Everyone wants change but what needs to be done?

I hear a lot of comments about the problems with the system and platitudes about how we need to end racism. This sounds great but I have heard of very little that is actionable and that is a huge problem.

I have been involved in this for a number of years. I am going to offer some thoughts about what needs to happen. They are my own suggestions and should be considered a starting point. If we don’t have a starting point, then this time will end like all the others. It will flame out.

So here are my suggestions as a starting point:

1. National Policing Standards when it comes to hiring, use of force, and training. There needs to be a database where people who have been suspended or fired can not be rehired so easily. There needs to be certification or licensing of officers with continuing education requirements. There needs to be a federal component but states and local governments should be included too. This would include a review of changes to laws, updates to techniques, and other issues. The database would indicate if the officer was “in good standing” or not. Note the national standards would be considered the minimum standards. Communities can require more.
2. There needs to be community oversight AND the members of that oversight can not be ex-police or the family of police or attorneys or judges or corrections employees/families. (Oversight boards get packed with people within the system and not true community members so it just acts to rubber-stamp the actions of officers.)
3. There needs to be a demilitarization of the police. There is no way that some communities should have the equipment they have. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. No more military equipment should go to communities without a specific act of congress for that specific equipment and community. And each proposal has to be its own bill — not lumped together or with any other bill.
4. All interactions need to be recorded. ALL. The default for recording equipment should be on. They can turn it off for only short periods of time (like to use the restroom) and then will be reminded (by an alarm) to turn it back on. If a camera is in an off position for too long, leadership should be notified. (This would also fall under national standards above.) All recordings should be kept for a minimum of 90 days — longer if involved in an incident.
5. Officers and those involved in any incident would NEVER be allowed to review the recordings as they write up their reports. NEVER. The chain of command should not be able to either until the report is officially filed and recorded. For high profile incidents, everything should be turned over to the oversight board before anyone can see it. (For those wondering “why?” when officers know what is and is not on the tape, they can write the report so that it is supported by the video. Other witnesses or people involved will not have that benefit so there may be things that they refer to that were not recorded and when everything hits the courts, the officer will appear to be much more credible because his testimony fits the video recording better than what the others said.)
6. There need to be regular mental health assessments and support for police officers. This is a tough job and they need to be checked periodically to make sure everything is still ok. (This is not a punishment.) One traumatic incident can have a huge impact but so can a lot of less traumatic incidents. Keeping mental health strong is as important as physical health.
7. Medical examiners and evidence testing facilities need to not be under the umbrella of the police or prosecutor's office. They should probably fall under the community oversight committee or a their party neutral agency.
8. The records of the officers and prior reports of misconduct need to be available to all defendants — just as the defendant's previous record is available to everyone else.
9. There needs to be a database of police department interactions. This may take some time to launch effectively. The penalty if anyone is caught misreporting or under-reporting interactions should result in prison and felony charges.
10. The national database and records would result in a score by police department. The details can be established later but there should be a very quick way for people to know how their police are doing and where there might be issues.
11. Any prosecutors who work with the officers involved in possible misconduct have to be removed from the decision making process and trial immediately. (They have an inherent conflict if they need that officer to testify or if that officer has testified in other trials.)
12. Similarly, all evidence and the investigation needs to be handled by outside agencies. This may require that a new agency or bureau be established to handle all these issues — which is not a bad thing. After you have watched this enough, the characteristics of bad departments jump out while a good department that had a bad incident will react very differently. Outsiders who know what to look for will probably see things more clearly and quickly.
13. Bail needs to be reformed. This varies greatly by state and location so this will make more sense to some people and less to others.
14. Prisons and jails should be located close enough for family and friends to visit whenever possible. If they are too distant for visits, both phone and video calls should be provided for several hours per week for free. (Maintaining connections is critical for successful reintegration into society.)
15. Companies that use prison labor HAVE to hire a specific number of people when they are released when they get out. This would be a start. The entire prison labor thing needs to be revisited. As part of their agreement, their workforce would have to consist of at least a specific percentage of people who had gotten out of prison.
16. Many officers engage in other “gigs” outside their official duties but are still acting as officers (paid by others). The total hours they work should be limited to avoid burn out and mental health issues. (The issue here is that the number of hours can hit the extreme.)
17. No funding for police departments should not be based on tickets and property seizures. The money for tickets and property seizures needs to fund other things or go somewhere else to avoid perverse incentives.
18. Officers need to have a completely separate, possibly national, organization to report concerns anonymously. When there are big problems, leadership is often part of the problem. Good officers are at risk, along with the community, and there are very few options to correct the situation.
19. While officers can and should be given greater latitude in their judgment, when they are involved in blatant misconduct, they should be subject to even greater criminal penalties because of the damage they did to the public trust. The same goes for prosecutors, judges, and others. We need to take these things very, very seriously.
20. Plea bargains. This may go a bit with the bail thing but we need to look plea bargains. People get picked up and end up spending more time in jail awaiting trial than they would have gotten if they entered a plea. This creates a perverse incentive for people to plead guilty to something they did not do to get out of jail more quickly. This is closer to extortion than justice.
21. Jailhouse informants. I will add this but seriously if any state or any community is still engaged in using jailhouse informants, they need to be moved to the top of the priority list of systems to be investigated. Note that the problem is not just police, but it is labs and testing facilities, prosecutors, and judges. It goes through the entire system. The problems with jailhouse informants are extremely well known. If you know of a part of the country still using them, I would not trust the integrity of the system and the people working in it. They are willing to take short cuts and use known non-credible methods to secure convictions.
22. And, last but not least, we need to change the attitude in police departments from “was it justified?” to “was it avoidable?”. I have seen too many interactions by officers that resulted in them being able to justify their actions — even killing someone. But the thing is that it was avoidable. This is the last one listed but is probably the most important. This costs nothing and may result in the biggest shift in mentality. An example of this is Tamir Rice who was killed by officers. He had a toy gun. No one was around and he was threatening no one. But the police rushed in close to him, so close, that any action of his could have justified lethal use of force — but they did not need to rush in like that. That is why the first question police need to ask themselves is “was this avoidable?”.

I should also add that there have been many examples of significant positive changes to communities when police change their policing tactics to a more community-based approach. That single change can have big benefits. We should not underestimate the extent to which these policing problems are resulting in more crime in some areas of this country — not less. (It should also not be surprising that some of the most corrupt police departments are also in some of the most violent areas of the country. The communities often take all the blame. A significant portion of that needs to be given to the corruption in the police department.)

And this is important to. There are many incredible departments doing the right things. There are many amazing officers. All the things listed above will help and protect them because the corrupt elements of the system make people distrust all the elements.

While this looks like a lot, it is just a portion of the problem and a starting point.

And none of this includes something that is very important:

• How we penalize misconduct.
• How long we penalize people.
• The barriers we create for people reentering society which makes it harder for them to reenter successfully. The list here is endless. From housing to employment to things you can not imagine.
• The challenges of reunifying families and children.
• The criminalization of trauma — we need to look at treatment for trauma and not prison.
• Lack of resources and jobs in some communities. (Jobs and even educational opportunities are available in some prisons WHICH IS GOOD! But why are these things not available before people get to prison? If jobs and education were available on the outside, then fewer people would end up in prison and that would be far better.)

This is just off the top of my head so I am sure I have forgotten things. Probably some obvious ones. Please note them in the comments.

So what can you do now?

1. Contact your local department (if they are not overwhelmed with current events). Find out how many officers they have, what are their qualifications and training, do they have regular community events/reports the community, how many live in the community, how are reports of misconduct handled, and by whom, do they record all interactions with citizens, etc. Start the dialogue. Get engaged. Know what is happening.
2. Reach out to organizations advocating for reform. They are all over the place because there are problems all over the place. If you want to focus on one area, that is ok. Just advocated for change.

I should also note that there is a lot of money being made off many elements of this system. This money is often coming at the expense of those who often can least afford it.

This money will also resist change. That is why we must be persistent and driven. We have to make sure that we correct this system so it serves communities instead of serving the communities up to themselves and prison-related industries.

None of this is easy. But this is how we can make tangible progress.