If we get to a place where no one trusts the institutions of this country, and the police are nothing more of a representation of that, if we get to that place, we're in deep trouble. So do we have to work on getting that back? Absolutely. But the question is, how? – Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder recently walked out of a convenience store, while in uniform, and passed a man with a large mohawk.
Winder, noting that the hair stood out, smiled at the man.
The man responded with a five-minute verbal tirade, berating the sheriff and law enforcement in general for their abuse of power, all while his friend filmed the confrontation.
Winder said he had never experienced anything like that in his 30-year career.
That small incident, he said, encapsulates a much larger growing concern across the nation: distrust.
Even though FBI statistics released in November show overall violent crime nationally is down, tensions are growing between the public and those whose sworn duty is to protect them.
"Do we have a divide? You better believe we do. Is it solely about law enforcement? It absolutely is not. This is a crisis in our collective culture in which we cannot trust each other," said Winder.
On one side, those distrustful of police point to recent high-profile officer-involved shootings, excessive use of force, and the militarization of local police departments.
On the other side, there is great concern over growing anti-police sentiments — some of them promoting violence — and over those who simply disobey basic police officer commands and no longer respect their authority. Forty-three officers have been shot to death so far this year in the United States.
"Clearly we are at a place where the communication between law enforcement and the public especially, in my opinion, … is at a very fractured state," Winder said.
According to research from the National Institute of Justice: "Distrust of police has serious consequences. It undermines the legitimacy of law enforcement, and without legitimacy, police lose their ability and authority to function effectively."
And while Winder doesn't believe Salt Lake County has the same atmosphere as Ferguson, Missouri, he is worried for the future of the community if both sides can't build institutions that everyone can recognize and agree upon.
"We gotta start trusting," he said.
Police use of force
Those skeptical of police point to Michael Brown, the 18-year-old black male shot to death in Ferguson, Missouri, by a white police officer in August. A grand jury was convened but decided there was not enough evidence to charge officer Darren Wilson.
Thousands of people in several cities took to the streets this week to protest a New York grand jury's decision not to charge officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner. Pantaleo put a chokehold on Garner after he wouldn't allow an officer to handcuff him. The 400-pound man who suffered from asthma can be heard saying in video recorded by a bystander that he couldn't breathe.
In Utah, critics of police point to the fatal shooting of Darrien Hunt, a 22-year-old black man, by two white Saratoga Springs police officers. Hunt was shot six times from behind, many of those shots while he was running away from the officers. The shooting was determined to be legally justified because Hunt had a sword and the officer said he could have potentially injured others.
In August, 20-year-old Dillon Taylor was shot and killed by a Salt Lake police officer after ignoring officer commands and keeping his hands in his waistband before turning toward the officer and lifting up his shirt. The officer fired, believing Taylor was about to pull out a gun. Taylor was unarmed. The shooting was determined to be justified.
Prosecutors this year filed manslaughter charges against West Valley police detective Shaun Cowley, saying he "recklessly" shot and killed Danielle Willard, 21, during an undercover drug operation. But in an extremely rare move days before retiring, Judge L.A. Dever dismissed the case, saying Cowley acted appropriately.
Even the summer fatal shooting of Geist the dog in the animal owner's backyard by an officer searching for a missing child sparked such an outcry, that Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank said he had never seen such public reaction for any shooting of a person.
So far this year, there have been 13 fatal officer-involved shootings in Utah. Of those that have been fully investigated, all have been ruled to be legally justified.
In August, a USA Today/Pew Research Center Poll found that 65 percent of Americans believe police departments nationwide do an "only fair" or a poor job of holding officers accountable when misconduct occurs.
The same poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe police do a fair/poor job in using the right amount of force in each situation.
Salt Lake attorney Bob Sykes agrees that the trust level between police and the public is "rapidly deteriorating." Sykes has represented several high-profile clients including Kristine Biggs, who had one of her eyes shot out at the end of a police chase; the mother of Darrien Hunt; and Todd May, who was beaten by Utah Highway Patrol troopers who were trying to get him to spit out a pill that he swallowed.
"I'm just astonished by some of these stories I hear," Sykes said, adding that he receives "a lot" of calls from people who claim to have been abused by police.
Sykes agrees that if a police officer orders somebody to stop or put their hands up, they need to obey that command.
"But that doesn't mean you get gunned down if you don't," he said. "The fact that someone doesn't, doesn't mean you shoot him."
Violence against police
But on the other side, police point to many recent incidents of officers being ambushed and killed — some of them while believing they were helping others — and others while they were simply eating lunch.
In Utah, both Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride and Draper Police Sgt. Derek Johnson were each ambushed and murdered on duty after spotting who they simply thought were stranded motorists in need of help.
Wride was shot and killed in January after seeing a vehicle pulled over to the side of the road near Eagle Mountain.
In September of 2013, Johnson was ending his shift when he drove up on a vehicle he thought had broken down. He was shot and killed by the driver before he even got out of his patrol car.
In June, two Las Vegas police officers were shot and killed while eating at a restaurant on their lunch break. The married couple accused of committing the crimes had extreme anti-government viewpoints and declared after the shootings that it was the beginning of a "revolution." One was later shot and killed by police, and the other committed suicide after also being shot by officers.
In September, two Pennsylvania state troopers were ambushed outside of the rural Blooming Grove state police barracks as one arrived for work and the other was just getting off shift. Both were shot. One trooper was killed, the other seriously wounded. Police found the suspected shooter in an abandoned airplane hangar following a 48-day manhunt. The alleged gunman also reportedly had anti-government feelings and talked about wanting to start a "revolution," and that he shot the officers to "wake people up."
In October, two Sacramento County sheriff's deputies were shot to death — one while checking out a suspicious vehicle, and the second following a six-hour chase with the suspect after the first shooting. The suspect is believed to have used an AR-15-type assault weapon.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 107 officers have been killed in the line of duty in the U.S. so far this year — 43 of them were shot to death. A total of 37 officers were killed in the line of duty from September through November.
In addition to concerns of violence, police also face constant criticism on social media and debate on national news networks about whether they're doing their jobs properly.
Finding middle ground
But it's not those with extremist views who promote violence against police officers whom Winder is most concerned about.
What worries the sheriff are those cases where people are pulled over on a routine traffic stop but refuse to roll down their windows because they're either afraid or distrustful of police.
"If we get to a place where no one trusts the institutions of this country, and the police are nothing more of a representation of that, if we get to that place, we're in deep trouble," he said. "So do we have to work on getting that back? Absolutely. But the question is, how?"
Winder doesn't believe the answer is as simple as equipping every officer with a body camera. While he is in favor of the practice, body cameras alone don't address the underlying issue of trust.
Both Winder and Burbank believe the solution will be found in the middle.
"The middle is where reason exists. The middle has always been where reason exists in this country. The Declaration of Independence came from the middle. We have lost the middle in this country," Burbank said.
Both law enforcement leaders agree that officers cannot abuse their power. For instance, Burbank said he's not in favor of "shaking someone down" who gets pulled over in a high-crime area for no other reason than they're in a high-crime area.
But in order for trust to continue, there has to be a willingness by the public to participate at a base level, Winder said.
"We're in a marriage with our community. We're supposed to be a trusted partner," he said.
Police are expected to act a certain way toward the public. But the public is also expected to act a certain way toward police.
"There needs to be a social contract that exists that you follow basic commands," Burbank said. "There is an expectation of the public: If a police officer gives you directions, you follow those."
If a person directing traffic tells a motorist they can't turn left because a road is closed, "You don't have the opportunity just to simply say, 'No, I'm not going to follow the direction,'" he said.
Likewise, if an officer tells a person to stop, they need to stop. Even if that person doesn't believe they have done anything wrong.
"If you're not a suspect, you're not doing anything wrong. You will be detained, not beaten, not shot, and there's no force against the officer," he said. "If a police officer tells you to do something, you do it, then we'll have a conversation later."
Burbank said the public would throw a fit if officers got to pick and choose the rules they want to follow or if they randomly selected which 911 calls they respond to.
"How does it work if you call the police and we say, 'You know what? We're not coming out tonight because we think the person you're calling about, that's an alright person?' Or, 'We don't want to potentially get involved in a force situation so we're not going to show up tonight.'"
'Breakfast Club'
David Derezotes, a professor in the University of Utah's College of Social Work and director of Peace and Conflict Studies, believes one good way to work on the problem is to have the different sides sit down in the same room and talk to each other.
"When we sit down and hear each other's stories, trust starts," he said. "Dialogue isn't about agreeing but building relationships.
"Not that instantly at the end of the hour there will be a beam of light through the window and everyone will do a group hug. But to start to have those conversations, because I think what tends to happen is we just come up with simple answers that perpetuate those stereotypes. We stereotype law enforcement people, and the vast majority are trying to do their job. We also stereotype people of color," Derezotes said.
"I find that most people want to reach across and form relationships with people on the other side. But it takes time to do that and get past the stereotypes and fears and mistrust."
Derezotes compared getting both sides together to the iconic '80s movie "The Breakfast Club," where five students from different backgrounds, each representing a different high school stereotype, were forced to sit together for a day in detention.
"What would happen in a Breakfast Club with young people who belong to different cultures and races and could actually get to know each other?" he asked.
Whom do you trust?
When Winder was growing up, he remembers that when authorities like the president of the United States or a respected news anchor such as Walter Cronkite said something, the public believed them.
Today, the public questions the president, Republicans and Democrats are seldom on the same page and routinely criticize each other, and established institutions like police or grand juries aren't implicitly trusted.
"In our culture, there is no trusted agent," Winder said. "I feel that every conversation is predicated on differing opinions, and there's never a decision to come to communal ground."
Part of the problem, according to Winder, is that in the era of social media where blogs are considered by some to be fact, and opinions are often formulated within minutes of a police incident or a court decision, regardless of what a jury of peers who have studied the evidence says.
"A jury of 12 people can come out with a decision, and people will endlessly debate it. We'll have three weeks of 24-hour news coverage. It's not that the jury has the final word. It's, 'Now we're going to discuss this and we want to see that evidence, too, and we're going to debate (the evidence).' So it isn't over," the sheriff said.
Today, the public can find any "fact" they want on the Internet to back up their own personal beliefs or to justify whichever way they want to see an issue. And they can find others with their same point of view.
Accountability
Following the Ferguson grand jury decision, protest marches took place in several cities across the nation, including Salt Lake City.
“We want to fight for justice for those families,” said Chris Manor with Utahns Against Police Brutality. “We have to empower people of color so that the equality of (everyone) does mean that all lives matter.”
The group called on civic leaders to develop policies that help ensure that law enforcement is held accountable for their actions, particularly in cases involving violence against citizens.
“Today marks a turning point, where people are committed to fighting back against killer cops, and we will no longer take the abuses by police in our communities,” Manor said.
Even former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke at the rally, calling for more police training on how to de-escalate a confrontation with the public.
“These kind of events let those in authority know that (excessive police violence) will not be tolerated,” he said. “There needs to be a demand of our elected officials that we have independent citizen review boards in every community, and when there are abuses that people be held accountable.
“If anybody really cares about these kinds of (matters), then they ought to join the movement,” Anderson said. “We ought to see people of every race, every class, every political party, standing together and saying, 'This has got to come to an end.'"
What Sykes would like to see is "rigorous retraining" of officers. While a job in law enforcement comes with risks, a trooper can't pull out a gun during every traffic stop just because they fear something bad might happen, he said.
Sykes said he was disturbed while watching the video of the Garner incident in New York.
"Whatever happened to verbal judo?" he asked. "I don't understand the need to swarm him with seven officers."
Just last week, a federal judge dismissed a motion to have a civil wrongful death lawsuit dismissed in the fatal officer-involved shooting of Troy Burkinshaw in 2012 in Box Elder County. Video from the incident shows an intoxicated Burkinshaw driving at 2 to 3 mph, ignoring a deputy's commands to stop, when he was shot.
"That's the kind of thing that causes distrust, when you can see this stuff on camera. I think one of the answers needs to be more training for these guys. There's no way a gun should have been fired," Sykes said.
He believes other issues causing mistrust are the recent decisions not to prosecute officers who use more force than necessary.
"When the cop does wrong, you've got to punish him," he said.
Sykes believes the officer in the Ferguson case needed to wait for backup. "You don't put yourself in position to use deadly force and then say it was justified," he said.
Strengthening relationships
Despite anti-police sentiments across the nation, many people still want to be police officers. Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training reported that since 2010, there has been a more than 20 percent increase in the number of new recruits hoping to become certified law enforcers.
Winder believes the relationship between a police department and the community it serves is like a marriage. And if one side loses the other's trust, it's hard to get it back.
In 2015, the sheriff will launch a greater effort to aggressively promote the daily positive interactions his deputies have with the public. The sheriff reports about the great things that Unified police officers do in the community, but it's often the homicides, shootings and violent crimes that get the most attention. He has ordered all his precinct commanders to come up with public outreach proposals so they have ways of interacting with their communities other than just during times of crisis.
"We gotta get back out and engage," he said. "It's harder to hate somebody you know. And right now, I think they don't know us."
Burbank agreed.
"The time to develop that relationship is not in the middle of that stressful crisis situation," he said.
The chief, who often speaks at local schools, always starts his presentation by asking who wants to be a police officer when they grow up. In the first through third grades, everyone raises their hands. By fourth grade, Burbank says, not many hands go up.
He would like to change how the job of being a police officer is perceived. When Burbank was hired, he said, a typical question for new recruits was: How do you handle yourself in a fight?
Today, Burbank said when he hires new officers, "I want those people who can articulate. I want those people who can empathize, understand and think.
"We have been viewed as this blue-collar, assembly line product for years and years and years," he said. "We need to move away from that. This needs to be a profession that we say, 'We are hiring the very best and, guess what? You don't meet the standard. I'm sorry, you are not going to work here anymore.'
"I don't want the minimum acceptable person. I want the very best people I can have doing the job. But unfortunately, we are not viewed that way. We need to change that dynamic."
Email: preavy@deseretnews.com, Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam