Thee have been a number of reforms proposed to bridge the deep and dangerous chasm between law enforcement and the nation's minonties, especially African-Americans. These suggested changes in current practice include: a much wider use of lapel cameras; a greater emphasis on sensitivity and deescalation training; and an expanded use of community policing. Lapel cameras involve a high storage cost for the videos and raise privacy concerns; sensitivity training is often treated as a joke; and community policing has long been advocated but only sporadically employed. What then would I recommend that would help bridge the divide between the police and the citizens they serve, and in the process, save many lives? My recommendations follow:
1.) Institutionalize the Mentally Ill
It was a great mistake when the decision was made to close mental care institutions and let the mentally ill try to survive on the streets or depend on the care of their families. Thus, institutionalizing the mentally ill and providing the resources to properly care for and treat them should be a priority for the U.S. nation. Many of those fatally shot by the police were found to have a mental illness -- a study in Maine found that fifty-nine percent of those fatally shot by police had a mental illness.
2.) Use a Trained Professional on Domestic Dispute Calls
It is either Milwaukee or Madison, Wisconsin that has a ride-along program in which a trained professional rides along on domestic violence police calls. The major drawback in that program is that it doesn't occur during the hours that domestic disputes are most likely to occur. A trained professional is better equipped than are the police to deescalate the dispute before it erupts into fatal violence.
3.) Do a Better Job of Evaluating Recruits
When the U.S. Justice Department (DoJ) did its investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), sparked mostly by the many instances of use of excessive force by the Albuquerque police, the DoJ said a much better job was needed to be done in evaluating the psychological fitness of recruits. In an effort to beef up the numbers of police officers, the APD was hiring officers from other police departments without adequate evaluation of their fitness.
4.) Hire More Women as Police Officers
It is a phenomenon noted in Albuquerque and generally across the nation, that use of excessive force is limited almost solely to males, especially younger officers. Criminologists have noted that if a male hasn't committed a violent act before the age of 35, that person will probably never commit an act of violence; therefore, along with hiring many more female officers, hiring male officers who have experienced more of life might reduce the level of use of excessive force by police
5.) Follow the Constitution
The 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Tennessee v. Garner prohibits shooting in the back a fleeing suspect if the lives of others are not in jeopardy. The Missouri attorney general has admitted that Missouri state law does not follow constitutional law. New York state law makes it a crime to resist a police officer. Thus, Eric Garner would have been committing a crime if he had resisted being choked to death.
6.) Enact Meaningful Gun Control
When gun control is discussed today, it is done in the context of "common-sense" control, including, mostly, background checks and, at the outside, bans on assault rifles and large-size ammunition clips. What is needed, instead, is a ban on the manufacture and importation of handguns and handgun parts. This same ban should be extended to military-style assault rifles and semi-automatic long guns. In order to reduce the inventory of the most dangerous firearms, as described above, there would be a five-year period in which these described weapons could be turned in. A premium of twenty-five percent over the retail price of the firearm would be paid by the national government in the first year and the premium would decrease by five percent each year, resulting in a five percent premium in the fifth year. After the five-year period is over, anyone discovered to possess one of the prohibited firearms should be subject to a stiff fine, say $3,000.
As for ammunition clips, I see no good reason why they should not be limited to a maximum of three bullets.
7.) All Police Officers Don't Routinely Need Firearms
Only 200+ of the 6,000+ officers in the Manchester [England] Police Department are issued firearms. U.S. police officers who have clerical, administrative or communications positions don't routinely need to be issued firearms.
8.) Drastically Change Training Hours Allocations
Generally speaking, police departments assign a lot more training hours to use of firearms than they do to the training on how to deescalate a tense situation. One police department that I have read about but don't remember the name, provided over fifty hours to firearms training and eight to deescalation training. This disparity does not occur only in the training of recruits, but firearms proficiency must be maintained throughout the career of a police officer.
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