Heaphy, John F.

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Community Relations Training--An Alternate View

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Journal of Criminal Law and CriminologyVolume 62 | Issue 4 Article 201972Community Relations Training--An Alternate ViewJohn F. HeaphyFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclcPart of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and CriminalJustice CommonsThis Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationJohn F. Heaphy, Community Relations Training--An Alternate View, 62 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 570 (1971)THE JOURNAL OF CRnMi.4L LAw, CRIMINOLOGY AND POLICE SCIExCE Vol. 62, No. 4Copyright @ 1971 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A.COMMUNITY RELATIONS TRAINING-AN ALTERNATE VIEWJOHN F. HEAPHYThe author is presently employed as a Special Assistant to the Police Commissioner PatrickMurphy in the New York City Police Department. He was employed by the New Haven, Connec-ticut Police Department as a civilian Director of Training and Personnel. He holds a M.A. degreefrom Fordham University in the field of Psychology.Much has been said recently about the problemof the relationship between the police and thecommunity they serve. Members of both the com-munity and the police profession are well aware ofthe problems of understanding and appreciationthat exist. Many attempts are being made to solvethis problem in every part of the country. Theseattempts range from the conduct of "MadisonAvenue" type public relations campaigns to specialpolice-community co-operation projects and finallyto various police-community relations trainingprograms. In spite of this serious and intensiveeffort, much remains to be done. The objective ofthis paper is to offer some stimulation to thoseinvolved daily with the operational difficulties ofthe problem, by stating an alternate view of theproblem rather than prescribing another programsolution.AN ALTERNATE VrawA simplified look at the concept of "relation-ship" indicates that in any relationship (betweentwo or more persons or groups), three distinctelements can be identified. In all situations involv-ing human interation, there is always Individual(or Group) A, Individual (or Group) B, and thecontext in which the two interact. To begin toanalyze them, any specific relationship, it shouldmake sense to be certain that we have coveredeach of the relevant elements to an adequate de-gree. Further, if one is not uncomfortable using arelatively unsophisticated "model" of the conceptof relationship, we might suggest that the threeelements be used as the organizing concepts in thedevelopment of the entire study unit pertainingto that relationship.To put the above in the context of the problemof police-community relations, we could say thatthe problem involves an understanding of thepolice, an understanding of the community, andan understanding of the context in which the twointeract. Training in this area then must involvestudy of each of the above to an appropriate ex-tent. Obviously, a good deal of our present train-ing falls into some of the above areas. However,we must recognize this training in the context ofthe relationship model in order to assess its realimpact on the problem of police-community rela-tions. Further, we must give some serious thoughthow best to train in the areas that at present weare not covering at all.To state this basic thesis another way, we mustbegin to realize that we are now, and have beenfor quite some time, doing a great deal of "police-community relations" training under various differ-ent headings. The manner in which we teach anyof the traditional units of police training has asignificant effect on the problem of police-com-munity relations. We must carefully rethink ourpresent approach to the teaching of all aspects ofthe curriculum, as well as begin the introductionof new units of training to cover the gaps whichmight exist.TnE CommuNTyThe community, the police, and the context inwhich the two interact are the three elementsthat must be considered as the major contentareas of the "police-community relations" trainingprogram. Thinking first of the community, it isapparent that police academies have been dealingwith various facets of this area for quite some time.Many of the traditional police academy subjectsrelate specifically to the recruits understanding ofthe community in which he must function.Police academies deal with the relevant criminalstatutes, which are certainly reflections of thethoughts and feelings of the community in whichthe policeman has to function. Furthermore, mostpolice academies deal to some degree with thevalues that underlie the Bill of Rights, and thespecific application of these values in the study ofCOMM UNITY RELATIONS TRAININGcriminal procedure. The American system of crim-inal justice is another topic usually included inpolice training curricula which relates to this broadarea of community understanding. Some policeacademies have recently introduced units on socialproblems where such things as poverty, juveniledelinquency, black militancy, civil liberties, andother contemporary community problems arestudied in some detail.In this writer's opinion it is a valid criticism tosay that the treatment of legal and other areasmentioned earlier as related to the recruits studyof the community in which he must function, has,to some extent, been sterile and unrealistic. Itpaints a picture of what the community theoreti-cally thinks and feels-theoretically which valuesit holds as a body in its organization of a system ofcriminal justice. Usually the recruit gets only thissterile, theoretical orientation to how his com-munity sees things. Never is he let in on the reali-ties of the situation. Realities such as the short-comings in our system of criminal justice, and thedifferences in perception of how the substantivecriminal law should be enforced by police held bythe different segments of the community. The lawis generally presented as a concrete formula unan-imously supported by the "Community" becauseof the fact that it was enacted by communityrepresentatives. Not enough attention is paid to arecruits understanding of the spirit behind a legis-lator's enactment of a criminal statute, and toomuch emphasis is placed on knowing the letter ofthe law and enforcing it rigidly. On this foundation,he is expected to exercise wise, mature discretionin his enforcement of those laws.Legal statutes certainly must be enforced by thepolice officer, and he of course must work with thesystem. However, he could do this job more effec-tively if he were given a realistic, accurate picturein the legal portion of his curriculum-a picturethat recognizes and brings to the surface questionsof legitimate dissent and disagreement with stat-utes and accepted contemporary practices in thesystem of criminal justice. For these are facts oflife, and it is with the facts of life that the patrol-man must deal. To keep these facts of life fromhim ties his hands in his fully understanding thecommunity which he is trying to serve.What has been said centers on legal training andhow it gives to the new policeman in very subtleways some picture of the community he is serving.All too often, this is the only picture that he gets,and, while it is certainly a valid part of the totalimpression of the community that he should getin his training program, it is certainly not thewhole story.The introduction of social problems units intothe police training curriculum is a relatively recentphenomenon and one to be encouraged. Consider-able time must be spent trying to build a greaterappreciation in the policeman for those socialproblems which are of greatest concern in hiscommunity. These will, in many areas, includesuch things as delinquency, poverty, black mili-tancy, crime and violence, the breakdown ofmarriage and family systems, and many others.These units can be taught on two levels, one beinga general theoretical approach, and the other amore close to home approach using people fromthe community who can best illustrate these socialproblems and talk about the approach that otherprofessions take to them. Maybe in this mannerthe police profession will be able to evolve foritself a role which is supportive or complimentaryin some way of the roles that other communityagencies play. For it is again a fact of life that thepoliceman is thrown squarely into the middle ofalmost every social problem in the community,and too often is unable to see his work in thiscontext. Methods and instructors must be care-fully chosen, and methods should be experientialas well as cognitive.Another aspect of the community that is seldomconsidered in police training curricula is how thecommunity perceives the policeman. What doesthe community expect of the policeman? What roledo they want him to play? The role of the policeis typically handled by the police academy verysuperficially, with some treatment of the law en-forcement code of ethics, or by the quick and easydefinition of ".... community helper, law enforcer,and crime preventer." This is totally inadequateand must be replaced with units of study whichwill give, to the new policeman especially, anaccurate picture of just what his role is in thecommunity. He is certainly perceived differentlyby different segments of the community, and heshould be thoroughly familiar with those percep-tions. Businessmen perceive him and his role in amuch different way than does the teenager, thehousewife, or the innercity dweller. Police acad-emies can, in very subtle ways, communicatesignificant messages about the role of the policein various situations that will have an importanteffect on the attitude of the patrolman towardsvarious aspects of his job. Units of this sort should1971]JOHN F. HEAPHYinvolve many things, among which might be what-ever relevant data is available on communityattitudes, community perceptions of and reactionsto the police department, and whatever statisticalinformation is available on the actual operationsof the department.THE PoLICEMANProbably the most neglected of all three areasis the policeman's study of himself. Typically, heis given two to four hours on the ethics of policeconduct, some variable number of hours of hisdepartmental policies, and usually very little else.This is totally useless as it presents a sterile, theo-retical picture of what police behavior really is.Basically, the problem is that policemen mustlearn more about themselves as persons and asmembers of police groups. This is no easy task.It is probably the most difficult study any humanbeing could undertake. But because of the espe-cialy sensitive role the community places on thepoliceman, it is essential that he attend to this.The policeman plays a vital role in innumerablesituations of human interaction in the community.It is a must that he be better than the average manin relating to other people. He must be better intouch with himself, his own feelings and his ownreactions, and, hopefully, then better able to con-trol his reactions. Simply describing a code ofethics or rules of conduct that he must obey inhandling various types of calls will not do the jobbecause it denies the policeman's essential hu-maness.The study of this area must be approached real-istically from the point of view of a sincere butfallible human being trying to get as effectivecontrol of himself as possible for the purpose ofmaking himself better able to help others. Thespecific design for training in this area can varyconsiderably. It should encompass two majortypes of training activities. One is a certain amountof content work in the behavioral sciences, specif-ically content work in the area of the psychology"of human behavior. Second, and absolutely essen-tial, is some form of more basic learning aboutoneself such as that attempted in various labora-tory designs or group conference models. This isessential because of the basic principle that learn-ing does not "set" until the learner has had someopportunity to practice the learning which he isincorporating cognitively. When the approach isonly cognitive, it remains just a theoretical abstractmass of knowledge that gets tucked away someplace in the back of the brain and never reachesthe level of the gut, which is the level from whichhe will react when put in a work situation. There-fore, the training must take this into account andnot only put the content into his head, but givehim some opportunity to practice the applicationof it so that it will truly set and be of some use tohim when he gets into various work situations.Tim Co=rxTThe final element that should be considered isthe context in which the policeman and the com-munity interact. Traditionally, police training hasdealt only with situational variables in this context.Especially important has been such things asphysical factors, safety factors, department poli-cies, etc. While these are certainly important andshould not at all be minimized, it must be recog-nized that they are only a very small part of thereal context in which the policeman does his job.The context, for instance, of a policeman respond-ing to a domestic complaint in a fourth floorwalk-up includes much more than the physicalfactors of the situation. The number of people, theposition of people in the apartment, types of phys-ical objects that are available as potential weapons,location of doors and other avenues of escape, etc.,are all, certainly, important parts of the context,but they are not the whole context. Equally asimportant as these factors is the emotional, psycho-logical context into which the policeman is walking.Specifically, in a domestic situation he is walkinginto a conflict situation--one loaded with stress,where he is supposed to be of some help.These three elements-conflict, stress, and thehelping role-are all essential aspects of the con-text of the policeman's job with which he must befamiliarized. Most situations of human interactioninto which the policeman is thrown include some-thing of these elements. It is usually some kind ofa crisis some type of conflict, and almost alwaysinvolves people under stress. He is always ex-pected to be of some help in these situations.Equipping him only with an appreciation of thephysical factors of the situation equips him onlyhalf-way to really understand the context intowhich he is walking. This is not only unfair to thepoliceman, but it is wasteful, because it is possibleto train in these areas.It is possible to better prepare people to functionas mediators of crisis. Crisis in itself can be a topicfor study. Resolution of conflict can be a worth-while topic of study. The handling of stress and the[Vol. 62COMMUNITY RELATIONS TRAININGart of helping are in themselves legitimate topicsfor study and essential in the preparation for thepolice service because so much of the policeman'srole involves these variables. Specific trainingdesign in these areas is extremely complicated. Itis a very new area, little is known about how bestto proceed, but there are many ideas on how onemight proceed. The procedure at this point mustinvolve carefully controlled experimentation withvarious training designs to try and reach theseobjectives. Professional psychological opinion willvary on the sophistication of the behavioral sci-ences to deal effectively with training in this area.This is healthy state of affairs. Many psychologistswill say that we cannot deal with it at all effec-tively with our present methods, and some willsay that they have all the answers to training ofthis type. While the truth is probably somewhere inthe middle, it is really irrelevant whether we haveall the answers or none of the answers. The fact isthat we cannot live any longer without at leasttrying to find some of these answers, and thus wemust proceed carefully, experimentally, with whatwe have.CONCLUSIOlNTo summarize, then, police-community relationstraining should proceed on the basis of a clearunderstanding of the three elements involved inthe relationship between the police and -the com-munity. These elements, again, are the community,the police, and the context in which the two inter-act. We must begin preparing our approach topolice-community relations training with therealization that much of the training we are doingnow in all content areas of the police academycurriculum in fact contributes to the message onpolice-community relations that the trainee re-ceives. The way we approach legal training, patroltechniques, investigative techniques, defensivetactics, or almost any other content area is goingto have a great effect, at least indirectly by omis-sion, on the message the patrolman receives aboutpolice-community relations.We must begin improving our police-communityrelations training programs with the realizationthat we must first look into what we are doing nowand make sure that it fits into a proper scheme inthe model of relationship presented here. In addi-tion to this a number of areas of outstanding needhave been noted-areas fitting into the contextof the above model which are presently not dealtwith satisfactorily or at all in current trainingactivities. Very careful attention must be paid tothe development of training design in these areasand to the evaluation of that newly developeddesign.This is not a simple process. In fact it is a quitedifficult process, because it will inevitably involvea great deal of very careful self-criticism on thepart of directors of police academies and otherpolicy personnel in police organizations. In theend, however, we will be able to provide a moretruly professional police service to our communi-ties, and, in the process, lessen the risk of wastingour resources on "special" community relationstraining programs that might in fact give us littlepermanent benefit.1971]

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Community Relations Training--An Alternate View

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