Trust the Police?

Sheriff-elect Ingrid Braun and retiring MLPD Chief Dan Watson reflect on changes in law enforcement relations.

Tensions between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve have come to the forefront in the United States over the last several months, as seen through riots in Ferguson, Missouri and the demonstrations around the country in the wake of the deaths of both Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York. Social Media has been buzzing with comments, theories, demands for justice, and defense of law enforcement, while grand juries in both cases failed to find evidence to indict the police officers involved.

Having grown up in Southern California, the riots and demonstrations are eerily familiar to me. In 1991, the beating of Rodney King by LAPD officers, caught on video, sparked widespread disapproval of law enforcement’s use of force and caused the police department to investigate its policies.

Ingrid Braun, who takes office as Mono County Sheriff in January, witnessed the Rodney King incident during her first week as a LAPD officer. King’s beating ceased, and he was arrested just moments after Braun and her partner arrived.  “I didn’t participate in anything and I didn’t really know what was going on,” she said of the incident.

Braun received a five-day suspension for failing to report misconduct, and was involved in the three subsequent court trials. She testified at the first criminal trial, which was a “surreal” experience, she said. All four officers were acquitted at that trial, which sparked the L.A. Riots in 1992. Two of the officers were later convicted of excessive use of force in the federal trial. Braun was also named a defendant in the civil trial, although the judge dismissed her from the case. King eventually was awarded $3.8 million dollars in the civil case.

“That was my baptism by fire into law enforcement,” Braun said of the experience.

As a result of the Rodney King incident and the riots that followed, the LAPD changed its arrest and control techniques, moving away from the use of batons, and implementing Tasers and pepper spray instead, and applied more of a team takedown approach, according to Braun. Internally, the department began keeping much better records of individual officers patterns of misconduct and uses of force and put term limits on the Chief of Police.

“I truly thought law enforcement relations had progressed further than they have,” said Braun. “Recent events really bring attention to the fact that there still are improvements that need to be made. Our law enforcement, as a whole, doesn’t have the trust of the people and that’s something we need to work on.”

But how does one go about building trust between law enforcement and the community? “We need leaders who are willing to sit down and hear the concerns of the community,” Braun said. “A lot of the misperception is the lack of communication by law enforcement to explain why we do the things we do. You would think we would have made more progress in 25 years.”

Although the grand juries decided not to indict the officers in both Ferguson and New York, Braun suggested the respective police departments communicate more thoroughly about their own internal disciplinary processes with the officers, while maintaining the confidentiality of personnel matters.

Retiring Mammoth Lakes Police Department (MLPD) Chief Dan Watson also worked at the LAPD during the riots. “To me, it’s better to be transparent to let the public know what you know as you’re investigating,” he said. However, many police departments have policies in place to release very little information until the investigation is complete, which allows critics to fill the communication void, “building a false belief within the community about what occurred,” he said.

In his opinion, the Ferguson Police Department was too slow to release details about Brown’s shooting. If their community relations had handled the situation differently “perhaps the reaction wouldn’t have been the same,” he said.

Braun and Watson both cited examples from their time at the LAPD when certain incidents raised community concerns, but never escalated because of open communications between the department and the public.

“I think the Ferguson [police department] has a lot of improvements they can make in their relations and in their composition of their own department to be more reflective of the people they police,” Braun said. “That’s part of the problem in Ferguson. You have a largely black community policed by a largely white department. And [the community] doesn’t see themselves in law enforcement.”

Braun asserted law enforcement in California is much more progressive and diverse than the rest of the country, and that in general, “people feel comfortable when they have an issue with law enforcement that they can get a fair investigation,” she said.

Watson agreed, and has worked to make this possible in Mammoth. Soon after becoming Chief of Police five years ago, he was made aware of the lack of trust between law enforcement and the Hispanic community in town by some of his bi-lingual officers. From his experience at the LAPD, he knew “it’s critical for law enforcement to take the lead in building relationships with the different communities we serve,” he said. “I think it’s important for the police department, and in particular the Chief, to get out in the community so that there is a level of trust and understanding that goes way beyond cultural groups.”

Watson developed the Mammoth Lakes Police-Community Hispanic Advisory Committee (MLPCHAC) based on the model from the LAPD forums with different ethnic groups. The Committee began hosting town hall meetings to discuss issues specifically affecting the Hispanic community in Mammoth. And he turned to key leaders within that community to start.

At the time, there was widespread mistrust and fear of police officers and many people within the Hispanic community felt like they were being singled out. “It was very similar to how they perceive cops in Mexico. In Mexico, cops are dirty,” said Hector Gonzalez, CEO of the California Superior Court in Mammoth Lakes.

“There was a total disconnect, and many different examples of how they felt that they were targeted by certain police officers,” said Luis Villanueva, General Manager at the Mammoth Mountain Inn. “It wasn’t just perception, it was also reality. Once the police department was able to see their point of view, they were able to rectify their part in it.”

At the meetings, people are able to anonymously ask questions on index cards while Watson and other law enforcement agencies provide answers.

“We are explaining to the community information that is relevant to their rights, problems, or issues, and letting them complain to us and then acting on those complaints and promising to follow-up,” Gonzalez said.

According to both Gonzalez and Villanueva, the community perception of law enforcement has changed since the forums began. People are “realizing now that overall the police force is decent and doing their job. But every once in awhile a new officer or a bad apple isn’t really understanding how to treat folks in town and they’re letting me know about it,” Gonzalez said. People in the community are also more willing to make specific complaints and talk to Chief Watson directly.

“I can see a change in behavior [of the officers] in terms of what I hear back from the community,” Gonzalez said. “That’s the benefit. When you build the trust people, are willing to talk to you and then you can make the corrections.”

He praised these innovative efforts by Chief Watson and the Hispanic Advisory Committee, and he’s submitted the Mammoth program to the California Court Administrative Office as an example for other courts to promote in their counties.

The forums have provided a space for mutual cooperation “where both the community and the police department are able to change and break down those barriers of mistrust,” Villanueva said. He has seen more and more people attend the forums, which havebecome a place of information about the DMV, Mammoth Lakes Housing, Wild Iris, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in addition to local law enforcement practices.

The forums have “gotten to the point where they are festive. People laugh and they joke and they don’t use the cards anymore because they know they can ask their questions and we aren’t going to arrest them for it,” Watson said.

He also started community police academy classes in an attempt to educate “the public about what law enforcement does— how we do it and why we do it— so that when something negative happens, like a Ferguson, you’ve got every day folks in the community that have a better understanding of use of force policies and it’s really valuable.” Although useful, the classes have since been discontinued due to budget cuts.

“As law enforcement, we are in people’s lives and in their homes. We’re involved in their disputes and we see them at their worst,” Watson said. “It’s important for the law enforcement to reflect the diversity of the people they serve.” Braun, who will continue the Sheriff Department’s involvement in MLPCHAC, agreed. “People don’t usually have a positive interaction with law enforcement and policing is never pretty. But we need to be mindful about how we treat people and how we are perceived, even if it’s not the reality,” she said. “We need to be empathetic and understanding while never wavering on our tactics or letting our guard down. It’s a fine line to balance.”