Changing Police Culture is Daunting

[qwlauren35]

The Washington Post has done two good articles on this. One says that the DoJ interventions are costing millions of dollars, taking years, and not always showing results. In some cities, death-by-police counts went up. In the other article is a discussion of the mentality of a police force, that the life of a cop trumps the life of a civilian, and encouraging an officer to avoid lethal force is contrary to that paradigm.

I probably should post this in GD, but I thought I'd put it here to get a take from those who are truly affected.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/11/19/reforming-police-culture-is-a-daunting-challenge/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/11/13/forced-reforms-mixed-results/

[Kind of Blue]

1. Thanks for posting, qwlauren35.

I try to stay out of GD and miss a lot, including potentially this one that is very important to me.

Though I haven't read them yet, I'm particularly interested in the second link because my gut instinct is, in the first link, their culture cannot be reformed since it's one that was based in policing PoC with little accountability thru all these years from the top to the bottom. God Lord, a few years ago, there was an independent investigation here in San Diego after the killings of so many Mexican-American men. Our police chief, himself of Mexican descent, actually discounted finding the department at fault over and over again. It was stinging response.

[Number23]

2. Exactly. How do you 'change' behavior that is as much a part of the job as the job itself??

This whole distrust/dislike of minorities is a huge part of policing and always has been.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. From the WaPo Article

They need to change the goal:

In interviews, Justice Department officials defended the interventions and said that in recent years they have significantly improved the reform process. Those changes­ have led to greater oversight of police departments and to policing that better protects the civil rights of residents, they said.

“The goal isn’t that we have a perfect police department when we leave,” said Vanita Gupta, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the department’s civil rights division.

“The goal is that they actually know what to do when there’s a problem

.”

L

Is this the only job in America where flawless execution is not required?

I'm generally Pro Union - but in this job - when the employee screws up it seriously hurts the employer - iE the local citizens that pay taxes tat go these folks salaries. That money also goes to the judgment. It's not lost on me that even though Floyd Dent won his civil suit - he still has to "penalize himself" by paying taxes to pay for his victimization by a bad bad apple.

Perhaps goals could include -

Stripping bad police departments of their right to be unionized.
Forcing a new type of malpractice insurance that one must carry to be a Police Officer in that community.
The Union could distribute money to the officer that paid their dues to cover the cost.

On the Front End - being a Police Officer needs to become a licensed profession. Not just civil tests - but rigorous evaluations of what TYPE of person one is (my employer has done personality tests for years), what values are present in their personality, are they violent, did they grow up in a violent environment that might have left them feeling powerless, etc etc.

I've been in Corporate America for 20 years. You can always tell who the people are who feel personally powerless by how they grow their testes and ovaries around in the conference room. I'm sure it's no different in the law enforcement field.

And thank you for posting this. My Thoughts on this won't be popular with the strong streak of populist base authoritarian attitudes at DU these days but . . .

Your rights as a citizen end as a public employee when you put on that uniform and inflict sadistic tendencies and pain on the people who pay your salary.

[qwlauren35]

4. I like your ideas.

I think stripping union status would REALLY hurt.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Yeppers

It would also take the onus of paying for civil suits off the public. If the individual does the wrong thing - they should be held accountable individually.

The Police Union prevents that.

When a Police Department has people doing the wrong thing as a one off outlier - leave their Union be.

[Kind of Blue]

6. Now that is the only method I think will

have immediate results!
Thanks for the insight!

[Blue_Tires]

7. Changing police culture won't have much effect

if cultures aren't also changed with judges, prosecutors, and prisons as well... They all serve to enable each other...