How to Reduce or Potentially Eliminate Police Brutality
Tags: Police Reform, Police Brutality

Police brutality became an issue during the nineteenth century when numerous foreigners began to come into the United States for a better life and opportunities but what they ran into was many problems. Some of those problems were things such as prejudice and hate crimes. With the amount of hate crimes that were occurring, the government had decided they needed to create different laws in which they could regulate public behavior and with those laws, they created the police force who made sure the laws were being followed by citizens. However, in the process of creating the police force which the government had hoped would solve the issue of hate crimes, it created another issue, the separation of citizens and law enforcers (The History of Police Brutality, Cosgrove). To solve this issue, we must know the history behind it and police reformation needs to occur.

One of the ways we can reduce police brutality is by having the police officers trained to address their racial biases and have more training time. This is very important as the “Black Lives Matter” Movement was started because of the amount of police brutality that occurred against many colored people. By law enforcers addressing their racial biases and training with different races, it will allow them to perform their job without allowing their racial biases coming into effect with the situation. According to “How to Reform American Police, according to experts” German Lopez states,” Josh Corell a University of Colorado Boulder psychology professor, tested police for racial biases through a shooting simulation. His initial findings showed officers generally did a good job of avoiding shooting unarmed targets of all races. But when shooting was warranted, officers pulled the trigger more quickly against black suspects than white ones. This suggests that officers exhibit some racial bias in shooting”. The study/test is important as it shows how officers racial biases came into play when shooting the warranted in which could lead to a big mistake in situations and could cause anger throughout communities. The police department must discuss more policing strategies rather than firearm skills and training as the “Data from a 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics special report Credit: Alvin Chang” shows that “law enforcers are taking 60 hours of firearm skills and 51 hours of training on self-defense compared to 16 hours combined of Community policing strategies and Meditation/conflict management” (Vox Website, Lopez). The statistics imply that the training hours for police officers should spend less time on firearm and self-defense skills and more on policing strategies. If this changes, hopefully police brutality will become reduced or possibly eliminated.

In order to decrease police brutality, police departments should change their procedures and have tighter restrictions as to where and when officers can use force in order to calm the situation. According to the article, “Why Is Police Brutality Still Happening?” it states, “In particular, tighter restrictions on when and how police officers can use force — putting someone in a chokehold, for example, or shooting at a moving vehicle — appear to substantially reduce killings. After making such reforms in 2016, the San Francisco Police Department saw a 30 percent decline in the use of force by 2019, and, as of last May, had gone more than a year without a single officer shooting”(Spencer Bokat-Lindell). By making this change in restriction and protocol, this will allow less citizens to be killed by officers and will reduce the amount of police brutality.

Now, you may be thinking, “What if the officers choose not to follow the protocols and police brutality continues?” well, this is where more harsh punishments come in. With more harsher punishments such as suspensions, job losses, or jail time, it will put law enforcers in a position to where they must follow the right procedures, or they will have consequences. In addition, law enforcers body cameras must be always on to make sure that officers are following the correct procedures and not taking advantage of their power. According to the article, “Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are. There’s only one fix” by Reddit Hudson, he states, “The problem is that cops aren’t held accountable for their actions, and they know it. These officers violate rights with impunity. They know there’s a different criminal justice system for civilians and police… Even when officers get caught, they know they’ll be investigated by their friends, and put on paid leave. My colleagues would laughingly refer to this as a free vacation. It isn’t a punishment. And excessive force is almost always deemed acceptable in our courts and among our grand juries” (Hudson). Based on the information given to us here by the former police officer (Reddit Hudson), it is supported that police officer need a stricter punishment for not following the given procedures.

Ultimately, police brutality is a massive dilemma however, if police reformation takes place, there will be a potential elimination of police brutality and will give the United States citizens one less problem to worry about and will help law enforcers regain the trust of civilians.

Work Cited

Lopez, German. “How to Reform American Police, According to Experts.” Vox, Vox, 1 June 2020, www.vox.com/2020/6/1/21277013/police-reform-policies-systemic-racism-george-floyd. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020

Cosgrove, Abigail Louise. “The History of Police Brutality.” Its a Mad World, 12 Feb. 2015, sites.psu.edu/violenceinamerica/2015/02/12/the-history-of-police-brutality/. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020

Bokat-Lindell, Spencer. “Why Is Police Brutality Still Happening?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/opinion/minneapolis-police-brutality.html. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020

Hudson, Redditt. “Being a Cop Showed Me Just How Racist and Violent the Police Are. There’s Only One Fix.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 Mar. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/06/i-was-a-st-louis-cop-my-peers-were-racist-and-violent-and-theres-only-one-fix/. Date Accessed, December 9, 2020