Some Ideas for Reducing Police Violence
As any non-racist person can admit, police brutality is a systemic problem that permeates law enforcement culture. This is old news. But there comes a point when we have to channel our anger at the injustices of the system into productive ideas to improve it, rather than continue down a destructive path of allowing that anger to consume us. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that to address it, we’ll need sweeping, cultural changes in how our country handles policing and how law enforcement officers view themselves and their role in our communities. Here are a few ideas, some borrowed, some of my own, that I think could lead to meaningful change.
Ideas to demilitarize police forces:
Adopt new uniforms that are brighter and more colorful. A hot pink or neon yellow uniform would make it easier for citizens to spot police officers and solicit their assistance when needed. It would also provide the opposite effect from the dark gray, navy, and black uniforms that are currently in use by making officers appear less intimidating. This approach has been adopted in many European countries, where police officers regularly wear brightly colored vests to attract attention.
Make police vehicles more easily identifiable in order to attract more attention, rather than camouflaging them to let them sneak up on unsuspecting drivers like wild predators.
Reduce funding for police departments. The trope is that police are overworked and have dangerous, impossible jobs, so let’s address that. Take some of the $112B the U.S. spends on police departments and put it toward new institutions that are better equipped to deal with issues like mental health emergencies, drug abuse incidents, traffic infractions/accidents, and homelessness issues. This will reduce the responsibilities of police officers and ensure that they can focus on stopping violent crimes, and it will allow us to send more appropriately trained, unarmed professionals to all other types of 911 calls that usually get relegated to police.
Ideas to encourage deescalation:
Ban the use of choke holds and other neck restraint techniques.
Hold officers accountable for using force unnecessarily.
Take immediate punitive action for any officer who conceals their badge number, deactivates their body cameras, or tells civilians not to video their actions.
Any time you see a police officer, video them. Record them whether they’re arresting/questioning someone, eating a donut, getting aggressive, staring at their phone, etc. If we make a habit of videoing cops all the time, it will (a) communicate a widespread lack of trust, and (b) encourage them to restrain themselves if they know their actions are always going to be recorded.
Ideas to combat ingrained prejudice and racism:
Require more in-person training on diversity.
Adopt more stringent personality assessments to disqualify applicants whose answers indicate potentially harmful prejudices.
Require current members of the police force to pass personality assessments that test for prejudices.
Hold complicit officers accountable to the same degree as offending officers in cases of racial discrimination.
Publicly disclose the amount of money spent defending officers in lawsuits.
Adopt programs that take civilian reports seriously and result in swift punitive action.
There have been a lot of other good ideas shared in recent days. If you have an idea you’d like to see added to this list, get in touch.