Policing XII: Conclusion

 Policing in the US has been maligned for its ties to slave patrols and enforcement of Jim Crow laws. But it also has noble roots in the ideas that the forces that ensure civic order and protect the vulnerable are not to be soldiers quartered by external forces in our midst, but are to be civil authorities drawn for the citizenry itself. Seen from this latter perspective, when a significant portion of the law-abiding public fears the police no longer protect or serve the people, that is a sufficient cause for reflection and concern.

It is from this point of view that it seems to me that, notwithstanding all the positive acts of individual officers and department, policing in the US can be improved, and that we have a moral obligation to consider the improvements that can be made. Though we may support institutions like our churches to remind the public of good moral conduct, or serve in youth organizations to help build the citizenry of the future -- these facts do not excuse us from our responsibility to ensure that arm of civil authority we entrust to use force in keeping order should be as close to perfect as humans can manage. Nor can we escape the fact that police are the forces we as a body politic commission, and it is those forces that we maintain that we have a primary responsibility for managing in order to achieve the highest possible degree of protection for all.

In the last 12 days, I have dedicated my reflections to that concern. From those reflections, I suggest the following points:

• Transparency and oversight should be improved through civilian review boards, use of body cameras, and publicly available accounting of complaints and "near misses"
• Training and education should be improved so the time spent learning to de-escalate and peacefully resolve high-stakes situations is commensurate with the time spent learning to use force
• Building wide bridges of trust and familiarity with the community are a critical part of policing in the US; those efforts should be funded and chosen for maximum impact
• Where appropriate, police should be work in tandem with mental health professionals and other experts to address root causes of conflict; at the same time, as a society we must also work to address inequities that fuel conflict
• In choosing the offensive and defensive tools showcased in most situations, the guiding principle of a civilian police force should be the exact opposite of "maximum shock and awe," and efforts to portray policing as being at war, or arm police as if they are at war, are antithetical to efforts to build an inclusive society
• While the degree of actual abuse is debated by some, qualified immunity goes to far in denying the public to bring civil suit, and as the culmination of decades of legislating from the bench, should be subject to legislative clarification.

Most importantly, as a life-and-death concern, policing is too critical to be treated as commodity hourly labor. I suggest we should seek to move to a professional model of employment that draws on patterns in civil engineering and aviation safety, among others. Hallmarks of this switch would include 4-year college level training for police officers, reinforcement and extension of a dedication to ongoing training, diminishing hierarchy and band-of-brother responses so in all cases two or more police officers together are less likely to be involved in violent episodes rather than more, and critical self examination of incidents and near misses with an unflagging goal of no preventable mishaps.

I'm sure not everyone agrees with my conclusions, but I've tried my best to be reasoned and level-headed in my thinking and my rhetoric. What's more, I've learned a lot -- in no small measure due to comments, questions, and challenges from those who took the time to read my reflections. But it was also exhausting. With your permission, I think I'll talk about kittens tomorrow.