Hubert Williams, former police director of Newark, New Jersey, shares his first-hand observations of the evolution of the police profession, its leadership, and its growing ability to evaluate its work and develop public trust.
Hubert Williams, President, The Police Foundation
Hubert Williams is the president of the Police Foundation. A 30-year veteran of policing, Mr. Williams led the Newark Police Department for 11 years.
What was your initial response to our inquiry into trial and error in criminal justice?
The first thing that struck me was the label ‘trial and error.’ There’s always trial and error in any endeavor. The Police Foundation is the organization that opened up policing to research. We have found that when you’re working scientifically, you’re going to find that what you thought would work, didn’t. Then you must use those lessons to create future projects, refining what you’ve learned in past attempts. That said, discussion of ‘trial and error’ also takes me back to science class, where you know that if you mix two specific chemicals in a test tube, you’ll get a predictable reaction. But unlike in the test tube, where you can control for everything, you can’t control the environment in the business of policing. There are too many factors to consider.
Are there certain leadership styles or tactics that can help facilitate a culture of trial and error within police departments?
There are, I believe, universal elements for successful police leadership generally. Leading a police agency requires a vision, a strategy to implement it, and the ability to articulate that vision to your officers, your community, political leaders, and other stakeholders and, hopefully, to get them to embrace it. It’s essential to develop and support your officers and ensure they understand the agency’s values and mission. A leader stays informed about the community and makes it clear that the fundamental role of police is to serve the community. Forty years ago, police departments engaged in little experimentation and virtually no innovation; today’s police leaders understand the importance of both. We have better educated police using advanced technology to deliver police services, which we have come to accept include preventing crime, arresting criminals, maintaining order, and solving problems.
Can you give an example of a type of failure pitfall that is common to policing?
Inside the police bureaucracy, there are so many complex layers that impact the bottom line – human factors. Values in police agencies come not just from documents that describe them but also from traditional police culture. Too often, there is a disconnect between policies and practices, a failure to monitor behavior and respond appropriately. If police leadership does not assume an aggressive role in ensuring that the police culture is one of integrity and accountability, officers will continue to cultivate their own culture in their own way, which can result in damage to a department’s reputation, eroded trust in the community, and increased exposure to liability.
How can police chiefs avoid that pitfall?
Police officers are dealing constantly with the seamy side of life – people with problems and sometimes people who are creating problems. To avoid officers falling into the temptations that arise from their work, the department’s leadership should set a high standard for professional performance and ensure that department rules and regulations are properly enforced. Not only does this protect the department’s reputation, but it also protects its investment. We don’t often think about the cost to get an individual police officer through training and functioning in the department, only to have him trip and fall off his career path. Safeguarding for those pitfalls protects everybody – the officers, the department, the community, and the municipality.
Do you think there are other ways that police departments can prepare for incidents – like high-profile events or crimes – that are viewed as department failures?
A fundamental police role is to enforce and uphold the rule of law, and to do so equitably without regard to race, ethnicity, or social or economic status. The degree to which people react impulsively in a hostile and negative manner to a police-related incident is dependent on both the nature of the incident as well as the level of confidence and trust the department has developed within the community. Public trust is the cornerstone of modern policing because it determines the level of cooperation and support that people are willing to give the police in the discharge of their responsibilities. Such trust is not bestowed on the police solely because of their law enforcement responsibilities or the quality of service provided. Those important functions can be undermined and public perception of the police diminished when the police are perceived as having acted unfairly. It is important, therefore, that police leaders are sensitive to the role the police played in U.S. history in upholding a legal order that not only countenanced but sustained slavery, segregation, and discrimination. The commitment of America’s police chiefs to advance community policing, to ensure that police ranks reflect the communities being policed, and to enhance professional standards represent a sea change in modern policing.
How should that relationship with the community play out on a more regular basis, when the department isn’t responding to an isolated incident?
Often the communities most in need of effective policing because of high crime rates are the very communities most distrustful of the police. Positive, proactive, ongoing interaction with minority communities, where dialogue is encouraged and community concerns are acknowledged and addressed can help build and sustain the trust and support required for police effectiveness. And the police chief must take a visible, leadership role in these efforts.
What do you think about the role of evidence-based practice in law enforcement?
I think it’s good that ideas about evidence-based practice are being articulated and advanced. What we now call ‘evidence-based policing’ is based on the simple concept of research that demonstrates that something works. The Foundation established and refined the capacity to define, design, conduct, and evaluate controlled experiments testing ways to improve the delivery of police services. It was the Foundation that first brought researchers into a lasting, constructive partnership with law enforcement. And it was the Foundation, in cooperation with police departments all across the country, that engendered a questioning of the traditional model of professional law enforcement and the testing of new approaches to policing. Policing constantly faces new challenges, so there is an endless process of discovery and testing, trying new ideas in changing circumstances, and testing them by the most rigorous and objective standards in real-world experiments. For the past 40 years, Police Foundation research has helped improve the way police departments function and police officers do their jobs.