COMMENTARY: Uvalde Police response exposes a deeper problem
The May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary shocked the nation. In the immediate aftermath, the public was given a timeline of what was thought to have happened. Local authorities from the Texas Department of Public Safety and UPD claimed campus resource officers confronted the gunman outside the school. At a May 25 press conference, Governor Greg Abbott cited the heroic effort of UPD to stop the killing. However, questions arose about the timeline and soon videos from outside the school began to paint a different story. The gunman story fell apart a day later as it was revealed the shooter was not engaged by officers outside of the school. June 21st, The Texas Tribune reported that the door to the classroom was not locked and that officers had adequate equipment to engage the shooter despite earlier claims to the contrary. Texas DPS Director Steve McGraw told a Texas Special Senate committee that the shooter could have been stopped within three minutes after arriving on scene. The lies told by UPD are not an isolated incident. There is a troubling trend of police departments lying to the public to protect themselves.
The public conscious always seems to be moved by high profile cases. The world witnessed George Floyd’s death, and with everything that followed after, it’s easy to forget that the initial police report did not accurately tell the story of what happened, referring to the death as a medical incident. It also echoes the death of Laquan McDonald in 2014. The initial police report claimed that McDonald charged Officer Jason Van Dyke. However, after a lawsuit from local journalist Brandon Smith, dashcam footage revealed that wasn’t the case. Over 16 officers were involved in cover-up and questions arose about the entire department. Walter Scott was killed fleeing Officer Michael Slager. Slager initially claimed that Scott had threatened his life by going for his gun, but this turned out to be false.
What these cases highlight is that despite high levels of public trust, police departments still too often mislead the public. Sometimes referred to as the “Blue Wall of Silence” it’s not uncommon for officers to lie to protect each other. Social media has changed much of this as the public is able to see things that haven’t been available before. Many of the above cases never would have been brought to justice had it not been citizens pulling out their phones.
Many African American and Latino communities have trust issues with police going back decades. In the 1960s, many police departments were directly involved with the clan. The Rodney King beating in 1992 led to massive protest. Distrust makes it harder for communities to work with police which in turn can lead criminal elements to fill the gap. The last ten to fifteen years has brought much of the rest of the nation up to speed on these issues.
TAPS Academy is an organization geared toward bridging divides between police and community. Over the last eleven years, they’ve grown through mentorships and seminars. TAPS follow in the tradition of other community policing groups to allow people to communicate concerns. Police walk community members through their work and how they approach their profession. This can be one of the solutions. Officers having more direct connections with communities will allow them to see those places more as their own and not just a patrol area.
Deeper legislation will be needed to address things like qualified immunity that protects officers from litigation. Qualified Immunity protects public officials from civil liability. This law has come under increased scrutiny over the last ten years. It’s a large reason why prosecution of police is incredibly difficult. Lawmakers need to find ways to make litigation easier. Body and dash cameras have helped. With body cameras there is a financial cost, but studies have shown they have a positive effect on public perception. Beyond the numbers, more accountability makes transparency issues better. Even these tools can be at times hidden away from the public as we are seeing in Uvalde and saw with Chicago. All of these are good changes, yet they all come back to a fundamental trust issue. The tax paying public must be confident that the information given is the truth. A way to accomplish this would be to make lying on police reports a more serious offense. The results of the investigation into UPD will say a lot about where the nation is on accountability.
As you read this, local officials in Uvalde still refuse to release footage from inside the school. Even just showing this footage for the media to report on is a no go. The Uvalde community will for many years to come have a distrust of what they hear from local police. The damage will go beyond just this incident or any of the others. Law enforcement has an elevated position in society, and it can be easy to abuse the power that comes from that position. Police are public servants who should answer to the public. Officers themselves must speak up and work to foster more trust. Simply telling the truth would go a long way in accomplishing that. Citizens and the media alike must hold our police to account and always be willing to question the official narratives that are released. If nothing else Uvalde has taught the nation that.
