Been thinking about the issue of police, and reforms which (I think) would go a long way to solving the increasingly pressing issues weve been seeing. -Require police to wear cameras. -Institute policies which require cameras to be in use during all encounters with the public. This is for the protection of both the public and the officer. -Encounters with police which result in complaints/arrests/allegations of abuse/fines/tickets/officer involved shootings in which police cameras are turned off automatically removes all of the built-in pro-police court bias (police statement trumps citizen statement) and special police protection policies which are currently in place and designed for use in the police officers favor. -The establishment of a national licensure registry and performance/complaint/crime database for police officers. This is to ensure that any bad apple officer whos been fired from one city for gross misconduct, abuse, or criminal activity will lose their license to practice law enforcement and will not be able to simply get another job with another police department and continue to pollute the police officer pool elsewhere. -An change of emphasis in training for police away from escalation of force to community service. Police should be respected, contributing, protective members of our community--not a militarized occupational force. -Make police unions and police officers financially responsible for court judgements/fines/settlements in police abuse & corruption cases in addition to/instead of the city. When police themselves have to pay for their own misconduct, they will be more likely to root out and expel their own bad apples instead of closing ranks and protecting them. -Shift the function and authority of Internal Affairs divisions away from the police themselves (conflict of interest) and into the hands of third party citizen served boards. -Increase police pay. Police should be VERY well paid, but it should also require extensive training to acquire and maintain the license to be a police officer. Police should be smart and capable, and not have to try to find ways to pad their income in order to continue to serve the public. A well paid police officer would have less incentive to corruption and more incentive to do their job properly and conscientiously to maintain their job security.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:35:45 +0000
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