FORECAST - CON STANT CI-i At;GE
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F R I l~ ati o n a l / \cadc my , Via s h inq ton, D.C.
November l, 19 6 7
Th2 a ncient Greek p h ilosophers all agree that the only constant
thing in the universe is constant change. Today , chang e is one of
the g reatest p roblems on the law e nforcement scene. We are living
in an age of discontent and discord. We see rapid - - a lmost daily
chang es in social and economic values . Sociologically speaking,
chan ~ e i s due to the desire o f society to find a course of conduct
that is most accep table to the group. I think it is safe to
0 b s e rve t hat a s a nation we are h a ving a bit of a problem decidlnq
w~at group and which philosophy are going to pr~vail for the
2 00 2illion ~2 ople in this country.
As i t stunds today , almost every legal a~d social and g overnmental
~h~l os o? hY h as recently changed, . is in the proces s of c hanqa, or i s
~e~n ~ attac %e~ <lnd questioned b y soma qroup .
Orderl1 change is constructive a n d a na~ur a l state oi :1~ f airs.
~ o w e ve r, the tur moil surrounC.inq r apic socia. l c i:anCJ C has iJ c co:-:-c a
p =co lcm of g reat dimension for the police • .
O n~ ~ xa m ple i s in the disturb i ng q rowth of mass group action under
vari c us g uis ~ s. It is not too significant to society if indiv i d uals
ha?e a v a riance in their ethical or philosophical beliefs regarding
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"freedom of conduct." In fa ct, it j;1akes fo r unendingly interest-ing
cock tail pa r ty conversation. \·:e also h ove a sort of /\r.te r ican
t = 3Jit i o~ s urrounding polite c ontroversy . "Diver:>ity of opi nion"
rn~ke s :or good ho~se races, ~nd that sor t of thing . 13 ut the
spe c tacles we are currently witnessing , s u ch as a recent i nciden t
in Los Ang eles which necessitated t h e use of 1,200 off icers to
p rotect the P resident of the United States, a re not polite contra-ve
rsy. Many "love-ins," "be-ins, " "sit-ins," and demonstrations
have g =ad ually degenerated into riots a nd exhibitions of rampant
anarchy ma squerading under the g uise of peaceful protest .
While thousands of people are indulgin g themselves in a frenzy of
freedom, many mo re thousands of our citizens are losing some of
their freedom d ue to the inconveniences caused by the protesters.
It does not take any g r eat clairvoyance to see that militant
speak ers, exhorting their audiences to kill the President and burn
and pillage o ur cities, are not advocating peaceful social change,
but revolution and anarchy.
It is no lo nger s ufficient for a complacent society to diffidently
pas s off to the police the responsibility for ame../liorating
problems arising from polit ic ; ~ l an ! ~oci n l change . '.i'n e !?Olice can
eufo rce the law, but the leaders of our country must set a course
on ~hat the limits of protest a re goi n g to be . i?lll ...... ~.·~ . ...,.,_.IM>
a ~ ~ - ~ .. .....;.._ - - ~ -Al - - - ......
j I ••at .
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The d rawing room flavo r of polite intellectual exercise is
suddenly los t at the point where a 21-year-old policeman faces a
21-ycar- old "protester" or "ac-tivist" or "delinquent, " or wh atever
euphemi sm you choose, at some legal crossroad . At this junctu re
it is too late to adjust philosophical postures . It is a confronta­tion
at which the law must prevail .
I t ia not possible to administer l aw enforcement a genc i es a nd
entorcs··ttte law accordinq ta the beliefs and leanings of individu a l
officers. The--po-lice, ~ citizen-soldiers, enforce the law,,.c;
d ict:a~br'the -wi"il. ·of thtt peopl8'. But the rules and guidelin es 1.
within wh ich we oper ate are becoming mo r e vague and shadowy .
To be effect i ve we must know what the people and the courts wan t
from us . If we a r e to believe some of our critics , we have
become hide boun d traditionalists who are 50 year s behind the
times and have failed to chan ge with the t imes -- an anachr oni sm
o r sor t of a "b lue -uni f o r med appendix" whose usefulness disdppeared
in the evoluti o n of cha nge.
There are mome n ts, I confess , when I do feel as though I have lost
track o f things . Twent y yea~s u •I , if a person stepped before a
public forum a nd s e riously arivC' ·::- t · e'.- ri . ~obediencc to any law with
·,.;hich he was in philosop hical ciisagr e•3me nt , w '. wou .:.·:l h~ve been
hard put to sav e him f r om the mo b .
Today, the surne pronouncement will attract a large a~d loyal
following . I think the essence of the law enforcement position
today is that we are caught in the middle of what you might term
a "behavior gap. "
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The police enforce statutory l a ws . S tatuto ry laws hav e n o tru e
meaning unto themselves. They a r e r ules t hat a r e put . into wr i ting
a s ide as f or b ehavi or and f o ~ m our s o ciety ' s d i r ectio n and goa l s.
With man's i mperfect d evelopm e nt to da t e , it is gen era l l y r e c og­n
ized that t h e moral code of ma ny does not recog n i z e a " c ommon
g ood" o r the "golden rule. " Accordingly, f reedom of conduct,
b asad upon their own personal concept of behavior, i s an acceptable
mode of conduct to a great many. It thus becomes n ece s sary to h~ ve
laws or rules to promote compatible living. They constitute "r.ioral
traffic signals" designed to prevent s ocial traffic jams .
Change came about in a more leisurely and orderly manner i n years
past; b ut, with the faster pace of life today, too many social
gears are changing at different speeds. So the "behavior g ap'' of
which I speak is the product of society, individuals, t he courts,
legislatures and subcultures and ethnic groups making d e mand s for
change too rapidly for society at large to readily assimilate.
Social value systems should form slowly and chang e o nly a f ter
!":lature and s 'earching inquiry.
By " b ehavior gapu · I als<? mean the n:: .J.. " an incre,-.sinq l y s harp
differential in what indiv idua ls , yro upb , ~n d the b ody o f law
consider to be acceptable b e haviQr.
There has been a great rush, particularly in the f ield of criminal
law, to summarily change laws, values, and precedents built up
through several centuries.
The~e is a large gap between what many segments of s ociety say the
rules are, what they think the rules are, and what actual behavior
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resu lts in a given si t uation. And into this gap the police ~ ust
step and attempt to regulate behavior on beh alf of soc iety.
King Solomon might even feel a bit q ueasy in ~aki n g de cis ion s in
such times.
N~ve r in the hi3tory of law enforcement have the pressures, duties,
and d emands been greater on those charged with the responsibility
for enforcing the law. Staggering increases in crime, civil dis-orders,
and other police problems have inexorably stretched police
resources to the breaking point. Law enforcement is a ttempting to
cope with prob lems far beyond what was ever conceived to be its
area of responsibility .
In the beginnin g, the mandate to the police was relatively simple :
"Prevent crime and apprehend criminals . " But the law of continual
change has broadened this concept.
M'eetinq - t.ft••e· deinan'ir~'Wrbu9h~ great - changes in police training .
S ociol.ogi~l:- ~~Allll:.~ .. rslattona tra.ininq occupy a large
und•"'* ~ ~x,~.-pol.ice . ~~ · peyond anything
,... Ill 2 Pago.
The police do not ope rate in a v~cuum, neither are they raised in
3n ali en environment on a distant planet and shipped here for the
explicit purpose of policing. They are ordinary citizen-so l diers
who are hired by society to rerform those functions which society
finds distasteful or which soc i ety does not ~ave time to do for
itself on an individual basis.
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Today, defiance of the law receives encou ragement fro~ ma ny
sources. Further, some who d o not openly e ncourage, at least
condone, unlawful behavior through inaction or lack of open
disapp roval. Th us in some areas disrespect fo r law and orde~ has
t ~ken on an aura of respectability .
Too many segments and groups of society are imbued with t h e
concept that it is perfectly fitting and proper to disobey any law
with which they disagree. The police cannot subscribe to that
belief. Neither should society so subscribe. The result o f such
action can only be disorder, anarchy, insurrection, a nd riot.
Although many of the problems are not susceptible to solution by
law enforcement, many other problems can and are being attacked
with vigor.
Too much crime has been condoned in this country on the flimsy
excuse that a poor childhood and "society ' s fa ilure" cause crime
and somehow constitute a license to rob and . riot.
I do not believe that socie ty ca~ses crime. People cause crime.
And if having a poor childhood were . ,. c?u tomc:\ti .~ roau ._ o ruin,
then many in the audience wou · • .Je ~ · i :Jail rather ti1a;i. here.
We believe that a hard line must be ~~k~ n wi th th~ lawless. We do
rtot believe that society has failed them, but that they have
failed society. We believe that they should be castigated J.!: d
punished and that society can survive only by rejecting them as
anything other than self-willed criminals.
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I believe that this is a pivotal time for the nation's municioal
police. This is the year that will d etermine wh ether we will be
clussified as an anachronism t h ut no longer s erves society's
needs, o r whether we will be regarded as the "anchor" holding
local government steady against the extreme tides of civil unrest
and crime.
The vast change that has visited the law enforcement scene is also
beginning to show signs of helpful change for the police. I
believe that the winds of change are at last blowing in law
enforcement ' s favor.
Change is bringing many items of interest . For t he first time in
history, crime and law enforcement are of national interest. It
is stylish to talk about them; it ' s stylish to do something about
them; and this presents an age of opportunity for ns. The
President's Crime Commission deliberated eighteen months and
produced some ten documents. We do not necessarily agree with
everything in those documents , but they contain a blueprint for
law enforcement in the years ahead. They ar•? the mos t meaningf11l
documents to come on the law enforcemer. : sce:1e in the last quarter
of a century.
Before Congress at the moment we have the Safe Streets a~d Crime
Control Act. Iri this Act, millions of dollars are proposed to be
expended in the current fiscal year to~drd the solution of law
enforcement problems through federal grants t:o local agencies. We
will have the opportunity to create, innovate, and experiment in
police procedures, police administration, and trairing. We will be
able to further our educations and determine ways to apply science
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and technology to the solution of police p r oblems . We will , in
short, h ave the g reatest opportunity of our lives to improve the
effectiveness of law enforceme nt.
I recently attended a meeting in Wash ington where the speaker
stated that in t h e early 1970's the federal government would be
spend ing $1 billion per year for the benefit of local law enforce ­ment.
Change has brought us to new technological thresholds. Ten years
from now the of ficer in his radio car will have a query device on
his dashboard with which he c an question a computer hun d r eds of
miles away and get an immediate answer in voice, printed form, or
on a cathode-ray tube device such as a television tube . He will
be equipped with devices to allow him to see better at night, to
make it possible for him to search suspects without touching them,
to stop fleeing cars without having to engage in high-speed chases
or resort to gunfire, to search large, open areas and locate c on­cealed
suspects. He will have a wrist watch radio weighing no
more than ten ounces, including batteries. He will have all these,
because they are presently within th~ capabilities of the
s cientists in our c'?untry·.
Colleges and universities throughc 11t the United States are d isplay­ing
great interest in the formation of degree programs in law
e nforcement.
Obviously, the need for well-trained, well-educated officers has
never been greater. In our daily decisions we d ~a l with h uman
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liberty. The decisions are often instantaneous. Down a darkened
alley in the early morning hours, confronting an Qrmed. suspect,
we do not have time to sit en banque like the Supreme Court and
decide, five to four, what our course of action should be .
Unconsciously in past years we have been nurturing a self - pity
syndrome. We have been saying that nobody likes policemen, baing
a policeman is a lousy job, the Supreme Court is against you, the
legislature is against you, and civilization is going to crwnbl2
and fall because of the weakness of its inhabitants. It's almost
as if we have been accepting defeat as inevitable. We really
don't believe all this, or we would not be in police work. Jt's
time we took the initiative and engaged in positive programs to
provide cures. One thing we must do is take an aggressive,
positive approach to the problem.
As we examine law enforcement in our changing society, we find
tbat:
Never has there been such interest in authority.
Never has there been such resistance to authority .
Never have those who would damage effective law enforcement
been more active, and
Never have there been.more and varied challenges facing law
enforcement.
But at the same time:
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Neve r has there been such interest in, and overwhelming
support for, law enforcement; and
Never have science and technology held out such promise of
help in the battle against crime; and
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* Never has there been such a challenge to law enforcement
to take the initiative and engage in creative , innovative
programs; and
u Never has there been such a need for positive , aggressive
police leadership.
You can provide that leadership if you will apply the knowledge
you have gained here.
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