NEW POLICE CHIEFS POLL JUST RELEASED
By Jim Kouri, CPP
MichNews.com
Jan 19, 2005

Police Execs Speakout About Terrorism, Gun Control, Drugs

The National Association of Chiefs of Police released its
17th Annual Survey of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs and some of
the survey findings are surprising and compelling. The
survey — released in the January 2005 issue of Police Times
Magazine — had some surprising results on various topics
including terrorism, gun control, homeland security, and
drug enforcement.

NACOP asserts that the public perception of how police view
certain issues is based on media coverage, which is not
necessarily accurate. When police chiefs and sheriffs are
allowed to respond to poll questions anonymously, the
politics may be removed from their answers.

Terrorism: When asked if the United States would be
attacked by terrorists within the next year, 86.6 percent
said yes. Meanwhile 70 percent of police commanders said
they received training and other resources from the federal
government to combat terrorism, while only 49.2 percent said
their departments participated in terrorism-response
simulations.

Homeland Security: When police commanders were asked if
they observed more cooperation between federal and local
agencies, 69.7 percent said yes. Sixty-seven percent of the
respondents stated they found the color-coded threat matrix
an effective way of informing the public of terrorist
threats. When asked if the process of arming commercial
airline pilots is too burdensome, 53.6 percent of the police
executives answered yes.

Gun Control: With regard to private citizens owning
firearms for sport or self-defense, 93.6 percent of the
respondents supported civilian gun-ownership rights.
Ninety-six percent of the police chiefs and sheriffs believe
criminals obtain firearms from illegal sources and 92.2
percent revealed they hadn’t arrested anyone for violation
of the so-called “waiting period” laws. When asked if
citizens concealed-weapons permits would reduce violent
crime, 63.1 percent said yes.

War on Drugs: Forty-one percent of police commanders
surveyed said they believe marijuana should be available for
medicinal purposes and 68.9 percent said they’ve seen an
increase in the abuse of prescription drugs such as
Oxycontin and other Schedule II drugs. Only 22 percent of
police commanders believe the war on drugs has been
successful, while 28 percent said they favored
decriminalization of “soft drugs” such as marijuana.

Police News Coverage: An overwhelming 93.2 percent believe
the news media is not fair and balanced in their coverage,
while 70.1 percent said they have at least one officer
assigned to handle media requests.

Technology: Ninety-four percent of the respondents believe
convicted felons should be required to submit DNA samples to
be catalogued in a manner similar to that used for
fingerprints. Only 29.8 percent said their departments
issue tasers to their officers.

Other Topics: With regard to criminal (racial) profiling,
67.3 percent stated they had a written and enforced policy
prohibiting such profiling. Only 23 percent of the
respondents felt that civilian-review boards are effective
in handling citizen complaints against police officers,
while 58.7 said their subordinates attended sensitivity
training classes.

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Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the
National Association of Chiefs of Police. He’s former chief
at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights
nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in
the 1980s. He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force
and trained police and security officers throughout the
country. He writes for many police and crime magazines
including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer,
Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He’s appeared
as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and
talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline
News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is
available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be
ordered at local bookstores.