EDITORIAL: A New Way to Think About Policing — Sabbaticals

EDITORIAL: A New Way to Think About Policing — Sabbaticals

There continues to be a much-needed discussion about policing in the United States. 

Police and policing have been under fire for years, but the death of George Floyd has turned up the heat from a simmer to a boil.

There are many issues and causes — recruitment, training, the difficulty of the job, the lack of ongoing training, and changing expectations.

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It is time to try something new.

Let’s try to expand the training, education, and experiences of police -- and simultaneously, reduce the stress and work levels to avoid PTSD.

For police officers in the urban corridor, seeing pain, suffering, and violence every day can be transformative, and officers can be adversely impacted.

Some in the community argue that certain incidents, such as those involving individuals suffering from mental health episodes, would be better handled by trained healthcare professionals. That, in theory, can be beneficial, but in practice can be more complex. 911 calls are hard to triage.

An additional tool that could improve policing and would create a more positive relationship between the community and police might be a tool used in academia.

At New York University, sabbaticals for academics is defined as "…a leave for the purpose of encouraging faculty members to engage in scholarly research or other activities that will increase their scholarly achievement or their capacity for service to the University."

What could be better for policing than to gain a new experience? It should be fully paid. Officers could still take on details.

After five years of service and then every ten years thereafter, officers would be offered the opportunity to take a three-month sabbatical to work at a community-based not-for-profit.

In Providence, the experience for an officer to work at City Arts, Camp Street Ministries, or AS220 would be enlightening, transformative, and energizing for both the officer and the organization.