Three main police forces operate adjacent to and on the Hill: the Cornell University Police Department, the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department and the Ithaca Police Department. But of these three forces, Cornell is the only one with a private use-of-force policy.
What’s a use-of-force policy? It’s the set of rules that define when and how police officers can and should employ force. Good policies can act as meaningful safeguards against police violence. It is true that the policies are only a snapshot of a police force’s ability to act appropriately — but they are a snapshot that should be visible.
The Tompkins County Sheriff’s policy and the Ithaca Police Department’s use of force policy are both available online for perusal. When approached by The Sun, Police Chief David Honan issued a statement describing the positive nature of the CUPD policy, but when pressed for the policy, a Cornell spokesperson said that “Cornell University is a private entity and our police protocols and policies are confidential operating procedures that are not generally subject to public disclosure.”
The police chief’s full statement is below.
Private and public universities, including Ivy League Yale University and New York’s University at Buffalo also have clearly disclosed policies. They show definitions for all terms, how officers should escalate and de-escalate types of force, departmental expectations and reporting standards.
The Use of Force project, created by Samuel Sinyangwe, Deray Mckesson and Brittany Packnett Cunningham, is an organization that aggregated the 100 largest police forces’ use of force policies, alongside a scorecard examining thresholds that police forces should achieve to decrease police violence. Analysis from the project created the “8 Can’t Wait” movement that has rapidly gained momentum as a leader in the fight for police policy force reform.
These eight practices — banning chokeholds, requiring de-escalation, requiring warning before shooting, exhausting all other means before shooting, a duty to intervene, a ban on shooting at moving vehicles, a mandated use of force continuum, and mandated reporting — are common sense.
Courtesy of #8cantwait
A 2015 study by the Justice Department found that Black people were twice as likely to face nonfatal force or the threat of nonfatal force than White peers. Cornell said that it supports the Black Lives Matter movement and Black Cornellians — and the 8 Can’t Wait movement says that the adoption of these policies can reduce police violence by 72 percent.
Without continual public scrutiny of the use of force policy, a police department with an inhumane policy can declare that an officer simply followed procedure — a hidden procedure that was constructed wrongly in the first place. On a campus fraught with longstanding and too-frequent incidents of violent and verbal racism, students deserve to know — not simply trust — that they are being explicitly protected. Black students, who pay tuition money to be protected by Cornell’s private police force and who live, learn and work on Cornell’s campus are owed the right to know the rules the police are following.
“The Cornell University Police has a detailed use of force policy that meets the standards of federal and state law as well as the standards set by our accrediting agency, the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. Our policy limits the use of lethal force to situations where an officer is compelled to act in order to protect themselves or others from what is reasonably believed to be an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury.”
Despite the police chief’s assurances, it is of no comfort that the use of force policy meets the standards of the exact federal and state policies that are accompanied by the largest, loudest and most sustained protests in recent memory. And without clear and easily accessible definitions of what constitutes imminent threat or serious physical injury, this pledge — while perhaps well-intended — carries little weight.
“Our policy also provides alternatives to use of lethal force, such as using proper techniques specifically designed to use only the force that is reasonable and necessary for the circumstances present at the scene of the incident. It further requires officers to assess subjects for injuries after any use of force and then provide appropriate medical assistance.”
It is of no comfort that the policy relies on officer assessment of injuries after use of force. It is of no comfort that the summary includes no mention of mandatory reporting of or intervention before such injuries.
“But, policy alone does not assure our community that officers are acting appropriately which is why the Cornell University Police have a thorough hiring and background check process for all of our staff. After hire, and in addition to the police academy training, we have an extensive field training program for officers that not only teaches them the technical skills needed for law enforcement but the cultural skills required to effectively serve our diverse community. Even after the initial training, staff must regularly train on topics such as unconscious bias, diversity and inclusion, and the toolkit of skills needed to help people in crisis through the use of clear communication and de-escalation techniques. Building relations with our community and instilling a guardian mindset in our staff frequently eliminates the need for any force to be used.”
The need for continual retraining, the ability to communicate with the population on-campus and cultural skills is vital. That’s why the Student Assembly’s March resolution calling for a police oversight committee for CUPD is another laudable path forward. With a lack of public press conferences, investigations updates and public interface commonplace in even the IPD, it is clear that CUPD should — at least — be subject to the same student-interaction level that nearly every other facet of campus is mandated to.
“The Cornell University Police has a detailed use of force policy that meets the standards of federal and state law as well as the standards set by our accrediting agency, the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. Our policy limits the use of lethal force to situations where an officer is compelled to act in order to protect themselves or others from what is reasonably believed to be an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury.”
“Our policy also provides alternatives to use of lethal force, such as using proper techniques specifically designed to use only the force that is reasonable and necessary for the circumstances present at the scene of the incident. It further requires officers to assess subjects for injuries after any use of force and then provide appropriate medical assistance.”
“But, policy alone does not assure our community that officers are acting appropriately which is why the Cornell University Police have a thorough hiring and background check process for all of our staff. After hire, and in addition to the police academy training, we have an extensive field training program for officers that not only teaches them the technical skills needed for law enforcement but the cultural skills required to effectively serve our diverse community. Even after the initial training, staff must regularly train on topics such as unconscious bias, diversity and inclusion, and the toolkit of skills needed to help people in crisis through the use of clear communication and de-escalation techniques. Building relations with our community and instilling a guardian mindset in our staff frequently eliminates the need for any force to be used.
“Finally, the Cornell University Police are committed to the principles of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing to deliver fair and unbiased police services to our community. I welcome community input to assist us in implementing those principles.”
The above editorial reflects the opinions of The Cornell Daily Sun. Editorials are penned collaboratively between the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor and Opinion Editor, in consultation with additional Sun editors and staffers. The Sun’s editorials are independent of its news coverage, other columnists and advertisers.