BRIEFING AND BRAINSTORMING MEETING ON 21ST CENTURY POLICING INITIATIVE

WHITE HOUSE
Friday, July 22, 2016

In this summary, rather than simply “reporting” the nuts-and-bolts content of the meeting at the White
House, I’d like to actually “take you through” the events of the day, so that you at least can have a chance
to experience it vicariously rather than just hearing about it peripherally. After all, my purpose in
accepting the invitation to the White House was to represent the collective thoughts and concerns of the
Union City community, the UCPD, and the policing profession in general, in an important conversation
about police-community trust across the country. Even with the heavy burden on all our minds in the
wake of recent horrific tragedies, I traveled to DC with honor and excitement, despite the heaviness.
Positively, I saw it as an opportunity to share with other police and government leaders the great things
we’ve got going on in Union City.

PREPARING FOR AND LEADING UP TO THE MEETING

To be completely honest, in the past couple weeks leading up to the trip, I had been balancing a mixture
of distinct honor, dreadful doubt, positive excitement, heavy burden, profound disappointment, local
pride, and cautious optimism about whether this meeting would be meaningful to us all moving forward,
or just an obligatory check of a box just to say we met at the White House.

On the morning of the meeting, after a good breakfast and a decent cup of coffee in the restaurant of my
hotel, I felt ready and anxious to get started. As I took the 10 minute walk from my hotel to the White
House in the sweltering humid heat, I really had no idea what to expect. Here I was, 3,000 miles from all
of you, trying to summarize in my head what I might say during the meeting that would capture the
thoughts of an entire community and department. As I walked in the heat in a
full suit and tie, appropriately dressed for a White House visit, all the tourists
wearing shorts and flip-flops seemed to be staring and wondering what in the
world I was doing. Three people actually extended sympathies as they passed.
It made me chuckle, but that ended up working in my favor for conjuring up a
little extra positivity and humor as I made my way to the White House entry point
to which all the invited police leaders from around the country were assigned to
report. My mind started to wander to a bunch of silly thoughts, like wondering
if I had already formed a “ring around the collar” of my shirt because of the sweat that was already layering
my entire body from the short walk I’d just made….and about when I might get my hands on a napkin or
towel to wipe the drench off my face!

After making it through all the entry-point screening and ID verification process, I was so relieved to
actually get inside the building where the air conditioner helped me get my mind together again. Greeted
by staff of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, we were escorted to the room in which
we would spend the day in discussion and presentation. It was a small
theater-style room, similar in size and setup to our own city council chambers,
with a podium and lectern up front, and microphones situated around the
room for the audience. As I sat in the room waiting for the line of people
behind me at the screening point to make their way to the room, I had a
feeling of high expectation mixed with considerably more reserved optimism.
All told, there were about 100 of us who eventually constructed the audience,
mostly chiefs of police departments around the country and a few sheriffs, but there were several civilians
there as well. Up to that point, none of us really had any idea how many of us had been selected and
invited to attend, nor the exact criteria the White House used in deciding which of us around the country
to invite. There are approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies in America from which to choose,
and even though this was apparently the fourth of four such meetings
planned since June, the invitation of merely 100-150 at a time, in my view,
certainly increases the burden to make it meaningful. It was not until we
were all in place that I discovered there were five of us attending from
California (Chiefs Jeri Williams of Oxnard, Dave Spiller of Pleasanton, Lisa
Rosales of San Pablo, Mike McQuiston of Albany, and me from Union City).
Incidentally, each of our five cities had already been demonstrating a
willingness to practice community policing and has secured the attention and support of the United States
Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The remainder of the 100+
audience spanned police leaders from the East, South, and Midwest. Sitting two seats over from me was
Chief Andre Anderson, the interim chief who was brought in to lead the Ferguson, Missouri Police
Department after the Michael Brown incident. He had quite a bit to contribute regarding the difficulty in
completely changing a police department culture to one of strong community engagement and trust
building. If you would like to hear his approach, check out the clip at https://youtu.be/VHnriy79b2Q

MEETING CONTEXT
Once we were all situated, the meeting began with a welcome by Elias Alcantara,
Senior Associate Director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. He
would serve as the officiant for the entire meeting agenda. His welcome was joined
by opening remarks from Valerie Jarrett, who for the
last eight years has served as Senior Advisor and
Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and
Intergovernmental Affairs. Ms. Jarrett and Mr.
Alcantara provided the framework of how the meeting
would go, and that the duration of the meeting would focus on the
recommendations made last year by the President’s Task Force on 21st
Century Policing. For those not aware, in December 2014, President Obama signed an executive order
establishing the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. This order came on the heels of the events in
Ferguson, Missouri and other places, generating national attention on rifts in the relationships between
local police and the communities they protect and serve. The President directed the task force to identify
best practices and to offer recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime
reduction while building public trust. The task force, made of police leaders, scholars, civil rights leaders,
attorneys, community leaders, and representatives from education, health, and public service, held
listening sessions around the country. Within a few months, the task force published its final report, which
contains recommendations, each with action items, organized around six main topic areas called “pillars”:
(1) Building Trust and Legitimacy, (2) Policy and Oversight, (3) Technology and Social Media, (4)
Community Policing and Crime Reduction, (5) Officer Training and Education, and (6) Officer Safety and
Wellness. If you would like to see a four-page executive summary of the larger 116 page report, check it
out at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8DD0CNkyqxVOUdoU2lpcE1YaUU/view?usp=sharing

Although the task force’s report lays out 151 combined recommendations and action items under the six
pillars, discussion at this White House meeting would be divided into four segments, each focusing on one
of only four topics of discussion: (1) trust and transparency in policing, (2) implicit bias by and about
policing, (3) officer safety and wellness, and (4) the value of communicating and storytelling between
police and the communities they serve.

BRIEFING ON THE PROGRESS OF THE PRESIDENT’S 21ST CENTURY POLICING INITIATIVE

Prior to engaging in the topics of discussion, we received a comprehensive briefing
from Ron Davis, Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS). The COPS Office, created in 1994 during the Clinton administration, is the
component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice
of community policing by the nation's state, local, territorial, and tribal law
enforcement agencies through information and grant resources. The COPS Office
awards grants to hire community policing professionals, develops and tests
innovative policing strategies, and provides training and technical assistance to
community members, local government leaders, and all levels of law enforcement.

Director Davis gave us his assessment on how the 21st Century Policing recommendations are being
implemented across the country, and about several new initiatives that have been started as a result of
the task force recommendations. He summarized the positively impacting nature of the listening sessions
the task force held in various cities around the country, and how much the robust input from communities
made in the successful creation of the report last year. He spoke about the avid messaging and
proliferation of the report to maximize its reach to all law enforcement, and how many departments
around the country are embracing and implementing some or much of the recommendations.

I was disturbed by the fact that there were actually a couple chiefs in the meeting, both of whom traveled
distances to the White House to take part in this meeting about the 21st Century Policing initiative, who
had never heard of or seen the report and were not aware of its recommendations. One was from a
southern state, and the other from the Midwest. To be frank, I was shocked. With as widely as the
initiative has been disseminated and communicated over the past year, it seemed impossible to me that
any law enforcement agency head would be unfamiliar with its existence! I wondered how many other
law enforcement leaders around the country might be blissfully unaware, and what impact that might be
having on national progress. But, given 98% of us at this meeting were fully aware, I am optimistic the
national law enforcement awareness would be about the same. So, while the briefing with Director Davis
did serve as a debut enlightenment for the two chiefs who were unaware, it was both informative and
reaffirming to most of us.

Finally, Director Davis gave an update regarding the major law enforcement support organizations that
have been working to develop national-level, industry-wide projects for each of the six pillars outlined in
the task force report. These support activities have been and will continue to be crucial to ensuring long-
term implementation of the report:

 The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) launched its Institute for Community-
Police Relations in May 2016, designed to provide assistance to U.S. law enforcement agencies
looking to enhance community trust by focusing on culture, policies, and practices.

 The Major Cities Chiefs’ Association (MCCA) is hosting four regional gatherings of local
government, advocacy groups, and law enforcement leadership to discuss implementation of the
task force report. Between 15 and 20 cities have been included at each meeting, and each has
shared information about implementation efforts and best practices.
  The Major Counties Sheriffs’ Association (MCSA) is developing a survey tool to identify
successful policies, procedures, and activities by its members in furtherance of 21st Century Task
Force objectives and recommendations relating to public trust and shared responsibility. The
survey instrument will be distributed within the next few months.

 The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) is researching new and
innovative officer safety and wellness initiatives and will distribute findings and
recommendations on the creation, enhancement, and sustainment of such programs to state,
local, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide.

 The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) is focusing on

implementation of pillar one of the task force report and is engaged in an outreach project to
increase trust and legitimacy between law enforcement and young people through its Law and
Your Community program, an interactive training program for young people ages 13–18 designed
to improve their communications with law enforcement officers and their understanding of their
federal, state, and local laws. NOBLE has reached more than 2,000 people with the program with
additional sessions planned throughout the rest of 2016.

 The National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) is working with member agencies to discuss
strategies and produce informational and training materials focused on trust and legitimacy
to help mend the gap between law enforcement and members of the local and national
community. Topics of focus include working with persons with mental health issues;
criminal justice data collection, analysis, and translation; community trust and legitimacy;
and community safety.

 The U.S. Conference of Mayors is disseminating information on the task force report to
mayors and working to identify roles that mayors are playing in partnership with their police
chiefs to strengthen police-community relations, particularly in the areas of officer
recruitment and training, police department policies and practices, and responses to high
profile incidents. The organization has established a dedicated community policing page on
its website and has posted the task force report and implementation guide, implementation
best practices that cities have submitted, and other materials that can help to foster
implementation.

 Other stakeholder groups with a vested interest in American policing—including the

National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the Association of
Prosecuting Attorneys, and Campaign Zero—have all engaged with the report, inviting
members to learn about how the task force recommendations could be applied to their own
memberships.

 More than 5,000 law enforcement personnel have attended training or educational sessions
on the task force report itself, and approximately 80,000 officers have received training on
topics recommended by the task force such as fair and impartial policing and procedural
justice. At least 36 state are reviewing their police training curricula based on the task force
report.

Aside from the program or initiative-based approach to addressing the pillars of the 21st Century Policing
report, Director Davis laid out the “bread and butter” of the discussion: The best path for law
enforcement’s ability to build trust and transparency really boils down to simple engagement and
relationship building at the community and neighborhood levels. Police officers and community members
who take the time to get to know each other, through routine engagement practices before crises erupt,
have an exponential chance to build trust. Developing trust-based relationships with neighborhood
leaders, faith leaders, residents, and the business community is the key, the director emphasizes. (Even
though we already know this in Union City, hearing the director say it was a reaffirming validation of how
much the UCPD and the Union City community truly shine).

TOPICAL DISCUSSIONS
After the 21st Century Policing Initiative progress report, we moved into the first topic discussion: trust
and transparency in policing. We spent a lot of time sharing success stories so our respective agencies
could benefit from each other’s strategies and innovations in community engagement that open the door
to the possibility for a community to invest trust and legitimacy in its police. We talked a lot about how
relationships cannot be formed without engagement, and how trust is difficult to achieve without an
interactive relationship built from that engagement. This was a great opportunity for me to describe all
the great things we are doing in Union City with and for each other, which I believe was received as an
encouragement to other places challenged by strained community engagement. I admit: I was “cheesing”
with pride and appreciation for what we have going on here in the Yune—especially after hearing others’
stories.

Our robust discussion about trust and legitimacy was capped off by two important contributions—(1) an
introduction of the Police Data Initiative, and (2) an incredibly compelling presentation and discussion on
the issue of implicit bias in people.

Police Data Initiative: Denice Ross (senior advisor for the White
House Office of Management and Budget) and Clarence Wardell
(White House digital services expert) led the discussion about what
is called the Police Data Initiative (PDI). Because many of the 21st
Century Task Force’s recommendations emphasize the opportunity
for police to use data and technology as another way to build
community trust, last year the White House launched the PDI--a
practice that brings police leaders together with top technologists,
researchers, data scientists and design experts to help in
jurisdictions where trust and transparency had been under skepticism. The concept of making data
available to the community, such as on a department website or via social media, stems from the fact that
The public tends to have questions about what their police departments do, why they do it, and how they do it.
Opening data sets to the public can help them get the answers they are looking for and gain a deeper
understanding of how the police departments in their community work. This is yet another portal toward trust
and transparency, and thus why the PDI is being encouraged. At first, 21 leading law enforcement agencies
across the country were able to quickly implement Task Force recommendations in the area of data and
technology. Camden, New Jersey was one of the first. Since then, over 50 jurisdictions covering more
than 41 million people have now committed to the Police Data Initiative.
I digress, but did you know that here, in California, we’re already about half way there on this issue? Being
involved in the PDI conversation at the White House made me realize there’s probably a fair amount of
you who may be unaware of how we handle this issue in California and how our reporting transparency
path had already been established through the legislature. Effective January 1st of 2017, transparent
reporting of certain data will be a matter of law in our state. Assembly Bill 71 (signed by the governor in
October 2015) will require every law enforcement agency in California to compile and furnish to the
Department of Justice a comprehensive report of all instances when a peace officer is shot by a member
of the public, involved in a shooting of a member of the public, or is involved in an incident when the
officer uses force against someone or is the victim of someone’s use of force against the officer wherein
either is seriously injured. The reports will be required to provide multiple complex metrics, including
gender, race, age, incident data, weapon summaries, and a summary of the circumstances of each
incident.

Of course we in Union City will abide by this new legal mandate, but I want you to know we have been
tracking use of force trend data for years and providing it to our city council and to the public when
requested under the Public Records Act. We have nothing to hide and we have always been happy to
share information like this, as long as doing so doesn’t violate any privacy protocol or personnel law. After
taking part in this discussion about the PDI, I am motivated to have discussions with my executive staff to
determine how we might be able to plug certain trend data sets into our UCPD website, just as an added
layer of our own transparency, and to make more information available to you. This might take us a little
while to accomplish, since the city’s entire web profile is undergoing significant structural change. I think
it would actually be neat for you to be able to see certain data trends, like a breakdown of how many
motorists our officers stop over a given period, and how many of them were let go with a warning, issued
a citation, or arrested. Or perhaps it would be nice to provide to you a summary of how many complaints
are filed against our officers, or how many commendations they receive, and the general categories of
each. Or maybe it would be cool for you to be able to see how many cases we solve through investigations
over certain periods, and what our solvability rate is as an indication of our track record. Whatever we
end up doing under the PDI concept, I promise we’ll keep you posted as we explore how to be more
transparent than we already are regarding police data.

Implicit Bias Training and Discussion: After the consuming discussion about PDI, we took a break before
moving onto the next topic. Most everyone in the room stood, stretched, and engaged in side
conversations. As Chief Anderson of Ferguson and I engaged in conversation about our similar
philosophies about the importance of community engagement, I noticed a well-dressed man standing in
the corner looking over some notes or papers; he was wearing a stately looking bow tie, which is probably
what made me notice him. Little did I know he was next on the agenda after the break—Dr. Bryant Marks,
Ph.D., from prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta. He was soon introduced as the director of the
Program for Research on Black Male Achievement and a presidential advisor on national education issues.
He was on the agenda to give a presentation and lead a discussion on the topic of implicit bias.
Now, allow me to be brutally (and comically) honest about my own implicit bias. Here we were at the
White House in a room full of mostly white police executives from urban areas to the deepest backroads
of middle America, all now seated and waiting for the opening words from this bowtie-adorned, tall,
serious-looking black man with a bald shaved head and a piercing look in his eyes,
fiddling with what looked to be a PowerPoint clicker in one hand and note papers
in the other. The title slide of his presentation was front-and-center on the screen,
“Implicit Bias Training”, and….uh oh… we’d just finished talking about the impacts
of all the various contributors to fear and misunderstanding of and by the police,
and of and by the communities they serve. And at that moment, there seemed to
be a tiny twinge of unspoken angst in the audience with perhaps some worry that
we were all about to be pummeled and chastised for being biased cops. But then,
Dr. Marks began to speak. Oh, man! With an unmistakable charismatic, disarming approach, it took him
all of about 60 seconds to completely woo everyone’s undivided attention. Even the chiefs from the
epicenter of the Midwest were glued (and yes, I’m aware that’s a biased statement, but I want you to get
a true gist for the feeling in the room).
Dr. Marks’ remarks were riveting. In an open-ended way, he asked, “How in the world could a black male
get to the point where he shoots twelve police officers, killing five and injuring seven?!” He then floated
the other side of the question: “Why is it that so many members of the public are focused on a fear that
police officers are killing black males who pose no or minimal immediate danger to them?!” This question
he posed came across much more as a conversation starter than it did an errant attack. It actually was a
perfect bridge to the topic on which he was about to present: the implicit bias in all of us as humans—
regardless of race or position in society. Also known as implicit social cognition, implicit bias refers to the
attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious
manner. These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments of others, are
activated involuntarily and without a person’s awareness or intentional control. Residing deep in the
subconscious, these biases are different from KNOWN biases that people may choose to conceal for the
purposes of social and/or political correctness. As Dr. Marks explains, the implicit associations we harbor
in our subconscious cause us to have feelings and attitudes about other people based on characteristics
such as race, ethnicity, age, and appearance. These associations develop over the course of a lifetime
beginning at a very early age through exposure to direct and indirect messages. In addition to early life
experiences, the media and news programming are huge contributors to implicit associations.

To illustrate his point, Dr. Marks had all of us in the audience pull out our cell phones and go to our
messaging app. He had us all open up a text message to a particular number he provided, and then he
asked us to each, anonymously and in our own words, text to the number our opinion or answer to a
series of questions he was about to ask. He started by telling a series of short scenarios, after each of
which he posed questions about our interpretations or value judgements about the players in each
scenario. I don’t want to spoil the content of each, as I’m sure I’ll be using some of the examples in
presentations I’ll give in the future, but I can say, without question, the exercise was the clearest, most
compelling learning experience of the day for pretty much every one of us in the room. This provided a
clear path for a really good discussion, eventually tied back to how implicit biases, despite the fact we will
all have them forever, can be altered through relationships and familiarization through engagement.
When Dr. Marks was done with his presentation, I looked around the room and could see that every ounce
of apprehension about the training we were “about to receive” had completely evaporated. All 100 in
the room stood in standing ovation when he was done….even the ones from Middle America who my own
implicit biases perceived as being the most in angst. It was an incredible experience.

Social Media Storytelling: The deputy director of the White House Office of Digital
Strategy, Jeron Smith, led the final discussion of the day. The emphasis of his segment
was to bring about awareness of the power of social media as a tool for law
enforcement to increase reach, shape image, build trust, and keep communities
informed. In 2012 the White House released a Digital Government Strategy as part
of the President’s directive to build a 21st Century government so people have easier
access to information from their government anywhere, anytime, and on any device,
and that technology can make government more transparent, more efficient, and
more effective.

Before diving into a discussion about social media storytelling, Mr. Smith started off with a story of his
own to explain why he was so honored to be presenting to a room full of police leaders. He told us about
an incident he experienced last year while driving in D.C. during his weekend off. He was pulled over by
a D.C. patrol officer, and as he pulled to the curb, he knew to get his driver’s license out and ready. He
looked around the console of his car and noticed his wallet had fallen to the floorboard on the passenger
side while he’d been driving. Without thinking or realizing how it might look, he started reaching down
to the floorboard in front of the passenger seat to dig for his wallet at the same moment the officer was
stepping up to his driver window. Mr. Smith’s quick and furtive reach under the seat instantly resulted in
the officer’s sidearm pointed at his head as the two of them nearly drowned out each other’s yells to avert
disaster. The officer was shouting unmistakably loud orders for Mr. Smith to show his hands, and Mr.
Smith screamed emphatically not to shoot and that he was just reaching for his wallet. No shot was fired,
and after a few more seconds, the situation corrected itself back to calm and compliance.

In telling his story, Mr. Smith explained the outcome. Rather than continuing on with a deteriorated
interaction, he and the officer ended up standing together at the scene of the stop and sharing each
other’s perspectives about what just happened. “We talked for over a half hour,” he said. “Afterward, I
drove away knowing my entire perspective about police officers changed. It made me understand so
much more than I did before, and I felt that officer got my perspective too.”

Mr. Smith’s story definitely lent credibility to his passion for being on the meeting agenda to blend his
world (digital technology) with what he perceived of our world (law enforcement needing to tell a positive
story through social media). We spent a fair amount of time talking strategy about the difference between
reporting and storytelling, and how much image, curiosity, and trust can be influenced by an agency’s
willingness to share its stories with the community, especially as a means to share sentiment as much as
we are accustomed to focusing on data and facts.

A VISIT FROM POTUS

In the early afternoon, as we were in our seats after just having wrapped up a discussion topic, a loud
voice from the side of the room shouted, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States.” As
we all stood, President Obama appeared from the side and approached the lectern. Most of us had a hint
his arrival was near, because we noticed the staff person a few minutes earlier slyly pop out from behind
the curtain to place the presidential seal on the lectern, while we were wrapping up the group discussion.
President Obama greeted us from the lectern, and shared with us the
early news developments about the shootings unfolding right at that time
in Germany. He then thanked us for being part of this important
discussion, and led into about a 20-minute sharing of his thoughts. His
comments mostly reflected the sentiment he communicated to law
enforcement across America four days prior. (On October 18th, the
President crafted and published an open letter to all 18,000 law
enforcement agencies in the country, lamenting the recent assassinations
of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, and the confrontations that precipitated them. In the letter
he emphasizes the resolve of-and-for the country to get to a better place in terms of police-community
trust and crime reduction effectiveness, and he pledges support to all law enforcement in getting there).

During his comments at our meeting, President Obama acknowledged that the nation has gone through
a really tough time the last couple of weeks on a whole bunch of fronts. He said he wanted to come by
our meeting to personally express how grateful the American people are for all the great police services
provided every day, and how appreciative the nation is of our sacrifices. He acknowledged that police
officers generally are not looking for the spotlight and just want to do their jobs, keep their communities
safe, and come home to their own families at the end of a tough day. He reiterated that law enforcement
needs to be supported in every way, and that one of the best ways to provide support to our police officers
is to make sure that we are addressing potential underlying tensions between officers and the
communities where they’re serving.
He credited today’s lowest violent crime rate since the 1960s to the exceptional policing being done every
single day. He spoke of police departments organizing community forums and panels, holding cookouts
to bring officers together with civil rights leaders. He even got a chuckle from the audience by asking us
if we’d seen the viral videos of police playing pickup basketball with kids, or dancing the Running Man
Challenge. With tongue-in-cheek, he even got a chuckle by calling the officer dancing the Nae Nae in a
viral video one of the bravest officers he’s seen.

The President wrapped up his comments by encouraging all of us to implement the task force
recommendations in ways that are tailored to our community and its needs, but also to share good ideas
about how to facilitate more discussions in our own communities. I felt so proud, because so much of
what he was referring to are things we’ve been doing for some time in Union City. We just need to keep
doing more of it.

Before he departed, several of us

had the opportunity to shake
hands with the President. When
he eventually made his way to me,
there was only enough time to
shake his hand, introduce myself,
and say a few words. I told him I was there on behalf of the entire community and the police department
in Union City, California. I reiterated that we need all as much support as we can get, and I thanked him
for inviting us to be part of the conversation. He asked me to thank the men and women of our
department for their service and encouraged us to keep up what we’re doing.

BEYOND THE WHITE HOUSE MEETING

Before coming home, I made a point to revisit the National Archives, where our country’s most historic
documents are on display. I’ve been there before with my family on vacation, but it just seemed
appropriate, given the gravity of our current conversations, to take a few moments to visit and read THE
U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If you’ve never had an opportunity to do this, I strongly
recommend you add it to your bucket list. It is both impressive and compelling to focus your eyes on
these important original documents, and as well the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation
Proclamation, and all the other historic documents of historical root to our democracy. As I read through
the Constitution’s Amendments, I felt like scratching my head about the idea that a group of old-aged
white guys wearing powdered wigs and two-inch heels could have possibly gotten it so perfectly right 227
years ago in their consensus about which words to use in this historic document. We, the government
(especially the police), have to measure just about everything we do against both the literal and
interpreted intent of these Amendments every day, and incorporate them in trying to keep up with
people’s obligation to keep them safe. It’s not always easy to do in split-second decision making in the
middle of a crisis, but succeeding is definitely dependent on knowing and understanding these
Amendments. Visiting these documents in the context of the conversation the day before in the White
House was definitely a grounding experience. Taking photos in the National Archives is not allowed, but
trust me, it’s an awesome experience worth doing when you can.

I also made a stop at the National Law Enforcement Memorial, where the names of nearly 21,000 police
officers killed in the line of duty are inscribed on marble walls along the peaceful pathway they enclose. I
wanted to spend a few minutes of reflection for Union City Police Chief William Cann, who was
assassinated here in Union City in 1974 during a time of considerable social tension between the police
and the community, not too much different than what some communities around the nation are
experiencing now—42 years later. I also wanted to reflect on Hayward Police
Sergeant Scott Lunger, who was killed during a traffic stop exactly one year ago
to the day of this visit to the White House (July 22, 2015). As I tried to manipulate
my camera for a selfie while pointing to Chief Cann’s name, an African American
couple, with arms intertwined, walked up. He
was wearing sunglasses which seemed to be
blocking both the sun and his apparent grief-stricken eyes, and she was
holding an umbrella to shield her from the punishing heat. They saw me
trying to struggle with this backwards selfie photo, so he asked if I wanted
him to take it for me. I thanked him and he did, which then prompted a
short conversation. It turns out he is a police officer from Alabama, and
he was there to pay tribute to a fellow officer, his friend, who had been
killed recently. I introduced myself and told him why I was in DC. I explained to him we had been meeting
to discuss the nation’s progress on the 21st Century Policing Initiative, and as I described to him what the
meeting was like, he held a perplexed look on his face as if I was speaking a foreign language he did not
understand. He told me he’d never heard of the initiative, that he’d ever been aware of any President’s
Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and that this was the first time he’d ever been told about the existence
of a final report with police-community trust building recommendations. “As soon as I get back home,
I’m going to tell my sergeant about this,” he said.

Ladies and gentlemen, herein lies the center point of purpose in why this trip was so important, and why
we, the people and the police of Union City, are so fortunate to have been represented in this national
discussion. It is a sobering reminder how far away we are, as a profession, to reaching a point of common
awareness, common traction, common innovation, and in both connected and consistent in community
engagement. While it’s hard to imagine there being more than just a few agencies here and there around
the country who are not yet contemporary in how to build and maintain community trust, the truth is
right in front of us that underscores how much work we have to do. The good thing for us, which I consider
to be a huge honor, is that we in Union City are producing a model of policing that contribute to the larger
narrative positive examples to follow, rather than negative ones to avoid. And for that, I say this trip was
worth every minute.

I look forward to the UCPD continuing its wonderful progress in partnership and trust.

With pride and sincerity,

Darryl C. McAllister
Chief of Police