Police departments should not be defunded, but they should be reformed. Some reforms should be able to attract broad consensus. Herewith, then, are the ideas that should be the most unifying and the least divisive.
Research on all this is widely available, but this brief column isn’t meant to cite research to prove each suggestion is wise. Instead, it’s just a distillation of research, common sense, and a rough analysis of what many people of goodwill seem willing to accept.
Implicit bias training. Research shows the effectiveness of this as a solution may be overblown, but if it isn’t too heavy-handed (if it doesn’t try to browbeat white police into guilt trips but does promote understanding), it can’t hurt. Here’s the moderate-sounding language offered by E Pluribus Unum, a project spearheaded by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu: “Whether it is implicit or explicit, racial bias is real, influences perceptions and behaviors and can be deadly. Police departments should adopt personnel practices that result in the hiring and retention of diverse law enforcement professionals who are culturally sensitive, speak the communities’ languages and are residents of their patrolled communities. To deconstruct stereotypes and bias, police departments should partner with their communities, actively engaging with youth, so trust can be established and crimes can be more quickly solved or prevented.”
Restrictions on “qualified immunity” for police. This Supreme Court-created doctrine that protects police departments from liability lawsuits has come under heavy fire in recent days. Whether or not such immunity should be fully eliminated is debatable, but there’s no reason lawmakers at all levels of government shouldn’t at least tighten up the doctrine, perhaps leaving police with some level of protection but far less extensive than they enjoy today.
Restrictions on the use of surplus military equipment and on SWAT teams. Again, it actually does make sense to make some military equipment available to police in some circumstances. Still, the practice should be strictly limited, and the use of special weapons and tactics should be reserved for truly dire circumstances. Finally, no military weapons should be available to any police until those police are specially and thoroughly trained in their use.
Make it far easier to discipline bad police, and make the discipline have weight. Police unions should be used to secure better pay, better safety, and better training conditions but should not work to shield bad police officers from discipline. Appropriate discipline perhaps could recognize that, in some cases, an officer may not be a good fit for the stress of street work but might still be useful in desk jobs. The idea isn’t to kill a police officer’s career but to protect the public from ones who are well-intentioned but lacking some measure of self-restraint.
Severely curtail the use of “no knock” search warrants. Mere suspicion that someone inside might try to destroy evidence isn’t an excuse for a dangerous, unannounced home invasion. Only a serious reason to expect violence can justify a surprise raid. Breonna Taylor, an innocent killed in the crossfire in such a raid gone horribly wrong in March, was but the most recent victim in a long line of such incidents stretching back decades.
Better pay, better training, and more, not fewer, police in at-risk neighborhoods. Sensitive community policing by well-trained and well-supported officers really works. Crime rates go down. Police become seen as protectors, not threats. Happier police officers make better police officers, and good ones merit all the support we can possibly provide.
There. That’s a start. Let’s stop the angry caterwauling and soberly, constructively get to work.
