At the Intersection of Law Enforcement Culture, Legitimacy and Peacemaking: Optimal Engagement Policing
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Tanya Settles April 19, 2024
Historically, the dominant model of law enforcement and crime control is reactive. For a lot of people, the outcomes are regarded as being no-nonsense approaches to crime and disorder. In recent years, this has not been the case and communities across the nation have demanded a more humanitarian approach to policing. As law enforcement agencies work to emerge from what many view as a crisis of trust with the communities they serve, they’ve largely turned to a major theme of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing—procedural justice. A procedurally just approach is one that gains legitimacy through transparency, impartiality, fairness and giving voice to people impacted by crime. Procedural justice has what Dorian Schaap and Elsa Saarikkomaki call “a rock-solid foundation”, but it is not perfect. One criticism is that the practice and application of procedural justice suffers the same deficiencies as community policing including inconsistent tracking of process and outcomes. Second, while procedural justice lays the groundwork for fairness and impartiality, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it automatically accounts for inclusive processes or the ability to manage police/community conflict.
Restorative justice focuses attention on the needs of victims, offenders and community rather than the interests of the state. For police in particular, restorative practices are gaining traction as some agencies look for ways to operationalize and better track outcomes of procedural justice in practice. Interest is a great starting point, but restorative policing is advanced policing practice. To gain the full benefits of restorative practice in law enforcement means rethinking policing culture, adaptation to a different paradigm of policing and leaning into practices that are procedurally just and perceived as fair. In other words, optimal engagement policing means blending procedural justice, restorative policing and a commitment to changing the culture of policing that emphasizes harm and crime reduction, innovation, and reexamining the role of police in American democracy.
Over the several decades, policing models re-emphasized the militarization of police and “law and order” policing had a lot more to do with control than prevention or harm reduction. Restorative policing necessarily shifts emphasis to repairing the harm caused by a crime by involving the person who caused the harm and the people who are impacted by the harm, including the community, in a collaborative process. It prioritizes accountability and healing to address the root causes of crime and restore relationships through dialogue, empathy and mutual understanding. Far from a “get out of jail free card”, restorative policing processes can create opportunity for realistic resolution of harm between the person who caused the harm and the person or people who were harmed. And the good news is that there’s a growing amount of research that demonstrates that those who participate in a restorative process are less likely to reoffend, victims are more satisfied with the process and there’s a reduction in psychological trauma as compared to traditional justice systems.
Optimal Engagement Policing Checklist
While there’s evidence that communities and people fare better with police-initiated restorative justice, it is important to determine agency readiness.
Step 1: Scan for Potential Barriers.Implementing restorative justice and procedural justice principles within a law enforcement organization often requires a cultural shift, change management and updates to policies and procedures. Resistance to change, entrenched norms and bureaucratic structures can pose challenges to the adoption of either restorative justice or procedural justice. However, a supportive organizational culture that values innovation, psychological safety, learning and continuous improvement can facilitate the implementation process to sustain long-term change where restorative policing becomes a cornerstone of police culture.
Step 2: Collaborate with Justice System Partners. While police may be the gatekeeper, most restorative processes also involve creating a policy structure that includes prosecutors, courts and possibly probation and corrections. Restorative justice and traditional justice should operate in tandem and as safety nets for each other. Restorative justice can result in better outcomes, improve system efficiency and free over-burdened dockets so justice system resources are free to attend to cases where restorative justice is not a feasible option. In those cases where people fail to comply with their responsibilities and obligations, they are referred to the traditional justice system.
Step 3: Engaged Leadership.Strong leadership improves outcomes and opportunities for success. Police leaders, from command staff to line-level supervisors, play a critical role in shaping the culture, values and acceptance of restorative policing. When police leaders champion restorative and procedural justice principles, they set the tone for the entire organization, inspire commitment, accountability and add a tool for officers that supports responsible use of discretion. Processes that consider the nature of the crime, the needs of the people involved to include victims, community members and people responsible for harm opens an additional avenue to accountability and justice.
For policing, restorative justice, procedural justice and organizational culture are interconnected concepts that combined, can positively influence the functioning and outcomes of the criminal justice system. By promoting fairness, transparency and collaboration, police can support communities through meaningful conflict resolution, trust-building, and harm resolution.
Author: Tanya Settles is the CEO of Paradigm Public Affairs, LLC. Tanya’s areas of work include relationship building between local governments and communities, restorative justice, and the impacts of natural and human-caused disasters on at-risk populations. Tanya can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions in this column and any mistakes are hers alone.
At the Intersection of Law Enforcement Culture, Legitimacy and Peacemaking: Optimal Engagement Policing
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Tanya Settles
April 19, 2024
Historically, the dominant model of law enforcement and crime control is reactive. For a lot of people, the outcomes are regarded as being no-nonsense approaches to crime and disorder. In recent years, this has not been the case and communities across the nation have demanded a more humanitarian approach to policing. As law enforcement agencies work to emerge from what many view as a crisis of trust with the communities they serve, they’ve largely turned to a major theme of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing—procedural justice. A procedurally just approach is one that gains legitimacy through transparency, impartiality, fairness and giving voice to people impacted by crime. Procedural justice has what Dorian Schaap and Elsa Saarikkomaki call “a rock-solid foundation”, but it is not perfect. One criticism is that the practice and application of procedural justice suffers the same deficiencies as community policing including inconsistent tracking of process and outcomes. Second, while procedural justice lays the groundwork for fairness and impartiality, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it automatically accounts for inclusive processes or the ability to manage police/community conflict.
Restorative justice focuses attention on the needs of victims, offenders and community rather than the interests of the state. For police in particular, restorative practices are gaining traction as some agencies look for ways to operationalize and better track outcomes of procedural justice in practice. Interest is a great starting point, but restorative policing is advanced policing practice. To gain the full benefits of restorative practice in law enforcement means rethinking policing culture, adaptation to a different paradigm of policing and leaning into practices that are procedurally just and perceived as fair. In other words, optimal engagement policing means blending procedural justice, restorative policing and a commitment to changing the culture of policing that emphasizes harm and crime reduction, innovation, and reexamining the role of police in American democracy.
Over the several decades, policing models re-emphasized the militarization of police and “law and order” policing had a lot more to do with control than prevention or harm reduction. Restorative policing necessarily shifts emphasis to repairing the harm caused by a crime by involving the person who caused the harm and the people who are impacted by the harm, including the community, in a collaborative process. It prioritizes accountability and healing to address the root causes of crime and restore relationships through dialogue, empathy and mutual understanding. Far from a “get out of jail free card”, restorative policing processes can create opportunity for realistic resolution of harm between the person who caused the harm and the person or people who were harmed. And the good news is that there’s a growing amount of research that demonstrates that those who participate in a restorative process are less likely to reoffend, victims are more satisfied with the process and there’s a reduction in psychological trauma as compared to traditional justice systems.
Optimal Engagement Policing Checklist
While there’s evidence that communities and people fare better with police-initiated restorative justice, it is important to determine agency readiness.
Step 1: Scan for Potential Barriers. Implementing restorative justice and procedural justice principles within a law enforcement organization often requires a cultural shift, change management and updates to policies and procedures. Resistance to change, entrenched norms and bureaucratic structures can pose challenges to the adoption of either restorative justice or procedural justice. However, a supportive organizational culture that values innovation, psychological safety, learning and continuous improvement can facilitate the implementation process to sustain long-term change where restorative policing becomes a cornerstone of police culture.
Step 2: Collaborate with Justice System Partners. While police may be the gatekeeper, most restorative processes also involve creating a policy structure that includes prosecutors, courts and possibly probation and corrections. Restorative justice and traditional justice should operate in tandem and as safety nets for each other. Restorative justice can result in better outcomes, improve system efficiency and free over-burdened dockets so justice system resources are free to attend to cases where restorative justice is not a feasible option. In those cases where people fail to comply with their responsibilities and obligations, they are referred to the traditional justice system.
Step 3: Engaged Leadership. Strong leadership improves outcomes and opportunities for success. Police leaders, from command staff to line-level supervisors, play a critical role in shaping the culture, values and acceptance of restorative policing. When police leaders champion restorative and procedural justice principles, they set the tone for the entire organization, inspire commitment, accountability and add a tool for officers that supports responsible use of discretion. Processes that consider the nature of the crime, the needs of the people involved to include victims, community members and people responsible for harm opens an additional avenue to accountability and justice.
For policing, restorative justice, procedural justice and organizational culture are interconnected concepts that combined, can positively influence the functioning and outcomes of the criminal justice system. By promoting fairness, transparency and collaboration, police can support communities through meaningful conflict resolution, trust-building, and harm resolution.
Author: Tanya Settles is the CEO of Paradigm Public Affairs, LLC. Tanya’s areas of work include relationship building between local governments and communities, restorative justice, and the impacts of natural and human-caused disasters on at-risk populations. Tanya can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions in this column and any mistakes are hers alone.
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