Dashboard Cam Reveals Our Fears

“Grant that I may not so much seek … to be understood as to understand”

From the Prayer of St. Francis

A picture is worth a thousand words. But when it comes to police dashboard cameras, the video is worth so much more. It provides an objective, though not perfect, account of an interaction between police and civilians. This allows us to get beyond bickering about what happened and explore more deeply how we feel about it and why. Ironically, it makes our conversations about contentious incidents even more difficult. It can also make these important conversations more productive. But we need to learn to have them better.

On August 29, 2015 in Valparaiso, Indiana a Porter County drug task force was conducting a patrol in a neighborhood near Valparaiso University known as Hilltop. During his patrol, an officer from Burns Harbor, a town some 15 miles north of Valparaiso, pulled over a car carrying three young citizens of color for double-parking their car and blocking traffic. After a terse introduction, the officer ordered the driver of the vehicle, Darryl Jackson, Jr. out of the car for questioning. Upon exiting the vehicle, Mr. Jackson’s language and demeanor were plainly indignant. He was later placed under arrest for failing to identify himself and resisting law enforcement. The officer called in a drug-sniffing dog attempting to find probable cause to search the vehicle. The dog found nothing. A dashboard-mounted camera captured the entire incident. You can see the video here.

Thanks to the video, what happened that night is indisputable. Both men showed a lack of respect toward one another. Why did it happen? Who is more to blame? Were the patrol and the stop justified? And how should we as a community engage in dialogue about this? These are much more complicated and valuable questions to pursue.

When the news of the incident broke, a torrent of emotion from this generally peaceful town unleashed. Community leaders in Valparaiso, led by professors who knew Mr. Jackson from his time and contributions at the university, expressed outrage. A few days later, Valparaiso’s mayor, Jon Costas, joined the fray saying the “officer’s conduct that night fell short of the level of professionalism our citizens expect and deserve.” The prosecutor dropped the charges against Mr. Jackson. A petition with more than 600 signers demanded apologies from the Porter County sheriff and the Burns Harbor police chief. At its October monthly meeting, the city’s advisory Human Relations Council (“HRC”) heard from both sides. Frustrated by the public reaction and news coverage, dozens of police officers from across the county attended in solidarity and verbally sparred with the concerned citizenry. Nearly two months after the incident, the ideological battle continues to seethe throughout the county.

While the video tells what happened, we as viewers see it through the lenses of our own personal experience. Our experiences inform our deepest held beliefs, hopes and fears and shape our behaviors during and reactions to situations like this. If you know the officer personally, you can, I imagine, easily see his actions as justified, fair, and professional. If you know Mr. Jackson personally, you can see his actions as well-founded fears manifesting as disrespect. Unfortunately, both sides in this case jumped too quickly to decry the actions of the other and defend the acts of their own.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

Ian McLaren (aka Rev. John Watson)

Could this kind of civic conversation have been started off differently? What if the mayor invited the officer, Mr. Jackson, and leaders from law enforcement and the community into a closed-door meeting? What if the goals of that meeting were to hear each other out, to broker an accord, and to emerge with a statement of joint-reflection and responsibility? Would it have worked? Could we have avoided the negativity and distrust borne of mutual misunderstanding and offense? We’ll never know, but I think so.

Fortunately, at the end of the HRC meeting, Valparaiso’s police chief, Michael Brickner, made a significant step toward reconciliation, taking responsibility for the incident. He committed himself to work with fellow law enforcement across the county to learn from this incident and move forward. For his part, Mr. Jackson also took responsibility saying he regrets that his nerves “took over in the moment” and he hopes to use his experience “to help show people that it is on all of us to stop the cycle of disrespect.” For all the damage done, these pledges aren’t enough. But they’re a good place to start.

When confronted with stark facts on video, we can’t be distracted with arguing what happened. There is no frivolous place to express our animosities and no way to ignore our feelings. Our emotions are raw; our reactions real; and our conversations most-certainly difficult. Therefore, let us each seek first to understand, and then to be understood.