. . . . .

brown citizens came here from the south during word war i irk lured by recruiters for government and private industry to work in shipyards and defense plants. ♪ after the war, the shipyards

closed and many factories moved to the suburbs leaving most nonwhite workers behind. technology put more worker tons unemployment and welfare lines where they were joined by farmers and farm workers forced off the land by the growth of agri business. during the '50s oakland became a stagnant getto surrounded by the white hills of alameda county. oakland's all white police department earned a reputation for head-knocking brutality that left a well-remembered legacy of bitterness in the minds and hearts of many who lived in that time and place. >> i was growing up in the late '30s and early '40s. at that time the police department was perceived as blue and for the most part there was extreme fear in the people at that time when the police came in the community. i remember one specific situation where several young blacks were being apprehended by

the police or they went into their homes to pick them up for some alleged crime. i remember one particular police officer kicking one of the young people who couldn't have been more than 13 or 14 years old. ♪ i think that the black panthers raised a very significant issues, and that was the brutality of the police when they came into the black community. >> the police were in the same position as most of the government, not being in fact responsive to citizen's needs. >> for many years in our opinion, in the policeman, what would characterize as a gun hold orientation. we taught them laws of arrest, search and seizure and patrol practices which could only result in an officer-oriented in a very narrow law enforcement way. as we went about, in this police department, as an operational

style in the '50s and some part of the '60s of stopping people on various pretexts -- it was a mandate as it were of the police department itself. we incurred very bad relationships in our community. >> today there is a whole new relationship developing between the people of oakland's gettos and the police. police officials hold regular meetings in the community and they are well-received. >> this is one of the greatest things i've seen in roak land in my 30 years here. i never thought i would see the day. back in '37 and '38 the police sit down and criticize you. >> it's our responsibility to get out in the community and we'll be here if you want us.

i'm here to assure the men you see sitting here that work in the oakland police department will be striving to achieve a goal. they're going to take a humanistic approach to policing. i don't care how frustrated the police officers are or the citizens, i want to see every citizen treated with dignity. >> i think they're moving away from the head knocking brutal physical approach and trying to be more public relations oriented and hopefully more sensitive. i've seen some dramatic effects because i've been here when the case was juxtaposed in very hard terms. >> in a moment, a look at how things are going in oakland these days between the people and the police.

♪ ♪ block boys don't you let the sun go down on this here town ♪ ♪ aren't you going to go to jail, boy ♪ ♪ or you mind wind up getting dropped 6 feet down ♪ >> i joined the department in about 1965. it was very different from what it is now. i think we were a lot more aggressive there. i don't much care for the word harassment.

i would say there was a time we were a head-knocking department, yeah. >> there are about 700 men in the oakland police department. an overwhelming number are white and most live in the suburbs outside the city. patrolman john dixon joined the department after a stint with the coast guard. he grew up in holster as a family man and likes his work. to this extent he's a typical oakland policeman. >> in the past there was a quota system. it wasn't down on paper. but it did exist. you were expected to write a certain number of citations and if you were a good policeman, you made a certain number of arrests. the quota system has to result in more aggressive policemen. they had to go out of their way to find certain things. maybe they went a little far

overproducing numbers in arrests in just about every way. what has happened is that chief gain said no more quota system, and there isn't any today, and that's fantastic. we spend more time today talking to people in a lot of situations where they probably would have gone to jail before. and i mean a lot of situations. >> prior to 1968, the mid-1960s at least, the philosophy of the department was to operate basically as a legalistic tile of police department. gradually into the late '60s and early '70s, we began to change style of operation into what is frequently referred to now as a service style of police department. >> george heart is oakland's new police chief. he obtained leadership of the

department in october 1973 when chief gain retired after 27 years on the force. >> the change came about because it had to come about to be responsive to the community. the community was saying to us, i think, that we want a police organization which services the entire community in a fair and impartial manner. and we want a police organization in which we can have confidence. >> first we'd like get you to think as well as you can about the way you looked at police work and the way of operating before you even started recruit training. >> oakland's new policing style is a product of an unusual collaboration between the oakland police and a group of social scientists. one of these scientists is j.w. grant. grant and his colleagues had been remarkably successful in helping convicted criminals

overcome their violent behavior through a process of self study. in 1969 they convinced police officials that by helping violent prone policemen study their own behavior, they would reduce the violence between the people and the police. the chief agreed it was worth a try. today the self study process is carried on by the department's conflict management section. >> at the time there was no regard to the quality of the work. it was just, you know, basically a numbers game. >> one idea that developed early in the self study process was that of tape recording, actual confrontations between oakland police officers and potentially violent citizens. the recordings have proved invaluable in understanding how to avoid conflict and are now used the training new police officers in the art of discretionary decision-making. >> a police officer probably has

the broadest powers of discretion in carrying out his pucks than any other citizen. so what we're going to do today is sit down and listen to two patrolmen as they intervene in a family dispute. we're not saying that everything they do in this tape is the right way to do it. but they made certain decisions throughout this tape. we're going to sit down and critique these bit by pit. this is an actual street incident. these are real policemen and real people. some individual officers when they come into the recruit academy feel they're coming in to be trained to be a tremendous crime fighter. they don't realize that's only a portion of their training, a lot of it is going to be in how to deal with people, how to meet the everyday problems of the community. >> unless you're going to arrest me, arrest me.

if you ain't going to arrest me -- >> i would kind of like to talk about it first. >> say, look, man. that's my wife. i'm her husband. youant got nothing to do with it. you understand me? >> calm down, man. >> don't tell me to calm down, man. >> what we're trying to provide or promote is an officer who does his job, does it well, does it efficiently, who does in fact produce but who at the same time is a very humanistic individual who understands his family and understands himself in the department. >> he's told you in probably 20 different ways what the problem

is. one of the officers already has identified it. >> he wants her back but she doesn't want him back. >> i'm not tell them not to use force because there are those instances where they must use force. but also what i'm saying is there's all different ways to establish your authority as a police officer. you can establish authority by humor, you can establish it by showing concern, pure physical force is not an absolute. that's not the only way one controls a situation. >> what i need is a woman, man, but i can't seem to find myself a woman. i'm looking for it in this one right here but i can't seem to find one. i've been getting drunk every night since i've been home, you understand. >> what's the problem? he's screaming it at you. >> seems like it might be sex. >> okay. why didn't you say it earlier. very simple thing. until he started screaming. plain old sex. >> but the oakland police do more than just talk about

violence prevention in their academy classes. each time an officer must use force in the performance of his duty, it's reported to a computer and periodically the computer selects out those users with an unusually high number of critical incidents. they're invited to appear before a panel of fellow officers who review in meticulous detail his handling of situations that resulted in violence. >> we're asking you to be very candid with us. we're asking you to admit your mistakes. every guy on this panel has made some of the same mistakes that you've made. none of us here are perfect. what we're trying to do is find better ways of doing things. >> the action review panel is voluntary and confidential. no record is kept and no disciplinary action is involved. an officer may sit for as long as eight hours while his peers question and analyze his

actions, judgments, personal attitudes and even his mannerisms. yet since the panels were started in 1971, no man has refused to participate. the moderator is officer bob crawford of the conflict management section. in this case the first ever filmed, the man in the hot seat is officer bernie garhart. >> the suspect had an illegitimate child and refuses to stay home to take care of the child. he had to be subdued to be taken into custody. oak. what happened? >> i don't remember it >> you realize that things like this are official records that can be subpoenaed into court and you can be put on a stand, being sued and somebody can hit you with a report just like that and six months later you might remember it. two years later you would be looking at the guy saying i had to physically subdue a 17-year-old girl who has only been out of the hospital for three weeks after having giving

birth to a baby and i don't remember a thing about it. it it could color you looking very poorly. >> he has sat on panels before. but i think it struck him being different to be sitting in that rather than one of the other seats >> if he had a machine gun, he could have killed both of us. >> listen to what he's saying. >> i know. >> you could have had your head blown off. >> i know that. >> in his case he realized he had a small man's con plex. he kept thinking he had to take the affirmative action in the arrest to overcome the small man thing which he doesn't have to do because he works very effectively. >> i might be wrong about what the object of the panels are. but when a person starts showing up with one of these after another, we're supposed to look into one and i wanted to ask the question, is he one of these men -- it he's not as big in stature as some of us and it's

clear in some of his remarks, does he have a small man's complex and he's taking it out on the kids. >> when i first came on i did have a size problem. i'm only 5'8". i'm not defensive about it. i don't think i am. i'm quicker to act because i'm aware of my size, especially when the person is bigger than me. >> if there was no peer panel, no one to call attention to the fact that an officer did have a particular problem, whether it be a small man complex or what have you, he would act this out on the street and it would be misread. >> i have seen the real hard egg come up here, sit through the panel, totally reject the panel, yet go out and do a different job than he was doing before. >> you pointed out some things that i was aware of.

sort of halfway and i didn't think it was really showing much. it's good to have somebody tell you something that you're already aware of. because then you know other people are aware of it and you'll make a better opportunity to control it, i think. that panel is good. you picked a good panel. there isn't an officer here i don't respect. from that aspect, it's good. if there were a bunch of turkeys sitting here, i would have left a long time ago and you would have heard about it in the locker room. >> the suspect should be considered arm and dangerous. both are wanted for conspiracy and forgery. >> since the inception of the action review panel and other self study techniques, there has been a dramatic drop in the number of conflicts between the police and people of oakland. resistance to arrest and salts

on police officers dropped as much as 30% in a single year, while citizen complaints against police officers have been cut in half. but policemen are traditionalists with. many still like the idea of the super cop, the courageous law man who always catches the crook. and some of oakland's finest are still uncomfortable with their department's new style and philosophy. >> there's basically two parts to the job. one part is enforcing the law, and the second part is, let's say, helping people. relationships with people are a whole lot better than they used to be. but as far as enforcement of the law, we're slacking off, and that's part of the job. >> john dickson works in the

hard core getto of west oakland. the neighborhood is very poor and almost exclusively black. it is not an easy beat for a white policeman working alone. >> you got to be realistic. you child may go through some more as a result of my talking to her. >> i don't think he can go through no more than any other kid that's on the street too. >> the move has been good, we're dealing with the people in a much better frame of mind. the results are much better. >> when i go into people's houses, you don't get as much of a hassell as you used to. yet at the same time, you're still respected as a policeman. >> the public respects us more than they used to. i get a lot more cooperation and you find that more people are at least willing to give you

information on the side than they were before. more people are inclined to give you a helping hand, where before i think very few people were. >> burglary. >> my car has not been involved in no burglary. >> that's what i understand. >> i just came from any girlfriend's house. >> i remember when i first came on and you made a car stop, you immediately got a crowd. today you don't normally gather the crowds but when you do gather a crowd, the people don't tend to be as hostile. >> the quality of the arrests we're making now are much better, no doubt about it. >> but i think we're getting kind of lethargic. we're sitting back, we're accepting the fact that we're a service orientated department which i think the person is inclined to think we're at the beck and call of people.

and i think that's what a lot of us are doing. we're sitting back waiting to be called. >> unless you want to run him here. >> we're more community relations oriented, more of a service type department. and i think at the expense of enforcement, law enforcement. >> the so-called service style is not per se a weak approach to the problem at all. if anything, it's a stronger approach. >> you can have an effective alert police department which does in fact engage in heads up police work, aggressive patrol. that's what the community wants. that's why we exist. >> would you like the department to go back to the head-knocking legalistic department that it used to be in. >> no. i don't think anybody wants it to go back that far, not that far.

>> why? >> it would just create the same old problems we had before, a hostile society, problems on the simplest of thing. just talking to people on the street, i don't think we'd have as much success if we want back to that. >> you believe, probably more than i believe anything, that the officers in this department do in fact want to do and do in fact accomplish a very capable level of police in the oakland community. i believe that they support totally the concept that any police organization can only operate in a fair and lawful manner. >> do you think you have to make a choice between community relations and good enforcement? >> no.

i think they can work hand in hand. it's obvious they can. ♪ this month in month marks the 10th anniversary of hurricane karina. on tuesday, hulian castro talks about the state of recovery efforts in the gulf coast with urban housing and development officials. that's live at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 2. later on in day we hear more from the mayor who will be

speaking at the national press club at 1:00 p.m. eastern with live coverage on c-span. follow the c-span's city tour as we travel to community ace across america. >> the idea is to take the programming if our "american history tv" television and book tv on the road beyond the beltway to produce pieces that are more visual that provide a window into. these cities that viewers wouldn't normally go to that also have really rich histories and a rich literary scene as well. >> a the lo of people heard the big cities like new york and l.a., chicago, but what about the smaller ones like albany, new york. >> we have been to over 75 cities. we will have hit 95 cities in april of 2016. >> most of our programming is event coverage. these z are not event coverage

pieces. they are shorter, they take you some place. they take you to a home, a historic site. >> we partner with our cable affiliates to explore the history and literary culture of various cities. >> the key industry into the city is the cable operator who then contacts the city. because in essence, it's the cable industry bringing us there. >> we are really looking for great characters. you want your viewers o to identify with these people that we're talking about. >> it's a program where we're taking people on the road to places they can touch things, see things and learn about it's not just the local history, because a lot of the local history plays into the national story. >> somebody is watching this, it should be enticing enough to get the idea of the story. but also feel as if this is just in our backyard. let's go see it. >> we want viewers to get a sense that i know that place

just from watching one of our pieces. >> the c-span mission, as we do with all our coverage, leads into what we do out on the road. >> you have to be able to communicate the message about this network in order to do this job. so it's done the one thing that we wanted it to do, which is build relationships with the city and our cable partners and gather some great programming for "american history tv." >> watch the cities tour on the c-span networks to see where we're going next see our schedule at c-span.org/citiestour. coming up next, more "american history tv" with archival footage from our reel america series. then at 10:00, a chance to see this morning's washington journal in its entirety. and at 1:00, a series of programs focused on technology and innovation.

each week american history tv brings you archival films to tell the story. up next, a 1960 police training film that explains how to deal with the mentally ill. the film was shot in new orleans using actual police and nonproffesional actors to portray a variety of situations. it's r part of the archives. >> 3137 in the street, a white female screaming. >> help! no! >> a great many people with whom the average policeman must cope are mentally disturbed.

a few of these become violent. it's fortunate when the police can call on skilled psychiatric attendants for help. however most of the time the police must deal with the mentally disturbed on their own. the vast majority of mentally disturbed people are not violent. they're borderline and continue to live outside the institutions. many are old people whose bodily ills are affecting their minds. >> somebody has got to do something. that's the third time this week. >> what's the trouble? >> i want the children to bring him home. >> we'll take care of that. don't you want to show us some pictures of your children in. >> wait. i have it in my purse. >> come on, we'll look at those. >> they can be handled best at times like this by the policeman who has made their acquaintance on his daily rounds.

the mentally retarded are seldom violent. the police problem here is to keep the boy from being teased or misled into sirius crime. the officer is aware of the neighborhood situation and knows the boy's family is in a better position to head off real trouble. >> i think he should have friends. i just don't know what to do. he's getting out of hand now. i just don't know. >> the would be suicide is also suffering from some type of emotional disturbance. once rescued such persons are not difficult to handle but they tend to be repeaters. unless the safeguards taken, the police may well have to rescue this man again tonight. the public does not appreciate

how risky and time-consuming these events can be. >> let toney give you a receipt. we'll let you use the phone. you want to use the phone? i'll let your folks know that you're in here. >> a person who has attempted suicide should be held until medical help can be find. belts, shoe lace os clothes that he might use in an attempt to kill himself are of course removed. >> everything is going to be all right. >> it's important that he be put in a cell by himself. >> want a cigarette? let me give you a light. >> he should be allowed to smoke but given no matches. few precinct stations have special isolation cells in this one the toilet bowl, wash basin and bunk are all sources of danger if the prisoner should take another attempt at his life. so he must be watched carefully. >> the boy is perfectly all

right. ms. chandler brought some clothes for her boy in the back js he can't have this tie. you must take it back home. that's why i say the best thing to do is leave the boy in here. don't bail him out. let him stay here until we can have a doctor look at him. >> yes, i know, lieutenant. it's not the first time. >> that's what i mean. we've handled him twice in this presyringe already. in here he can't hurt anybody. we'll let a doctor look at him in the morning. in the meantime, if you can get an ambulance from one of the psychiatric hospitals and take him to the hospital, we'll be glad to release him to you. but he will be better off here until you can do that. >> thank you, lieutenant. >> that's all right, sir.

>> once again taking time to talk with the family is good police work. >> time is 8:14. item 101. >> car 10. >> car 10 investigate a disturbance at diamond street. >> most reports of trouble come to the police without any suggestion that a mental patient might be involved. they must be prepared for anything. >> officer, there's a man next to my apartment who is cussing and swearing something awful.

>> don't worry. we'll take care of it, ma'am. what's the trouble up there? >> i don't know, officer. people are raising hell up there all night. >> who is up there? >> the only one i know is paul. >> any fire escapes? >> the only one you see is right up there in front of you. >> maybe you can move all of these people out of the stairway in case we have to come out fast. >> all right, folks. let's mo down. >> mr. harris, open the door, police. >> one moment, please. >> here she comes. he's got a knife.

he's got a knife. >> take it easy. calm down. are you all right? >> yes, officer, i'm all right. he hit me but i'm all right. >> is anybody else in there with him? >> he's alone. >> does he have a gun? >> no, officer. >> all right. has he been drinking? >> not that much. >> has he ever acted like this before? >> he's had spells but he's never hit me before. >> he's had nervous spells? >> yes, sir. >> what are you doing? god damn it? you slipped out on me. you went and called those policemen. uh-huh. i can hear what you're saying. i know what you're telling them. i'm crazy, i done a lot of things. >> shall we go in? >> plenty of time.

get on the radio radio and tell head quarter to send another car >> but he's alone. >> alone but maybe with a knife. get down there. >> okay, folks. >> now the sergeant can set his plan of action. his first step, get more help. >> let's get moving. >> waiting is also part of the sergeant's plan. if apprehension can be delayed for a while, disturbed people often become easier to manage >> no i didn't, officer, really. i didn't want to cause a fuss nap's the reason i didn't call. >> lucy, can you hear me, lucy? you sneak behind my back, you went downstairs and called those police. you was on my sides. >> and you see, now he's been acting strange lately. he thinks the neighbors are out to kill him. >> damn neighbors, all they do is make trouble. >> and really i have been

ashamed. >> officer? don't listen to what she's telling you. she's going to -- is this paul who worked at the midway garage on jackson avenue? >> yes, he's the same. but he ain't worked nowhere much lately. said he's not feeling good. and when i asked him to go to the doctor, he just got mad. >> you hear me, lucy? i can hear what you're saying. you better tell them the truth. if i ever get at you, i'll take you and those neighbors. >> all right, fellas. i'm going to try to talk him out of the room first. but in the event that i fail, you follow me into the room and you take the left side, i'll go to the right. >> yes, sir. >> sims, i want you stationed at this door in event that we have

trouble with him. you watch the entrance door to the hallway. we're going to try to talk him first. >> even when reinforcements are here, delay is still part of the sergeant's plan. perhaps he can win mr. harris's confidence and avoid any kind of struggle. >> let me come in and talk to you, paul. >> no. talk through the door. >> we heard you had trouble with the neighbors. i want to help you. >> those sons of pitches will tell you anything. they'll kill me. did they tell you they wanted to kill me? >> there are four of us here now, paul. we won't let them hurt you. >> open the door, paul, let us in. >> let me in to talk to you. >> no. talk through the door.

>> i can talk better if we come in. >> i can hear right through the door. >> let me come in and talk to you want paul. >> i don't need no talking to. >> talk to the sons of bitches that called you. >> i want to see if you're all right. is there a ceiling light in the room, ma'am? where's the switch? >> right past the tv towards the other door. >> we're coming in paul, to talk to you. what are you doing in the dark. come on out now, let's talk. come on, we want to help you. we're not trying to hurt you. come on in out of the dark so we can talk. le