What I've Learned from Two Years Collecting Data on Police Killings

[Dustlawyer]

17. Sounds like a job Congress COULD DO. I didn't say would do because we all know that they won't.

They could put teeth in the reporting law. The Chief could be required to designate someone to keep track and release the incidents as they occur and sanction the chief if they don't.

I used to work with a police organization (16,000 law enforcement officers strong) providing legal defense in cases where they shot someone, or were under a legal investigation as a result of the performance of their jobs. I learned a lot! I went on "ride-a-longs, went to their conventions, and their continuing education classes. What I learned was that for all intents and purposes they are all Republicans. The Democrats would secretly come to me and tell me that they could not be openly Democrat or they would be ostracized and worse. I was openly Democrat, but they tolerated me because of what I did for them. I never took a case I wasn't comfortable with since I was doing it pro bono.
When going on the ride-a-longs I became friends with a patrol Sargent who explained that they do have a problem with the people attracted to the job for the sheer power trip nature of the job. People who only feel better if they are inflicting pain and misery on others. They also have the steroid, body builder group who all were extremely short tempered. He flat out told me that if an officer were to cross the thin blue line they were risking their lives, not just their careers. When I told him how wrong that is he asked me how I would fix this. I had no answer that I thought would work. He genuinely wanted to know because he hated, as do many officers, covering for an ashore or worse. Not everyone is willing to be Serpico, especially when they have family's. He said that the best they could come up with is isolating the bad apple and making them worry about whether officers would be quick to back them up. While it was acceptable for them to do this, it would not be acceptable to fire them publicly or turn them in for violations of the law.
This is all from a man that had his neck broken by a drunk driver while approaching a stolen car on the highway, and who had to shoot a former H.S. friend who committed suicide by cop by forcing my friend to shoot him. He is haunted by this to this day.
I told him that he could fix a lot of this if he got the Sheriff and the rest of the guys who had a problem with protecting all of the bad apples. I would tell them all this at the conventions and I didn't care about the threats I got when I did. My sheriff buddies from my area told everyone I was one of them which gave me some comfort. I was just labeled the crazy Librul ambulance chaser.