SEATTLE — The nation's eyes are now on policing standards, reform and the need for de-escalation following protests across the world over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody in May.
In Washington state, the Criminal Justice Training Commission is preparing new training for law enforcement and grappling with the demand for change. One of the approaches will be an emphasis on teaching Black history and civil rights.
Former Washington State Trooper and now Advanced Training Manager with the Criminal Justice Training Commission Monica Alexander said the need for law enforcement and the community to talk about their differences has never been more important.
"People hate to talk about racism, implicit biases, and it’s a real thing that we really are forced to speak about, and I think we’re talking about it a lot now," said Alexander. "For the last several weeks, people have been a lot more open about speaking about it – but talking about the history and how we got here is so important. If we don’t know how we traveled to where we are – we are in trouble."
Alexander was the highest-ranking Black woman in the Washington State Patrol when she retired in 2019 after 23 years on the job.
“We're a family as law enforcement, but the community is our family, we can’t police without them we need their support and in order to get their support we have to show them respect, show them we know something about your culture," said Alexander.
She also talked about how law enforcement needs to be more transparent with their communities to build trust, especially in this era where everything is being recorded whether it by on a cell phone or other device.
"I know people from my agency that were killed in the line of duty that puts a certain level of fear in us," said Alexander. "The community sees what has happened multiple times of people, you know, dying at the hands of police, that puts fear in them. So we're a scared society that has to come together and talk about these things and we have to do better on all sides. When we have to reserve judgment until we have facts and information that helps us to know what happened. In order to do that, we have to be transparent. And so I think as law enforcement, we have to learn how to be more transparent."
Alexander said the Criminal Justice Training Commission is working on new approaches, including training some of the highest-ranking officers about the difficulties minority communities face so that knowledge can be passed down to other officers in their ranks.
"I think it's important to look at the diversity in the ranks. I think that is so important to understanding who you're policing by having people that look like the people that you're policing on all levels of these organizations," said Alexander. "I think it will make policing better. It's going to be work, no doubt about it. It's going to be working on the training side, it's going to be working on the law enforcement side. And it is definitely going to be working on the community side. But I think we have the biggest work to do because we are the people that have to be more transparent, open up to our communities, listen to our communities, have some real hard listening sessions, and know how we impact our communities."
"I don't want people to fear me. I never wanted people to fear me, I never wanted that and I didn't want to fear my community," Alexander said. "I wanted a good relationship with my community. I wanted people to know to call if something was wrong or if an officer was out of line, and it could be handled on a very low level instead of ignored so that we could save that officer's career and potentially save someone's life."