Metropolitan Police Department: Chief Ramsey Addresses New Members of the MPDC - June 16, 2000

In the wake of these violent tragedies, people naturally turn to the police for answers, and that is appropriate. After all, we have a unique role in protecting our citizens. We have been given the unique authority to enforce the law, to make arrests, and to use force - up to, and including, deadly force, when necessary - to carry out that authority. It is a truly awesome responsibility that each of you now has. Use your authority wisely, effectively and courageously. For when you do, you can make a real difference in the safety of our neighborhoods.

The fact that the District's homicide rate today is half of what it was a decade ago - and our robbery and burglary rates have declined even more significantly - is at least partly the result of more effective policing. Your mission, now, is to help us continue this record of progress by doing everything you can—every day, in every call you handle, in every contact you have with the community—to prevent crime and serve the public. Never settle for anything less than the best from yourself. The community expects the best from you. And I will demand the best from you, just as I demand it from every member of the Department.

But while the police clearly play a central role in addressing violence in our communities, solving the problem of violence - doing something more than applying a temporary band-aid—will require much more than law enforcement. The culture of violence that exists today is a complex issue. And as much as we all would like there to be a simple solution to this problem—"more officers" or "stepped-up patrols"—we all know that those things alone will not achieve our goal of safe and healthy neighborhoods.

Reversing the culture of violence will take more than the police acting alone. It will take the entire community coming together—and working together—to address the bigger picture the causes and conditions that allow crime and violence to take hold in the first place in far too many of our communities.

In the Academy, you learned about our strategy of community policing - what we call "Policing for Prevention." And you learned that this strategy involves three separate, yet complementary approaches to preventing crime: focused law enforcement, neighborhood partnerships and problem solving, and systemic prevention. You also learned that we, the police, play the lead role in focused law enforcement. But we are just one of many players who must be active in neighborhood partnerships and systemic prevention strategies.

For community policing to succeed, we must have the involvement of residents, civic organizations, businesses, other government agencies, our elected leaders and many, many others. And together, we must take a stand. We must declare a "collective intolerance" for crime and violence in our communities.

Each and every one of us—police officers and citizens alike—must wake up each day, look in the mirror, and figure out what we are doing—individually and collectively—to stop the violence and strengthen our communities. Am I perpetuating the culture of violence—in the entertainment I support in the video games I allow my children to play, in the way I talk, the way I drive, the way I treat others. Or am I doing something positive and proactive to change this culture—by turning off the TV and reading to my child, by volunteering at a Boys and Girls Club, by turning in an unwanted weapon to the police, or by attending a PSA or other community meeting?

What am I doing—as a police officer and as a citizen of this community—to make a difference? All of us need to ask ourselves those questions, and to act on them every day with conviction and determination.

All of you have studied community policing. Now is the time for you to put what you have learned into practice. As police officers, you must be prepared to step to the plate and take on a leadership role in the communities you serve. Each of you will now be a beacon of hope in the community—someone who residents turn to for protection and for leadership.

But recognize that part of your leadership role is to bring other people and other resources into the process. Part of your job is to give the residents on your PSA the confidence that, by working with their neighbors and with the police, they can help build the type of safe communities we all want for ourselves and our families. It's a big job. It's a critically important job. But it's job you are now uniquely qualified to carry out.