You are the chief of police in your community and are quite concerned about a recent spike in criminal misconduct in the east part of town. Community leaders are constantly calling your office to complain. You decide that you should have a strong police presence on the streets, and you direct your officers to walk the beat in the east part of town, rather than use patrol cars. You also direct

Question

your police officers to vigorously try to prevent crime by acting proactively, stopping individuals who seem out of place or apprehensive when they see police officers. As a result, many of these contacts have resulted in stop-and-frisk activities by the police, and crime has dropped significantly in the east part of town. However, now you're getting calls from citizens in the east asking why a disproportionate number of minorities are being stopped and frisked by the police. You have decided to meet with the community leaders to answer this latest concern. What will you tell them?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The student should recognize that the chief of police has a responsibility to protect the community from crime, and it appears that the chief has been successful. However, it also appears that minority groups have been unduly interfered with by the police in the attempt to have a strong police presence in the area. The police chief certainly needs to make sure that the police officers are complying with the stop-and-frisk standards, which require specific and articulable facts of suspicious activity to justify the brief detentions. This is required by the leading case of Terry v. Ohio. It is the standard that the chief of police should share with the community leaders to show that there are rules and that his department is trying to follow them. Even if the police chief is certain that the officers are following this rule, students standing in the shoes of the police chief must somehow deal with the fact that it seems to be having a disproportionate impact on minority groups. The student should realize that the chief of police will need to have statistics available to establish that the disproportionate impact may be because the eastern part of town is predominantly composed of this particular minority group. Even so, this does not resolve the community relations problem. Following the rule is probably not enough to convince the community that the police are being completely fair to the citizens. So, after explaining that the effort was made to reduce crime and had in fact done so, the chief of police should offer to modify the approach to be less aggressive and to reduce the intrusions and the stops of minority individuals in the community. It is also probably a good idea to emphasize that the police are trying to do the best they can and to welcome any community involvement to ensure that safety and fairness are part of the solution.