Accountability in Police Work is Crucial: Can Someone, Anyone, Please Step Up and Say: ‘This One’s On Me!’
By John Downey, NYPD (Ret. SGT)
Who’s to blame for the attempt of the assassination of former president Donald Trump, a shocking event that has left the nation reeling and searching for answers?
Besides the political rhetoric displayed since 2016, there is plenty of blame. The problem is not to blame at this point. Accountability in police work is crucial. The focus must be turned to accountability, and who steps up and says, it’s my fault. I am responsible for what happens in Butler, PA, and how we can ensure this does not happen again. The lack of accountability in our society is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. We cannot continue to pass the blame and avoid taking responsibility for our actions. It’s time for a change, starting with each of us being accountable for our own actions.
As a former NYPD sergeant, I can attest that accountability is not just a buzzword but a fundamental part of our recruit training in the police academy. It’s a principle that can’t be overlooked. Do the police make mistakes? Yes, they do. Can a mistake cost someone their lives, including the Police Officers themselves? Yes, it can. But was this a mistake or the lack of just not doing your job? Or was this the lack of going the extra yard these days because of the lack of support when the Police go the extra yard to ensure the job is done correctly? The bottom line is you have a job to do when you decide to wear that uniform or that suit. You must do your job no matter what agency you represent.
Doing your job means being held accountable for your failures and your mistakes. The problem with people today is that everyone wants to be able to do whatever they want and face no consequences in return when something goes wrong. This starts from home, and the home, in this case, is the training the officers had when they first started their law enforcement career. The local PD, Secret Service, and FBI all have members who go through training for dignity protection to guard high-profile politicians in high-profile situations. The training includes advance teams that go out for hours and days to a location where a Mayor, Governor, and President of the USA plans to attend an event.
When the advance teams show up, they are responsible for finding ways to fight off threats towards the “package,” meaning the person being protected. These responsibilities include escape routes, buildings in the area, how many entrances and exits in the surrounding buildings, and emergency routes for the local fire department, EMT, and Police to get in and out of the location.
Are there subways and any underground tunnels that can house an explosive device? They are supposed to do a bomb sweep, look for suspicious packages and people, look at prior surveillance that might have suspicious people visiting the area in recent days that might be casing the location, and do their own advancement as to where they can set up. The entire area needs to be cleared and safe for the package to be there. This is your job, and when you don’t do your job, you have to be held accountable for not doing it.
Many questions are being asked about why the ARG building wasn’t checked. Why wasn’t a local Police officer assigned to that building’s rooftop? And why wasn’t the local PD on the outer perimeter? Why did the Secret Service not ensure the local PD set up a secure outer perimeter? I have not heard who will be held accountable for this lack of basic police work. Is the secret service director going to be fired for it? Is the local police chief going to be fired? Does it trickle down to the local PD supervisors and the agents on the ground? Who is going to be held responsible? In my opinion, accountability should be spread to all parties involved. It is unacceptable that it happens, and when accountability is given out, it sends a message to everyone: no matter what your profession is, you will be held accountable.
Accountability has worked for many years. When is it okay for no one to be held accountable for their actions? When you were a child, and your parents told you not to do something, and you did it, you got punished for it. You got punished when you failed a school test and did not study for it. When you failed your school classes, you got left back a year and repeated the same grade. When you didn’t play well in a sporting event, you got benched. If you disrespected a coach, you got thrown off the team. When you got caught committing a crime, you were arrested for it. When you disrespected your parents, you got a wooden spoon or a bar of soap in your mouth.
This was only 30 years ago. What happened to this society and the people in society? Why are people today not held accountable for their actions? And why is the blame passed on to the next person? Why do we pin things on the fall guy? The fault lies in how most people are being brought up in the home, the classroom, the sports programs, and the supervisor in the workforce. The people with authority do not show the right way or lead by example. Instead, we hear: “What are you going to do? They are young, and when you’re young, you make mistakes. It’s okay to fail a test. It’s OK to disrespect your parents, coach, schoolteacher, or supervisor at work.”
So when you’re told that at age 10, you will follow it as you get older. No one is in charge anymore, and people say it’s okay to do whatever you want. There is no loyalty, accountability, responsibility, or commitment.
My experience in the NYPD under Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s accountability was extreme. Still, it worked because most of the department members did their job correctly under the fear of the punishment that would be handed down if they did not do their job correctly and professionally. Accountability in police work is crucial. Kelly not only punished the rank of Police Officers, but he held supervisors and upper management just as responsible for their actions. The rank and file might not have liked him, but the ship was tight, and the job was done correctly. Were there things that went wrong along the way? Yes, but when they went wrong, you were held accountable.
A leader leads from the front, not from behind, so whoever is the person in charge, the director of the secret service, the local police chief, I call on you to lead and take accountability for what has happened. It’s effortless to sit back and let others take the blame. The hardest thing to do is step up and say, “This is on me, and it’s my fault.” It has been a few days, and none of us fellow Americans have heard, “Blame me. It is my fault this has happened.” Anyone who has been a Police Officer, Secret Service Agent, or FBI Agent knows how this job should have gone.
The NYPD and Commissioner Ray Kelly taught me that accountability in police work is crucial. Sadly, accountability today is just a shadow. It’s there and does not have meaning. It follows you around with no responsibility. Someone please step up and say, “I screwed up!”
John Downey is a retired NYPD Sergeant and the principal of Stallion S & I LLC, a NYC-based security and private investigation firm.
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