Ending mandatory minimums will renew trust in police
The public at large has lost confidence because of the incarceration that community members see as unjust and overly long. It needs to change.
As an officer, I have learned that one of our greatest challenges to effective law enforcement is the loss of police-community trust. We have lost trust, in part, because of incarceration that community members see as unjust and overly long. These sentences are generally due to mandatory minimum sentences, which take justice out of the hands of judges and juries, as spelled out by the U.S. Constitution, and instead rely on bureaucratic statutes that ignore the circumstances and context of each case.
Fortunately, our state legislators have a key opportunity to implement the recommendations of the Virginia Crime Commission by eliminating mandatory minimums. I believe this reform would make our police stronger and our communities safer.
I am honored to serve as a police officer with the Chesapeake Police Department, and so have seen multiple sides of police work as a community response officer, certified gang investigator and crime prevention specialist. You don’t see it on cop shows, but some of my most impactful work is attending community BBQs and talking Sunday football.
These conversations are key because community trust in the justice system is central to police effectiveness. I remember a string of robberies that we solved only because community members came forward with tips. Though some community members considered taking matters into their own hands, they instead decided they would give us information and a chance to resolve the situation first. Because of relationships we built at events such as the BBQ, they saw us as partners in keeping their community safe.
Yet across our state and country, police face dangerously low levels of community trust. A recent poll showed that national police-community trust is at its lowest level in 27 years. This is bad for the community and bad for police officers.
When communities distrust police, people are less likely to cooperate with police and less likely to help an officer in harm’s way. In fact, research suggests that lower trust in police is associated with an increase in gun violence.
One reason that people don’t trust the justice system is that they have seen unjust prison sentences, which are made worse by mandatory minimum sentencing. They impose one-size-fits-all sentences, even for someone who played a minor role in an offense. And they are most often used on people of color. For example, possession of small amounts of drugs results in extremely lengthy sentences when mandatory minimums are applied.
My own family has experienced this side of mandatory minimums. A close family member was arrested for having an unlicensed firearm in his home. It was a stupid thing to do, but he felt better having the gun in the house. Due to a prior conviction nine years earlier, he received a five-year mandatory sentence. His absence from his family during this time ultimately ended his marriage and cut off contact with his child. It has made every member of our family look differently at the justice system.
Right now, Virginia has a key opportunity to strengthen public trust by getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences. The Virginia Crime Commission recently voted overwhelmingly to get rid of mandatory minimums, and legislators have introduced a bill to follow their recommendation.
I hope our legislators see that eliminating unnecessary mandatory minimum sentencing is a win for everyone involved. Judges regain their authority to consider all aspects of a case in sentencing. Police earn greater community trust. And communities keep more families together and strengthen safety on the street. Eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing gets us what we all want — safer communities. That’s a policy I can get behind.
Officer James Nicholson serves with the Chesapeake Police Department. He is writing not on behalf of his department but as an individual and as a speaker for the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), a nonprofit group of police, prosecutors, judges and other law enforcement officials working to improve the criminal justice system.