Policing the Cops

May 3, 2021

I wouldn’t be a cop on a beat in America for $1 million a year. The place is seething with crime, has a drug-addled cohort the size of some nation-states, and a population that is armed to the teeth. America is a war zone, and as drugs flood, its cities and towns and schoolyards, and millions of military-style assault weapons are sold each year, policing has had to go full-on Navy Seal. The country’s fragmented 18,000 local police forces are no match for this toxic culture of drugs and guns, so they have militarized and often behave like an occupying force equipped with body armor, armored vehicles, night-vision goggles, machine guns of their own, and air cover. And most are poorly trained, unaccountable, and some are gun-happy bigots.

Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin filmed murdering George Floyd, with his hand in his pocket. Danella Frazier.

Derek Chauvin’s conviction by a jury on three counts represents an inflection point for America’s police. It doesn’t mark the end of police incompetence, brutality, or racism, but it marks the beginning of the end. The proliferation of cell phone video, social media, mandated body cams, and the Internet-of-everything world with hundreds of millions of cameras everywhere, is criminalizing police murder and mayhem for the first time in American history. It will force change.

The camera doesn’t lie. Some slaughters may occur in the shadows, but from now on a cascade of filmed killings will continue to hit the airwaves underscoring the need for police training, culling, and independent oversight by civilians, as is the case in other countries. Four cop shootings took place around the Chauvin trial, one just a few miles away, and each illustrate poor judgment and police panic: One teenage girl had a knife, another man had only a cell phone, a third was unarmed but shot while getting out of his car, and the fourth had allegedly thrown down his gun. All were recorded.

The House has passed the George Floyd legislation which will help, providing the Senate passes it as well. But if not, every police killing in America will from now on be prosecuted publicly and followed by protesters or activists demanding the resignations of police chiefs, mayors, and culpable officers. Each tragedy will continue to illustrate why America’s police practices are unjustifiable and unsustainable.

In 2020, American police killed 1,127 people, and the Mapping Police Violence Project brilliantly analyzed these deaths involving police. Highlights were grim: Some 96 percent of victims died by gunfire, and only 16 officers were charged. “Most killings began with police responding to suspected non-violent offenses or cases where no crime was reported,” read the report. “121 people were killed after police stopped them for a traffic violation.”

Using lethal force in non-threatening situations is wrong and some cities and states have restricted or removed armed police from traffic enforcement. Others forbid police from stopping cars for mere equipment violations or from answering serious mental health calls without mental health experts with them. Last year, 97 mentally ill people were killed by police and shouldn’t have been. The study also showed that another 80 unarmed people were killed by police, most of whom were people of color, and another 180 killed were armed only with a knife. In the UK, for example, police encountered the same number of knife attacks as their American counterparts, but only used firearms in three cases, according to the Project’s report.

Of course, police also die on the job, but in 2020 most died of non-violent causes. That year, 343 deaths occurred in the line of duty — 222 died of COVID-19, 45 died by gunfire, and the rest died as a result of car crashes, accidents, or altercations.

Another report, by the Council of Foreign Relations, zeroed in on the causes of America’s police malpractice: It found that other developed nations do a superior job of organizing, training, and disciplining their officers. These countries also wrestle with brutality and tensions with minority communities, but, significantly, killings by police in America are shockingly higher undoubtedly because officers seldom face legal consequences.

Decentralization is also a problem. The U.S. has 18,000 law enforcement agencies, local, state, and federal. Canada, for instance, has 200 police services at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, a centralized system similar to those in European countries, said the report. For instance, The Netherlands recently consolidated its 25 police divisions into one national police force. Such national administrations are desirable because they devise and impose uniform standards and provide oversight over behavior.

American police are inadequately trained compared with other countries. Basic U.S. programs take 21 weeks on average whereas European programs last up to three years and include on-the-job internships. The emphasis in the United States is on violence, and the Council’s report states that “police academies, on average, spent the most time – seventy-one hours – on firearm skills, compared with twenty-one hours on de-escalation training or crisis-intervention strategies.” German training concentrates on avoiding force, Japanese police are taught martial arts, and many European forces are unarmed, relying on armed units in special circumstances.

Solutions are obvious. Diverting funds to restructure and centralize the country’s forces would help, and improving training and standards along with legal oversight would reduce police brutality and racism. Certainly not defunding. At the same time, America must address the underlying causes behind so much lawlessness and violence which is the proliferation of illicit drugs and guns. Drug usage is rampant and should be treated as a health issue but isn’t. And gun controls are long overdue.

Oversight is also key. Civilian control over the police and effective police accountability systems are needed to investigate misconduct, corruption, and acts swiftly to address wrongdoing, on or off-camera. Independent watchdogs, with police and community experience, should review all complaints and allegations. A national database should track police officers, and departments, to keep an eye on operations and to assist in the screening of recruits. Chauvin, for instance, had 18 previous complaints registered against him before he killed Floyd. Other cases have come to light where convicted or accused officers quit and simply take their sociopathy to another police force.

America must deal with its drug problem as Europe, Canada, and others have done. They have legalized marijuana and other “soft” drugs. They have virtually decriminalized drug possession because they regard addiction as a medical problem, not a moral or legal one. Their health care systems provide treatment, as well as substitute drugs such as methadone, to addicts under strict supervision. This does not prevent usage but mitigates it. But in America, the drug problem creates fortunes for cartels and pushers, and victims are shunted onto police, courts, and prisons.

IHNE Global Burden of Drug-related Disease. the US, Libya, and Yemen register the highest incidence of drug abuses

In November, Oregon became the first jurisdiction to decriminalize possession of small amounts of so-called hard drugs, including cocaine, heroin, oxycodone, and methamphetamines. Marijuana has been legal there since 2015, but the new law will also divert marijuana sales taxes toward payments for drug addiction treatment. Hopes are that by substituting incarceration with rehabilitation, recovering drug users will be able to lift themselves out of a cycle of addiction, drug-related criminality, and stigma.

This measure was enacted in February and, if successful in reducing violent clashes with police over drug crimes, may become a model for the rest of the country. Decriminalizing the drug problem, policing the police, getting guns off the streets of America, and putting bad cops in jail, are the only ways to arrest America’s cycle of violence and racism.

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