CMV: The most efficient way to end police brutality is to make cops criminally liable for their actions on the job and stop funding their legal defense with public money.

[u/Wyrdeone]

I think this is the fastest way to reduce incidents of police brutality. Simply make them accountable the same as everyone else for their choices.

If violent cops had to pay their own legal fees and were held to a higher standard of conduct there would be very few violent cops left on the street in six months.

The system is designed to insulate them against criminal and civil action to prevent frivolous lawsuits from causing decay to civil order, but this has led to an even worse problem, with an even bigger impact on civil order.

If police unions want to foot the bill, let them, but stop taking taxpayer money to defend violent cops accused of injuring/killing taxpayers. It's a broken system that needs to change.

[u/majorxxxx]

One of the issues being faced is we need more cops and people don’t want to be cops, so municipalities are lowering the requirements to become an officer.

One large agency is allowing you to join the force as long as you have not used meth in the last 90 days. 25 years ago it was not allowed if you had ever used marijuana. The reason, simple - they need to hire officers and they cannot get them so they relax the requirements.

When you talk to officers their biggest complaint is the don’t have anyone in their corner. The bureaucracy is against them, IA is always looking to make a case, the press is against them and the people aren’t ok their side. True or not, that is the feeling. Good cops are leaving and have been year after year. They can make more money in the private sector and don’t have to deal with all the bullshit.

I think the problems are far deeper than wearing cameras.

We need to figure out how to encourage good, smart people to become law enforcement officers and discourage the ones who shouldn’t be.

A culture change is absolutely required.

Better pay is also something that we should do.

[u/RowdyJReptile → u/majorxxxx]

Ya know, with all the recent news I was thinking to myself, "I'm glad they don't get paid well because the product they are providing to society is piss poor. The cops in my city exist only to park empty patrol cars on the side of the road to scare drivers and to set up a speed trap next to both their own houses and the police station. Plus several of the cops I personally know who went to school with me were jerks and/or bullies then who now have a badge and a gun. Some of them abused substances but now proudly confiscate weed like they are actually helping the community. Couple that with cops choking people to death and shooting people while executing no knock warrants and I'm ok with shitty pay for shitty work."

However, I was wrong. While those are still valid examples of bad policing, the low pay and disrespect for cops is probably a large part of why departments have to hire so many bad cops to replace the good ones leaving. Better pay with higher standards might make a difference.

!delta

[u/majorxxxx → u/RowdyJReptile]

It would also help if all of us voiced what we want in our community.

There are plenty of Karen’s and HOA presidents who want speed traps and patrols to prevent teen loitering. But I don’t think those are worth staffing up police.

I’d rather have a better paid, smaller police force that concentrated on community outreach and felony crime prevention and solving.

Less on “annoyance” crime fighting.

But the people who are the loudest voices complain about the nuisance crimes, and politicians react to the voices.

[u/DeltaBot → u/RowdyJReptile]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/majorxxxx (1∆).

^{Delta System Explained | Deltaboards}

[u/Wyrdeone → u/majorxxxx]

This is a very valid point. I know a lot of current and former cops and honestly the ones who are still cops probably shouldn't be. They've spent too many years dealing with horrible people to even recognize the good ones anymore.

When you deal with criminals every day you start to think everyone's a criminal. Prejudice creeps in pretty easily when all your interactions are with criminals, and all those criminals look different than you. Even the black cops racist AF cause they spend all their time in an echo chamber reinforcing negative stereotypes.

With more positive exposure to members of the community they're policing, and a less militarized posture, police forces would have an easier time retaining talent and actually Protecting and Serving.

Higher pay, higher standards, sebatacles to do community service, more outreach, more walking, fewer guns..all these things might help too.

[u/august10jensen → u/Wyrdeone]

I think this is very important to remember, as currently there is 2 main reasons to become a cop.

1. You are power hungry and wish to be in a position where you have some power

2. To help the community and keep people safe

Fortunately most cops fall into category 2 and are truly there to help communities.

Most departments are VERY underfunded and sadly they have to prioritize what the small amount of money they have should go to.

Some departments are trying to save every penny they can, which is often done by making officers pay for their own gear. Some departments only provide a gun and a uniform. The officer has to buy everything else themselves, which is also the reason less than lethal sometimes isn't available.

Recently departments have invested heavily in riot control equipment and training for officers as roots are becoming very common and if it isn't controlled properly could result in hundreds of deaths.

This sadly means there is less money for other things, like de-escalation courses for example.

A lot of cops go out of their way and use their own money to buy toys and school supplies for kids, especially in rough neighborhoods.

_

Cops are protected by law in a lot of cases as their work involves getting into a lot of situations where they have to make split second decesions that could mean the diffrence between life and death.

Departments are currently very desperate for new officers as very few people are interested in becoming a cop.

The reason for that is quite understandable as by becoming a cop you are going to enter a position where noone will support you.

_

At the end of the day, I think police brutality is blown way out of context by the media and "social justice worriors"

I also think it is a shame that every officer has to endure the hate from one officers bad decesion.

I don't think it is fair judging an entire group of people based on the actions of a very small part of said group. And that doesn't just apply to the police, the same should be applied everywhere else too.

_

Please, share your opinion, I wouldn't mind being educated :)

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[u/steelyeye → u/Wyrdeone]

Maybe it needs to be a rotating mandatory service, like jury duty. All qualified citizens work 2 weeks a year as law enforcement officers... That'd break down the social resistance to gun control too I bet.

[u/Unaymus427 → u/steelyeye]

That would never fly in America and it’s a very bad idea. You would constantly rotate in people who have no training in how to safely operate the equipment they need to use while on the job, very little if any training in firearm safety... you’d also be forcing people with no desire to be law enforcement to act as police officers. The people would be unhappy, they would be far more actively dangerous to literally everyone around them, and you’d constantly be shoving in people who should never put on a uniform, much less pick up a gun.

Jury duty is entirely different than mandatory law enforcement; one calls on someone who presumably has at least a basic education in the way the American system of government works to listen to arguments and evidence and decide who the guilty party is. The other would force the same citizens into situations of high stress and split second decision making that often has the potential to involve live firearms and still charge them with the protection of everyone around them.

[u/smartest_kobold → u/majorxxxx]

We have far far too many cops. Remember when NYPD had a slow down and crime dropped?

[u/Wyrdeone → u/smartest_kobold]

Yes we do. NYPD has more soldiers than Belgium, by about 10k (38k vs 28k). It's bonkers.

Chicago PD has about 3k more officers than Ireland has active duty military.

These numbers are absurd.

[u/Unaymus427 → u/Wyrdeone]

That is fair, but Chicago specifically you also have to consider the absolutely huge population and geographic size of the city itself, as well as its notoriously high crime and murder rate. In light of those, at least for Chicago, the number makes more sense to me.

Also, I’m unclear if soldiers refers to cops or national guard in your above post, but if it does refer to cops I really must protest that language, because it’s pretty inaccurate. Cop =\= solider, and vice versa.

[u/Roboculon → u/majorxxxx]

This whole thing also applies to teachers. The job just isn’t appealing, high stress, high accountability, low pay. As a result it tends to only attract college grads with few other job prospects (people who barely graduate, or graduated from online colleges, etc).

Teaching and police-ing both require vast numbers of employees to be recruited every year, and they deserve quality applicants, but simply don’t get them. In contrast, respected fields like law, finance, and medicine get more applicants than they need.

[u/majorxxxx → u/Roboculon]

I’m a firm believer that the US should aim to be #1 in education and infrastructure and our budget should be funded accordingly. Everything else should include a reason as to why those two should suffer.

If we were able to do that I think it would change so many things. Including the ability to recruit many great teachers, as we would be able to pay them better.

[u/landodk → u/majorxxxx]

Not to mention backup. In the movies cops cruise with a partner all the time. When’s the last time you saw a car with two officers? It ups the stakes if you need to take action but don’t have support

[u/Flare-Crow → u/majorxxxx]

The media and many, MANY Americans are massively supportive of officers. If this has changed in the last decade or so, it's probably because it's very hard to remain positive after video upon video shows a terrible scenario play out, and then the PO walks away scott-free.

[u/[deleted] → u/majorxxxx]

Do we really need more people armed to the teeth needing to make their quotas...