Americans may disagree about the specific problems black people have with law enforcement and the criminal justice system but most can agree that there is a problem.
Excessive force is one issue that craves civil dialogue between those who disagree with each other on why it happens. While simply talking about excessive force won’t solve the nation’s problem, one solution that comes out of most conversations about this is that black representation in law enforcement, particularly that of a higher rank, may be the start of a solution.
Some in Orange County may not know the current Undersheriff is African American. Undersheriff Mark Canty is no stranger to Central Florida. Canty was born in Germany while his father served in the military. When he was in middle school, he and his family moved to Orlando where his mother was born and raised. He grew up in Pine Hills and attended Walker Junior High, Robinswood Junior High and West Orange High School. He knew he wanted to make a positive impact on his community and became committed to that mission.
Canty graduated from Northwestern University and decided to come back home to work for the Urban League in a residential group home. Canty said, “The program I worked for with the Urban League got kids after they had already committed a crime. I wanted to get involved before that, to keep kids from getting arrested.”
Soft-spoken, reticent and humble about his stellar accomplishments, Canty is far more comfortable talking about the achievements of deputies serving Orange County. “They make my job easy and I’m honored to serve alongside them.”
However, his accomplishments are nothing to side-step. One of Canty’s colleagues added Canty was always true to his commitment of helping others by teaching integrity, honesty, loyalty and what law enforcement is really about to rising officers in the academy. Today, some of his mentees hold significant ranks in the field of law enforcement.
Advertisement
Most successful people have a role model who helped guide their paths and decisions. Canty and his role model were so close they actually once lived under the same roof. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, both received football scholarships to attend college. When his brother joined Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in college, like a typical little brother, Canty followed. “He’s kind of my unofficial, undercover role model,” Canty said. But Canty still paved his own way in law enforcement. Although he studied education and was prepared to become a teacher, he ultimately gravitated toward policing spending 22 years serving his community with the Orlando Police Department and working his way up through the ranks to become Orlando’s Deputy Chief. After the 2018 Orange County election for Sheriff, Canty retired from the Orlando Police Department and joined former OPD Chief, now Sheriff John Mina at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
When asked what he’s working to change in law enforcement, the newly appointed Undersheriff said, “I think law enforcement goes through phases where it’s heavily community-oriented and then crime changes and we become very aggressive and proactive. We need to be able to do both.” Canty said law enforcement officers work in ways the community doesn’t always recognize. “They wear a lot of hats that a lot of people don’t know about. Most of the public see us as, ‘they’re just here to arrest people and put bad people in jail,’ but that’s just a small fraction of what we do.” Deputies and officers often function as social workers being someone that victims and suspects can talk to and relate to, according to Canty. Canty is hopeful deputies and officers can change the current stigma to show they are just like the people they serve.
In policing, conflict is often loud and reform is traditionally silent in the media. Regardless, taking note of the diversity in law enforcement departments, which often far exceeds race, can add to the trust factor in high-density black areas. In 1997, Assistant Professor of Geography, Toby Moore at the University of Iowa wrote in his book, Race and the County Sheriff in the American South, a significant fear blacks have with southern policing. “Because of their wide powers and multiple roles, sheriffs played a particularly notable role in the region’s racial history. Nearly always white and male, and overwhelmingly Democrat, southern sheriffs were linchpins in the maintenance of white supremacy and its class-based and race-based privileges. Exercising broad discretionary powers in the enforcement of law, county sheriffs helped reproduce the complex set of social taboos and practices that made up Jim Crow society. Sheriffs were not only empowered to arrest and jail, but to fail to arrest and jail,” Moore wrote. As Americans continue the dialogue about diversity in high-ranking law enforcement positions and as Orange County transitions from a beloved black Sheriff, strides may be made in the criminal justice system in black communities as black people and those sympathetic to their concerns, move into key decision-making roles.
Advertisement
