Policing in America: The Road to Reconciliation | Danielle Outlaw | TEDxPortland

thank you thank you thank you Wow Wow Wow Wow so let's get some stuff out of the way first this is a talk right we're talking yes I'm a woman yes I'm 41 and a half years old yes I'm african-american yes I am the chief of a major metropolitan city yes I'm from Oakland California [Applause] and yes my last name is outlaw but I'm not here to talk about that today are we good we good all right I'm here to talk about the road to reconciliation not just here in Portland but in the nation the theme today is bridges and so while many of you may think that I'm going to talk about how we bridge humanity to Authority I'm not I'm here today to tell you that there can be humanity in authority they're not on opposite ends of the spectrum the sooner we all embrace this the sooner our communities will come together as one and we need it very desperately man listen it's tough being a cop right now today in this country the complexities of the job have changed not only how the police are viewed in the eyes of the community but also it's changed the expectations of the community and even how we do our jobs and rightfully so it's also changed the expectations of police chief's especially those of us who are of color because it's widely known that in communities of color specifically those that are black or brown these communities are desperately impacted by crime and our law enforcement strategies to reduce these crimes as our other underserved populations such as those who are houseless or mentally ill truth be told I don't even always like the police oh no don't get me wrong when I was a kid my grandmother taught me to respect authority she wasn't having that she was affectionately known to us as grandmother but Miss Teresa Talia but when I was younger when I saw the police as kids we were told to run and as a young person the police took away someone that I loved very very deeply for a very long time and as a child I didn't ask why I just knew that someone that I loved was taken away and it was the police who did it I didn't have the opportunity to have a positive interaction with the police until I was in high school when I did my very first ride-along and a lot of cops today will tell you that they became officers after meeting one great officer in their youth they always remember that person's name my person was officer Tim Sanchez I spent a whole week with him and during our ride alongs we would laugh and joke and it turns out that he hated all the same places that I'd like to eat as we drove around he taught me history about Oakland that I didn't even know about and as a teenage grandchild of Miss Teresa Dominguez I thought I knew everything but I got to see Tim the human being we had so much in common so now after college after an MBA 20 years working with the Oakland Police Department I'm now the chief of police here in Portland Oregon [Applause] and I certainly didn't take this job at an easy time Trust is broken so my idea today that I want to share with you is that we can put Humanity in authority Portland Police Bureau and police agencies all around the nation and all around the world can do this by adhering to what's known in law enforcement circles today as 21st century policing it should be standardized everywhere don't get me wrong a lot of great work has been done in the policing profession to advance us and move us forward but there's more to do critical incidents will occur but trust is waning sometimes the humanity and our authority is actually best demonstrated after a critical incident and it's incumbent upon us that when we find out there was something we could have done differently to influence the outcome it's on us to own it some of you may have heard one element of 21st century policing known as community policing it's been around a very long time dating all the way back to the 1800s Sir Robert Peel is known as the father of modern policing he believed that the police are of the people and the people are of the police the people being community personally I don't particularly care for the term community policing it's cliche it sounds like a program or a thing or a box to be checked what community policing truly is it's a philosophy that's to be interwoven into everything that we do each and every day our officers should be visible known accessible I mean if you don't get out of your car and talk to people how do they even know who you are right it's common sense but it's more than just that right or wrong today across the nation it feels like we're the police and you're not culture has changed technology has changed and trust and legitimacy is fragmented and we have to fix this folks in order to apply appeals very basic definition of what community policing is we have to include the community and not just engage 21st century policing is community policing plus a whole lot more it also emphasizes building trust and legitimacy policy and oversight technology and social media crime reduction training and education and officer safety and wellness my ideal state is not that we've established trust and legitimacy and that's it but that 21st century principles are not just the guiding principles of my bureau but every department everywhere in the country and in the world I want to see a world where these so-called firsts are know no longer first they're the norm where we're not talking about recruiting strategies to diversify we're just diverse where people can talk to us at any time and know us who we are as human beings where officers can wear a uniform to a pride parade and it's okay where officers are acknowledged as the guardians we are where officers can walk into any local coffee shop and be welcomed with respect and where communities of color the houseless and those with mental illness are no longer terrified of the police I'm a mother first and I'm a police chief second and yes I have talked to my teenage sons repeatedly about what to do when stopped by the police but I want to be clear law enforcement is a calling and there are many many men and women who wear the badge with honor integrity compassion courage and respect and it is an honor for me to serve amongst each and every one of them but what do people talk about what are we here in the news social media you're about the bad that's it my past to graduate from business school was a successfully written thesis the underlying premise was this in the private sector there's a bottom-line dollars and cents several analyses are used to look at strengths and weaknesses opportunities threats internal external factors all these things to determined the success or failure of reaching an organization's bottom line so I applied this business model to the public sector policing to be more specific and what I learned was this our bottom line cannot be identified by the five senses it is intangible it is Authority and it's the authority that we receive from the community we serve in order to even be effective depending on how legitimate we're viewed in the eyes of the community if we're trusted you'll give us authority if not you won't so to make this happen we must ask ourselves a few things from where are we recruiting how are hiring decisions even made how our promotions decided who gets rewarded who's held accountable and how how our policies formulated who's responsible for training our new officers what are we training our new officers how are we reinforcing the values that lie at the very heart of the community policing philosophy are our values in alignment with the community's values who benefits and while we're asking all of these questions was the community involved in short police and the community has to have a relationship otherwise we'll remain at the same crossroads and history will continue to repeat itself so why are we here today we are trying to make history by doing something great and that means we have to reconcile our pasts this isn't just about black history or Portland's history this is our history I challenge us everyone here in Portland and cities beyond to move beyond our fears of the unknown and to embrace the commonalities that we all share to embrace the 21st damn century the future state that was envisioned all those years ago is still not reality it's ridiculous it can change by working together instead of against one another but resolution and reconciliation are going they're not going to happen the regular way that we expect it to it's going to happen in unusual ways unusual conversations difficult conversations and partnerships and those partnerships will be between our police departments and distant franchise communities change does not always come in the way we expect it to appear 21st century policing principles are kind compassionate and humane they make sense they promote crime reduction and they are based in community connection and common sense it is these things that can help reconcile the pain the hurt and the division we can't let this progress go and I can't do it alone in another 20 years or in another century we can't be having these same conversations that started in the early 1800s about common sense police policies and practices we just can't we know how to do this so let's implement them and move forward here and everywhere so we can earn your trust and our authority thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 60,435

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Democracy, Government, Human Rights, Law, Policy, Politics, Security

Id: iYryJIvCXx8

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 16 2018