- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Daniel Isom
Daniel Isom
Former St. Louis Chief of Police
Biography
Daniel Isom was Chief of Police for the St. Louis Metropolitan
Police Department from 2008 and 2013. He is currently the E. Desmond Lee
Professor of Policing and the Community Louis at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis.
After leaving the police department, Isom served as the Public Safety Director
for the state of Missouri and as a member of the Ferguson Commission, which
produced recommendations on how to transform the St. Louis region in the wake
of the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Isom was co-chair
of the working group on Citizen-Law Enforcement Relations for the Commission.
Isom’s research interests include police management, police misconduct and use
of force. The Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of
Missouri-St. Louis, where Isom teaches, is a nationally ranked program for
scholarly research and for its doctoral program. As a 2013 Eisenhower Fellow,
Isom studied community policing and police training in Ireland and Germany.
A member of the Metropolitan Police Department for 24 years until his
retirement in 2013, Isom held a variety of positions within the department.
Prior to his promotion as Chief of Police, he worked as the special projects
assistant to the Chief, responsible for the planning and implementation of all
department community-based initiatives. Previously, he served as commander of
several districts as well as the St. Louis Police Academy, head of internal
affairs, and he also worked in the internal audit unit and the juvenile
division.
Isom is a progressive advocate for elevating the standards of
professionalism for law enforcement and strengthening the relationship between
the police and citizens. His policing philosophy is based on the founder of
modern police departments, Sir Robert Peel, who stated almost 200 years ago,
“The people are the police and the police are the people.”
Isom holds a bachelor's, master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Missouri-St. Louis in criminology and criminal justice and a master’s degree in
public administration from St. Louis University. He is also a graduate of the
FBI National Academy, the Police Executive Forum Senior Management Institute
(PERF) and the FBI National Executives Institute.
Seminars
“Policing in America”
The names Laquan McDonald, Michael Brown and Eric Garner are forever emblazoned in the minds of many Americans as symbols of America policing gone wrong.
Those cataclysmic eruptions between police and black citizens have rocked the country over the last two years but their roots go deep and long, exposing a foundation for policing and community relations in American cities and urban communities that cannot stand. This seminar series will explore what has gone tragically wrong in urban police-community relations, including antiquated training, broken oversight systems, struggling communities and embattled police officers. It also will consider the path forward - how to update police training, how to improve police oversight, how to realize the potential of true community policing.
In a series of four seminars, students will grapple with these issues with Dr. Daniel Isom II, a national leader in policing and criminal justice research and studies. Isom, who stepped down in 2013 as Chief of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, is an E. Desmond Lee Professor of Policing and the Community at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a member of the Ferguson Commission, which produced recommendations on how to transform the St. Louis region in the wake of the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. A veteran police officer and advocate for progressive policing and strengthened relationships between police and citizens, Isom will share his professional, personal and academic experiences with the aim of spurring a hearty and honest debate about how to improve policing in America.
Stress and anxiety wash over most citizens when the police trail them on the highway. If you’re not speeding, the police car eventually passes and life goes on. This is the story for the majority of citizens. However in some communities, the driver is stopped. Many citizens believe that who they are, not what they are doing, determines if police will take notice. Real or perceived, a constant feeling of being watched is their reality and their burden. Add in an officer with a bad attitude, along with the weight of poverty, and frustration with intractable crime problems, and it’s easy to understand the strained relations between the community and police in urban communities. We’ll also explore the view from the police car. What is it like to be an officer in 2016 policing struggling communities where distrust is at an all-time high? What is it like to be an African-American officer? What fears and realities drive an officer’s behavior? What drives the so-called “code of silence?” In some cities, Chicago most notably, crime is up, with some attributing it to officers stepping back for fear of becoming the next infamous YouTube star. We’ll dissect police culture to understand how and where it collides with the culture on the streets, creating dangerous conditions for both police and citizens.
Police training has changed little over the last quarter century, helping fuel the distrust on the streets. It is time for a fundamental change in both training and in how departments interact with communities. The community in some respects has set expectations for performance for which officers are not trained and lack the resources to achieve. Training today remains highly procedural and enforcement based. Executive skills, building emotional IQ, understanding mental health issues and connecting with citizens are not emphasized or rewarded. Moreover, key skills are rarely reinforced after the police academy, increasing officers’ reliance on lethal force for protection. We’ll consider the best and worst in policing, including successful tactics in Northern Ireland, and explore how modern policing practices can potentially transform police-community relations. We’ll also cover the failure of the profession to fully embrace community policing. Stop and frisk and hot spot policing only add to strained community relations in the absence of a true community policing approach. Under a “Community Ownership Model of Policing,” the community takes on the crime problem and law enforcement is a resource to develop strategies, provide support and help citizens navigate the criminal and governmental systems. Under this approach, law enforcement is not seen as an occupying force but as a partner in building a better community.
Both Los Angeles and Cincinnati entered into consent decrees with the U.S. Department of Justice after significant misconduct was revealed within their police departments. The transformation of those departments is widely regarded as the DOJ’s greatest success. Critical to those victories was a collective community understanding that the status quo had to change and that collaborative reform was the best model. The community, city leaders and law enforcement all embraced the process. Consent decrees often have similar components that are considered best practices in law enforcement. Independent review boards, early warning systems and community policing programs, technology upgrades, properly equipping officers, independent auditors, and transparency are areas that can significantly alter the operations and the quality of services. The foundation of many of these best practices exists within the larger department like Chicago and St. Louis. However, these practices are far too often symbolic rather than substantive, and in small police departments, like Ferguson, they are nonexistent.
The Ferguson Commission, President Obama’s 21st Century Task Force on Policing, and the Chicago task force established after the Laquan McDonald shooting point to a problem deeper than one rotten apple. It’s a systemic and cultural problem that allows multiple rotten apples to operate with virtual impunity. This includes both the structure within which departments operate, as well as the code of silence that protects officers who stray. In this seminar we will home in on investigating police misconduct. Trust and legitimacy is maintained through meaningful oversight and true accountability but adequate mechanisms for reporting complaints continue to be a problem. Investigations are biased toward the officers and not sufficiently impartial. The investigative process and outcomes are not disclosed for public review. Many communities have begun to address these questions with some success, but there is much more work to be done to build a 21st Century model of policing.