I was appalled to see George Floyd brutally killed, and I believe that officers committing such acts should be held accountable. However, the problems appear to be more than just a “few bad apples” in law enforcement. So I looked for recommendations for an ambitious and comprehensive program for improving public safety for all citizens of the nation.
Two recent columns in the Washington Post impressed me as prudent and feasible responses to the recent slaying of African Americans across our nation. The first is by Richard H. Gibson Jr. and John J. McCarthy entitled “Prosecutors and police must pave the way to public trust” published on June 19, 2020.
Richard H. Gibson Jr. is state’s attorney for Howard County and John J. McCarthy is state’s attorney for Montgomery County. As state’s attorneys, their goal is to maintain public safety for all members of our communities. They call for a philosophy of service and protection to the community rather than a militaristic warrior mentality.
Diversity first, ensuring justice in America is not “Just Us”: “The criminal justice system, prosecutors, police and judges should reflect the demographics of the community they serve.”
Reach out to today’s youths: “…connect with the youths in our community, to equip them with knowledge and coping skills to navigate interactions with law enforcement…”
Promote cultural competency and implicit bias: “Law enforcement officers should be trained in the concept of implicit bias, use of body cameras, how to interact with individuals suffering from mental illness and de-escalation tactics.”
Improve training for police: Law enforcement officers should be taught safer detention and arrest strategies, including nonlethal methods to apprehend suspects. Chokeholds should be banned nationally and use-of-force guidelines standardized across the nation to exclude extended use of knee-to-the-neck methods for putting suspects into custody.
Assure police accountability: “…adopt the recommendations of Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing … ensuring that police-involved use-of-force cases resulting in death be prosecuted by offices independent of where the officer served.” “…all police-related shootings resulting in death should be investigated by police agencies independent of the department from which the involved officer was a member. The results of those investigations should be published for public transparency.”
Create a national, centralized database on arrests, police use of force and in-custody deaths to be submitted to the FBI annually.
Establish an independent branch of the State Police to investigate all police-related deaths.
Mandate reciprocal prosecution agreements throughout the country, similar to the memorandum of understanding between Montgomery and Howard Counties.
The second Washington Post column appeared June 22, 2020, by Robert McCarty “Police critic says officers need more money and less stress, along with greater accountability.”
Mr. McCarty interviewed University of Maryland sociologist Dr. Rashawn Ray, a researcher of and advocate for police reform. Dr. Ray recommends we “…reallocate some funding from law enforcement to social services so police don’t have to deal with matters that would be better handled by, say, a mental health specialist.”
Ray also says we need to “Strengthen internal accountability. A top priority for Ray is to oblige police agencies to bear the cost of legal settlements with victims of officers’ abuse. Such payments can reach into the millions of dollars, but typically are funded from the general budgets of cities, counties or states. That means there’s no financial incentive for police chiefs to crack down on misconduct.”
According to Dr. Ray we need to protect “good apple” police who call out misconduct by fellow officers. “There are so many officers I’ve interviewed who have blown the whistle, and then they get vilified for it.”
Ray recommends we “prevent “bad apples” from moving to new jobs. He supports the Trump administration’s recent proposal to create a federal database to track police found culpable of misconduct, so they can’t get jobs elsewhere. Additionally we need legislation to prevent other departments from hiring people listed in the database.” Furthermore, if an officer is released for misconduct, he should not be able to get a job in a police-like private setting, the terrible consequences we saw recently in Oklahoma and Illinois.
Ray thinks the Trump plan doesn’t go far enough, because it doesn’t address the payouts issue or the “need to weaken civil immunity policies that protect police against lawsuits.”
Dr. Ray says we should reduce police workloads. “Officers whom I study, they’re working 60, 80, 100 hours a week. You can’t function like that.”
To support community policing, Ray says to “Increase pay or provide housing subsidies so officers can forge positive connections with the neighborhoods where they work. If you want them to live in the community, shop in the community, go to church in the community, then they have to have more money to do it.” However, often police do not live in the economically disadvantaged communities that they are policing because they want their children to get a good education. The lack of educational opportunity in disadvantaged communities is an obstacle that needs to be addressed.
Lastly, Dr. Ray calls for “…better screening to detect racial animus by police academies, and training programs need to emphasize de-escalation, making physical force a tactic of last resort.”
Walt Houser 