Usually a small audience attends the Center for Race and Social Problems lectures at the University of Pittsburgh. But Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay is anything but usual. That meant room 2017 at the Cathedral of Learning was standing room only for his Sept. 14 presentation.
McLay began by saying that racism is not driving the animosity between Pittsburgh’s Black communities and the police.
“It’s about poverty, access to opportunity, unconscious bias and lack of communication. It’s not as easy as “racism” he said. “Is it a factor? Absolutely, but it’s not the prime driver.”
McLay cannot do anything about the first two factors, but since he arrived one year ago, he has been working to improve officer-community communication, and has recently begun implementing training to eliminate unconscious bias throughout the police bureau.
“Unconscious bias training scared me because I had been a ‘use of force’ trainer all my career. The level and application of force is based on the perception of a reasonable threat. But, what if my perceptions are wrong,” he said.
“The training makes you aware of the unconscious biases we all have. Once you’re aware of them, they aren’t unconscious anymore—and can be defeated.”
The communication aspect is mainly about exploding the two false narratives that increased the distrust between the Black community and the bureau: the community’s perception that the cops are all racists and hate us, and the officers’ perceptions that the community is filled with violent criminals who hate us. McLay said he knows lack of communication can create those false narratives, because he took part in it as a lieutenant in Madison, Wis., when crack cocaine and its attendant violence use exploded in the mid 1990s.
“In the beginning the community told us who the bad guys were and we hit them like a laser. Things improved. But when we kept the pressure on—without the community information—we ended up using other tools like ‘reasonable suspicion.’ And we didn’t understand why the community was angry,” he said.
“Only later did we realize we hadn’t kept the lines of communication open. And because of that we caused a lot of collateral damage. It was an eye opener for me. We have to have a shared diagnosis, if we are to maintain legitimacy.”
In Pittsburgh, that lack of communication was partially to blame for the bureau becoming more insular and unresponsive and unaccountable. McLay has addressed that with a model that makes individual officers responsible and accountable for their actions and for improving their contact and communication with the people they serve.
Following his presentation, McLay responded to questions on a variety of points. On the “militarization of police forces,” he noted that the problems arise not from the equipment deployed but the reasons some people deploy it—like SWAT teams serving warrants.
“There are times when it’s absolutely necessary. It has actually allowed me to save suspects just because of the visibility of superior weapons and tactics.”
On the surveillance of “activists,” McLay said the bureau has a history of collecting information on people.
“But as long as I am chief, activists are going to be partners,” he said. “We’ll be facilitating rights of speech, unless there is evidence of criminal activity. Then all bets are off.”
On dealing with people with mental issues, McLay said his officers are undergoing additional training.
“We’ve gotten everyone trained in crisis intervention,” he said. “But our next move is to put together a special unit with far more expertise.”
So, when will it be safe for the public to assume all officers have had the implicit bias training?
It will take about two years for everyone in the bureau to cycle through the system, he said.
(Send comments to cmorrow@npittsburghcourier.com.)
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