Intimidating vs. Inviting: Police Gear's Perception at Center of Debate
For a good slice of the 20th century, the image of the beat cop was synonymous with dependability, trustworthiness and security. The police officer on patrol—whether walking neighborhood sidewalks or cruising city streets in a radio car—was a reassuring sign to citizens.
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Even the tumultuous, ant-authoritarian 1960s spawned the iconic "Officer Friendly." The Chicago Police Department established the first Officer Friendly program in 1966, and a partnership with the Sears Roebuck Foundation—the former department giant’s support arm that had underwritten Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and other programs over the years—that started in 1974 helped take the program national.
“(The program) is designed to humanize children's perceptions of police officers and their work, improve rapport between children and police, increase awareness of safety and civic responsibility, and reduce crime involving children,” according to a 1980s U.S. Department of Education document.
Coloring books and other teaching materials were deployed to classrooms—primarily between kindergarten and third grade—and the initiative provided opportunities for police schools visits and other follow-up activities. In 1979, the foundation had 233 communities participating in the program. By 1986, Officer Friendly’s beat covered at least 350 communities, serving roughly 1.5 million students across the country, the foundation’s program director told the Chicago Tribune at the time.
The image of Officer Friendly feels like ancient history now. In the 21st century, law enforcement has struggled with its public perception, and in some cases, those struggles have taken a literal manifestation: how officers are outfitted. Certain departments now are having to navigate between making their rank and file approachable to citizens and making sure they’re properly equipped to perform their duties safely and effectively.
What’s appropriate?
For years, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina had a policy that restricted patrol officers from wearing outer carrier vests. Certain tactical and specialized units were allowed to don the vests, but If patrol officers wanted to wear them on the job, they had to ask for a medical exception. The reason for the regulation: Outer carrier vests can create an intimidating appearance for officers among the public.
“(T)he outer vest has a military-style appearance that contradicts the community-oriented policing philosophy I have championed for years,” Chief Johnny Jennings said in a statement defending the policy in June.
The restriction met continuous opposition from the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter, according to WCNC-TV, and the issue finally came to a head in July when officers sent as detachment to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee were seen wearing outer carrier vests. Weeks later, a new policy was in place. Although outer carrier vests haven’t become standard issue in the department, patrol officers can request them without a medical reason.
Wade Carpenter, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, certainly understands the challenge of trying to navigate those choppy waters between community sensitivities and officer satisfaction.
“I think that's a reality for every chief and every sheriff in every community to be able to gauge their community and know what would be acceptable and what wouldn't be,” he says. “In some law enforcement communities, a soft uniform is appropriate, and others, the chief or sheriff wants them in a formal LAPD-style uniform.”
“What works in my community wouldn't work in another community, I get that,” adds Carpenter. “But it's my responsibility in the community I work in to be innovative and try to find ways to maneuver, to take care of my officers any way, any time I can.”
As chief of Utah’’s Park City Police Department, Carpenter felt it might be worthwhile to put officers in external vests about three years ago. Thanks to his exposure to international policing through IACP, he had seen how many overseas law enforcement agencies had been using outer carrier vests. As he learned more about the equipment, Carpenter discovered that they dispersed weight better, making them healthier for an officer’s back. The organization and distribution of an officer’s gear also proved to be a plus.
But before the vests would become department issue, Carpenter brought the prospect to city officials, and the idea was vetted through two committees. “They bring the information. They do the research. They do the study. They provide the cost-benefit analysis versus what the community perception is,” he says.
It was through that process that Carpenter felt safe with putting his officers in the vests. And the reception has been positive, even when it comes to having school resource officers sporting the attire.
“I wondered how that would be. Honestly, I really thought that potentially that would be an issue, but it hasn't been,” he said.
Even though he made his own evaluations about outer carrier vests, Carpenter credits the committees with letting him approach the decisionand any potential conversations over it—with open eyes.
“Sometimes as a chief, you have to take calculated risks that you think are valuable for your department,” he said. “And that may be that the calculated risk is no, it's not worth it in my community to wear an external vest carrier. That might be the decision. But that being said, I think it's important to put an evaluation process to it so that you're at least strategic in your thought process.”
Interaction over appearance
One community that has found a tactical look appropriate for its police officers is Toledo, Ohio. In 2020, then-Chief George Kral banned tactical vests for the department
“It’s intimidating, and the last thing we want to do is intimidate people,” Kral said at the time, according to WTVG-TV.
"In my opinion, that looks too much like a military soldier. We're not soldiers. We're peace officers,” he added.
But trying to avoid equipping police officers like soldiers can be a losing proposition in today’s world. Many of this century’s equipment advances in law enforcement were born on the battlefield, and they still retain their martial origins. The increasing danger of calls and traffic stops compounds the difficulty of providing even patrol officers with protective equipment that comes in an approachable package.
“You look at active gunman calls, active shooter situations, … (our patrol ranks are) the first line of defense because you're not waiting for SWAT. That's not what you're doing,” said Carpenter. “Your officers that are responding are the ones dealing with these (incidents), and they've got to have the appropriate gear to be able to handle it, to include combat tourniquets, blood stopper, all those things on their person. And they have to be able to carry it with them because there's not time to go back to your car and grab anything. You have to be prepared going into it. … They're carrying all these other things that officers are expected to solve every issue. But we've got to give them the tools and the support in order to do it.”
Carpenter understands the heavy lifting a police uniform must do as both an identifier of law enforcement and a reflection of the community. But after over 35 years in law enforcement—as a patrol officer, a SWAT, a detective, a gang unit member—he’s found that whether officers appear intimidating or inviting relies more on how they treat the public than what they look like.
“Really, I think it comes down to how your officers interact with the community,” he says. “You can have a more militant-looking uniform. But if your officers are engaging, I think that really changes everything. I think that's very, very important, that you need to be aware that you might be perceived that way. But in doing that, I think that that's quickly dispelled when they realize that they that the officers are truly engaged with the community and what they're trying to accomplish.”
“(W)hen I realized that average citizens, they're more concerned how they're treated, and they can't even begin to tell you what the uniform looked like. Then I started realizing in my mind, you know what? I think this isn't as much an issue as how they're being treated versus what they're wearing “
