WEBVTT - The Stink — Sandy Beal E4 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.880 Before we begin, please note this series includes talk of 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:14.600 suicide and sexual violence. Please take care while listening. Badge, bunny, holster, sniffer, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:20.040 road hog. As I've reported the story, a couple of 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.400 new terms were forced into my lexicon. I had to 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.400 google them, but I sensed the be derogatory, and I 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.880 was right in the most crude fashion. They're used to 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:34.120 describe women who have sex with cops on duty. These 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.280 were terms that were used by various people trying to 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:42.240 explain Sandy's connections to local cops. People who were trying 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.040 to assure me that these relationships must have been consensual, 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.000 that Sandy just wanted it. She was a self professed 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:56.360 cop freak, after all the bells. They saw this coming back. 0:00:57.560 --> 0:00:59.520 When I told them what I found out about the 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:04.120 ten cops ups, their initial reaction was, here comes the mud. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.800 They knew that some would judge and blame Sandy. It's 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.600 a pretty incredible attempt at totally deflecting responsibility. Jill Filipovic 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.080 is a feminist author and lawyer. I asked her what 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.760 she made of these terms, like if the telling is okay, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.440 this girl was just a badge bunny, a pistol sniffer. 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.640 That really does remove the bigger picture, which is that 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.200 in this particular case, it was a group of adult 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.920 men who are in charge of this teenage girl. I 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.560 have no hard evidence that Sandy didn't consent to these 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.040 relationships with PG County Police, but even if she did consent, 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:45.520 it doesn't mean these relationships were appropriate. Consent can be coerced. 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.480 Consent can be a product of fear or a desire 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.920 to please or just to avoid a messy scene. Consent 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.480 is an important concept, but it has limitations when it's 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.680 used as the soul factor for determining whether or not 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.960 sex is ethical. I think if we're just thinking of 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.480 it through this frame of did she consent or not, 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:10.120 then we missed the reality that the police officers in 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.120 this situation, they're the adults in the room. They have 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:17.880 responsibility to cultivate young entrance into their field. What instead 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.000 she's learning from these men on the force is that 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.919 she's a sexual object that she's expected or perhaps wanted 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:29.560 to have sex with them. Of course, it's possible that 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:31.680 a teenage girl is going to want to have sex 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.360 with ten different men in the same department, but that 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.919 strikes me as unlikely. What strikes me is more likely 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:39.800 is that this is a teenage girl who is just 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:41.920 sort of figuring out who she is as an adult, 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.040 who is just figuring out what it means to have 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.560 a job, what it means to enter a male dominated workforce. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.280 All of her understanding of that is going to be 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.760 shaped by the expectations that are set by the men 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.400 who are already doing that job. Before Sandy died, she 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.000 wrote something that gets to the heart of how these 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.960 relationships made her feel. Quote but as always, they have 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:09.119 their fun and the hell with you? Why me? Why 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:15.760 do I get sucked over so bad? From my Heart Radio, 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.360 I'm Melissa Jolson and this is what happened to Sandy 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:29.040 Beale and I Heart original podcast, Chapter four, The Stink. 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.760 My belief that a number of PG County police officers 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.840 who are having inappropriate relationships with Sandy is largely based 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.800 on Detective Schelski's recollection that he was inundated with phone 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.200 calls after her death. Were cops all but admitted to it? 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.840 What did you make of her spending all this time 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.840 and having sexual relationships with police officers? I knew it was, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:03.640 I didn't imagine the best. Years later that a steak 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:08.480 is going to come back fro. When Detective Selski initially 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.520 told me about the phone calls, it was an offhand 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.160 remark that he didn't seem to attribute much meaning to. 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:19.120 That's how I interpreted his tone, anyway. But I've spoken 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.800 to him a number of times since, and he told 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.119 me that he too believes that Sandy was horribly used 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:30.040 mistreated by his fellow cops. They were all right, often 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:37.040 considerably older, and she was just a kid, you know 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:43.280 what I mean. And uh, I feel though that they 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.840 should have never done what they did. You know. It 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:55.040 was just it's a relief to hear Detective Selski acknowledged 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.920 this outright, as I've spent much of the last year 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:02.200 exploring the extent of this ethical behavior, and I want 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:06.599 to recap what I've uncovered so far. Sandy started going 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.040 on ride alongs in her senior year of high school 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.840 at just eighteen years old. At the time of her death, 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.520 she was in a relationship with one cop, a married 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.920 state trooper named Doug. Her body was found a mile 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.960 away from his place of work in a pollard that 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.680 was known to be frequented by cops. There was sperm 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.240 in her body, her family recalled that she would socialize 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:33.000 with police officers at night. Her address books were filled 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.440 with the names and numbers of local cops, including some 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.520 that I've been able to confirm participated in the Explorer 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:44.479 program at that time. But honestly, there's a limit to 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.080 the knowledge I can gather about Sandy's relationships with local cops, 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.560 and at this point, I feel like I've hit it. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.240 Unless I get some new information. That doesn't mean I'm 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.960 going to stop probing the question of what all this means. 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.960 I think we owe it to Sandy to contemplate the 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.040 scenario in which the team was victimized by a group 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.000 of police officers, because I think it's very possible that 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:12.000 that's what happened. Being deliberately and different to the suffering 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:17.280 of women is historic and society, and it certainly reflects 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.600 it in law enforcements. So that's what you saw. Mark 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.760 Wynn is an expert in police violence. He's a retired 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.400 police officer who now works to train other police officers 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.800 how to better handle crimes against women. I've interviewed him 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.920 in the past, and I trust his instincts, and if 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.680 anybody wants to debate me on this, I'm more than 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:38.560 happy to do it. I mean, I'm not somebody just 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:43.160 read this somewhere. I spent my entire adult life working 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.159 in law enforcement, so I know my family well. Mark 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.960 started policing in nineteen seventy seven, the same year Sandy died. 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:53.640 He looks like what you might envision when you think 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.920 of a cop. He's tall and broad shouldered and has 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.480 a thick mustache. He's also one of the most courteous 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.960 and patient individuals I've ever met. If you ever have 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.279 to call the cops, you'd want someone like Mark to 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.840 show up. Well, all you have to do is look 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.800 at the history of policing in our country. You know 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:17.680 the country. It's been a job for men, managed by men, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.720 run by men, and that's true for the most part 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:25.840 in the entire criminal justice system. I think when you 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:30.480 exclude women from any you know, function, social or government, uh, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.800 and put a bunch of men together in the room, Uh, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.080 you're gonna have problems. I told him what I had 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.640 learned so far about Sandy, my life as a cop freak, Doug, 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.800 the phone calls, the ten cops, all of it. I mean, 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.480 there there's a potential there for someone to take advantage 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:54.240 of that relationship, no question about it. First of all, 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.040 you're not talking about an emotionally mature person, Um, you're 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.440 talking about somebody's you know, very easily. The influence with 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:06.920 an offender is the perfect setting. You have authority, you're 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:11.160 telling these folks what to do. So can you imagine 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.440 what this what this young woman must have been thinking 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.680 right along this police car. You know, teenager with a 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:19.680 with an adult with a gun and a badge, with 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.160 full authority, So it must have been pretty intimidating. Mark 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.720 was pretty blunt and forthcoming with his theory about Sandy's case, 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.360 and he told me he'd seen things like it before. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.080 I suspect and from what I've seen in other situations, 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.160 they were passing around from one alstar to the next. 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.760 You know, she young, impressionable woman and they knew it. 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:48.480 That's what made her vulnerable. And nobody with any moral 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.440 fiber obviously stepped in and said, what is going on here? 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:57.480 It happened at my academy, Um. You know, instructors extorting 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.680 young women for a scores on their tests, singling out 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:07.280 women who they wanted to secually abuse. Well, and this 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:12.320 is the thing about predation, um, it works better for 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.679 the predator if your victim is vulnerable, and what more 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:21.199 vulnerable place than, you know, a desperate young person trying 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:26.200 to start a Korean law enforcement For Mark, the sheer 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:31.240 number of officers involved with Sandy made them suspicious. It's 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.880 highly likely that they weren't as close knit as police 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:40.280 departments are, weren't talking about all this and sharing information. 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:45.080 It almost sounded like she was being trafficked from one 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.640 officer to the next. Tractors obviously make money off of it, 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.640 but they weren't making money. If this is the case, 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:58.240 they were passion around for sexual gratification. Mark's theory is 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.160 that these police officers they use their power and authority 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.520 for sexually motivated reasons. There's actually a term for that 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:12.240 police sexual misconduct, and for victims who experience it, it 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.160 can be an extremely isolating kind of abuse. Well, this 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.959 is the thing with any kind of misconduct. I mean 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:23.960 the fact that you have a uniform and you represent authority, 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.920 and you know this is somebody using that authority for 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.400 another reason. This is somebody you when they tell you to 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.840 to do something, you obey it, and most people do 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.160 they follow them all there. You know, they don't want 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:50.080 to get in trouble with the police. I want to 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.520 take you down a short tangent now, because I don't 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.720 think you can understand Sandy's story without knowing more about 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.600 the culture that allows this kind of abuse to flourish. 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.679 And it does flourish because despite very few victims wanting 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.560 to come forward. Sexual misconduct is the second most frequently 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.480 reported form of police misconduct, according to research by the 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:16.880 Cato Institute. Police sexual misconduct is a dry term, but 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.280 it encompasses a wide range of troubling behavior, everything from 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.199 stopping a car without cause to flirt with the driver 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.520 to a sexual shakedown, which is when an officer extorts 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:32.640 sexual favors in exchange for not ticketing or arresting the person. 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.400 And a lot of police sexual misconduct isn't actually criminal. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:43.360 It is, however, totally unethical. Take, for instance, an officer 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.800 who responds to a domestic violence call and uses it 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.440 as an opportunity to have sex with a distraught victim. 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.000 In a number of states, it's even legal to have 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:58.040 sex with someone in your custody. To learn more, I 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.800 tracked down one of the few experts that actually studies 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:05.319 this stuff. My name is Timothy Maher and I am 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.800 a professor in the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.319 the University of Missouri St. Louis. Timothy also used to 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.200 be a cop. He spent thirteen years as a police 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:20.400 officer in La dou Missouri. I was watching a news 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:27.000 magazine television show back in the early two thousands, and 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.880 they did a story on a case in New York 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:36.040 State where a police officer was pulling women over under 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.120 the pretense of a d w I stop. He told 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.600 the young woman that he was going to cut her 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:44.000 a break, but he still had to punish her in 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.959 some way. So he said, as your punishment, I'm going 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.360 to make you walk home, and you also have to 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:57.000 take all your clothes off. So she was afraid. It 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:58.600 was dark and all alone, it was kind of a 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:03.840 remote area, and so she reluctantly agreed, and he graciously 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.160 let her keep her shoes on because she said it 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:13.719 hurt to walk into her bare feet. Timothy quickly discovered 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.760 that there was very little research on police sexual misconduct. 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.280 We don't even have answers to basic questions like how 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.240 prevalent it is. We have no way of knowing how 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.080 much of this behavior goes on. Many people are reluctant 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:31.240 to report on the police when these incidents occur. They 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.079 might report to someone else sexually assaulted them, but when 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.640 a police officer sexually assaults them, they often think twice 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.440 about it, and many of them frankly don't report it. 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.160 And when victims do report, it's generally their word against 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:49.400 a sworn police officer. The cover of darkness plays a role. 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.560 It's it seems funny, but a lot of this behavior 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.480 goes on after hours when there's very few other people 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:56.880 around to witness it, and everybody else goes to bed, 0:13:57.559 --> 0:13:59.880 but there's a few people out there still roaming around, 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.559 and then there's the police, because the police work at night. 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.600 You know, you can stop a car, if you want 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:08.920 to stop a car, you can get out and walk 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:11.600 around and confront people and ask them to come over 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:16.120 and even voluntarily talk to me or involuntarily, but there's 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.400 no one there to stop you. Really, the truth is 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.040 police typically in our society and our culture are are 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.280 you know, have the authority and power and this opportunity 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:35.560 to engage. I learned something interesting about the role of 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.800 group dynamics. Bad behavior can be concentrated to a single 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.440 shift or a particular group of officers. The day shift 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.840 could be fine, for example, but certain night shifts may 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.960 tolerate deviant behavior. One study looking at the Chicago p 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.600 D found that officers who worked with colleagues who used 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.200 excessive force were more likely to engage in the same 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:03.600 kind of conduct. The behavior was contagious, as the studies 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:08.200 senior author wrote, quote, officers peers may serve as social 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:13.560 conduits through which misconduct is learned and transmitted, but there 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:18.840 is that culture of not reporting on fellow officers generally 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.800 in law enforcement, not just for sexual misconduct, but for 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.720 lots of behaviors. Timothy has interviewed numerous police officers about 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:30.640 their perceptions of police sexual misconduct. In one two thousand 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.760 and three study, he found that while police officers believed 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:38.160 that sexual misconduct was common quote, criminal justice officials have 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.840 done little to help control the problem, suggesting that this 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.560 problem may in part be fostered by the police subculture. 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.240 The officers I spoke with said they drew the line 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:54.440 though at very serious criminal behavior, inappropriate comments the sex 0:15:54.560 --> 0:16:00.120 on duty, minor violations of rules and regulations, where you 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.800 know what, they don't report on each other it's the 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.880 blue wall of silence. It's that you just don't deal 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.280 with that. Most of them would say, I'm not their supervisor. 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.680 I don't have to deal with them. That's the boss's 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:17.360 job now. I interviewed sergeants and lieutenants to what I 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.840 learned was that, you know, it wasn't unique just to 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.640 the patrol officers. Are the non ranking officers that you know, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.920 ranking and supervising officers were engaging in this behavior as well. 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.480 I want to take you back to fo P Lodge 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.360 number eighty nine, the cop club in Prince George's County, 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:41.920 the place where Sandy's family said she would get drinks 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:47.480 with police after hours, except instead of ninety seven, it's 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:54.400 exactly forty years later. It's two am, and a group 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.720 of cops are grabbing drinks. Some of them are still 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.160 in uniform, including a young woman and who I'll call Marie. 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.000 She's just a few years out of the academy and 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.280 she's hanging out with her coworkers and her lieutenant, who 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:12.360 all called David. The lounge closes and the group migrates 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.399 outside to the parking lot. After a while, Marie really 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.760 needs to pee, so she walks into the woods for 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.960 some privacy. On her way back, in the darkness, she's 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.840 pulled to the ground. Her lieutenant David has grabbed her. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.200 He thrust his hands down her trousers, sexually assaulting her. 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.680 Marie doesn't officially report the incident, fearing retribution. Even as 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.240 a new cop, she understands the consequences of squealing on 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:47.040 a fellow officer, But news of what happened gets around 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.919 the department, and two years later she's called into internal 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:55.119 affairs and asked about the incident. She speaks her truth. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.680 After David is charged with sexual assault, Marie's working environment 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.800 becomes one of intimidation and fear. She's shunned by her 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.480 colleagues and blamed for the prosecution of her abuser, even 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.639 receiving a threat via text. In a brazen show of 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.720 solidarity with her lieutenant, high ranking police officers packed the 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:22.200 courtroom to support him at trial. Ultimately, he's found guilty 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.480 and sentenced to seven years in prison. Marie is reassigned 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:31.159 to the evidence department, in effect a desk job. She 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.920 later leaves PG County Police due to what she describes 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.280 as a hostile working environment. Marie might have thought she 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.679 was one of the boys, but she wasn't part of 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:51.440 the brotherhood. Marie, she didn't just lose her job. Trauma 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:57.439 has a cost. It costs time, money, energy, and it 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.800 costs Marie her peace of mind. After the assault, she 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:09.080 reported having nightmares, crying spells, heightened anxiety. This attack and 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.760 the culture that tolerated it had ousted her from a 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.879 community she worked so hard to join, and then she 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.520 was blamed for her own downfall. All of this made 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.159 me think of Sandy. If Sandy was a victim of 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.760 some kind of police sexual abuse, I think it's fair 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.639 to assume it would have weighed heavily on her mental 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:36.040 health too. One more secret the teen had to carry. 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.480 Police sexual misconduct has been a problem in our profession 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:48.040 for decades. That's Tom Tremblay. He's a former police chief 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.399 with a thirty year career in law enforcement. These days, 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.080 he works to advise police departments on how to respond 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:58.240 to domestic violence and sexual misconduct, including within its own ranks. 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:04.200 You can't talk about policing without a really courageous conversation 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:10.159 about male dominated culture, about hyper masculinity, and this is 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.720 something that our profession hasn't done. And I when I 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.080 taught when I address hyper masculinity and male privilege and 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.640 trainings around the country, I'm oftentimes met, you know, in 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.000 this male dominated culture with what do you mean male privilege? 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.760 What do you mean hyper masculinity? In Tom helped to 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.399 author a model policy for how police departments should handle 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.680 sexual misconduct within the ranks. It prohibits using a law 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:41.159 enforcement position, badge or identification card to solicit initiate a 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:46.160 coerced sexual contact with anyone, and it explicitly banns sexual 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:51.040 contact with anyone in a police explorer program. You might 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.960 think that police departments would already have specific policies on 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.639 this issue, but Tom told me that many don't, and 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.440 so one of the major challenges that I see when 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:05.000 I talk to police leaders around the country is the 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:09.560 first thought process is, we don't need a policy to 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:14.040 tell officers they can't sexually harass or sexually assault colleagues 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.119 or citizens. We just don't need that. It's not necessary. 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.679 These police chiefs might not feel like it's necessary to 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.359 explain to their officers that they shouldn't break the law. 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.199 But a lot of police sexual misconduct isn't illegal, and 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.439 without it being clearly defined, it lives in this murky 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:37.040 space of being wrong but silently tolerated. One of the 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:41.480 policy components that I recommend that law enforcement consider is 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:45.680 that consent shall not be an affirmative defense for any 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:49.760 behavior that's addressed by prohibited conduct of sexual harassment or 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.919 sexual misconduct. Meaning a cop can't just justify breaking the 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:58.159 rules by saying that the victim consented simply because the 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.560 police the badge and the gun, and the authority to 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:06.560 you know, stop and detain someone, search someone, arrest someone, 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.040 take their freedom away. All of those things are interconnected. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.400 Of course, a policy on police sexual misconduct is only 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.560 as good as its enforcement, but in a culture where 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:22.440 secrecy rains, mandating that such behavior must be reported can 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.640 help to break apart the blue wall of silence. If 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.960 someone sees something or suspects something, they're obligated to come forward, 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:34.800 not to turn away. The PG County Police Department does 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:38.639 not have a police sexual misconduct policy, though when I 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:41.480 asked a spokesperson about this, they sent me a few 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:46.600 pages on discrimination and sexual harassment. That policy only protects 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:50.480 employees from abuse by other employees and says nothing about 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:54.720 the general public. However, Maryland did pass a law in 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:58.800 that prohibits cops from having sex with the people they 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:02.800 interact with in the course of their duties, victims, witnesses, 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:15.760 and suspects. When Sandy started training to be a cop, 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.200 only two percent of law enforcement officers in the US 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:23.439 were women. That number grew to around by the end 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:27.120 of the nineties, and then it just stagnated. It has 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:31.359 remained virtually the same for over two decades. Compare that 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:35.520 to New Zealand, where I was born. They're about of 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:38.600 cops or women, and they have a goal of recruiting 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.720 women in order to better reflect the diverse communities that 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:47.800 they police. Like Mark Wind said, the consequences of leaving 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:51.280 women out of the room are severe. Not only can 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:54.600 it breed hyper masculinity, but it doesn't reflect the true 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:59.160 makeup of society. And there's evidence that women police differently 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:03.119 than men do. They're generally less authoritarian and less likely 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:07.040 to employ both excessive and deadly force, and they may 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:11.200 be uniquely positioned to help female victims of crime. Studies 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:14.560 show that domestic violence victims, for example, are more likely 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:17.320 to report to female cops, who tend to show more 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:21.040 patients and concern than their male counterparts. But if you're 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:24.439 a female victim in the US, it's statistically likely that 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:27.320 a male police officer will respond to your call for help. 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:30.720 He likely will have been trained by a man, his 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:33.800 boss is probably a man, and he will have spent 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.159 his entire career working in an environment where women's voices 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:41.960 are rarely heard. I keep thinking about Murray, the female 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:45.840 cop who was sexually assaulted at the FOP lodge. She's 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:48.359 not out in the world working as a police officer 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:52.520 right now. Like Sandy, she didn't get to fulfill her potential. 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:57.520 How many other women have similar stories. Here's Kim and 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:02.200 Stephen talking about Sandy's dream. I think she would have 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:05.840 been a trailblazer. She had a strong sense of justice. 0:25:06.359 --> 0:25:09.560 She was um, someone that knew the streets well and 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:13.680 understood urban life, and she would have just been really great. 0:25:13.760 --> 0:25:16.240 She had a heart for people, heart for women, heart 0:25:16.800 --> 0:25:20.520 humankind in general. And so we lost somebody that probably 0:25:20.520 --> 0:25:23.800 could have been a really good police officer looking back now, 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:26.280 and she probably would have made a good cop, you know, 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:29.280 I mean, she could have handled being a cop. You 0:25:29.320 --> 0:25:31.400 know what I'm saying that, You know, if that kind 0:25:31.400 --> 0:25:33.639 of gives you an insight, she had a bet at 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:37.320 an advocate, she would have been a really strong personality. 0:25:37.680 --> 0:25:41.040 I would love to have been able to spend more time. 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:42.760 I have to. I have to really think about that, 0:25:42.800 --> 0:25:46.840 because I feeling tears as I think about it. Because 0:25:47.400 --> 0:25:52.960 we do, we lose out our dreams and our desires 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:56.320 got thwarted. They got it, got dashed, taken away from us. 0:26:02.840 --> 0:26:06.440 The way Sandy was treated by PG County cops, who, 0:26:06.520 --> 0:26:11.119 according to Detective Shachelski, expressed no remorse after her death, 0:26:12.000 --> 0:26:15.679 it was like she was less than in their eyes, disposable. 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:19.920 It made me wonder how their attitudes towards women might 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:22.960 have carried over into their work, influencing the way they 0:26:22.960 --> 0:26:27.120 interacted with female victims. It's worth noting that domestic violence 0:26:27.160 --> 0:26:30.560 calls are the largest categories of calls the police officers 0:26:30.600 --> 0:26:34.800 respond to. Here's Jill. I think that does call into 0:26:34.880 --> 0:26:37.640 question how they behave in other aspects of their work, right, 0:26:38.200 --> 0:26:41.000 how they investigate crimes against women, how they treat acts 0:26:41.000 --> 0:26:43.960 of sexual violence. I just don't see a universe in 0:26:44.000 --> 0:26:47.800 which you can have those really misogynists, really toxic group norms, 0:26:48.160 --> 0:26:51.080 and still, for example, investigate a rape case in a 0:26:51.119 --> 0:26:55.040 completely full and fair way, or investigate a suicide of 0:26:55.040 --> 0:26:57.760 a young woman in a completely full and fair way, 0:26:58.680 --> 0:27:01.280