Making the Right Ask of Police

An American Abroad

It was early in the morning just after Christmas last year. Very early. I was trying to get to my next destination around lunch time so I left my stay in west Texas, headed to Galveston some time before five in the morning.

Driving through the small town of Alpine, I noticed a gas station up ahead and considered whether I should stop to fill up since I didn’t know how sparsely populated the road would be or whether I’d have another chance before I ran out of gas.

I slowed down. The station itself, a typical gas station/convenience store set up, seemed closed, but it looked as if the pumps were open if you were paying by card. It was dark. There were no cars ahead of me and no cars behind me. At the last moment, I decided to take a chance and pull in. As I did the flashing lights of a police car lit up the country road I was on and the inside of my car. What the hell?

Calmly, I pulled into the station and up to the pumps as a way of signaling to the officer that I was simply stopping for gas. I sat in my car and waited as he got out of his cruiser, lights still flashing, and walked toward me.

“Do you know why I’m stopping you?” he asked.

“No, I don’t.”

“You failed to signal your intent when you turned in here.”

I failed to signal my intent. Interesting use of language. How about, you didn’t use your turn signal? So the officer was stopping me because I failed to use my signal light on a dark road in Alpine, Texas with not a car in sight for miles. I acknowledged he was right and I did not try to explain myself as he asked for my driver’s license and insurance card.

As I fumbled through my glove box I noticed my insurance card was expired. I later learned that is because my insurance company no longer sends cards in the mail, they email them to you and you are supposed to print them out yourself. I told the officer my insurance card was expired, but told him I was insured.

He looked at the card and said, “This is expired.” I said, I know, but it’s the only one I have. I know I am insured. He told me he could look it up on his computer. And so he did.

After a few minutes he walked back to me and said, your insurance checks out. “I’m letting you off with a warning.” I said thank you and then, as he walked away, in a passive-aggressive voice he said, “Respect law enforcement sir, we are here to protect you.”

What? I had to ask. “What are you talking about? How was I not respectful?”

“You failed to signal your intent. Your registration is outdated. And when I gave you back your license you ripped it out of my hand.”

“I did no such thing,” I hollered over my shoulder as he walked away and said twice, “Have a nice day sir, have a nice day sir,” in a tone meant to suggest I should quit while I was ahead. And I did.

This is not the first time in my life I have had a routine encounter with a police officer that was somewhat confrontational. Nothing to file a complaint about, but a feeling the officer expected the worst of me, suspected me of something, and wanted to force me to comply with his random orders as a means of asserting his authority.

Police in the United States no longer operate the way they did when I was growing up in a suburb in New England. Back then, cops were friendly. They wore uniforms, inspired by the military yes, but more like dress uniforms than the black or dark blue combat fatigues most police wear today.

I know the threats against police have changed since then. I know criminals are often better armed than the police. I know policing experts can point to instances in which police were overwhelmed by lawbreakers prepared to do battle and take lives. The January 6th attack on the U.S.Capitol is a perfect example.

But I also think it is about attitude and a policy decision about an approach to policing. Having recently traveled in Europe it is easy to see a difference in how American police approach their job and how the Europeans do it.

In recent years, there has been an unmistakeable move in our country toward police militarization. Stealth. Black cars. Unmarked cars. Cars stripped of all their civilian trim and outfitted with accessories that resemble armored vehicles. Body armor. Velcro. Dark glasses. The police are unapproachable. They present themselves as a force to be feared rather than as a source of help. In some communities they are feared.

Police in other countries face the same threats every day. They carry the same equipment. They have the same weapons available to them if necessary, but there is no effort to present themselves as intimidating.

Their cars are white with orange and blue checkerboard patterns painted down the side. Their uniforms are not dark. They are dressed more like ambulance attendants than combat soldiers. In short, they present themselves in a manner that is approachable. When they speed up to the scene of an incident on the streets, they signal they are there to help, not to escalate the situation further.

This tendency toward escalation within the ranks of American police officers is not new, but it gained added attention over the last year following the death of George Floyd. In the news media discussion of the issue, it is often broken down into racial terms. The officer is white, the citizen who was mistreated is black.

There is no doubt that race is a factor, but the problem is not limited to how police interact with people of color. The problem is much deeper and goes to fundamental questions about what the role of police should be in our society and how the job should be approached. Are police on the job to “protect and serve” or are they on the job to dominate the streets and force compliance under the threat of the use of force?

Something is wrong with policing in America. Time and again, we see video of routine traffic stops that result in tasers used, guns drawn and sometimes those guns being fired with fatal results. Often the policy answer is more money for more training, but what are we training the police to do? What are we asking them to do? For decades we have been asking police departments to “wage a war” on crime. So that’s what they prepare to do and that’s what they train to do. We should be asking them to protect communities as their highest priority.