Nov 2, 2016 3 min read

The recently appointed state police commissioner told a crowd of mostly students Wednesday he likes to break things down to the “lowest common denominator.”

“Some people say I’m simple,” Col. Tyree Blocker said. “Some troopers say I’m simple. But for me, it has worked for over 30 years.”

Blocker, who came out of retirement last year when Gov. Tom Wolf named him the head of the roughly 4,500-trooper agency, spoke during a conference held at California University of Pennsylvania organized by the state school’s Department of Criminal Justice. Entitled “Human Security II: Building Community and Police Teams to Protect and Serve Our Citizens,” the event also featured Mathilda Spencer, who teaches criminal justice in the department; Cody Santiago, an emergency management expert who specializes in advising schools and other public entities; Hans Mumm, an author whose subjects include national and domestic security; and Christopher Wydra, a retired Pittsburgh police detective.

Much of the talk Blocker proceeded to give mirrored the recommendations in a report released last year by a task force the Obama administration created in the wake of widely reported events – including the shooting in Ferguson, Mo., of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer – that brought increased public attention to bear on the relationships between police and the communities in which they work.

Like the task force, Blocker pointed to the importance for police agencies of building trust and legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

“Police agencies cannot operate in a vacuum, (saying) ‘We know what’s going on; you don’t need to know what’s going on, John Q. Public,'” Blocker said.

Body-worn cameras are among the measures he cited as ways of improving transparency in police operations. Blocker said he’s pushed for changes in the state wiretap law, which currently requires officers “to turn off the very technology that we embrace when we go into a private residence.”

Among other points he made was that modern police officers must have “superior interpersonal skills” and that police should move toward a “guardian mentality” instead of a “warrior mentality.”

He also stressed the importance of training and education for police, saying he’s faced pressure in recent months to scrap a college-credit requirement for recruits joining his agency.

“I will not relent on our 60 college credits to join the Pennsylvania State Police,” he said. “We’re looking for thinkers. We’re looking for communicators.”