I would like to applaud Chief Fred Fletcher for developing the RESTART initiative. It is my understanding that the committee’s next task is to deal with recruitment, which is a vital component of a successful police department.
We all know that there are many police officers who serve and protect citizens, and who are ethical and honest in every way. Some of those officers are our relatives, friends, and neighbors. Those are the officers we would all like to be there when the safety of residents is at risk. I also understand that policing can be dangerous and challenging in many ways. Therefore, everyone who would like to wear the uniform and badge is not suited for this most important profession.
Daily, there are news reports that feature circumstances in which the wrong people were employed as police officers. Instead of serving and protecting, they are robbing residents (many unarmed) of their constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Recruitment should be the point of entry reserved for persons with the integrity, compassion, civility and honesty to deserve the label of “Chattanooga’s Finest.”
I would hope that these potential candidates are screened very carefully and that there would be legitimate qualifications, rather than just being a relative or friend of an existing officer or departmental administrator. Research has documented that the more formal criminal justice education an officer has, the less likely he/or she is to use unnecessary excessive force. They can use their brain to solve problems through critical thinking. Also, in written tests, I would hope that more questions, at the level of synthesis and analysis, are developed to assess higher order thinking.
In a prior career, I had administrative oversight of an academic Department of Criminal Justice and a Police Academy. I have knowledge of the research of policing, but I also have personal experiences of the outcome when poorly trained and uncaring officers are allowed to police communities. For many families, their unarmed relatives were killed, when there was no threat to the police, and there was no justice for those deaths. Having the right officers recruited could have saved those lives.
At UTC, in the Department of Criminal Justice, the Leslie Vaughn Prater Memorial endowed scholarship was established to assist in educating police officers armed with knowledge, and not just with firearms and tasers. Those criminal justice classes are in addition to the training received at the police academy.
Regarding the academy, I would plead with Chief Fletcher to increase the hours of sensitivity training. I have conducted some of those sessions and am convinced of its value. For example, cadets may be trained to say “Put your hands up,” but what happens when the officer encounters a person who does not understand the command? How do they handle that situation? Do they panic or use critical thinking? The person could be deaf, confused because of illness or intoxication, be the 1 in 68 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, or maybe the person simply doesn’t speak English. Is the person to be shot and killed because he/she didn’t follow the officer’s command? When the officer’s life is in no danger, does he or she think about this is someone’s child before pulling the trigger or assaulting the person?
I sincerely hope that Chief Fletcher is successful in the efforts to RESTART the Chattanooga Police Department. The department has a dark past, but with the right vision and support of the elected officials, current police officers and the community, the Blue Wall of Silence can be dismantled, coupled with purging the employment rolls of aggressive, unlawful officers. Only then can the future be brighter and the department can gain and deserve the respect from all of its citizens.
Dr. Loretta P. Prater, Mother of homicide victim Leslie Vaughn Prater