Free Keene has just uncovered an exclusive internal draft of a recent KPD press release related to an upcoming CALEA accreditation:
Public Notice
The Keene Police Department is scheduled for an on-site assessment September 13-15, 2009, as part of a program to achieve recognition by verifying that it meets professional standards. The recognition program requires agencies comply with state-of-the-art standards in four basic areas: Customer Satisfaction, Responsiveness to Citizen Requests, Solution Oriented Focus Addressing Root Causes, and Victim Restitution.
The public is encouraged to provide feedback ensuring our assessors get a complete picture of how this agency is impacting the community. Refreshments will be provided to visitors who may meet with our team during business hours this week, during the Saturday/Sunday sessions or other times by appointment. We look forward to hearing from you.
Janice Hartman, CALEA Team Lead
Okay, as you may have guessed, this is not a genuine draft of the press release. I wrote it to get you thinking about how police may be a bit hypocritical and even delusional in their claim to protect and serve the interests of the public.
In Reality, if you want to “offer comments” you’ll need to . . . . . .do so between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 PM on Monday by calling
(603) 757-0620 to talk with who I’m guessing may be the one the assessor assigned to take phone calls. Once you get them on the phone, take however much time you need! (10 min. maximum)
It goes on “Telephone comments. . .must address the agency’s ability to comply with CALEA’s standards.” The standard address: “policy and procedures, administration, operations, and support services”
Who could miss the outward community focus in those standards?
To ensure as much feedback as possible, the standards – despite being a simple text document – were not made available online and can be ” reviewed at the Keene Police Department or the Keene Public Library.”
This serves as an barrier to keep the public out of the process with roadblocks, hoops, and obstacles getting in the way of community involvement in the certification process. Without the system protecting itself, police might be faced with the harm they cause in the community. Instead the CALEA process seems to be reinforcing, “Were the good guys” propaganda to police and the public.
What good are certifying standards bodies that are unwilling to discuss the harm and unintended consequences the overall system is causing? (i.e. is the current “cure” worse than the dis-ease?)
I went to the library to take a look at the “state-of-the-art standards”. While most of them require only “a written directive”, there’s one worth noting:
1.1.2 Code of Ethics – A written directive requires all personnel to abide by a code or canon of ethics adopted by the agency and mandates that ethics training be conducted for all personnel, at a minimum, biannually.
Of course this only requires that they have a written directive, and you can find that here . Let me share a few of my favorite highlights:
Law Enforcement Code of Ethics
. . . my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; . . . to protect. . . the weak against oppressionthe peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect . . . liberty, equality, and justice. or intimidation,
I will. . . maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule; . . .Honest in thought and deed. . .I will be exemplary in obeying the laws. . .
I will never act officiously or permit personal feelings, prejudices, animosities, or friendships to influence my decisions. With no compromise. . . I will enforce the law courteously and appropriately without fear or favor, malice or ill will, never employing unnecessary force. . .
I recognize the badge. . . as a symbol of public faith. . .to be held so long as I am true to the ethics of police service. I will constantly strive to achieve . . . my chosen profession – law enforcement.
To the Police, Prosecutors, Jailers and others with friends or families in the profession: Take some time to read this and think about it. Do your actions measure up the intent behind this code? Is that what you spend your time doing all day? Would your family, friends, and neighbors answer this question about you in the same way?
Do you want a more compassionate and caring society that would come about by living this code of ethics? Sure you could go on urging others to “use the system” and “change the laws”. If that works, how did it get to this point? I think Alfred Adler put it best, “It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.“
What’s it like waking up one morning wondering who your going to catch today? Knowing that you will be forcing others to live, not with liberty-in a way consistent with an individual’s morals- but by words written on paper by people who want to use you as pawns to control others, often to their own benefit or perceived benefit.
What’s it like to go out hunting your friends, neighbors, and fellow human beings believing it’s ok to extort money from then in an effort ensure they adhere to your belief system?
I’ve often asked myself these same questions. It must be like shooting fish in a barrel. You shoot that gun into the barrel and the shock wave reaches every fish letting them know who’s in charge. Sure your distorted view of the fish may cause you to hit the wrong one from time to time, but what can they really do? Jump up and bite your arm? You can laugh as they struggle to survive in the environment you dragged them into. It must be so easy to dismiss their claims of injustice. It must feel powerful knowing how well protected you are from the fish in the barrel.
Is that the difference you want to make in the world? Subjugating others to the will of the few in power who which to use force for personal gain? Government’s answer to everything seems to be more: more police, more weapons, more laws. Is that the gift you want to give your children – A police state?
For the rest of us, if you feel police don’t follow this code, then call and tell them on Monday. I didn’t see anything requiring KPD to follow the written guidelines in order to be accredited, so chances are they will discard your comments as irrelevant to the requirement for a written policy. At least the employees will not be able to go on thinking everyone loves what they do because hardly anyone complains!
I think this is the most powerful point an individual can make, a moral one. One that appeals to the humanity in each of us. I encourage those of you who share some or all of my beliefs to communicate those thoughts with the monopolists who work for the government justice system.
If not Monday, then the next time you run into them on the street, in the grocery store, or at the park. Let them know the importance of those ethics, and that you feel police can not possibly uphold such a code by enforcing laws written to serve politicians.
Burst the bubble for them, and hopefully one day they can put down their guns and start having a rational discussion about a more compassionate and caring, voluntary society.
