Transforming organizational culture takes some serious juju.
Teri Mahaney, PhD
Transforming a “cop culture” has to be one of the hardest leadership jobs there is. Changing policies and procedures isn’t enough. The organizational culture has to change, which means overhauling entrenched values and behaviors. To make the point that changing policy isn’t enough, a task force on improving policing stated, “organizational culture eats policy for lunch”.
But Eric Jones made it happen in Stockton, CA, creating a dynamic model for organizational transformation based on the values of Procedural Justice.
The Stockton Police Department (PD) had a dismal record when Eric Jones was coming up as a cop. A 2015 study found 60% of residents thought the police acted with bias / prejudice. Only 9% said they trusted the police.
A separate study identified the street cop culture as
* show balls
* watch out for your partner first
* protect your ass
So Jones knew the issues when he became Police Chief.
REFLECT:
Do your experiences support or negate these findings about the “cop
culture”.
When police reform became a prominent issue across the US, researchers scrambled to find strategies. President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing focused on one strategy, Procedural Justice, and Chief Jones chose it for his department.
Procedural Justice (PJ) requires
* the public can state their cases against individual officers
* the public gets explanations for police actions to determine for themselves if the actions were in accordance with fair practice
* the public is heard when policies are being created
(1) be transparent about what you’re doing and why (trustworthiness)
(2) give citizens a chance to speak and be heard – on the street and in the community (voice)
(3) prioritize fairness (respect)
(4) be an impartial decision maker (neutrality)
To lessen the reluctance and resistance to change, Chief Jones planned a slow incremental strategy – to stay only one step ahead of the officers, not three or four. He gradually introduced a multi-faceted approach which included:
* staff attending PJ training sessions
* establishing a Community Advisory Board
* having trust building workshops between police and minority
communities
* adding training sessions to combat cop cynicism
* cooperating with the union
* integrating PJ principles into the performance appraisal system
* setting up a non-profit for additional funding
PJ Training Sessions
A few Stockton officers attended national PJ training and returned to lead it
for the department. In the training Officers:
* learned the principles of PJ
* watched videos of other cop interactions and matched their own
behavior to the videos
* studied a timeline of US police mistreatment of black and brown
citizens, from the slave patrols to brutality against protesters
* studied instances of racial injustice in their own department
* identified behaviors for each of the four areas: trustworthiness, voice,
respect and neutrality
The Community Advisory Board
In monthly meetings, Chief Jones asked the Board members to “inform him of the good, the bad, at the ugly of what was taking place with the citizens, and with his own staff”. The board included some of the most strident citizens with definite ideas about improvement who made recommendations like hiring more Latino officers.
Trust Building Workshops
In response to the need for reconciliation between the police and minority communities, Jones followed the approach used in Northern Ireland and South Africa. To create compassion and spark a change, dialogue and mutual understanding were stressed. Officers sat at a table with citizens who had
suffered from police oppression. Citizens would share their stories, and officers would give their perspective on their job. These were dubbed “courageous conversations”.
Training Sessions on Cop Cynicism – the #1 enemy to PJ
Mostly idealistic men and women become police officers to help people, make the community safer, and be guardians and heroes. With experience, the idealism faded and was replaced with the feeling nothing they did made a difference. As one cop said, …you see how things are. All the junkies. Everybody lies.Victims won’t tell you anything because they’re criminals themselves. Then you start to ask, “Why am I here?”.
In training sessions, officers were asked why they became cops in the first place and when / what happened to change it. It wasn’t an instant fix, but it started untying the knot of cynicism.
Cooperating With the Union:
This was mostly on hold until a younger and more open minded group of union leaders came in. When a new Union president came in that had been on the force for over a decade and had a good relationship with the Chief, he was supportive. He participated in all the initiatives, and found them “eyeopening”.
Changing the Performance Appraisal System:
Adding PJ to the performance appraisal system was critical to change behaviors. Officer evaluations were modified to include fair and courteous treatment of citizens. Field training officers evaluated rookies on PJ principles, and Sergeants watched for disrespectful or biased behaviors. Citizen complaints were monitored and in any major use of force incident, bodycam footage was examined. Offenders were brought in for more training.
Of course, some cops still didn’t change. One cop offered to let a citizen go after a traffic stop if he would eat a piece of raw fish. When the citizen agreed, the cop withdrew the offer. Transgressions like this weren’t tolerated.
Results were evident: citizen polls showed improvement, with one previous critic stating “Change is happening in this town”.
The state Attorney General, Kamala Harris, made PJ training available to PD officers statewide, and Chief Jones’ strategies were used as a model.
APPLY:
Plan how you could apply some of these strategies to your organization to change the culture.
ie: the Community Advisory Board might be an Employee Advisory Board.
Walk the Walk, Neil Gross, Metropolitan Books, 2023.
