When I was sworn in as IACP president a year ago, there were a multitude of issues and challenges facing our profession.
I am pleased to say that, through it all—the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased scrutiny on our officers and the profession, and the calls for reform—the IACP has remained steadfast in our commitment to our communities, our officers, and our shared desire to shape a path forward for our profession.
Over the past year, we have witnessed a sweeping movement across the globe to reform and reimagine policing. These efforts have led to many difficult conversations and have required each of us to carefully examine our views. For my part, when I have conversations with the elected officials about police reform, I always begin by saying there needs to be an acknowledgement that policing is not broken. As a profession, we have made great strides. We must and will continue to adapt and evolve our actions in response to an ever-changing landscape of criminal threats and community expectations. We embrace those pressures and expectations and work hard to make our communities safe and thriving places for all those who live in, work in, and visit them.
At the same time, I think we all recognize that, far too often, the image of our noble profession has suffered from actions of bad actors or split-second decisions that ended in tragedy for all involved. But against this backdrop of negative images, I truly believe that the men and women of the policing profession are universally committed to evolving and building trust within all segments of our communities. But, as we strive to improve our work every day, we must be committed to understanding that effective, lasting change will require resources, commitment, and well-thought-out, evidence-based approaches.
Unfortunately, far too often, policies are enacted without careful consideration of their impact. Hasty, misguided, and shortsighted actions like slashing police budgets, ending qualified immunity, changing use-of-force standards, or limiting the use of much-needed law enforcement equipment will have an adverse, sometimes dangerous, impact on policing and community safety for years to come. Even worse, these approaches do little to build community trust or get to the core goal of enhancing community-police engagement.
That is why, with our powerful voice of more than 31,000 members, we must continue to vigorously oppose proposals on a state and federal level that will have a detrimental impact to the policing profession and, consequently, the communities we serve. I am proud of each of you who joined our various calls to action and reached out to your members of Congress to defend and support the doctrine of qualified immunity and oppose any provision that would limit, reduce, or eliminate this essential protection for officers and to oppose modifications to the use-of-force standard set forth in Graham v. Connor.
While we still face many of the same challenges today that we did one year ago, I am proud to say that we are in this together as leaders of the policing profession, and, with the collective strength of the IACP—found in its membership—we worked to ensure our advocacy weight remained strong and that you had the tools and resources needed to keep you and your agencies ably prepared for these layered and complex crises.
I am also proud of the way that we, as an association and a profession, adjusted to the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the inability to gather together in person. To that end, we launched IACPlearn, a one-stop hub for online training, webinars, podcasts, and conference workshops—all easily accessible with your member login (and often available to the profession at large). Content is continually updated to keep pace with emerging issues and the professional development needs of you and your officers at every level of your agency. Through IACPlearn we continue to reduce barriers to learning and development to ensure access is timely and meeting the needs of officers where and when they are available.
I am proud to say that IACP continues to tackle pressing and emerging issues, like critical incident response. Earlier this year, I established a task force consisting of leaders from policing, private industry, and academia to focus on creating leading practices and developing cutting-edge training approaches that can assist agencies in dealing with unplanned critical incidents and to identify steps that can be taken before, during, and after an event to keep an incident from becoming a crisis. I am pleased to say that the work of this task force is well underway, and that incoming IACP President Dwight Henninger has agreed to continue its work during his presidency.
In addition to critical incident response, another truly global issue is that of homelessness and the role law enforcement plays in meeting the needs of this population and the communities that experience it. With each passing year, our profession is thrust more deeply into the realm of attempting to help those experiencing homelessness, those struggling with untreated mental health needs, and those grappling with substance use issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic only amplified these issues and challenges.
Police officers have hearts for public service—that is undeniable.
Police officers have hearts for public service—that is undeniable. But, for many of these more social service–related issues, we are constantly looking for ways to address the ever-expanding role of our traditional law enforcement duties and functions. We look to grow and improve our abilities to respond to homelessness, work with those with substance use issues, and appropriately interact with individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. We also look to improve our officers’ abilities to de-escalate tense situations and understand how to best help our vulnerable populations.
To meet these needs and many others, agencies have created cutting-edge, co-responder models, pairing police and mental health professionals for in-field service delivery and immediate response needs. Agencies have also begun pioneering partnerships to help social service partners accomplish their mission, thus preventing situations from becoming a law enforcement issue later. To continue to aid agencies in these efforts, the IACP is establishing the Public Health Informed Policing initiative to increase collaboration and mutual learning between the law enforcement and public health fields to advance evidence-based approaches to issues at the intersection of public health and public safety—including violence, addiction/overdose, mental health disorders, and homelessness. IACP is also providing dedicated technical assistance, through the Law Enforcement/First Responder Partnership initiative, to help local communities plan, implement, sustain, and enhance system solutions at the front end of the justice system to address the substance use that often leads to justice involvement, high utilization of emergency services, and homelessness. In addition, the association is currently developing and piloting the “next generation” of crisis intervention training (CIT) in a new Crisis Response and Intervention Training (CRIT) program to better prepare police officers to respond effectively to people experiencing mental health or substance use disorders and engage with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
These are just a few examples of the work we have underway, and I am pleased to say that our work in the area of homelessness will continue, and only amplify over the years. Fifth Vice President Ken Walker has agreed to champion this work through his term as president, and I am excited for the prospects and continued work ahead.
While what we have collectively accomplished this year is far too much to list, I want to end by thanking you for your commitment and contributions. I am inspired by all of you as leaders within your agencies and communities. I encourage each of you to continue to lead locally through these challenging times and for all of us to come together in voicing the collective best of our great profession.d
Please cite as
Cynthia E. Renaud, “A Year in Review,” President’s Message, Police Chief 88, no. 9 (September 2021): 6–7.
