Police leaders discuss ways to improve relations with communities

In the midst of a national conversation surrounding tensions with police, Durham City Manager Thomas J. Bonfield led a national press call Tuesday that aimed to unpack issues between police and their communities. 

Trust took center stage during the discussion, which featured nationwide contributors such as city managers and police chiefs as well as leaders of municipality development groups.

“Many cities, communities and law enforcement agencies across the country, including in Durham, have faced unprecedented challenges to this trust (in police) as a result of officer-involved fatalities, as well as the killing of police officers by civilian suspects," Bonfield said.

Much of the talk revolved around the final report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which was started by President Barack Obama to collect effective policing strategies last year.

Participants in the call said the report set a useful benchmark for police departments.

J. Thomas Manger, chief of police in Montgomery County, Maryland, and president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said different communities call for different policing habits; therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach would be ineffective.

Participants also said body cameras were a step toward fostering public trust. 

While Manger said body cameras improve transparency and lead to arrests and verdicts that otherwise could have been missed, Antoinette A. Samuel, deputy executive director of the National League of Cities, said the cameras are not a quick fix. 

“Issues of trust are so systemic in some communities… (technology) is one answer towards what is a deeper issue that we should be looking at, which is the multifaceted issue of trust," she said. 

With Durham as his example, Bonfield raised the issue of the disproportionate number of police incidents involving minority citizens.

Manger said this was because minorities make up a higher percentage of the population in poorer areas, where poverty has been passed down for generations. 

“Crime is occurring in neighborhoods where you have more poverty there, neighborhoods where you have more unemployment," he said.

Economic issues have also affected police departments. Susan E. Manheimer, chief of police in San Mateo, California, said departments have taken large budget cuts in recent years, leading to less rest for officers as well as less crisis intervention. 

“In any use-of-force incident, one of the first questions (the department) will ask (the officer) is, 'When is the last time you got sleep?,' and, 'What other incidents have you been involved in?'" she said. 

Through increased transparency and an open dialogue with the community, police hope to restore communities' trust in their police forces, participants said. In Chapel Hill, these ideas are already manifesting — Chapel Hill Police Department's program, Coffee With a Cop, started in 2014 and allows civilians to have open discussions with police.

But Manheimer said social media and the 24-hour news cycle have created a difficult environment, which makes it hard for officers to stabilize relations with their communities.

"(This) was the most challenging year for policing in my 31-year career," she said. 

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