Donald Trump has said he is “very troubled” by a recent incident in which an unarmed black man (with his hands up) was shot by Oklahoma police. Some may find this surprising given Trump’s previous choices to condemn Black Lives Matter and strongly support American police forces.
It seems to me that, at least on this issue, Trump has nailed the median voter’s position. Make a point of unconditionally supporting the police, and when forced with evidence so heinous you can’t deny, admit there’s a problem. And the solution? The police “will just have to get better and better and better”.
I’m not opposed to a societal expectation of respecting the police. If I had to guess it’s probably essential to an orderly and peaceful society*. But if “respecting the police” is used as a way to stop the conversation then it’s a problem. There are really important policy changes we need to prevent bad cops and to help good cops do a better job.
Some of these changes are best described by Radley Balko in his book Rise of the Warrior Cop. They include:
- Rolling back or ending the War on Drugs
- Transparency, such as the filming of police conduct and records of police officers engaged in violent encounters
- Community policing (“taking cops out of patrol cars to walk beats and become a part of the communities they serve”, p. 325)
- Accountability. As like most public sector unions, police unions have been very successful at shielding officers from being held accountable for their misconduct by passing “law enforcement bill of rights” which restrict their liability on the job.
- Last but not least, changing police culture. This is of course a tall order, but it is just as essential as any policy change.
If implemented, I think these policy changes can reduce violence, improve societal respect for the police, and reduce grievances of activist groups.
*Of course, so is an expectation that police officers follow the rule of law