Law enforcement reform and policing in the 21st century

This article was written for our sponsor, Roy Taylor for Sheriff.

Over the past year, law enforcement reform has been a hot topic of discussion, and many police departments across the country are reevaluating how they operate. Through changes in policy, training and data analysis, departments are carefully examining what reform looks like and why it's important.

For some former officers that have spent decades in law enforcement, change is much-needed.

"As an expert witness in federal court, I've completed over 136 cases in the last five years. Unfortunately, I have seen instances of excessive force used against people in violation of their civil rights, and as a law enforcement executive, it saddens me and reemphasizes the need to have the proper policies and procedures in place," said Roy Taylor, chief of police for Capitol Special Police, litigation consultant and candidate for Wake County Sheriff. "A key part of reform is to have additional training for the officers so that they understand what their limitations are and what a reasonable amount of force actually is. Using scenario-based training is how we'll accomplish that."

One of the first steps to increasing training is through encouraging necessary legislation and mandating monitoring of the use of force. Currently, some law enforcement agencies are too short-staffed to complete longer training sessions. In these cases, Taylor recommends implementing shorter training sessions across the state and all law enforcement departments.

Melvin Tucker, who also acts as an expert witness in federal court, has seen many of the same cases as Taylor. For him, proper screening of officers can help prevent issues.

"That's an external factor that needs to be changed – the mobility of bad officers. Sometimes, you fire a bad officer, that bad officer moves to another state and gets a job as a police officer, because the department there didn't check with the prior state, and the state didn't take the person's license away from practicing law enforcement," said Tucker, who is also a retired police chief and former FBI agent. "The law is going to have to change in North Carolina. The Criminal Justice Training and Standards Commission and the North Carolina Attorney General's office are going to have to do something about that."

Tucker said one of the aggravating factors of this issue is the connection between accountability and liability. In his experience, leaders can sometimes be motivated to hold their officers accountable simply because they want to try to limit the liability of their city for the actions of their officers.

For both men, proper training and the use of data analysis in that training could be a potential alleviation.

"The big thing now is de-escalation and working to prevent a situation from getting out of hand before it gets to the point where you have to use deadly force. It's going to take the appropriate training and then the appropriate accountability, so we make sure every single leader embraces this idea and follows through on it," said Randall Aragon, a retired police chief and current educator. "No matter how big of an agency I had, I made sure before a person was released from field training that I sat them down and made sure they understood the policy."

In his 29 years of law enforcement experience, Aragon has used the same philosophy in all of his departments, pushing officers to not only perform their jobs with dignity, but also represent their city or town well. For him, that starts with hiring the right people, then influencing training and culture from there.

"You have to make sure you're not hiring officers that have any violations on their record, otherwise it just becomes a revolving door for those officers to go to different departments. I tell my officers, their job is not just providing good services, but also to be an ambassador for the city," said Aragon. "It's going to take a good, well-understood policy. It's going to take putting officers through the appropriate training. Then it's also knowing that someone is going to take the fall if something happens. We make sure every single leader embraces that idea and follows through on it."

This article was written for our sponsor, Roy Taylor for Sheriff.