Randy Petersen, criminologist, says defunding police ‘wrong’

THE BIG TALK

An occasional interview series with Americans who are challenging the status quo.

The chants, placards and even lawmakers’ earnest pleas to “defund the police” hit a nerve with Randy Petersen.

Of all the sloganeering of 2020, he thinks that slice of anti-police rhetoric is the most dangerous.

“I don’t want to say, ’Hey, you’re wrong,’ but I do think they’re wrong,” he said. “I don’t know how you would even debate that. They are not saying improve; they are saying destroy.”

Mr. Petersen isn’t exactly a disinterested observer. He is the senior researcher for Right on Crime and the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

In that capacity, he tries to make better cops by developing a training formula for police departments nationwide. The goal is to help police better serve their communities and, perhaps, improve their image in the process.

“As a profession, they feel under attack,” he said of police officers. “Although I’ve been impressed with those who are coming in for jobs in that they think this is the best time to get in in terms of making a difference.”

The “defund the police” message of far-left lawmakers and activists did not resonate with a broader national audience in the elections. It likely hurt Democrats, whose House majority shrank and failed to flip a single legislative chamber in the 50 states.

In the aftermath of those down-ticket losses, party leaders have sounded cautionary notes. Former President Barack Obama called defunding a “snappy slogan” that Democrats should avoid.

But neither Mr. Obama nor others who favor a less-explosive motto have forcefully denounced the idea behind starving police departments of money.

Proponents of defunding the police, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a leader of the far-left Democratic firebrands on Capitol Hill known as “The Squad,” describe defunding as a way to turn inner cities into suburbanesque utopias.

“It looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where they choose to fund youth, health, housing, etc. more than they fund police,” she said in a tweet that went viral.

Mr. Petersen said that formula would exacerbate the very problems it supposedly would fix.

“It would be a catastrophe for us and the public,” he said. “You have to see law enforcement as a core function of government and realize police are what we have for those who can’t afford gated communities and private security.”

It is important to train officers, he said but that training costs money. It would be better to weed out bad cops and hire good ones, although that too often means money. In short, cutting police departments of funds would starve them of the very sustenance they need to improve, Mr. Petersen said.

But a big cash injection is not always what’s needed. The Texas center’s research shows that police — and the public — benefit more from short refresher bursts of training than longer regimens.

The training, too, can be transformed.

“Cops don’t really get into kickboxing fights, so there’s not much need for the Korean jujitsu you often find,” Mr. Petersen said. “What you need is grappling at full speed ­— and that can be practiced. Most of the problems we’ve seen have come from an officer’s inability to use lesser force because they couldn’t control the suspect.”

Indeed, some of the flashpoint incidents that spurred Black Lives Matter protests and riots stem from officers’ lack of an alternative to lethal force. Among them:

• Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot by Atlanta police after struggling with officers and spinning out of their arrest attempt.

• Four Minneapolis police officers were active in subduing George Floyd, who also resisted arrest. One officer used his knee to pin Floyd for several minutes during the struggle.

• Officers in Philadelphia fatally shot Walter Wallace Jr. in October. Wallace, who had bipolar disorder, refused repeated entreaties to drop a knife. Some grieving members of the Wallace family blamed his death on insufficient police training.

“People intuitively don’t want to kill people, unless they’re a psychopath,” said Mr. Petersen, adding that the flashpoint incidents this year emphasize the importance of gaining control without resorting to lethal force. “The one thing in common there is a suspect resisting arrest.”

Mr. Petersen said such tragedies are bound to repeat themselves if cities, towns and counties slash law enforcement budgets. That also would threaten safety for all people and especially for law-abiding people who comprise the majority of residents in high-crime neighborhoods, he said.

Mr. Petersen, 49, began to form his ideas on improved training during 21 years as a police officer outside Chicago. His voice carries a distinct Windy City accent instead of a Texas drawl.

He has drawn on research on community policing by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the zero-tolerance “broken windows” policies spearheaded by New York City.

He said unions can make it more difficult for police chiefs to suspend or dismiss officers. Officers understandably hold their unions in high esteem, he said, while they feel boxed with public support seemingly at a nadir.

“When law enforcement feels like it is under attack, who are they going to turn to for support?” Mr. Petersen said. “But the interference with legitimate discipline and termination has to stop. I can’t shape the agency if I can’t discipline it.”

The Texas Public Policy Foundation plans to release a white paper on its formula by the end of the month and hopes police departments begin to adopt it next year.

“The community engagement piece of it is key, and by that, I don’t just mean ’coffee with the chief,’” he said. “Those are good ideas and should be continued, but it has to run deeper than that.”

But reducing law enforcement budgets would cut off those ideas.

Mr. Petersen said he hopes a more practical approach and a continued emphasis on safety will prevail.

“Right now, I think the loudest voices screaming from the rooftops are getting the most attention,” he said. “But I don’t believe everything is broken; I believe everything has a fix.”