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Women in Blue, Apple TV Series-How to Negotiate Change in the Police Culture

Go comfort the family. Women are good at these silly duties. - Mexico City Police Captain, 1971.


Introduction

This Netflix series tells the story of the first sixteen female police cadets in Mexico City in the early 1970s. It reveals much about the macho police culture then and provokes one to wonder about the police culture now. Adding the females to the police force was really a public relations and political move in an attempt to improve the public perception of the police. This was an initiative by the First Lady of Mexico directed to Chief Escobedo. This was not the Chief’s idea, but an order.


Remember the old saying: A person pushed against their will is of the same opinion still?

The Chief was not on board with this initiative so he did not bank on the success and in fact, in many ways, thwarted it.


After passing all of the tests, the police gave the cadets “whistles,” not weapons. They were assigned duties at parks to assist tourists. In other words, they were devalued. Each of the female police cadets has a family story to tell. One cadet’s father was the commander. She (Gabina) literally got slapped by the commander at the police station. She somehow embarrassed him, because she wanted to follow the policing family tradition. Her detective brother constantly demeaned her. 


The cadets had various reasons to join. Shy but discerning police cadet Angles joined because her parents had both been murdered during a robbery. Gabina joined because policing was embedded into her family culture.


Initially, the "good ole boys" police viewed the female cadets as “hot” and frivolous.  Eventually for some progressive police they realized that the female cadets could play a valuable role.


The Bad Good Ole Days

There is a psychological phenomenon that people remember the past through rose-colored glasses. Compared to today, women and minorities surely had fewer rights.

During the time period of this series, there was written into the laws a provision that stated if a woman’s work interfered with the family harmony, the husband could order the woman to stop working.


The Good Ole Boys abused their power. The power “goes to their head.”

Remember Abraham Lincoln’s quote on power: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Power is what you do; character, is what you are.


The 1970’s Mexico City police operated on prejudicial assumptions resulting in erroneous arrests and convictions. They intimidated witnesses even coercing confessions. They abused potential suspects.


Often, then and today, police and politicians declare that they must operate in ways that will restore trust. Others question the term “restore trust?” When did the community trust the police? Surely, not in the 1970’s, especially not in Mexico City.


Whether it be Mexico or the United States, when police issues arise such as abuse, the trope is “one bad apple.” This belief seems to hide “the police culture.” In the series, there appeared to be many bad apples, aka “the norm.”


In addition to the assumption of “one bad apple,” police and politicians always claim that additional training will assist in promoting more effective policing. These advocates for more training do not seem to understand that for training to work, the participants must be open to the information contained in the training. For many of “the Good Ole Boys” of the police culture, they are not.  In this series, the police were derisive of what they considered “social work” approach to police. They prefer the authoritarian approach. They prefer their weapons.


Police culture can change.  Remember the Good Ole Days when no matter how egregious the police were, the response was always "They did it by the books?"  Now, at least in the US, this has changed slightly. Some police are being convicted. In DC, more law enforcement officers have been charged with excessive force and other abuses in the past five years than over the preceding decades, according to the US Department of Justice.

BUT, even today, with changes in police culture, a recent German study by Mediendienst Integration finds that officers routinely engage in racial profiling and relying on ethnic stereotypes.


Noteworthy, is that the macho police culture transcends diversity. So it is just as likely to discover police misconduct with Browns and Blacks as well as Whites.


According to USA Facts

  • Abuse of force rates increased from 3.8% to 4.3% for Black Americans,

  • Abuse of force rates increased from 2.5% to 2.7% for multiracial, Native, or Pacific Islander Americans.

 

Are Police Unions Like a Bad Fraternity?  Some people believe this as does Vanity Fair writer Eve L. Ewing:

 

This is a brotherhood. It abides no law but its own. It scorns the personhood of all but its own brethren. It derides all creatures outside its own clan. And for that reason, the brotherhood is not only a hurdle impeding reform. It is the architecture of an alternate reality, one that seethes and bubbles just beneath the surface of our own…A union is a pact, wrought among the human, Among the fallible. And there can be no error in the brotherhood. And the brotherhood can never be reformed, because reform requires fidelity to something external, and the brotherhood has fidelity only for itself. This is the unreality of the brotherhood. And as long as police are endowed with near-absolute state-sanctioned power, it is our unreality. We live behind its gates.

 

The Bad Ole Days Police Culture and the Sport of Boxing. If there is a desire to improve the police culture, the nexus between boxing and policing needs to be examined. It is said that boxing helps the police to be more agile. Research seems to indicate that boxing attracts masculine, ferocious, aggressive people with an instilled natural tendency towards violence.  Only 12% of Americans love boxing. Is this the type of personality who is also attracted to policing?


In the Netflix series, The Silence, all the “Dirty” policing plans take place at the boxing ring.  Yes, it is fiction, but….


Why is police culture more prejudiced than the mainstream?

  • Police culture attracts right/wrong, black/white personalities.

  • Police culture favors keeping it in the family.

  • Police culture favors ex-Military.

  • Police culture often attracts “the Bad Guys.”


Prejudices Impede Decision-Making

Being highly prejudiced is generally not helpful in living a balanced life AND being highly prejudiced in certain professions is highly detrimental. This is especially true for decision-making professions like policing, lawyering, and politicking. These professions demand critical thinking.


This prejudicial approach:

  • Impedes effective questioning.

  • Impedes listening.

  • Promotes assumptions.  In this series, the serial killer references 169. The police immediately assume they are quoting the Bible but the killer is quoting the Civil Code of 169 giving power to the husbands and away from the working women.


In this series, the police goal was to close the case in any way possible. Closing the case is not a synonym with solving the case. So, they found it easy to assume the mentally challenged guy in the park near the murder scene was responsible. After his arrest, the police harassed and abused him until they decided that he confessed.


  • Impedes creativity.

  • Promotes a positional type of thinking rather than getting to the underlying interests.


This series is a police story about change. The authors of the book,  Who Moved My Cheese, did a great job in explaining change. They contend people can be divided into 3 categories:


  • Those who love change and will effectuate change even when it is not necessary.

  • Those who hate change and will suffer great losses before they change.

  • Those who are hesitant about change until they understand the benefit to them.


Police Culture Doomed Community Policing (CP). Americans have dreamed about CP since the TV Show Andy Griffith. President Bill Clinton even created an office for CP within the US Department of Justice. This office has awarded millions and millions of dollars to jurisdictions and yet, most would agree CP is almost nonexistent.


There is one primary reason: police culture. Police will decry CP saying they do not want to be social workers. Every once in awhile, there will be police who will excel at CP and they are ostracized by the police culture, but embraced by the community.


What is CP? This is the type of policing where the police exit their cars and walk the beat.  They get to know the neighbors and neighborhood businesses They create trust so that the community will share with them issues and problems in a crime prevention and resolution approach. With the partnership between the community and the police, they can “nip problems in the bud.”


Conclusion and Recommendations

In this 10-episode series, the female cadets wound up solving a long-term serial killer and wound up being praised and embraced by the First Lady of Mexico.


Here are a few recommendations for improving modern day policing:


Higher Education-Broad Visions: In today’s society, Republican politicians and Bill Maher decry upper education. They claim that four years of college is not necessary to be an electrician or a plumber. Why? They have a very narrow vision of higher education that focuses on jobs. A more educated view is that high education expands horizons. It exposes folks to the wide world of cultures and perspectives. It might even weed out “the thugs.”


According to Rosemary Keefe (2001):

A liberal arts education leads to a longer and healthier intellectual life, helps develop analytical and research skills, fosters creativity, and develops oral and written communication skills, all of which make the student more open to cultural diversity.


Focus on the Selection Process: Maybe the police culture should examine whether it makes sense to favor military veterans who have gun and shooting experience. Maybe the police culture should re-examine the propensity to hire those with policing in their family culture.  This would be a good time to examine the metrics of effective policing. Critical thinking, persuasiveness, getting results without authority, communication should be in the mix.  Today, one wonders if a potential candidate with a psychology or social work background would be hired.


Change: For change to happen, there must be steps taken:

  1. Recognize that the status quo is either not working or not working in the best way.  Identify the metrics that need to be fulfilled.

  2. Determine that change is necessary.

  3. Be open and effectuate change.

  4. Evaluate the change. Is the change effectuated fulfilling the metrics outlined?


Resources.

See Recommended Books under “Blogs” drop down menu.  


Roy J. Lewicki is the author of 'Essentials of Negotiation', published 2015 under ISBN 9780077862466 and ISBN 0077862465.  Publisher: McGraw Hill Higher Education


The Conflict Resolution Training Program, Leader’s Manual,  ISBN:  0-7879-6077-2.  Prudence Bowman Kestner and Larry Ray


5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace.


Getting Your Way Every Day.

 

 

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