Howie comments on survey of sheriffs, police chiefs

Wahkiakum County Sheriff Mark Howie is no stranger to surveys, but he was particularly interested in a survey written by a professor and Ph.D. student at Washington University in St. Louis this year and it’s subsequent results. The survey was issued to police chiefs and sheriffs across the United States; 760 officers participated, and 490 of them filled out the entire survey.

Most participants were between the ages of 45-64. Nearly all of them were Caucasian and had some college education. More than 30 percent had a college degree and another 30 percent had gone on to get a Master’s degree.

“I get surveys a lot but this one stood out to me because it had some pretty mindful questions that got to the heart of a lot of things,” Howie said. “I think any chief or sheriff thinks about a lot of these things.

“These are all very current questions being asked of police these days, What I found interesting is that everything I answered was pretty much in the top percentile of the answers.”

The first question was whether “Broken Windows” policing should be widely used.

Yes, Howie said, going on to explain “Broken Windows.”

“It’s a really valid theory in crime prevention that when pockets of crime in neighborhoods start to grow, it’s a neighborhood where things are being neglected or abandoned,” he said. “Once you have one broken window that is not addressed, things begin to deteriorate quickly, because other vandals or criminals will see that nobody is paying attention.”

“It has been used politically these last couple years as a negative for police and that’s not right,” he continued. “They say it has led to stop and frisk, claiming that we are there to harass people.”

“We just want to address the little crimes before they blow up,” Howie said. “Consider it in a rural area like here. For instance, there were all those thefts on Puget Island. We finally caught the main three culprits and they are still in jail. It won’t be taken out of context here as harassment because we were looking for the bad guys and so were the neighbors.”

Fifty-five percent (55.1%) of his peers somewhat agreed that the policy should be used, while 21.2 percent strongly agreed. Only 1.9 percent strongly disagreed.

The second question was whether civilian oversight boards should be created to investigate complaints against police.

Howie responded no, but admitted that throughout the survey his answers might change depending on place and population.

“We don’t need a civilian oversight board here,” Howie said. “One, we’re pretty transparent and because we’re so small, everyone knows what we are doing here. And two, we just don’t have the kind of activities that warrant it.”

Plus, he believes that an oversight board should never be run by civilians.

“I believe civilians should be involved, but they don’t have the background, the training necessary to make those kind of decisions about someone’s career or actions,” he said. “I just can’t imagine. They would need a lot of education and training to know why an officer made a certain decision.”

Of the respondents, 32.4 percent somewhat disagreed in civilian oversight boards while 26.2 percent strongly disagreed, and 12.2 percent somewhat agreed.

The third question was whether a police force should reflect the demographics of the population it serves.

“That’s not a black and white question,” Howie said without irony. “Ideally, everybody wants the demographic of the people they are serving, but that’s not reality. In an inner city, that’s impossible. You could do everything bending over backwards to recruit those folks that are in that community. They either don’t want to apply or a certain amount of those that do aren’t going to qualify.”

“I somewhat agree,” he added,” but on the other hand it’s not reality.”

Of the respondents, 44.5 percent somewhat agreed that the police force should reflect the demographics of the community it served; 26.4 percent strongly agreed, and 20.2 percent had no opinion one way or the other.

The fourth question was whether law enforcement officers should use body cameras.

For Howie, it depends.

“If I were sheriff of King County I would say yes,” he said. “There are so many officers and so many contacts with the public so it is more balanced and fair. The camera still gives some of the truth.”

But he doesn’t want them in Wahkiakum County.

“I’m not going to make my guys wear them here,” he said. “If you saw all of the gear and the crap that is issued for this and that, it’s just another thing we’re not going to get the use out of for the pain it would be to have to deal with all of the recordings all the time.”

For Howie, it comes down to the size of force and the community they are policing.

Of the respondents, 37.9 percent strongly agreed in the use of body cameras; 34.4 percent somewhat agreed, and 20 percent neither agreed nor disagreed.

The fifth question addressed deadly force. Should it only be used if an officer or the life of another person is under imminent threat and such force is strictly unavoidable?

Howie agreed but was bothered by the final qualification.

“There are too many factors to affect that last part,” he said. “People suggest that maybe you could have shot him in the leg or used a bean bag round, but we shoot to stop the threat. We can’t make those decisions in a second.”

Of the respondents, 69.1 percent strongly agreed that deadly force should only be used while there is an imminent threat while 17.9 percent somewhat agreed.

The last question on the survey was whether the supply of federal military weaponry to local police should be ended.

No, Howie said.

The county is making good use of the equipment they have received, including the humvees, which have come in handy when there is flooding or a need for search and rescue.

Plus, Howie reasons, this way they aren’t just sitting somewhere in storage, they are being used.

Of the respondents, 61.2 percent strongly agreed with him. Keep it coming.