Flashback: 2013 Blog on Corrections

 In a 2013 blog post from almost eight years ago, I highlighted the a NY Times article on corrections funding versus police funding.  Many other countries spend significantly more on police than corrections. The article struck a chord with me back then as I believe the formula for successful policing is through the community policing philosophy.  Where many urban cities have gone wrong with community policing implementation is they often don't have sufficient staffing or leaders fail to recognize it is not being practiced at the street level due to internal department disconnects.  

Thursday, January 31, 2013 Chief Gordon Ramsay

Police Resources

The New York Times printed a great story on police and the impact we have on crime.  It also focused on spending for police versus the spending for incarceration.  In the story Lawrence W. Sherman,  an American criminologist on the faculties of the University of Maryland and Cambridge University in Britain is quoted saying “The United States today is the only country I know of that spends more on prisons than police."  “In England and Wales, the spending on police is twice as high as on corrections. In Australia it’s more than three times higher. In Japan it’s seven times higher. Only in the United States is it lower, and only in our recent history.”     The story goes on to focus on the relationship between more police on the street and lower crime rate.  Here's the link to the article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/nyregion/police-have-done-more-than-prisons-to-cut-crime-in-new-york.html?hp&_r=3&pagewanted=all

The NY Times article's focus matches up with a news story by Duluth's ABC station on the additional police stationed in the area of the Last Place on Earth and how their presence is making a difference.  

So, how about cutting the Department of Corrections budget and giving that money to communities with higher crime areas to hire more police officers? 
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If I wrote this today, I would be more specific and stress with additional officers the focus must be on community policing (and as part of that - prevention through actively addressing factors that to lead crime).  For instance, we know if our youth stay in school and graduate from high school, their chances for success in life increase dramatically and their contact with the criminal justice system greatly diminishes.  What is one predictor of graduation rates?  We know if third and fourth graders read at grade level their chances of graduating greatly increases; so WPD officers go into schools and read to youth in an effort to get them interested in reading. Additionally, we have a formal mentoring program through Wichita Public Schools and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  WPD actively takes a role in helping our youth graduate.

 Lastly, corrections is not correcting those in today's criminal justice system. I see too many parolee's released with no support and they quickly fall into their old ways.  Too many recent crimes in Wichita have been committed by parolees. Our recidivism rate is not discussed enough, but the numbers are a not a good return on our investment.

 

While some talk about police reform and police defunding we should look at our entire criminal justice system and what needs to be done to prevent crime and disorder in our cities in the first place.  

Properly funding police is key to the health of our cities.

Policing and Mental Illness Part 2

How did we get to the point where mental health care has become a police issue?  Over the last 28 years I have watched the government's response to mental illness shift from being a state issue - to being a police issue whereby too often when a person is having a mental health crisis, the police are called and sometimes the person in crisis enters the criminal justice system as a result. It has put our police and criminal justice system in a bad position and subjected our efforts to significant criticism and scorn. In turn, the narrative in 2020 has become, "the police are the problem."

In an article published on-line by Dr. Roy W. Menninger (History of the Mental Health Care System in Kansas), asylums began in the 19th Century with good intentions by volunteers; not the government.  As time went on asylums became "human warehouses." Beginning in the 1950's there became a growing focus on deinstitutionalization as the conditions in many of the state hospitals were facing increasing scrutiny of their conditions and treatment of patients.  

Menninger writes "Albert Deutsch published Shameof the States (1948), reflecting the horrors of state hospitals, primarily Byberry in Philadelphia: patients flung into misery and seemingly forgotten. But it was intended as a call for reform, not censure or closure. Further exposure of state hospital conditions in the movie of MJ Ward’s novel,“The Snake Pit,” (1949) starring Olivia de Havilland; on the cover of Time magazine."  At the height of the use of state hospitals, Menninger reports Kansas had approximately 5,000 beds.

The development and use of antipsychotic drugs also grew and the focus became "community based" mental health - that is, moving the patients from the institutions and back to their hometowns and closer to their families. Menninger goes further saying, "Deinstitutionalization was the true ‘shame of the states.’ One-third became homeless; many transferred to other institutions lacking treatment capabilities: nursing homes, boarding houses, etc. and especially jails. In short, it was transinstitutionalization, not deinstitutionalization."

As I worked the streets, the increase of those in a mental health crisis was significant.  Some of the mental illness was organic, some was from meth and other illegal drugs, and some was a combination of both. The more I worked to address repeat calls for service, the more I saw a significant percentage were driven by those in crisis and drug addiction. I began to work closer with social workers to obtain civil commitments with the goal of helping the individual in crisis and resolving on-going calls. While we increased our communication with our social workers, we still operated out of silos. As different social workers and supervisors came and went, we would undergo the time-consuming process of building relationships, understanding and work to solve problems. 

I had been gently pushing for social workers to be embedded in the police department since we were the first responders for those in crisis. We also had the database for those threatening suicide, attempting suicide, and those who were homeless and a danger to themselves and others. I wanted social workers to have access to our database and respond and address those in crisis using their knowledge and systems in order to effectively stabilize the individual. Despite a lot of conversations, we were unable to get the right people's attention to fund these positions.

  

Everything came to a head in 2013 or 2014 when an officer shot a suicidal male who was in a meth-induced psychosis and came at the officer with a butcher knife. Fortunately the male lived, but what we found when we completed a review of the incident showed significant gaps in our systems that needed addressing. If my memory serves me correctly, the male had been the subject of four police calls for threatening suicide. Each time officers responded they were able to get the male in for an evaluation without any problems. After the evaluation, the male was always released by a doctor as he agreed to attend a voluntary treatment program at a later date.  On the fifth suicide incident in a 10 day period, the male was shot by a police officer.  We found the paperwork completed by the treating physician had not yet made its way to the social workers for follow up.

  

It was clear to me that we needed to expedite our response. I approached several county commissioners and shared the details of what we found. I requested that they fund an embedded social worker to review all suicide and mental illness calls daily so we could respond more nimbly and quickly to someone in crisis needing immediate help. The commissioners bought into the idea and funded the first embedded social worker program in the state of Minnesota.  

In Wichita we collaborated to create ICT-1, which has shown significant success; you can read more about it here. We continue to build on the need for an integrated response to mental health in our community in an effort to move mental health crisis response away from only being a police issue.  In my next post I will write more about how we are evolving and making lives safer by collaborating with our community partners on this critical issue.

The Evolution of Mental Illness and Policing Part 1

 The Evolution of Mental Illness and Policing Part 1

Over the 27 years of serving as a police officer, I have seen the number of mental health calls for police skyrocket. In Minnesota mental health care went from being a State responsibility to that of police and the criminal justice system. Moose Lake State Hospital who served the severely mentally ill in our area Minnesota closed in 1995 and ironically enough, became a State prison (https://mn.gov/mnddc/past/pdf/00s/07/07-DHS-ENG.pdf).

My first foray as a police officer into the mental health world was in the mid- 90s after we continually received 911 calls on a severely mentally ill man who would self medicate with illegal drugs and alcohol. I had been a police officer a few years and was getting frustrated along with other cops and community members with habitual offenders - often with an increasing connection to mental illness.  I worked at the bottom of the chain and on the street, but I would frequently hear from administrators that State help for the number with mental illness had dried up.   

His name has faded from my memory, but I still remember his face and how he could stare right through me in an eerie way.  I once had memorized his full name and D.O.B. I can now only recall he had a “Z” in his name.  Rumor had it he had a twin brother who looked a lot like him and never had any problems.  As Z wandered around downtown he would generate a significant number of 911 calls as he would approach people in a threatening manner, grab at them, shout and swear; often with drool and mucus dripping down his face.  

Trying to move Z along and send him on his way was always fruitless as he stood his ground like a lion.  We tried every type of approach you could imagine; the best friend approach, the extremely polite approach, the kind and caring approach, the direct approach, the threaten-to- arrest approach, the threaten detox approach, and any other legal approach we could think of.  Hammering Z with detox, jail and tickets had only a temporary impact and felt like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. 

During this time, we were also seeing more individuals downtown with mental health issues.  Complaints about people sleeping in the skywalks, panhandling, and being disorderly in areas around downtown were growing.  Further, Downtown businesses started expressing concerns about their patrons’ growing fear of crime.  

I had fought with the wiry Z many times while trying to take him into custody; he never went without a struggle.  We realized it was only a matter of time before he, an officer, or an innocent person was going to get injured. As a habitual problem solver I wanted to find a solution. Through our continued contact, we realized if we could stabilize Z’s mental health and get him drug and alcohol treatment, he would likely no longer be a problem. 

It seemed as if our systems were failing and it was up to the police to figure it out. While digging around for solutions, we learned there was a process County Social Services used that could commit an individual for treatment to get them the help they needed.  I reached out to the supervisor of the County unit and initially received a cold reception.  That same week we were dealing with Z repeatedly. It was that same week I hurt my arm while trying to arrest him.  

The next week I hit the Social Services supervisor up again and changed my tactic to that of concern for the welfare of police officers and Z himself.  I told her that an officer was going to get severely hurt or worse and Z was a danger to both us and him and that his case needed to be addressed.  Two weeks later Z was committed to treatment and I never saw or heard from him again. Finally, after years of repeated arrests hundreds of 911 calls, the system finally appeared to have worked. Z’s name would occasionally come up at shift briefings when officers would say, “remember when Z” did this or that, but less and less as time went on; today there are probably only a few officers who would remember him. 

I tell Z’s story to illustrate how mental health impacts policing and our communities.  Sadly, the issues around those in mental health crisis has worsened.  Many of us have been trying to bring attention to the over-reliance on police for social issues like this for several decades.  Maybe this year we have reached a point where there is recognition that resources are needed for those in crisis and suffering from addiction like they were decades ago……

Police did not receive training on mental illness in the 90's and before. My only education related to mental health was a college psychology class. Today, most officers received basic mental health training at the academy, but the civil commitment process or how to get an individual off of the streets beyond a short visit to the ER or crisis center for long term help is still a mystery for many officers.

In part 2, I will write more about this critical issue for our cities.

 

A Safe Place to Be

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

by Kit Lambert of StepStone and Gordon Ramsay Wichita Police Chief

A Safe Place to Be

The following survivor’s story is being retold with her permission. All names and some details have been changed for the safety of our survivor and her children.

3 year old Gage, “Mommy, are we going to that safe place?” 

Kate, “Yes, baby, yes, we are. We are going to that safe place.” (Kate and her children have been in shelter before.)

Since 1995, StepStone has been providing transitional housing and supportive services for survivors of domestic violence. Last year, StepStone provided housing for over 100 women and children and outreach services for over 700 women, men, and children.

Kate, “Please tell that officer thank you. She saved my life. I need to do this for my kids. We have a chance to make a fresh start.”

As first responders, the Wichita Police Department is responsible for over 16,000 domestic violence related calls a year, more than 1,000 a month.

“Hey, buddy, what would you like for Christmas?”

8 year old Max, “Nothing. I just want them to stop fighting.”

Last year, the two domestic violence shelters, the Wichita Family Crisis Center and Harbor House each provided  shelter for over 300 women, men and children and outreach services for over 1,000 individuals. They had to turn away over 40 survivors a month due to capacity issues.

Kate, “I need to talk to you. I know that Jake is not supposed to be here but I need to get the kids to daycare and school and I have to go work and he has a car. The bus does not run after 6 or on Sundays.  As soon as I get my tax return, I am going to buy a car and won’t need him anymore. Jake says we should get back together and we would work things out. Do we have to leave here?”

The #1 reason why a woman cannot leave a domestic violence relationship is due to finances.

4 year old Molly, “This is a safe place and my daddy is not a safe person. He told us we were coming home with him.”

Max, “Why is my daddy so mean? When I become a daddy, I am not going to be mean.”

The Wichita Police Department is a key community partner in our effort to end domestic and sexual violence. Their officers regularly attend trainings, work with advocacy groups and implement best practices to ensure victim safety is at the forefront of their response.

“What happened?”

Sergeant A, “She told him he could not be around anymore so he forced his way in and spent the last 24 hours holding her hostage and ….. She is currently at the hospital getting an exam. It was bad. We have him, though. He told us he knew he could not be here but that everything was consensual.”

It is now 1:00 a.m.

Kate, “I’m so sorry. I let this happen to me. I should have known better.”

Every day, an average of 3 women are killed by a current or former intimate partner.

Kate, “They really miss him. He is their dad. He keeps trying to get a hold of me from jail. He’s called my mom to pass messages to me.  Did you know he sent Molly a letter? She can’t even read!”

Batterers can continue to violate protection orders, even while incarcerated.

“Aren’t you excited that you are getting ready to graduate from StepStone? You all have done so great!”

Max, “No, not really. This is the only safe place that we have ever lived. I never want to leave here but I also know other kids also need to be here.”

Domestic violence and sexual assault services will be greatly reduced without continued funding. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) helps to provide protections as well as funding to support survivors like Kate and her children. Contact your legislatures and ask them to reauthorize VAWA. Help protect our families from violence.

Officer A, “Hey, I am glad I ran into you. How is that family doing? I think about them a lot. That call was really bad. Sometimes, I check on the case to see where it’s at. I hope he gets a lot of time for what he did. I hope that mom and the kids are doing okay.”

Police officers truly care for victims of domestic and sexual violence. These calls also impact them. Everyone is affected by domestic and sexual violence.

Kate, “He finally pled. Max and I don’t have to testify against him. I don’t know why I was expecting him to apologize to me. The kids don’t ask for him anymore. He got a lot of time but he is still going to get out eventually. The worst thing is that he is their dad and he did this to me.”

This year, we have had 6 domestic violence homicides. If you suspect someone is in a domestic violence relationship, let them know that you are there and that you believe them. Volunteer your time.  Make a donation. Contact your legislatures to strengthen laws to hold offenders accountable.

“What would have happened to me if the police had not been called? I would be dead. I’m so grateful that police officer told me she was afraid for my safety and did what she did so we could be safe that night. The kids are so much happier now and for the first time in a long time, I am not in constant fear.”

How can we help those who have done wrong succeed in the future?

As a board member of The Council for State Governments Justice Center, we have been focusing on what successful re-entry looks like and how we can help those who have wronged in the past be successful....Here is a news release on our latest efforts.

New Web Tool Provides Look at Often-Overlooked Legal, Regulatory Restrictions Against People who have Criminal Convictions

NEW YORK, NY—Oct. 31, 2018—Collateral consequences are penalties buried in various laws that can limit or prohibit people convicted of crimes from finding work, accessing housing, and otherwise impact their rights and benefits that can help them to rebuild their lives.

 

The new National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction resource, launched today by the National Reentry Resource Center and The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, compiles thousands of state and federal statutes into a searchable database, making it easier to identify these obscure regulations that can be triggered by a particular conviction.

 

“When a person leaves prison or jail, it is critical that they be given an opportunity to succeed,” said Justice Michael Boggs of the Georgia Supreme Court. “Public safety is improved by ensuring successful reentry. However, there are more than 40,000 provisions in state and federal law that stand in their way right out of the gate. The first step to making meaningful change is understanding these barriers. This resource does just that, and it provides the information in a way that’s easy to navigate.”

 

Collateral consequences create a range of impediments to a person’s successful reentry into society, which includes restricting access to education and housing, depending on the state and the conviction. More than half of these consequences of conviction also affect employability, either directly or by creating barriers to obtaining occupational licenses for certain jobs. About half of these employment-related consequences—which most prominently impact industries like healthcare, child and elder care, education, finance and transportation—are mandatory and must be imposed where a person has been convicted of a disqualifying offense.

 

“It’s amazing how, in the midst of helping people reenter society, we’re often flying blind when it comes to understanding some of things they’re up against. A lot of the time, the people who are responsible for the enforcement of these regulatory sanctions aren’t even aware of them,” said John Wetzel, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. “This database launched today gives us a clear view into these obstacles in each state, which will help us navigate the reentry process and, in some cases, could lead to policy change.”

 

The website, which will be maintained by the CSG Justice Center and is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, offers a database that is searchable by relevant components of the consequence including offense categories, fields of employment, and jurisdiction. The website also offers additional news and resources related to reentry.

 

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About the CSG Justice Center

The Council of State Governments Justice Center is a national nonprofit organization that serves policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels from all branches of government. It provides practical, nonpartisan advice and evidence-based, consensus-driven strategies to increase public safety and strengthen communities. For more information about the CSG Justice Center, visit www.csgjusticecenter.org.

Crime Reduction Efforts

In 2016, Kansas recorded the most homicides in our states history, causing many of us in the criminal justice system to be deeply concerned. In 2017, Topeka, with a population of 127,000 reported 30 homicides, an all-time high for our state’s capitol. Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city close in population size to Wichita, reported a record 82 homicides in 2016 and another 81 homicides in 2017. In comparison, as of October 2018, Wichita has investigated 40 homicides, with 7 of them being ruled as justifiable. In addition, it is also important to note that WPD homicide detectives have solved over 80% of our cases this year. The national average for solving homicides is 59% and historically, the larger the city, the lower the solvability rate.


Since 2012, violent assaults in Wichita have doubled. One of the major concerns to this trend is that we continue to see guns stolen from cars, homes and businesses each year. Alarmingly, these cases total over 1,000 a year. To put this into perspective, the two shootings of law enforcement officers in Sedgwick County this year involved guns stolen from vehicles.


Those of us in Law enforcement accept that a small number of habitual offenders and illegal drug users and traffickers are behind the majority of our property and violent crime trends. In response to this ongoing concern, our department created Community Response Teams to focus exclusively on drugs, guns, gangs and the habitual offenders who are driving these numbers up. These teams consist of professional, well-trained officers who are focusing on our most violent offenders and active drug traffickers. Our officers are working around the clock to identify and arrest those who are terrorizing our neighborhoods and causing chaos in our community.


Another major focus of our crime reduction strategy involves working closer with our neighborhoods and having officers embrace and employ the community policing philosophy. Officers are meeting and engaging residents, getting to know them and encouraging them to work with us to report suspicious activity, which ultimately, helps prevent and reduce crime. Recently, officers and neighbors have been working together by going door to door in areas that have seen a steady increase in violent crime to encourage others to come forward. It is this effort in working together in partnership and solidarity that encourages others to “say something if they see something” and report crime to the police.


We have also been partnering with youth organizations to provide more opportunities to get our youth off the street and give them safe places to gather and have fun. In partnership with the YMCA, we help with “Late Night,” on Saturday nights for teens to hang out at the south Y and get them off the streets. The results have been very positive and as a result, the YMCA is expanding this program to multiple locations across the City.


We are also partnering with the Boys and Girls Club to find ways to prevent youth from joining gangs. We are working to fund gang prevention efforts to target at-risk youth to reduce the likelihood of them joining a gang.


We’ve partnered with Kansas U.S. Attorney Steve McAlister with Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN); a collaborative approach to public safety that utilizes law enforcement and community partnerships with strategic enforcement efforts to focus on the most violent criminals in the most violent areas within each district. The program's goal is to work together to reduce violent crime and make our communities safer for everyone. The enhanced PSN program builds on past successes and re-invigorates comprehensive enforcement efforts by building on successful programs already in place or, where prior efforts have atrophied, creating new, effective violence reduction programs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is adding additional prosecutors to assist in this effort.


This violent crime trend in our region demands an increased response from everyone including residents, businesses, non-profit groups and government organizations. Solid research and increased collaboration is needed to answer the question of “what is driving the increase in violent crime?” It is also imperative to stay away from the unproductive trap of finger pointing and blame and continue to strive forward together in partnership to keep our communities safe.

 

An article recently appeared in the Wichita Eagle focusing on information and data sets released by the Wichita Police Department. The Police Department began releasing more data last year as part of local government’s transparency goals and to spur community conversation and solutions.  The article headline read “Wichita Police More Likely to Use Force against Blacks.” 

 

The headline was an example of how a multifaceted issue can be oversimplified and misleading. Unfortunately, this is why too many in law enforcement are reluctant to talk about these issues. A comprehensive understanding of the issues cannot be gained in a snippet of data. This data can be misrepresented, misinterpreted; it can inflame tensions within the community and police when provided without sufficient context or review of the numbers. Professor Michael Birzer was quoted in the article related to the numbers reported “we have to be careful how we read into that, because again, these are all about the situational context.”  Details of police interactions must be taken into account.

 

Socioeconomic and racial disparities are real and substantive issue for all communities. It is challenging to capture the complexities of these issues in a media report or a follow-up opinion piece. Our legislators and community leaders must work with residents to examine and address systemic social disparities and inequities while balancing support for our police.

 

Too often, it seems, law enforcement and high-profile police incidents become the flash points for headlines, emotions and social unrest. The City of Wichita, the Wichita Police Department and our officers have always been committed to being a part of the solution and will continue to do so by working with the community to discuss, identify and address identified issues.

 

Our officers care about our community, but this issue is much bigger than just the police. The Wichita Police Department cannot and should not be expected to solve issues of crime and social disorder without the help of the community. Collectively, we can improve our community, but must stop finger pointing. We must each take responsibility and do our part if we are to make change happen.

 

Since coming to Wichita and accepting the position of Chief of Police I often spend time on the street with our police officers. I have observed nothing less than respectful, patient and professional conduct despite frequent difficult and dangerous situations and challenging calls.  I am proud of the men and women of the Wichita Police Department and the great work they do each and every day. 

 

It is important that our community examine the root causes of systematic disparities. For example, people of color are both disproportionately victims of violent crime and are reported as suspects in homicides, robbery and felony assaults in Wichita. This disproportionality has a direct correlation on our use of force data. 

 

Wichita police officers have always done an excellent job at serving and building relationships in our community, and we continue to have community discussions about this data and how to improve our communities.  We need to continue to work together to address these complex and longstanding problems. Wichita police officers are aware of these issues and the concerns and aim to treat people with dignity, respect and fairness while keeping our community safe.