Police Use of Force
The United States of America has had a police brutality problem looming over her for decades on end. The treatment of minority groups such as black people in the United States by the police has been nothing short of appalling and disgusting over the last few decades. Dozens of innocent African Americans’ lives have been ended by the law, the same officer who has gone on with their lives without any justice being served. Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, to name a few, have all been murdered by police officers over the last few years. African Americans and their forefathers have demanded change before them. Unfortunately, nothing much has changed. If you look at civil rights movement pictures from the sixties, the messaged passed about police brutality are the same ones being given sixty years down the line.
In 2020, May 25th, George Floyd was killed by a white police officer who knelt on his neck until he lost his life. All the while, George Floyd was begging for his life and telling the officer he can’t breathe (Pappas, 2020). This caused cities all across the USA to be rocked by protests. Americans from all walks of life demanded justice for George Floyd and every other black person who had been wrongfully murdered by police officers. Protest after protest with no changes made the solution to police brutality seem like something challenging to achieve, and even almost impossible.
This notion has been disrupted by researchers and activists in a lot of ways. Changes based on evidence have been made and have reduced the deaths of people in the hands of the police. Though the steps taken will not end systemic racism and injustice overnight, they will surely save the American people (Aungus et al., 2018). Police brutality is endemic in the USA, and there is absolutely no doubt about that. The fact is that it did not start with the killing of George Floyd, and it will never end unless something is done about it. So what can be done about it?
Tracking the problem
The first and most crucial step is to track the problem. It is so surprising that after all these years of police brutality in the US, there is not a single comprehensive sector set up by the government that tracks killings by the police and use of brutal force. Private organizations have been keeping their databases since 2014. Databases like these indicate that there is a disproportionate killing of black people by the police. Black deaths make up to 24% of police deaths, while black people make just 13% of the United States (Pappas, 2020). However, as most police departments do not give out this information accurately, the data collected by these independent organizations are mostly pulled from the media outlet reports. The government is doing an abysmal job at keeping the data that they do manage to save. This needs to change. It is utterly shocking that in a country with some of the highest numbers of reported cases of police brutality, there is no branch of government tasked with keeping the numbers. Keeping records is the only way this problem can be pruned.
Demilitarization
The demilitarization of the police is also a step towards ending police brutality. The police have been acquiring military equipment from the military for a few decades. Although some of the gear is harmless, most of it can cause a lot of bodily harm. These include grenade launchers and military-grade weapons used in the war in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Research has proven that the police’s increased deaths have risen with the increased number of military-grade weapons being handed to the police. Departments that have no military acquisitions record fewer deaths than those who have acquired weapons from the military. Military assets are often sorted out by departments aiming to be better than other police departments (WHOISHUSSAIN.ORG, 2020). The violence of the police also generally increases with the acquisition of new equipment. This would suggest that perhaps the police want to try out their new weapons capabilities and end up trying them on people. The program that allows police forces to hand over military weapons to the police is called the 1033 program. The recent protests across the US have led to people calling for the police’s demilitarization, starting with the ending of the 1033 program. If the statistics are correct, which they are, this will lead to a decrease in the police’s use of brutal force.
Changing Police culture
There has existed a culture of racial bias among the police for years now. Police departments need to adopt policies that will stop their officers from using excessive force during an arrest. Policies require the police to de-escalate a situation as much as possible before resolving to use forceful methods. The police should also be issued with strict guidelines that need to be followed. The guidelines should teach the police exactly how they need to respond to specific situations and the type of force they are required to use. Failure to follow these guidelines should lead to heavy repercussions. Some police methods, such as strangling and chokeholds, should be strictly banned in every police department. If not controlled, these methods will lead to a lot of people losing their lives, especially if they had a pre-existing condition. The police should issue verbal warnings before using deadly force (Pappas, 2020). The office should also ensure that the suspect has completely ignored the orders and warnings before engaging them with physical force.
Officers should also be prohibited from shooting at vehicles that are moving. This may cause property damage and puts the lives of other people like motorists and pedestrians at risk. Shooting at a moving vehicle should only be done under extreme circumstances. Officers should always exhaust all the other options before using any weapon. Colleagues should also have the responsibility to intervene if one of the officers they work with happens to use extreme force. This should happen more often, as officers tend to listen to their fellow officers more. Police officers also need to report to their superiors any use of force, or any attempted use of force that might have happened that day. They should be required to file a full report, citing what happened and why it had happened (Graham et al., 2020). Police departments with such policies are reported to have a lower percentage of killings per arrest than those who do not have strict policies. Police union contracts also encourage police violence. Contracts are often written in such a way that punishing police officers is tough. Studies have proven that cities that have more police protection also have high numbers of abuse.
Having and Investing in alternatives
Instead of having officers crack down hard on minor infractions, we should have community policing. This means investing in the community comprehensively. Research shows that crime reduces in a city with non-profit organizations that help the community in one way or another, especially during job creations. The creation of jobs reduces the crime rate in every place. Police officers should also know how to deal with mentally ill individuals. 1 out of 4 people killed by the police is mentally ill. This proves that the police need to have a special force that will deal with mental illness cases. This intends to reduce the use of brutal force on sick people and reduce the chances of scaring mentally ill people into hurting themselves.
Oversight
The advantage of an oversight in police departments is that it leads to accountability. Police incidents being investigated by federal bodies have also proven to reduce police shootings by almost 40% over the years (Gikay et al., 2020). Citizen watchdogs also present great oversight. If a citizen did not have a smartphone in the George Floyd incident, the world would probably not have known what really happened to him. The emergence of smartphones with cameras has helped a great deal in policing the police. According to research, having body cams does not reduce police brutality levels. Citizens can and should definitely also chip in to help stop police brutality. Apart from holding civil rights protests, they should make sure that they practice their democratic right and vote for leaders who have promised to enact change and deliver reforms that promise to end police brutality.
Police brutality has been an evil cloud that has hovered over the United States for more than half a century. From Emmet Till all those years ago in 1955 to George Floyd in 2020 and still counting, police killings are, without a doubt, one of America’s biggest problems. Americans are asking when it will stop and demanding change. The world has also joined in and marched together with Americans to end police killings in the USA. Clearly, something ought to be done; policies need to be put in place and enacted. The people of America need to come together as one, united, to once and for all end systemic racism and brutality among the police.
References
Angus, J., & Crichlow, V. (2018). A Race and Power Perspective on Police Brutality in America. FAU Undergraduate Research Journal, 7, 8-8.
Gikay, A. A., & Iheme, W. (2020). Deprofitizing the Justice System: The Beginning of an End to Police Brutality against Black People in America. Available at SSRN.
Graham, A., Haner, M., Sloan, M. M., Cullen, F. T., Kulig, T. C., & Jonson, C. L. (2020). Race and Worrying About Police Brutality: The Hidden Injuries of Minority Status in America. Victims & Offenders, 1-25.
Pappas, S.P.-L.S.C. 04 (2020). How to actually stop police brutality, according to science. [online] livescience.com. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/evidence-police-brutality-reform.html.
WHOISHUSSAIN.ORG (2020). Police Brutality in America: What can we do? [online] Who is Hussain. Available at: https://whoishussain.org/police-brutality-in-america-what-can-we-do/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2020].