Cops and community: what style of policing do we want?

It’s not a rumor that there are rumors going around town that our police are getting tougher, more zealous. Overly zealous. I have no personal experience of this myself, but the rumors probably don’t come from nowhere. What is being alleged is conceivable. And if true, it raises issues that should be addressed at the June 16th forum on community policing (7 pm, Senior Center).

The law is the law, yes, but there are different styles of enforcement (attitudes, values, “manners”).

Example: long before I moved here 20 some years ago I was told that in Wellfleet it was OK to park on Main Street in what would usually be the wrong (normally unlawful) way on the side of the street on which parking is permitted. Such unorthodox parking won’t be ticketed, I was assured. It’s a local thing, tradition. So in this town you have the unusual sight of cars pointed hood to hood in adjacent spaces. I’ve been doing every since. It is handy at times, a little Wellfleet quirk that I rather like. Policing Wellfleet style. Unless there are problems with it that I haven’t heard of in my decades here, I would not like it to change.

Another example. Neighboring Eastham was long known as tougher on speed than north of the border. We’d slow down to close to the posted 40 on crossing the line because of that rep. (The occasional friend was ticketed for not making this concession to Eastham’s style.) Then going north, speeding up not just the 5 mph difference in speed limits but another few. In Eastham, the feeling has been, you’d better stick pretty close to the posted 40. In Wellfleet 7-8 mph over the posted 45 feels OK, like the flow, the de facto speed limit. Maybe the difference between the speed limits makes sense because Eastham has more curb cuts and seems generally busier. But the difference in policing, enforcement seems more a matter of style, stricter vs. looser. Would we want our police to start acting more like Eastham’s? Do we want to live in town known as a speed trap? Perhaps, but it should not be up to our police, either individual officers or the department as a whole, to make the call.

Do we want to be ticketed or given a warning for expired inspection stickers? Community call.

Years ago our police installed a surveillance camera downtown to keep an eye on local youth congregating there. Among an unknown percentage of citizens it caused consternation. This style of policing was felt by at least some to be a matter of community values that should not have been up to the police to instigate.

Such style differences have a lot to do with how a town feels.

If, as has been suggested in stories being circulated in town, there has recently been a shift toward stricter policing (described by some as a “us vs. them” feeling), it did originate in a community decision. And that’s a problem.

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