Police Commissioner Ramsey: We Are In A "Defining Moment For Policing"
Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Charles Ramsey told Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Midday host Dom Giordano that with the issues in Ferguson, New York and South Carolina this period of time that we are in "is a defining moment for policing."
"This is certainly something put on the front burner now. This whole issue of use of force, body cameras, how we investigate use of force, and so forth and it's an opportunity for us to take a hard look at our training, our policies and procedures, oversight, and accountability. All those kinds of things that we need to be able to make some revisions in order to reestablish some trust in communities."
Ramsey feels that with people like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar "using words like assassination and so forth" that people's emotions are getting in the way of helping to solve the problems that we face.
"There's an awful lot of emotion and that can actually stand in the way of any kind of significant change if we don't ratchet down the rhetoric a little bit...I think is stands in the way of our ability to really have thoughtful conversations and really come up with real solutions. There are legitimate issues here, no question about that, but I don't think it's helpful when we just go over the top like that."
While Giordano feels that what the Philadelphia Police Department is doing are "light-years" ahead of some other departments, Ramsey is aware that almost no department, even his own, is safe from these scandals.
"I think most police departments are just one questionable incident away from having the same kind of issues now that you're seeing on national television and you can't fool yourself into believing that that's not the case. So, we have to address the issues and address them aggressively in order to prevent these kind of things from happening and if they do happen at least have enough trust built up in these communities where it doesn't turn into something that nobody really wants to see."
