Editor’s Note: Eric Adams is Brooklyn’s borough president. He served in the NYPD for 22 years before retiring as a captain in 2005. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
The death of George Floyd has touched off important conversations around the efficacy of protest and the way our country systematically devalues black lives.
It has also resurfaced a familiar debate around policing. I’m no stranger to these conversations. My entire career, dating back to my time in the New York City Police Department, has been dedicated to fighting police misconduct. I remember days when I would march in protests against the policy of stop, question, and frisk, then put on the uniform and patrol those same protests at night.
As protests have rippled across the US in the wake of Floyd’s death, we have seen skirmishes break out between protesters and police in city after city. In many cases, officers have acted with unprovoked aggression, using weapons of war against their fellow Americans.
In others, a small group of agitators has allegedly deliberately targeted law enforcement, seeking to provoke them for their own ends, and not those of the broader movement for justice.
Nonetheless, we rightfully hold police to a higher standard. Police are given two powers that no one else in the country, not even the president, has: the right to take life, and the right to take liberty.
All professions – particularly ones involving high levels of stress – have different layers of specialization. Some doctors aren’t cut out to be emergency room physicians. Some educators aren’t suited to teach kindergarteners. That’s not to say they lack professionalism or ability, but rather that they need to find a role within their field that fits their skill set and temperament.
The same applies to policing. In the NYPD, as in several departments across the country, mobilizations – how many officers are deployed at a given time – are categorized by level: Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each level entails a greater police response. But when we conduct mobilizations, we don’t give enough thought to who we’re deploying - and whether they’re likely to cool down the situation or inflame an already-tense environment. Some officers, for example, may be better for conducting drug busts, where greater force is justified, than a protest, where a lighter touch is needed.
Of course, we can’t excuse any form of police misconduct. The history of complaints against Derek Chauvin before his encounter with George Floyd is a painful reminder that a failure to remove bad officers often leads to fatal outcomes. If an officer displays any form of unprovoked aggression, let alone wanton disregard for human life, they should be held accountable.
Any seasoned member of law enforcement will tell you that the most important thing to do during a protest is to de-escalate. With one unprovoked assault, a peaceful demonstration can quickly turn into a riot. That’s why each department should proactively identify a corps of officers who can serve as the frontline response to protests. These officers should have stellar communication skills and know how to exercise an appropriate level of restraint, no matter what the circumstances. When new recruits first join the force, every department should have standardized evaluations to determine the best assignments for each officer.
While we’re evaluating temperament, we also need to look at ways to alleviate mental health issues. A growing body of research links poor mental health to poor job performance in a variety of fields, and cops are no exception. A police officer dealing with significant stress is more at risk of doing harm to themselves and others. Departments must enhance psychological screenings for new officers, re-evaluate every three years, and offer six-month sabbaticals at 50% pay for six months – or 66% if an officer chooses to use their sabbatical to work in a community-based organization, providing services to residents.
In recent years, unprecedented funding from the federal government has been funneled into police departments across the country. Those dollars often come with no strings attached and have underwritten significant expenditures in military-style gear for police officers, as we’ve seen up-close in countless broadcasts across the country. Congress should mandate that future federal funding for departments be conditional on the adoption of implicit bias and de-escalation training.
Ultimately, reforming law enforcement is only one piece of the larger puzzle. The current unrest across the country is about more than the knee on George Floyd’s neck. It is about the pervasive understanding among black Americans, as Reverend Al Sharpton acknowledged during the recent memorial service, that this country has had its knee on their collective neck for far too long. Before patrolling any protest during my time in the NYPD, I would tell my officers that they are their brother’s keeper. If we can begin to see our fellow Americans with the same sense of mutual obligation, George Floyd’s death will not have been in vain.