You want to expedite the police and their respective unions ensuring that their officers get better police training as a means of significantly reducing shootings? Enact legislation that makes the police, their unions and their pension funds accountable for paying out on all of the lawsuits and settlements related to police shootings and misconduct.
The police unions will fight it tooth and nail, but pass the laws that make them indemnify the various cities for all misconduct , including criminal and grossly negligent officers.
You think this does not affect you let’s just look at some of the staggering numbers that have been paid out as settlements for police misconduct, as shown in Nick Wing’s updated Huffington Post report in May 29, 2015 of the settlements reported from a select group of US cities.
Dallas: paid out 6.6 Million between 2011 and 2014
Cleveland: paid out 8.2 Million between 2004 and 2014
Minneapolis: paid out 9.3 Million between 2011 and 2014
Denver: paid out 12 Million since 2011
Boston: paid out 36 Million between 2005 and 2015
Los Angeles: paid out 101 Million between 2002 and 2011
New York City: paid out 348 Million between 2006 and 2011
Chicago: paid out 521 Million between 2004 and 2014
A you will note by the dates, none of these amounts factor in the more recent and high settlements either reached (6.9 Million for Eric Garner’s Family in NYC) or expected (Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Philando Castile in Minnesota) related to recent high profile police shootings.
Why this is important for the public to know and have awareness of is because presently all of these settlements are paid by taxpaying dollars. Dollars that are not then allocated to necessary and essential services within such cities. You can read the dollar amounts and understand they have obviously only increased. These are funds that clearly would be better served if earmarked for community programs.
I have heard some recent statements calling the multi-million dollar settlements some families have attained as a result of police shootings as “the ghetto lottery”. I will simply bypass the racist tone of the statement to say that even the suggestion that these families who have suffered the pain and indignation of the loss of a loved one because of police misconduct have somehow “gamed” the system into winning is so immeasurably ignorant as to not deserve further consideration.
The Chicago Tribune did an article (January 30 2016) in which they highlighted the fact that 124 officers within Chicago’s police force of over 12000 were responsible for nearly a third of the misconduct lawsuits settled since 2009 costing the city over 34 Million dollars. 82% of the department’s officers had never been named in any suit.
These two sets of statistics highlight two distinct and disturbing issues. The idea that there may be a relatively small group of officers who disproportionately are responsible for a large amount of the notated misconduct, while suffering minimal to no repercussions shows both lack of training and serious flaws in allowing these officers to remain on the force with no real consequences to their actions.
My proposal, though I know will face staunch opposition by the various police unions, makes too much sense to ignore. Make the police unions and the officers as a unit, through their pension funds, responsible for all of the misconduct committed by their officers including the threshold of criminal or gross negligence.
Right now the politicians and police unions hide behind one another. No one takes any accountability for the misconduct of law enforcement. The unions fight to ensure that their officers are not prosecuted no matter how obvious and egregious the transgression and the only ones to pay (literally) are the taxpayers.
If the unions and the officers had to actually pay for proven police misconduct you can believe that they will make sure that their officers are receiving more and better training. It is ludicrous to think that in most states barbers receive over twice the amount of training hours as does law enforcement officers.
If the police and their unions are forced to pay out on the misconduct of fellow officers, do you think the “Blue Wall Of Silence” will remain intact? You want to enact real change, change the culture and force accountability. Unions and other officers, if financially responsible for their actions, will no longer blindly stand behind officers, who exhibit reckless behavior. More and better training will be implemented and just as, if not more importantly, the police will screen their candidates better. A stronger vetting process for those not just physically but mentally prepared to serve on a force are needed and would be implemented if the police and its unions were held financially accountable for the actions of their own.
Nothing in this article is intended to diminish the importance of law enforcement or be punitive toward it. I am simply stating that real change will come from accountability and nothing ensures accountability more than fiscal responsibility.
When I drive in New York City I experience road rage every five minutes. I do not act upon my instincts and desire for one simple reason. I know that if I use my car as a weapon or get out of my car and assault someone one if not two things will occur. I will be arrested and it will cost me lots of money. Money spent on the criminal case and money spent on the potential civil matter. I choose to not spend my money and exhibit self-control and intense lip biting instead. I am not trying to trivialize the pressures the police face to that of my road rage, but the analogy still has legs. If the training of officers includes being imparted with the knowledge that they WILL suffer significant consequences (both criminally and financially) it will surely change how they interact with the public. If you know that whatever you do your union and politicians will protect you and shield you from both prosecution and any real repercussion, that is clearly sending the wrong message to these officer and we all (should) understand that message is not working.
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