the national level or state level.  President Obama and John Boehner cannot create and sign a law that affects municipal police forces across the country.  Each states’ governor cannot sign a statewide bill into law correcting these problems.  Reform will have to come on the municipal level.  We need municipal police forces to make substantial efforts to engage constructively with the communities they serve, to be properly funded so they do not rely on tickets and fines for their operational funding, and to be given the proactive mental health resources so they can mitigate stress and operational bias.  If we can use the energy and attention garnered from the tragic incident in Ferguson, Missouri between Officer Wilson and Michael Brown to affect constructive reform, we will take steps toward greater social cohesion and preventing another Ferguson type event from happening again.