At our best we practice empathy, imagining ourselves in the lives and circumstances of others. This is the bridge across our nation’s deepest divisions. And it’s not nearly a matter of tolerance. But of learning of the struggles and stories of our fellow citizens and finding our better selves in the process
“Police have always felt empathy, but now they do more than feel it—they act on it. My challenge was for other organisations to take on empathy and act on it. It might be out of the scope of their core business but it makes them better people,” he said.
But so far he’s in a minority. Police officers and those involved in criminal justice education in Maine say the answer to current problems in law enforcement are simpler, and that empathy for other points of view won’t help.
When Chris Magnus first moved to Richmond, Calif., in 2006, he would hear gunshots at night, sometimes very close to his house. That would be disturbing to anyone, but it was especially so to Magnus, as he had just been hired to be Richmond's new chief of police....
The term “community policing” has become such a buzz phrase that “Pretty much every department, if you ask them, would say they're doing community policing,” says Magnus, “And I think most believe it. But the challenge is: is community policing really policing the community in the way that the community wants to be policed, or is it driven by the police department?”
Magnus' approach has been to build partnerships with the community at every opportunity, learning from the residents what their priorities are, in order to define where resources should go.
The way law enforcement deals with the mentally ill has come under scrutiny following a spate of officer-involved shootings across the nation. But Hulse said news reports miss the success stories between law enforcement and the public they protect.
"We handle literally hundreds and hundreds of cases where everything went right and we de-escalated the individual and nobody got hurt," Hulse said.
Hulse said the training he administers to his officers is what stops crises and protects the public. But beyond that, he said empathy with people struggling is the real key to solving these issues.
Hulse hosts a voluntary crisis intervention training every year in April. He said a number of officers participate in the 40-hour training innovated by the Memphis Police Department.
The training, called the "Memphis Method" focuses on empathy with those having a mental health crisis.
While the research is largely preliminary, some of the findings suggest that empathy—being able to see interactions from another’s perspective and understand the emotions involved—may play an important role in policing.
Helping police to slow down their encounters with the public and to practice more respectful and empathic communication could go a long way toward reducing excessive force and unnecessary arrests, leading to more acceptance of their presence and role in the communities they are hired to protect.
My associates and I have reviewed recent research and done some additional analyses to pin down what is currently known about empathy – and perceptions of empathy – in the realm of crime and justice. When other factors, like age, sex, race, education, and income are taken into account, empathy turns out to matter in several ways:
Pete Wallis is the senior practitioner in restorative justice for Oxfordshire Youth Offending Service. He has facilitated hundreds of restorative meetings and written or co-authored several books and articles on the subject including, Understanding Restorative Justice: How Empathy Can Close the Gap Created by Crime and What Have I Done?: A Victim Empathy Programme for Young People.
Critics have suggested that much of the tension that shrouds police and community relations could be softened if only the police would better understand the unique experiences and worldview of those with whom they interact, particularly within communities of color.
