By now, we have all learned about the death of George Floyd at the hands (or knee) of a Minneapolis police officer while three other officers looked on, and the ensuing demonstrations, some of which became violent. As a result, there have been calls for defunding, disbanding, or restructuring police departments and removing the special immunity to personal prosecution that police officers are afforded, all of which has been front page news for several weeks displacing news of the COVID-19 pandemic and other high interest news such as the upcoming presidential election.

In light of all this, I interviewed Norwood Police Chief William G. Brooks III to find out what kind of training the Norwood Police Department (NPD) receives and how he felt about recent events. 

“When I first watched the video of George Floyd’s death I wasn’t really prepared for just how long it would go,” Chief Brooks said. “Watching it on my computer I found myself saying ‘get him up, get him up.’ There is a procedure for when a handcuffed person becomes compliant, that you first roll him to a sitting position and then roll him into a standing position. Our officers have all been taught how to do that. It made me nauseous to watch the officer keep his knee pressed on Mr. Floyd’s neck until he died. And I was appalled by the arrogance he displayed.”

Many times, when a use of force event is in the media, it is discussed within the NPD. These discussions take a number of forms. Sometimes a policy is reissued to officers pointing out the aspect of Norwood’s policy that would have addressed the event. 

“We have discussions within the Command Staff around policy and training issues, and whether we should make adjustments,” Chief Brooks explained. “Officers also discuss the incident among themselves. And we bring the issue up at roll call. What our officers recognized was a clear failure to intervene. They know that they have a duty to intervene when they see a use of force that is starting to get unreasonable.”

Police officers in Massachusetts receive 40 hours of required training every year. We have one of the highest standards in the country. Some of the training is mandated by the Municipal Police Training Committee. A few years ago, one of the mandated courses was Implicit Bias. The Chief said that all of NPD officers have full training in this area.

A quarter-century ago, social psychologist Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington developed a test that exposed an uncomfortable aspect of the human mind; people have deep-seated biases of which they are completely unaware. And these hidden attitudes — known as implicit bias — influence the way we act toward each other, often with unintended discriminatory consequences.

The concept is based on the notion that every person holds implicit, or subconscious, prejudices — even those in positions of impartiality, such as judges. The training doesn't aim to rid the mind of involuntary prejudices. Instead, it helps officers learn how to avoid acting on them. The training can range from a half-hour presentation to a full-day course.

All Norwood officers have also been trained in Procedural Justice. Police misconduct and use of force have come under increasing scrutiny and public attention. The procedural justice model of policing, which emphasizes transparency, explaining policing actions, and responding to community concerns, has been identified as a strategy for decreasing the number of interactions in which civilians experience disrespectful treatment or the unjustified use of force. 

Procedural justice policing strategies emphasize respect, neutrality, and transparency in the exercise of authority – using fairness, balance, problem solving skills, using enforcement authority in a conservative way – while providing opportunities for civilians to explain their side of events. Studies found that this type of training reduced complaints against the police and reduced the use of force against civilians.

Norwood’s officers are also trained annually in Use of Force. Policies are reissued as new events requiring them occur. Officers are also trained in Tactics, such as overcoming resistance, using as little force as possible. According to Chief Brooks, Massachusetts uses a response model for use of force. 

“The level of force used is not dictated by the officer but by the subject,” Chief Brooks said. “So, when we tell someone to turn around and put their hands behind their backs, we expect compliance with that. If the person complies all the officer does is apply the handcuffs. If the person says I’m not going and clenches up and grabs onto a table or something, then the officer uses an armbar or some other kind of hands-on technique to overcome that resistance. If that person says ‘OK, OK, I’ll go,’ then we release that armbar and put the handcuffs on them. So, every time the subject adjusts their level of force, we adjust.”

Chief Brooks noted that each officer’s gun-belt contains a taser. 

“We have 61 officers in the department and run shifts 24/7, 365 days a year,” Chief Brooks said. “Last year as a department, we deployed tasers only three times, which I think is a remarkably low number considering officers would have been justified in deploying them more than that. But, they are trained to give a person room to back up and continue to verbalize. Officers won’t tell someone the same thing 10 times. After a second time they will try a different tack, continuing to verbalize. We have very low uses of force here in Norwood. And, to be fair, we benefit from being in a very low crime community, a low-crime county and a low-crime state. In comparison to other states, Massachusetts has a very low crime rate.”

“Another thing that helps us is that all of our officers have received a full day course in Mental Health training, in addition to their academy training,” Chief Brooks continued. “And over half of our officers have been trained in Crisis Intervention Team training (CIT), a full week of mental health training on how to resolve situations peacefully with people who are suffering with mental illness. 

Chief Brooks is on the board of International Association of Chiefs of Police. He said that several years ago they rolled out a program called the One-line Campaign that required every department who signed up for the program to train every officer and dispatch in mental health so at least 20% of the department would be CIT trained. In addition, each department that signed on was required to have a relationship with a mental health provider and that they would have a written policy of serving the mentally ill. Norwood has all of these things. And, according to the Chief, Massachusetts has the highest rate of training for that type of problem for any state in the country.

“I think that the skills the officers learn to deal with the mentally ill also help them to diffuse other everyday situations they encounter in the field,” the Chief noted. 

“Also, what many residents don’t know is that most of the conflicts that arise with police happen during restraint and custody situations. In a lot of states, the way you get people into court is that you arrest them and bring them to the station to process them. But in Massachusetts there’s a system that allows discretion in many cases so we can summons a person into court without taking them into custody. And we have always used that liberally. The majority of people charged by this department have not been taken into custody. We determine what offenses they’ve committed and then we have a summons served that requires them to come to court on their own. Obviously, some people must be taken into custody, but most don’t.”

When asked if the NPD officers are trained in the event of a riot, Chief Brooks replied.

“We have three officers trained in tactics, but there has been no department-wide training; that’s something we have to look into,” Chief Brooks said. “We honestly have not had to deal with protests like that. If we did, we would call on the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council (MetroLEC).”

The MetroLEC is a consortium of 45 local area police departments and law enforcement agencies that work together to provide highly specialized law enforcement resources to its member communities. In today’s environment, law enforcement agencies are faced with a number of unique crimes, emergencies and possible disasters. It is unreasonable, and financially impossible, for every community to be fully trained and equipped for every possible contingency. Therefore, local communities have banded together to help each other. The member communities acknowledge that certain critical incidents call for a law enforcement response that may exceed the capabilities of any one single agency. They can call on the assistance of MetroLEC for such situations. 

MetroLEC consists of several operational components, comprised of personnel from throughout the member communities. These units receive specialized training and equipment and are available to assist any one of the member communities when needed. These officers specialize in SWAT, K-9, Motorcycle (MOP), Investigations (a regional computer crime lab is housed in the NPD building), Child Abduction Response Team, Bike Unit, and Marine Unit. 

Throughout his career, Chief Brooks has been focused on developing positive community interactions. He encourages his officers to be a positive presence in the community – to walk or cycle through Norwood’s neighborhoods and get to know its residents, and allow the residents to get to know them. 

“I want everyone to know – or at least feel like they know – at least one member of the department so they can just pick up a phone, or stop somebody on the sidewalk,” Chief Brooks said. “I think that’s our strength. I think that’s where a lot of our positive reputation comes from.”

The Chief related recent incidents of people coming up to him and other officers, spontaneously telling them that they are a great police department ... that the officers are great ... so polite ... easy to deal with ... doing a great job.

So, as you can imagine, he is concerned with recent calls for stripping away qualified immunity, defunding police departments, or worse, disbanding them. He asked, “How does a city handle crime and violent crime without a police department? What do you put in that void? And, who in their right mind would come on the job right now? It’s going to be tougher and tougher to hire police. Some city departments have already lowered their standards just to fill empty slots.” 

Negative events happening in other areas of the country also affect our officers when they hear of or see them. The Chief continually reminds them that they are appreciated here ... that the town residents love and respect them. And he helps them understand where that comes from. ... from their positive, daily interactions with the public.

A recent Boston Globe article published in mid-June said that “...trust between police and the communities they serve – one of the benchmarks of community policing – has eroded significantly across the country. Thankfully, that does not happen to be the case Norwood.