Response Plan Leading Through a Public Safety Crisis

Executive Summary

The Summer of 2020 witnessed growing civil unrest in many U.S. cities, including one midwestern city of interest with a population of about 600,000 people. This city is experiencing continuous unrest as a result of a police-involved shooting. There have been widespread protests and complaints about law enforcement policies and funding. To determine the optimal approach for defusing this type of situation peacefully, the purpose of this paper is to develop a timely and effective crisis leadership response plan that will focus on how crisis leadership and other leadership styles can be applied in resolving these types of public safety crises. The findings that emerge from this research underscore the uniqueness of every situation and the need for a corresponding unique law enforcement intervention, but there are some steps that can be followed to facilitate timely and effective communications with all stakeholders, including the residents of cities affected by this type of civil unrest. These steps include establishing a clear and concise communication strategy, ensuring that the police department is acting in a transparent and accountable manner, seeking to deescalate the situation through dialogue and negotiation, maintaining public order and safety by using appropriate force, if necessary and responding to the needs of the community, including those affected by the protests. Finally, the paper presents a summary of the research and key findings concerning the foregoing issues in the conclusion.

Response Plan: Leading Through a Public Safety Crisis

Introduction

Today, many Americans are concerning about the current state of the country for a wide array of reasons. While the mayhem that was caused by the still-simmering Covid-19 pandemic has subsided somewhat, other events and issues continue to cause social dissension, including most especially the civil unrest that has resulted from several high-profile incidents involving law enforcement authorities killing criminal suspects, most of them members of minority communities, for spurious or even illegal reasons. Although the nationwide and even global outrage that was generated by the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 in particular remains one of the most prominent of these incidents, the United States has a dismal track record in this area and many people have clearly reached their emotional boiling point over this issue. Add to this mix the multiple other existential threats that are facing the nation today, including global warming, potentially even more deadly pandemics and a nuclear war brewing in Ukraine, it is reasonable to suggest that more civil unrest in response will follow in the foreseeable future. To help better prepare for this eventuality, the purpose of this paper is to develop a timely and effective crisis leadership response plan that will focus on how crisis leadership can be applied in resolving these types of public safety crises.

Leadership Response Planning for Crises Situations Involving Civil Unrest

Description of the Crisis

The Summer of 2020 highlighted the growing civil unrest in many U.S. cities, and the tensions that resulted from these incidents continues to boil over in various jurisdictions across the country today, including this writer’s city of residence which for the purposes of this analysis will be referred to as “Midwestville.” This city is located in a typical midwestern conurbation of approximately 600,000 people which has experienced continuous unrest as a result of a police-involved shooting. Moreover, there have also been widespread protests and complaints about law enforcement policies and funding, a trend that underscore the need for effective crisis leadership and communications as discussed further below.

Research about the Crisis Situation

Although law enforcement is the specific public safety sector that forms the focus of this leadership plan, a discussion concerning the respective roles of other public and private sector stakeholders is also provided given their importance in preparing for and responding to a public safety crisis (Byrd, 2004). While the precise circumstances of the recent police-involved shooting in Midwestville differ from those experienced in Minneapolis in May 2020 when George Floyd was killed as a result of negligence or even malice by police officers, that crisis makes it clear that media coverage can exacerbate these types of situations to the point where otherwise-peaceful protestors exercising their First Amendment rights become uncontrollably violent (Greene, 2020). Fortunately, this type of undesirable outcome can be prevented, or at least mitigated, through the use of appropriate public safety leadership and these issues are discussed further below.

Analysis of the Crisis Situation from a Public Safety Leadership Perspective

Law enforcement leaders play a critical role in shaping public responses to crises situations. For instance, again citing the example of the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis Police Department which resulted in local then nationwide and ultimately global protests, Kiang and Tsai (2022) report that, “During periods of crisis, anchor institutions may exert leadership by issuing public statements to communicate shared institutional values, enhance morale, and signal direction in the face of crisis” (p. 116). This is not to say, of course, that merely issuing a series of “feel-good” press releases will defuse an already violent protests, but it is to say that the lines of communication to the general public and media outlets must remain open and the response by law enforcement authorities must be transparent and justifiable as discussed further below.

Law Enforcement’s Role in the Crisis

In general, the overarching role of law enforcement agencies during periods of crisis is to reestablish public order to protect the safety of the public, including those who are participating in the protest, first responders, the media and innocent citizens. In this regard, Pirius (2022) emphasizes that, “In times of protests, riots, and general civil unrest, the government is charged with preserving the peace” (para. 3). Although law enforcement agencies from other jurisdictions and governmental levels. Including the National Guard, may also be involved in responding to crisis situations (Kiang & Tsai, 2022), other public sector organizations may also be required to participate in order to mount an effective and timely response to violent situations as discussed further below.

Other Organizations that May Be Involved

Here again, depending on the unique circumstances that are involved, local law enforcement authorities may request the assistance of other law enforcement organizations from other nearby jurisdictions as well as the state and federal governments. It is important to note, though, that the use of the National Guard is only authorized under certain circumstances (Pirius, 2022). In addition, in their capacity as crisis leaders, law enforcement authorities also require appropriate support from relevant actors in both the public and private sectors, including other first responders such as firefighters and emergency medical services (Kiang & Tsai, 2022).

Assessment of the Crisis Leadership Challenges in the Public Safety Environment the Issue Presents, including Ethical Issues

Law enforcement authorities at all levels are charged with making decisions concerning what type of intervention is needed in response to crisis situations, including those involved civil unrest. For example, Magers (2007) emphasizes that, “Crisis situations create rapid and high stress responses from law enforcement agencies placing police leaders in the position of making critical decisions concerning tactical and negotiation efforts to affect the resolution of these incidents” (p. 5). These challenges are just part of the calculus, though, and simply “putting down the mob” is not an appropriate law enforcement response given the constitutional right of Americans to voice their dissent.

Every law enforcement scenario is different, but this does not necessarily mean that law enforcement authorities who are in leadership positions must adopt a completely different leadership style. Indeed, attempting to do so would adversely affect these individuals’ ability to respond in the timely and efficient fashion that emergency situations demand (Frattaroli et al., 2015). Nevertheless, it is clear that extreme circumstances require people who are specially trained to respond using whatever leadership style is situationally appropriate. In this regard, an interesting point made by Johnson (2017) is that, “I have seen valiant efforts to support and prepare crisis leaders. They have tried to convince them that crises require different leadership. And that’s the problem. They don’t. They simply need to demonstrate the same leadership … just under different circumstances” (p. 237).

As pointed out above, it is vitally important to note that all Americans are absolutely guaranteed a number of civil liberties, including the constitutional right to freedom of speech and peaceable assembly pursuant to the First Amendment, meaning that civil unrest per se is not only legal, it can be regarded as being a downright patriotic exercise. This also means that law enforcement authorities are on thin legal and ethical ice when they seek to defuse otherwise peaceful but potentially volatile civil unrest situations which may rapidly escalate without warning.

Fortunately, there are some proven steps that can be used to help prepare law enforcement authorities who are serving as crisis leaders which can improve their responses to civil unrest situations, including the following:

· Understand leadership. Not special leadership. Not different leadership. Just the well-worn yet complex tenets of organizational leadership in today’s world. They need to understand its key theories, basic tenets and the lexicon that is used to bring it to life.

· Provide the platforms that leaders need to practice leadership under the circumstances and crises bring. The crisis simulations – in all the forms they can take – must test the leader’s ability not to do something different but instead to do the same things they do every day, against the amplification of factors that only a crisis can bring and which present such seemingly insurmountable challenges to leadership (Johnson, 2017, pp. 237-238).

Both of the foregoing steps require some level of ongoing training, but this level will depend on the unique circumstances a given law enforcement setting as well as what types of crises situations are most frequently experienced. Notwithstanding these considerations, however, a growing body of evidence confirms that individuals in any crisis response situation can become more effective through experiential practice and relevant leadership training (Balwant, 2021). To this end, the leadership plan for handling media relations during a crisis situation described below provides a useful general framework for this purpose.

Leadership Plan for Handling Media Relations During a Crisis

Any leadership plan for handling media relations during a crisis must be sufficiently flexible to respond to changes in the situation, otherwise the potential for even greater violence is increased such as in the case of unnecessarily officious or overly forceful responses by law enforcement authorities. Some general best practices for this purpose, however, include those set forth at Appendix A. In addition, and as noted throughout, every situation is unique and will require a different approach; however, some general principles that can be followed include those described below:

1. Establish a clear and concise communication strategy. A clear and concise communication strategy is essential in order to ensure that the public is accurately informed about what is happening and why. It is also important in order to maintain trust between the police department and the community.