Tag: Policing in America

1. Engage in self-evaluation. In the post Vietnam era, the military was in shambles. Like the police today, they were poorly perceived by the public. They took a critical look at themselves and transformed the military into the most trusted institution in America. Police must perform a similar realistic and critical review to understand why there is such a wide trust gap and then take all the necessary corrective actions.

2. Create a West Point for police. In another lesson from the military, a national police service academy should be created exactly like the others. This would attract many of the best and brightest into policing and provide leadership and professionalism.

3. Enhance professionalism at all levels. Advancement to sergeant, lieutenant, captain and senior levels should require further education and training. This is another lesson from the military, where advancement to each rank requires professional development. To advance to a senior police command position should require graduation from something akin to the War College, required for all military general officers. Under no circumstances should advancement ever be linked to the number of tickets or arrests.

4. Embrace citizen review boards. All jurisdictions should have non-political review boards and then work closely with them to build better community relations. Such boards should not be viewed as inimical but rather as a valuable resource. Use every possible opportunity to learn from community leaders and to build trust.

5. Abolish the us-versus-them attitude. Police form insular cliques, walling themselves off from their communities. They protect each other, even against accusations of wrongdoing, with a blue wall of silence. In the military there is no green wall of silence despite combat situations. Duty to the public always must come before police loyalty to their buddies. Until that happens, police never will earn the full respect of the public. This means that the practice of testilying (police lying under oath) also must end.

6. Use SWAT teams only when absolutely necessary. Currently SWAT teams are used over 50,000 times a year – sometimes to serve routine subpoenas. Such lethal force should be used sparingly and only when deemed absolutely essential.

7. Police should be non-union. It is inconceivable the military would be unionized, go on strikes, engage in job actions or tomfoolery regarding pay and benefits such as overtime spiking. This same paradigm should apply to police. Public unions create enormous resentment among private sector workers, only 6% of whom are unionized.

8. Abolish civil asset forfeiture. This is an incredibly sleazy, self-serving, extra legal practice that likely is unconstitutional. It reflects incredibly poorly on police, creates widespread resentment with the pubic and can’t be terminated soon enough.

9. Clean up the atmospherics. As part of heightened police professionalism, abolish telephone solicitations which grate on the public. Uniforms should be basic, no-frills with high ranking officers wearing civilian clothes; save the five-star general uniforms for rare formal occasions. At public events be modest and avoid self aggrandizement.

10. Use broken-window policing. Implement legal and appropriate measures proven most effective at preventing and lowering crime, regardless of any political pressure to the contrary. This means fully embracing broken-window policing.

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1. Police have transmogrified from avuncular figures to threatening ones; their attitude from helpful to intimidating. They form tight cliques, becoming insular and walling themselves off from the communities they serve. They have an us-versus-them attitude and protect each other at all costs and even when they are plainly in the wrong.

2. Policing is nowhere near the most dangerous job in America; it ranks 15th behind loggers, fishermen, pilots, roofers, refuse collectors, farmers, iron/steel workers, truck drivers, electricians, taxi drivers, construction, landscape, maintenance and miners. The homicide rate for police is 30% less than for an average male. We appreciate that police put themselves in harm’s way for us, but perspective about the danger is needed.

3. Routine use of SWAT teams (50,000 raids per year), military equipment and tasers is out of control. A SWAT team is not needed to serve a subpoena. The police have become too militarized and treat civilians more like enemy combatants.

4. Unionization and threats of strikes and other tactics are against public policy. Police compensation and benefits (often boosted by outlandish overtime spiking) create enormous resentment with private sector workers, of whom only 6% are unionized.

5. Police gorge themselves on civil asset forfeitures. They seize property from hapless victims even when there is no crime or arrest and use the proceeds to buy fancy toys.

6. Testilying (police perjury under oath) is commonplace as can be attested to by any lawyer who routinely practices in criminal court – so routine it has its own name.

7. Telephone solicitations (often aggressive) on behalf of police benevolent groups are ubiquitous but net police only pennies on the dollar. This grates on the public inasmuch as other professions don’t engage in such activity, policing is 15th on the dangerous jobs list and police already are well compensated via public sector unionization.

8. Policing is about money and arrests. Advancement is linked to the amount of money generated and the number of arrests made. Massive police ticketing operations are organized solely for the convenience of police to raise money; the public be damned.

9. The atmospherics have become gaudy. High ranking officers, even of small town police departments, are bedecked as 5-star generals with garish decorations befitting the potentate of a banana republic. Chiefs should wear civilian clothes as in the past.

10. Press conferences after police events have become love-fests for law enforcement. Following the Orlando tragedy, city police, county police, state police, FBI, state attorney, DOJ and ATF spent an eternity heaping praise on one another for cooperation and professionalism before they answered a single question. More modesty is needed.

     Loss of confidence in police has been gradual and has many antecedents. There are however private alternatives to unionized, militarized, asset-seizing and testilying police. There is a strong negative correlation between crime and economic freedom as free markets enable people to put their passions into business. Restrictions on freedom, such as minimum wage laws, that keep minorities from work are particularly harmful.

     A big part of the solution therefore lies in more liberty and less government. More liberty for poor, minority, inner city youth and more free markets. Less government as in fewer police, an end to the failed war on drugs and more private policing. Finally, each community should have an independent citizen police review board with ample powers to oversee the police and to ensure policing reflects their community’s values.