Police Reform: I

There's a lot that can be said about policing in the US.

We can start by recognizing that, through effective democratic institutions, putting policing under the control of the people and communities they police is crazy brilliant idea. It's an idea that has changed the world, and a situation I'd love to see as a global norm. We should absolutely do more of that.

We can also recognize that there are many police who do good things every day. Their job can be next to impossible at times. And sometimes things go wrong in the course of their jobs, sometimes horribly wrong. Some of those are unavoidable. Some are not unavoidable, but are made worse by the fact that in addition to straight-out criminal acts, there are a lot of people in the world who do stupid things.

But there are also cases where we - the police and the ordinary citizen both - can do better. Sometimes this is because some officers may be prejudiced against the people they serve. Other times, there may be systemic forces that create poor outcomes even when the individual police officers are good people doing their best. And sometimes, fatigue caused by a poorly functioning system can lead to cynical beliefs that then fuel negative outcomes.

When I think about changing the nature of police-civilian encounters, I am primarily thinking of police reform - because those are the people I pay through my taxes, and those are the people who are the trained professionals. Yes, that does place a higher burden on the police and the civilian governments to which they report. Nor does it let our families and communities off the hook for bad behavior, it's just that I don't pay them. (And, I do encourage everyone to support programs that increase responsible civic engagement, especially among youth...but that is a different topic)

It's my intent to think and write a little bit about policing for the next several days. Though I'll try to be explicit, it seemed worth starting with those caveats. In spite on my best efforts, I may sometimes appear to be singling out police. If it does appear that way, remember it is because they are the professionals, and they are the people I am paying. Still, I will do my best to be fair and open-minded, and as always I welcome your thoughts.

I'll close this first post with one principle I think is foundational: policing outcomes are better and society is more productive for all when trust between police and citizens is firm and universal. We seem to be at a low ebb in that respect, and things that build that trust are in a general sense things we should encourage.

With that, until tomorrow...