The police provide invaluable services to America. However, police brutality and poor relations between law enforcement and minority groups remain massive problems.
Big Picture
The police force serves to enforce the law as well as ensure the safety of American citizens. Insufficient training has resulted in killings as well as discord between law enforcement and minority groups. This proposal serves to provide a comprehensive approach to ensure that all American citizens are fairly and adequately protected by the police.
Operative Definitions
Ticket and arrest quotas: As defined by Shaun Ossei-Owusu, writing fellow at The American Prospect, this term refers to “formal and informal measures that require police officers to issue a particular number of tickets or make a certain number of arrests, often within a specific time frame.”
Qualified immunity: A legal policy that protects government officials from being held responsible for constitutional violations for monetary damages under federal law; this is enforced under the assumption that said officials have not broken any obviously pre-established laws.
Excessive force: Instances during which authorities who have the legal right to use force use more than the reasonable amount necessary to pacify a situation.
Important Facts and Statistics
African American men are killed by police force at a rate three times higher than white men.
As of April 2021, only seven states, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and New Mexico, legally mandate that law enforcement agents wear body cameras.
After education, police departments are the U.S.’ most heavily funded category of local spending. Policing cost local governments a total of $193 billion in 2017 alone.
Four-Point Plan
(1) Mandate body camera usage.
Require local, state and federal law enforcement agents to wear body cameras from dispatch until the end of each incident. The movement of individual states strengthening their body camera legislation illustrates the general consensus that body cameras hold police more “accountable and make departments more transparent,” benefiting both the people and the criminal justice system. Body cameras reportedly increase transparency, limit brute force, increase civility and lead to quicker resolutions. Investigations of misconduct can be completed quicker when such evidence is available, saving both time and money. Though it does cost money to invest in the storage of body camera footage, these cameras’ contributions to the attainment of justice will outweigh the costs.
(2) Provide more thorough training to police officers.
Officers in all different sectors of law enforcement should be mandated to complete a 35-week police training course that emphasizes de-escalation and highlights the dangers of racial profiling. In the U.S., police training varies in length from 10 to 36 weeks in total, compared to U.S. Navy Seals who train about eight months for a six-week deployment. On average, police departments spend 60 hours on firearm training and 44 hours on self-defense. However, non-lethal weapons like tasers, which can be strong alternatives to guns, only receive an average of eight hours of training, despite manufacturers recommending a training time of 36 hours. During this time, prospective officers should also take the Harvard Implicit Bias Test, which was proven effective in informing officers of their subconscious biases in a 2018 NYPD study.
(3) Restructure the police budget and make additional investments in community programming.
All levels of government should work together to redirect one fourth of the national $119 billion police budget—which includes federal, state and local spending—toward further training while investing additional funds toward community programs such as life skills training and family therapy services. By redistributing the U.S. police force budget to fund body camera technology and training, future officers will have the resources they need to serve their communities to the best of their abilities, and accountability will be more fairly monitored. By investing more in community programs, the need for policing will lessen, and the overall well-being of the community will improve.
(4) Ban ticket and arrest quotas.
Abolish ticket and arrest quotas on federal, state and local levels and allow officers to respond to dangerous crimes, rather than simply searching to satisfy an arrest requirement. Further, many contend that quota-based systems perpetuate racial profiling. Official abolition of quota systems in policing on all different governmental levels will increase trust, productivity and justice.
Why This Initiative Is Important
The unjustified police killings of many BIPOC in 2020 highlighted the reality of police brutality and sparked further movements for racial justice and equality across the U.S. Meanwhile, many are right to point out that crime rates in inner cities are particularly high and that not all violent interactions between law enforcement and minority groups denote racism. If this policy proposal or others like it are implemented, not only will racial bias and discrimination be combatted more effectively, but the police will receive the tools they need to better de-escalate situations and diminish the incidence of violent outbreaks between law enforcement and civilians.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual authors.
Acknowledgments
The following student(s) worked on this nonpartisan proposal: Olivia Bronson, Barton College; Deaven Rector, Morehouse College; Zariya Jeffers, Clark Atlanta University; Anna Birman, College of William and Mary; Paul Samberg, University of Kansas; Katelyn Owens, The Open University; Diego Andrades, University of Southern California; William Duffy, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Shreya Shesadi, Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University; Amane Shuman, Florida International University.
The following individuals worked with our student interns and contributed expertise, wisdom and moral support in the development of this proposal:
Brian Churchill: Police Sergeant, LAPD. Los Angeles, CA.
Thomas Datro: Police Sergeant, LAPD; Doctoral Candidate, University of Southern California. Los Angeles, CA.
Sinead Younge: Professor of Psychology, Morehouse College; Director, Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership. Atlanta, GA.
Note: Not all participants agree with every aspect of this proposal. To arrive at a proposal that takes multiple views into account requires compromise and difficult decisions.
Sources
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