{"id":208,"date":"2021-11-13T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justpolicing.org\/?page_id=208"},"modified":"2022-06-08T19:38:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T19:38:52","slug":"systems-thinking-and-policing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/justpolicing.org\/systems-thinking-and-policing\/","title":{"rendered":"Systems Thinking and Policing"},"content":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ background_color_2=”#141617″ admin_label=”Header” _builder_version=”3.22.7″ use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”#ffdb8b” background_color_gradient_end=”#fdb15b” z_index=”1″ max_width=”80vw” overflow-y=”visible” custom_margin=”||50px|||” custom_padding=”|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.13.1″ background_color=”#202a44″ background_color_gradient_start=”rgba(55,79,107,0.61)” background_color_gradient_end=”rgba(55,79,107,0.75)” background_color_gradient_direction=”150deg” transform_scale_tablet=”” transform_scale_phone=”” transform_scale_last_edited=”on|desktop” transform_translate=”10vw|0px” transform_translate_tablet=”” transform_translate_phone=”5vw|0px” transform_translate_last_edited=”on|desktop” transform_translate_linked=”off” transform_rotate_tablet=”” transform_rotate_phone=”” transform_rotate_last_edited=”on|desktop” transform_skew_tablet=”” transform_skew_phone=”” transform_skew_last_edited=”on|desktop” transform_origin_tablet=”” transform_origin_phone=”” transform_origin_last_edited=”on|desktop” transform_styles_last_edited=”on|desktop” width=”80vw” width_tablet=”” width_phone=”90vw” width_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_margin=”||-120px” custom_padding=”60px|60px|60px|60px|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”” custom_padding_phone=”40px||40px|20px|true” hover_enabled=”0″ transform_styles_tablet=”” transform_styles_phone=”” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_vertical=”64px” box_shadow_blur=”64px” box_shadow_spread=”-12px” box_shadow_color=”rgba(20,22,23,0.24)” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_menu menu_id=”none” active_link_color=”#FFFFFF” dropdown_menu_line_color=”#f0ae5e” dropdown_menu_text_color=”#52677f” mobile_menu_text_color=”#52677f” _builder_version=”4.13.1″ _module_preset=”default” menu_font=”|||on|||||” menu_text_color=”#FFFFFF” menu_font_size=”13px” background_enable_color=”off” z_index=”500″ text_orientation=”right” custom_margin=”-21px||6px||false|false” global_module=”237″ saved_tabs=”all” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_menu][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.1″ text_font=”Montserrat||||||||” text_letter_spacing=”3px” header_font=”|700|||||||” header_font_size=”75px” header_letter_spacing=”-3px” header_line_height=”0.9em” header_2_font=”Montserrat|||on|||||” header_2_font_size=”24px” header_2_letter_spacing=”2px” header_2_line_height=”1.8em” background_layout=”dark” header_font_size_tablet=”60px” header_font_size_phone=”40px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” header_2_font_size_tablet=”14px” header_2_font_size_phone=”” header_2_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.13.1″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”28px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.13.1″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#f9f7f0″ custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” custom_padding=”50px|100px|50px|100px|false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.13.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.1″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”2em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
In November of 2002, I accepted the position of Chief of Police in the small urban city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Fitchburg is a city of 40,000 people located in North Central Massachusetts. It is a typical old New England industrial city that never made the transition to a modern or hi-tech economy. As a result it has been economically depressed for many, many years. The lack of growth and prosperity in the city has resulted in a depressed real estate market that has made it an affordable place for immigrants to live. Along with these changes in demographics, Fitchburg has seen a rise in poverty and a serious drug problem with the accompanying violent crime.<\/p>\n
When I was formally introduced as the new police chief to the public at the Mayor\u2019s press conference, the Mayor stated that I was to \u201clead the war on crime and drugs\u201d. This was the first time that I had heard this political statement and I interpreted it to mean a stepped-up, comprehensive enforcement policy that would drive crime and drugs out of the city. Over the next four years drug enforcement policies were expanded, but this measure alone did not lower the crime rate<\/p>\n
Most of the crime that was occurring seemed to be drug-related in one way or another.\u00a0 When I took over as police chief, one of the first things that I did was to form a regional task force of surrounding cities and towns to join in the enforcement of preventing narcotic trafficking\u00a0 and violations (. Over a two-year period, drug enforcement with search warrants increased over 400% (from 21 per year to over 100 per year). Similarly, seizures of the amounts of illegal drugs and confiscation of money and assets of drug dealers also increased, which was reflective of the increase in enforcement.<\/p>\n
During this time period, motor vehicle enforcement escalated dramatically as did enforcement for serious and minor crimes. After a two and a half year period, we were able to graph an astounding increase in enforcement rate but the overall crime rate remained the same. Despite our \u201coutstanding\u201d increase in effort, there was no appreciable difference in the crime rate.<\/p>\n
During this period, the murder rate in the city rose to a higher per capita rate than any other city in the state. There were six murders during my first 18 months as chief of police. An obvious fact jumped out at me in these murders in that five out of the six murders were minorities killing other minorities.<\/p>\n
In one instance, I experienced a very revealing incident that became symbolic of why the crime rate continued to stay the same despite our efforts.\u00a0\u00a0 One Christmas, I received a phone call at my home from the police department.\u00a0 I was informed that two people had been murdered with a knife and that another person (a woman) was not expected to live… All the participants involved in the crime, victims, witnesses and perpetrator, were all Latino.<\/p>\n
Upon receiving this information, I responded to the police station. It was about 4 a.m. when I arrived.\u00a0 The police station was brilliantly lit up, reflecting the busy activity inside of the building. When I entered the building, I observed several of my officers rushing about, doing reports and working on the preliminary investigation. I also observed that these officers were primarily young and newer officers as is the custom for working the late night shift. They were performing in a very professional manner and doing their jobs with accuracy and efficiency.<\/p>\n
At this point, I went to another area of the building and met with the Detective Supervisor Investigator. As police chief, I asked him if there was anything that I could do that would make his job easier in the investigation, and he said \u201cno, not at this time.\u201d A short while later, he came to my office and asked me if I could meet with one of the victims\u2019 families. I immediately answered that I would, knowing that this would relieve him of the emotional and time consuming burden of dealing with the grief of the family.<\/p>\n
I asked him where the family was and how long had they been waiting. He responded that they were in the lobby of the police station and had been there for about an hour and a half. I located one of my Latino police officers that was working and asked him to assist me in translation and cultural matters with the victim\u2019s family.\u00a0 We then went to the lobby of the station and met with the mother and two sisters of one of the victims. I introduced myself as the Chief of Police to the family and asked them to follow me. I took them to a small private lounge area located next to the detective bureau.\u00a0 I observed that all of them had some blood on them and it was apparent that they were at the scene of the crime at some point.<\/p>\n
Once inside the room, I observed that they were visibly upset and I asked them what I could do to help them. Only one of the women spoke English, a teenage girl. She said that her mother wanted to know what was going on with her son. I told her I would find out for her and walked out of the room and asked the detective supervisor who told me that the son was dead. He and I agreed that I should notify the family members, as a number of hours had already passed.\u00a0 I know that everyone was busy investigating this event but I was surprised and disappointed that the family members were not informed sooner of the death of their Loved one.<\/p>\n
I then went back into the room to tell the family. I had begun to tell them the news when State Police Detective walked into the room. I immediately introduced him to the family and then proceeded to tell them that their son\/brother was dead. Upon hearing this news, the family members began to cry and wail. The mother stood up, ran into the detective bureau, hurled herself on the floor and became hysterical. The other women acted in a somewhat similar manner. After about five minutes, they all sat down in the lounge area and began to weep and hold each other.<\/p>\n
I left the room with the officer who had accompanied me and I asked him if there was anything I could have done differently and he stated, \u201cNo Chief, you just have to let it go.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 I then went over to the State Police Commander who I had introduced to the family.\u00a0 (Note: In Massachusetts, the state police assist the cities and towns of the state on murder charges and have jurisdiction of the investigation.)\u00a0 I said to the Commander, \u201cI am sorry you had to walk into that situation.\u201d He then said to me, \u201cChief, I really wish you had not talked to them before we talked to them.<\/p>\n
At this point, I realized that even though all of the police officers and state police officers involved in this incident were all doing an excellent \u201ctechnical\u201d investigation, there was a communication process that was lacking for the victim\u2019s family. I wondered how we would have responded if it was the president of the local university\u2019s family waiting in the lobby that night and if we would have found time to speak with them first.<\/p>\n
After this incident passed, I began to look for patterns within the police department and found out that 12 of our police officers were currently being sued by members of the Latino community for different forms of alleged abuse. In none of these instances were the police found responsible for wrongdoing.\u00a0\u00a0 I became obvious to me that something more was at work here than just that murders had been committed and lawsuits were constantly being filed. There was a serious disconnect and lack of communication with Latinos and\u00a0 other minority groups in the community. Without contacts or relationships within the community, it was not surprising that the same patterns of crime kept recurring.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As chief law enforcement officer, it was my duty to find out why this was happening and make a plan for resolving it<\/p>\n
My experience told me that the best way to do this was to actively reach out to the Latino members of the community, and try to engage them in solving the problem with us. <\/strong>It was at this time that I met Sayra Pinto, a Latino community activist and Executive Director of the Twin Cities Latino Coalition.\u00a0 She had invited me to join the coalition in order to promote success of Latino students in our school system.\u00a0 I was very impressed as Sayra described\u00a0 the work she had done with at-risk youth with the ROCA) program in Chelsea, Massachusetts; ROCA is a nationally recognized program that works with inner city gang leaders and members to transform their lives and become leaders and mentors for at risk youth in their communities.\u00a0 In the course of this conversation,\u00a0 we discovered our mutual interest in the systems approach to problem solving..\u00a0 Both of us were committed to getting to the root of our respective crime problems. Merely identifying the symptoms was no longer an option.\u00a0 In a subsequent meeting we discussed the fact that the dropout rate at the High School for Latino students as more than 40 %.\u00a0 I also became aware that over 50% of the students in our kindergarten system were Latino. The Latino population was continuing to grow, and if things did not improve it would result in a continuation of the current failure and increasing crime rate. I knew that when at-risk students\u00a0 drop out of school their chances of being involved in crime and of being incarcerated rose significantly. National studies consistently back this conclusion. 1(\u00a0 In effect, the failure of these children in school was highly correlated with the\u00a0 higher risks for poverty and repeat\u00a0 involvement in crime. Again, national studies bear out this correlation. 1<\/p>\n Major Impact of Systems Thinking <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Sayra invited me to a conference that was given by the Society or Organizational Learning in Boston, Massachusetts.\u00a0 It was at this conference and also through my individual university program in organizational development that I was further exposed to Systems Thinking. This model challenges a manager to look at the overall problem in a systematic, interrelated way rather than looking at it as a series of isolated events.\u00a0 Applying a Systems Thinking approach to the crime problem in our city meant that we were committed to identifying the root causes of crime and calling attention to the non-police related and less obvious issues that continued to maintain the failure of the system.<\/p>\n