Policing standards are without a doubt a major contributor to the building of trust and confidence with the community.
Properly established and audited standards touch every piece of police practice. I am of the view that if the standards established by the ministry are not adhered to, then the legitimacy of that police organisation is suspect.
My profession is policing and I have been called to serve my community for almost 30 years. My career has been one of a mixture between police practice and academic research of policing.
As a Chief of Police, I am no longer patrolling the streets of my community or investigating crime. My attention is focused on the strategic direction and management of my police service, promoting policing as a profession and, most importantly, keeping my community safe.
I would like to address a major challenge that policing is facing the world over, that is, the public’s trust and confidence in policing. Without the public’s trust and confidence in policing, the system fails; without trust and confidence, the legitimacy of police in a democratic society ceases.
And once legitimacy is lost, there is lawlessness and crime. And it takes a long time to get trust and confidence back. We know through a hundred years of history and evidence that the police cannot keep communities safe through fear and intimidation.
Those days need to be in the past if democratic policing remains. The police, in my view, must have cooperation from the public if they are allowed to police them. If the public does not want to be policed, there will be anarchy. This is why the Peelian Principle of the police are the public and the public is the police is so important.
It is my view that in our communities, the building of trust and confidence is accomplished in many ways, including governance, foundational education and community policing.
GOVERNANCE
An incredibly important concept in democratic policing is that of the independence of the police. Independence from political pressure and control.
Now this is not to say that the government does not have a very important role, the government must create legislation that establishes the framework of how policing should function, and the government should approve strategic plans and police budgets.
These are the accountability and governance pieces that are so important to build trust and confidence with the community. Police independence is the principle that the operational decisions of the police chief, who to investigate, who to charge and where to focus police resources, in my view need to be made independent of government.
If we don’t follow the independence rule, corruption and malpractice can occur. To build trust and confidence police should not be the arm of government. Even in Canada, as we speak, the independence of the RCMP commissions and the relationship with the prime minister is being reviewed. I think there will be changes to establish greater independence for the police.
Nowhere is this more important than in the application of force by police and in my view, the foundational education curriculum for potential police officers.
First, use of force. The application by police of force is a concept that today is often visible, captured on cellular video, and shared instantly with the world through social media. The public will not tolerate excessive use of force.
The public will tolerate the application of force that is done properly and within the law, through a model or standard that takes into account all the factors that brought about the application of force, that the use of force is reported to supervisors, audited against practice, and reported to the government.
I teach a concept to young police recruits that should guide their behaviour. It is a simple statement to remember and it goes something like this…. just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Police are given incredible authority by the state to interfere with the constitutionally guaranteed rights, in the case of Canada, that are enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Malpractice and misuse of that power is a breach of the trust that you have been given by the community.
Police should walk softly, but I often say they must carry a big stick because when certain members of the community, criminals or terrorists attack our communities, it is still the job of the police to protect. And they must be trained, qualified and able to do so. Within a standard that builds trust a legitimacy.
FOUNDATIONAL EDUCATION
The police in most parts of the world do not meet a clear definition of the profession. We are not self-regulating, we don’t have an academic faculty that conducts research on our behalf, we don’t have continuing required professional development and we don’t have a basic educational degree required to enter the profession of policing.
This is not to say that we should not strive to be professional, but as a profession, we lack the college of policing such as lawyers and doctors have.
I argue, with this said above, I believe that a basic foundational and vocational course of education, created by and endorsed by the ministry should be required for every person who wishes to become a police officer.
This does not have to be a degree or diploma. It simply needs to be a series of courses that impart the education, skills and competencies required of modern-day police officers who police in a democracy. This will build trust and confidence.
COMMUNITY POLICING
I have been a proponent my entire career of community policing as a policing practice. I believe that the police are no different than the public, we live in the same community, our children go to school with your children, we shop in the same stores and we go to the same church.
Policing is about people and relationships and the more the police build and foster relationships with the community, the stronger the concept of trust. We trust people we know and we like. Even to the point that we will allow them to police us, sometimes with a negative experience attached.
What I have come to learn is that how policing occurs is much more important than the what, and people who are treated fairly, with no biases, within the law, trust the police.
Community policing practices help build community resiliency and it is resiliency that gets us through the hard times; and it is the relationships that we have, and the partnerships we establish that allow us to critically think and problem-solve together the challenges within the community. This is how we police build trust and confidence.
What I have spoken about today are my own reflections on policing, I do not pretend to know it all and I know very little about the Kenyan police, specifically in Siaya or Bondo town.
You may be doing all, some, or none of these concepts. I am interested to grow and together explore where we can learn from one another. My goal is the same and the basis for this talk is to build relationships and trust and confidence between our two communities in an effort to promote community wellness and safety.
Chief of Police, Taber town in Canada when he met Governor James Orengo in Siaya county recently
