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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSteve Schmidt: Every cop must undergo a federally certified civil liberties training course.
Thinking of police reform this morning. Here are a couple top line thoughts. 1. Whatever imponderable number of Federal Law Enforcement agencies there are, lets have fewer. 2. Every cop must undergo a federally certified civil liberties training course.
3. Police attire should be demilitarized. Police officers should not be dressed like the division ready brigade of the 82nd airborne in the conduct of their day to day duties. 4. Prosecution and investigation of Police misconduct should be de-conflicted by having independent
Prosecutors with jurisdiction over the issue. 5. Recruitment needs to be thoroughly reviewed. There needs to be a zero tolerance policy for any violent conduct or extremist associations. A full psychological assessment should be standard. 6. With the exception of swat teams
training should be demilitarized. Police are not occcupying armies. The concept of Peace Officer should be reintroduced. 7. On duty -on uniform cameras are mandatory.
10:46 AM - Jun 3, 2020
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Couldn't agree more!
FM123
(10,053 posts)A full psychological assessment should be standard. If we can weed out the racist out-of-control chauvins in advance, that would help big time.
LiberalArkie
(15,703 posts)Ferryboat
(922 posts)You dont become an officer just because you want to.
College education, extensive training and certification.
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)matt819
(10,749 posts)A national database of terminated cops, same cops prohibited from gaining employment as a cop anywhere else. Like a sex offender database.
A terminated cop being rehired as a cop results in federal criminal charges, and the chief of the department hiring the terminated cop is subject to federal criminal charges.
Any department that has terminated a certain number/percentage of cops for cause - any cause - will be subject to federal oversight for 3 years.
ProfessorGAC
(64,877 posts)Maybe Schmidt's ideas cover this but, I'd eliminate some veterans depending on their spec, except for SWAT.
I think you have too many hard combat mindsets, because of the training & indoctrination for those military jobs.
Person was a logistics clerk or motor pool, or even artillery. No problem. Their highest skill doesn't translate to street behavior. (Provided we don't militarize further by buying cannons!)
There is too much "war zone" thinking.
Everything is not Fort Apache: The Bronx.
BComplex
(8,019 posts)SergeStorms
(19,187 posts)turn Steve into a Democrat yet.
C_U_L8R
(44,992 posts)Fuck these mercenary nosepickers.
FakeNoose
(32,599 posts)Start hiring more women and more blacks immediately. Partner each new "minority" cop with a white male wherever possible. It would work wonders for the police force's issues.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,309 posts)Here's a list of what does and doesn't work to reduce police violence (if that's your goal), from someone who studies such things:
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For those who are interested in research-based solutions to stop police violence, heres what you need to know - based on the facts and data. A thread.
Lesson 1. Everything youve probably heard is a lie. Specifically, the most discussed solutions to police violence have no evidence of effectiveness. For example, Body cams dont reduce police violence: https://www.pnas.org/content/116/21/10329.short?rss=1
2. There is no evidence that better police training programs or implicit bias training changes police behavior. The trainings vary in quality and rarely result in any accountability/changes in decision-making. Dont put this at the top of your agenda. Next, what works...
3. More restrictive state and local policies governing police use of force are associated with significantly lower rates of police shootings/killings by police. This is backed by 30+ years of research. We identified specific policies that work here: http://useofforceproject.org
4. Demilitarization. Police depts that get more military weapons from the federal govt kill more people. You can stop that from happening through local and state policy. Montana (Red state) has gone the furthest on this. Your state can and should follow.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053168017712885
5. Police Union Contracts. Every 4-6 years your police depts accountability system is re-negotiated. Purging misconduct records, reinstating fired officers, dept funding- its in the contract. Cities with worse contracts have higher police violence rates. http://checkthepolice.org
6. Predictive policing on the police. Yes, use the technology against them. Data on use of force, complaints & lawsuits can be used to identify officers who most likely to shoot someone next and prevent it from happening. Use the methodology to save lives.
Can police data predict how bad apple officers influence their fellow cops? New study says yes.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-predicting-bad-police-behavior-20190801-xumudeezmjalbbpmqwyvh26tdi-story.html
7. Invest in alternatives to police as crime prevention strategies. Every 10 additional organizations in a city:
- Reduces the murder rate by 9%
- Reduces violent crime rate by 6%
- Reduces property crime rate by 4%
The Research: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122417736289
8. Establish non-police alternatives to 911 calls involving people with mental illness. For example, 1 in 5 of the 911 calls in Eugene, OR are diverted to mental health first responders instead of police to respond. A success being scaled in Portland.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-mental-health-experts-not-police-are-the-first-responders-1543071600
9. Resource the Department of Justice (after the current president is voted out) to initiate more investigations of police departments. Departments that receive federal intervention have 25-30% fewer police shootings than those that do not.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kznagw/jeff-sessions-is-walking-away-from-the-best-way-to-reduce-police-shootings
10. Know change is not only possible, its already happened in some places. Oakland police shot 8 people on avg each year 5 yrs ago and, after these interventions were implemented, they had 0 shootings this yr, 1 last yr (the officers were fired) and 0 the yr before. Lives saved.
11. Finally, weve catalogued an extensive range of research studies and other information detailing potential solutions to police violence at http://joincampaignzero.org/research
12. And if you dont have time to read the research right now, weve presented most of this research in rapid succession in this video:
In order to establish these findings we had to:
1. Build the most comprehensive database of police violence in the US
2. Conduct analyses of police use of force policies and union contracts in the 100 largest US cities
3. Track every state policing bill passed in the past 5 years
4. Track every research study published on the subject over the past five years and evaluate for quality
5. Meticulously catalogue the findings so they can be broadly accessible
crickets
(25,952 posts)redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)any links to white supremacist organizations. That check would need to be repeated yearly.
pecosbob
(7,533 posts)Reader Rabbit
(2,624 posts)I wouldn't doubt many of these guys had serious issues that drive their behavior.