Shaun King: 25 practical steps / solutions to the police brutality issue

[yllus]

Note - Mr. King goes into depth about each of his proposed solutions to help address the issue he's highlighting here, so please do more than just scan the list below and declare them great or silly. It's a very good series of work he's put together here.

NY Daily News - Solutions For Police Brutality by Shaun King

Starting on Monday, I am going to begin a 25-part series answering that very question. I've spent the past two years, almost to the day, searching and studying and debating the answers. What I've come to accept, and what I must first unpack here, is this.

SOLUTION #1: Radically diversify America's Police Departments

SOLUTION #2: Require American Police to have more training than cosmetologists

SOLUTION #3: Police must be routinely and randomly tested for steroids and other illegal drugs

SOLUTION #4: Bad Apples MUST Be Fired - they are toxic and dangerous

SOLUTION #5: Police must be required to earn 4 year degrees - it changes everything

SOLUTION #6: Policing for profit must become a banned practice. A profit motive must never undergird law

SOLUTION #7: We must overhaul 911 - particularly for calls made about the mentally ill. It is the rotary phone of emergency services.

SOLUTION #8: Take women from 12% of police to 50% of police - they are more professional, less brutal, and just as effective

SOLUTION #9: Require cops to live in or near the areas they police. It's too easy to mistreat strangers.

SOLUTION #10: Communities of color actually need less policing. Start by decriminalizing addiction and petty offenses.

SOLUTION #11: American Police must be regularly tested for racial bias

SOLUTION #12: American Police must be regularly tested and treated for PTSD

SOLUTION #13: Why we must take bad laws on policing all the way to the Supreme Court

SOLUTION #14: Good police officers must actually speak out on bad cops

SOLUTION #15: We must decriminalize mental illness

SOLUTION #16: We need to unleash the full power of body cameras

SOLUTION #17: Police departments must create and enforce reasonable new use of force standards

SOLUTION #18: Police must always carry 3 less lethal weapons other than firearms

SOLUTION #19: Police must be banned from using violence based on their imagination of a threat

SOLUTION #20: Every city and state in America must ban racial profiling

SOLUTION #21: Police must be immediately filmed making a statement after each use of force incident

SOLUTION #22: Independent review boards must oversee investigations of police misconduct

SOLUTION #23: Police misconduct cases must be tried by special/independent prosecutors

SOLUTION #24: Police departments which fail to obey the Death in Custody Reporting Act should be cut off from all federal funding

SOLUTION #25: We must focus our fight against police brutality on the local and state level​

 

[alcoholbob]

lol all #5 is just liberal coded language for "we need to raise the Average IQ of the police force to above 115."

I wonder how thats going to jive with the police intelligence test where police departments traditionally pick applicants near the mean (i.e. Closer to 100-103 IQ applicants). Effectively this would reverse the court cases where it was ruled that police deparments can refuse to hire candidates and descriminate on the basis of "high intelligence" scores.

 

[Maxima1]

lmao. There is a fixed supply of people with common sense or high IQ and both is rarer still. We need the high IQ guys and gals to be truckers and nurses. If you allocate them to police, expect more deaths from truckers and nurses. I guess one positive is that it wouldn't be in the news all the time. lol

 

[Roflmouth]

We'll get right on that, Shaun, back to rioting for you.

 

[pauldun170]

SOLUTION #1: Radically diversify America's Police Departments

(Hippy talk. Diverse departments usually end up with a diverse force all acting the same way. )

SOLUTION #2: Require American Police to have more training than cosmetologists

(Training in "what"? Send money to localities for training and it gets dumped into paramilitary crap. Meanwhile verbal judo training gets ignored)

SOLUTION #3: Police must be routinely and randomly tested for steroids and other illegal drugs

(Agreed. Roid rage is a problem that directly impacts interaction between officers and the communities they serve)

SOLUTION #4: Bad Apples MUST Be Fired - they are toxic and dangerous

(Agreed. Good luck with that when you get administration and unions involved)

SOLUTION #5: Police must be required to earn 4 year degrees - it changes everything

(Agreed even though the end result is a bunch of criminal justice majors who treat like most kids in college will just focus on "will it be on the test?"))

SOLUTION #6: Policing for profit must become a banned practice. A profit motive must never undergird law

(Agreed but good luck with that. Depending on how that money is spent, you then need to find a new way to generate revenue streams))

SOLUTION #7: We must overhaul 911 - particularly for calls made about the mentally ill. It is the rotary phone of emergency services.

(Uh...ok) Maybe use animated gifs?

SOLUTION #8: Take women from 12% of police to 50% of police - they are more professional, less brutal, and just as effective

(Bull fucking shit. Mr. King needs to get out of his own little world.. Women cops can be some of the least professional violent little shits imaginable. )

SOLUTION #9: Require cops to live in or near the areas they police. It's too easy to mistreat strangers.

(100000% Agree)

SOLUTION #10: Communities of color actually need less policing. Start by decriminalizing addiction and petty offenses.

(Misguided. )

SOLUTION #11: American Police must be regularly tested for racial bias

( Unrealistic. Police will form bias against any demographic they are exposed to on a regular basis. )

SOLUTION #12: American Police must be regularly tested and treated for PTSD

(Opens up a whole can worms. Departments are being flooded with veterans and then add in precincts in troubled areas you are going to end up with 75% of the force on desk duty attending therapy sessions)

SOLUTION #13: Why we must take bad laws on policing all the way to the Supreme Court

(Agreed in a "yeah they should do something about that sort of thing so I will like it on facebook kinda way

SOLUTION #14: Good police officers must actually speak out on bad cops

Dude never saw Serpico. Not sure this guy even watches movies

SOLUTION #15: We must decriminalize mental illness

Bullshit talking point with no substance provided

SOLUTION #16: We need to unleash the full power of body cameras

Especially in the shower with all the professional, gentle lady cops.

SOLUTION #17: Police departments must create and enforce reasonable new use of force standards

They do all the time. Standards are usually written to give police the most leeway possible in applying force. So...no choke holds but they can taze you for 10 seconds per "You must comply" issued

SOLUTION #18: Police must always carry 3 less lethal weapons other than firearms

Like Mace, baton, taser? Aka "Now that I have a tazer I'm going to use every opportunity I can!!!

SOLUTION #19: Police must be banned from using violence based on their imagination of a threat

Now this guy is just struggling to come up additional items to add to the list. This is one of those things that yo say hoping no one actually thinks it through

SOLUTION #20: Every city and state in America must ban racial profiling

AKA: Every city and state must think of ways to racially profile while at the same time provide metrics indicating that racial profiling is not occurring.

SOLUTION #21: Police must be immediately filmed making a statement after each use of force incident

I'm starting to get bored going through this list as its getting worse and worse with each item

SOLUTION #22: Independent review boards must oversee investigations of police misconduct

How will these boards be formed. How will activities be funded. What will the board look like? they do these today and typically its folks from the DA's office, friends or people involved with local government...
Probably want to change that recommendation about policing for profit. Some of this guys recommendations sound like they are going to require a sizable budget. gonna suck for small districts. They are going to be speed trap city to pay for training and review boards and camera\tazer\mace bulk buys and all that

SOLUTION #23: Police misconduct cases must be tried by special/independent prosecutors

Sounds good on paper.How many miles away are you going to have to go find a prosecuter\DA\official that is willing to travel and provide oversight on mutliple cases per month. If you get the same person doming to same spot....they start to build relationships with the local guys they are supposed to be overseeing. There goes your independence.

SOLUTION #24: Police departments which fail to obey the Death in Custody Reporting Act should be cut off from all federal funding

So no more anti terrorism training and more speed traps and arrests\fines for silly crimes. Great plan

SOLUTION #25: We must focus our fight against police brutality on the local and state level

How so? Protest with signs? Are we supposed to do one of those stupid "Stand on city hall steps for the cameras and issue a statement that known is going to see on the local news? Emergency teddy bears to be deployed when cops start roughing up somebody? what if they are roughing up a douchebag with a known history of anally violating everyones cat while high on the pcp? Can they smack that guy around?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

^ I agree with pretty much all of that, except I don't think requiring cops to have four-year degrees is a good idea. Just one more thing to drive up college costs and I don't see how it's directly relevant to being an officer. Make them take a few criminal justice classes maybe, nothing more than that.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Part of the problem appears to be a society in which a fair number of people view the police as antagonistic. The police are not currently doing anything significant to soften this part of their image, so it starts to look more and more like some sort of gang war between the blue gang and the non-white gang.

In other words, the police themselves, as a group, are creating a large fraction of the violence problem that they are fighting against. Job security.

That said, the test for reasonable suspicion is always the totality of the circumstances. So the practical impact is likely that cops will just use the other ubiquitous bullshit reasons to justify fishing expedition stops. But if this is the start of a trend to start crossing off those bullshit reasons, it could be the beginning of real reform to the way black communities are policed in America.

 

[Texashiker]

Only two rules are needed:

1 - stop breaking the law.

2 - treat police with respect.

thats it. Anything else is a waste of time.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Only two rules are needed:

1 - stop breaking the law.

2 - treat police with respect.

thats it. Anything else is a waste of time.

Unfortunately many officers fail to follow the first rule.

 

[yllus]

^ I agree with pretty much all of that, except I don't think requiring cops to have four-year degrees is a good idea. Just one more thing to drive up college costs and I don't see how it's directly relevant to being an officer. Make them take a few criminal justice classes maybe, nothing more than that.

Since the college degree point keeps coming up, I'll paste relevant portions of his argument on that item. I think it's actually very compelling. I'd keep in mind that this is not saying "send all police officers away to get college degrees", but to require them to have gotten degrees.

KING: Police officers should be required to have a college degree

...

Study after study has proven that requiring police officers to earn a four-year degree, any four-year degree in fact, would radically improve virtually every metric essential to good policing. According to Mark Bond, a 29-year-veteran of law enforcement and firearms training who summarized several prominent and respected studies, benefits of a four-year degree include:

• Better behavioral and performance characteristics
• Better skilled with independent decision-making and problem-solving
• Better skilled at articulating their thoughts
• Greater aptitude for innovative thinking
• Improved adaptability
• Fewer on-the-job injuries and assaults
• More proficient in technology
• Enhanced grant writing abilities
• Improved budget and management abilities
• Fewer departmental disciplinary actions and internal investigations
• Less likely to be involved in unethical behavior
• Less likely to use force as a first response
• Enhanced report writing skills
• Displays maturity for age
• Better at discovering extra resources
• Demonstrates enhanced department responsibilities
• Less use of sick time (work ethic and seeing the big picture)
• Greater acceptance of minorities (diversity and cultural awareness)
• Decrease in dogmatism, authoritarianism, rigidity and conservatism
• Improved communication skills (oral and written)
• Fewer formal citizen complaints
• Promotion of higher aspirations
• Better adapted to accepting critical feedback on job performance
• Enhancement of minority recruitment efforts
• Intellectual personal growth
• Better adapted to retirement and second-career opportunities

...

Every lawyer is required to have a four-year degree, a three-year law degree and pass a series of brutal exams.

Of course, every doctor is required to have a four-year degree, a medical degree and several years of experience before becoming certified.

Somehow though, not a single state in the country requires police to have a four-year degree. While a few larger cities now require officers to have either two years of college or a mix of police and military experience, many police departments have set the bar so low that all you need to become an officer is a pretty clean criminal history, a high school diploma or GED, and a willingness to attend police academy for eight to 10 weeks. That's just not good enough. No other profession in America with has so much on the line, so much risk involved, requires so little of its workforce.​

 

[PokerGuy]

What a list of ill-conceived stupidity and drivel. Not only that, but it's sexist and in some ways contradictory as well. Not surprising, when you start the process with a fundamental lie.

 

[x26]

Shaun King is a Fraud.

 

[Maxima1]

Since the college degree point keeps coming up, I'll paste relevant portions of his argument on that item. I think it's actually very compelling. I'd keep in mind that this is not saying "send all police officers away to get college degrees", but to require them to have gotten degrees.

Somehow though, not a single state in the country requires police to have a four-year degree. While a few larger cities now require officers to have either two years of college or a mix of police and military experience, many police departments have set the bar so low that all you need to become an officer is a pretty clean criminal history, a high school diploma or GED, and a willingness to attend police academy for eight to 10 weeks. That's just not good enough. No other profession in America with has so much on the line, so much risk involved, requires so little of its workforce.​

Some states already pay over 100K median and even more when pension/bennies included. Many departments get to pick out of hundreds or thousands of applicants. I don't think a college degree is really changing anything besides changing the applicant pool to include more higher ability people, and a lot of this higher ability will be allocated in areas without the crime. How many want to police Detroit for less money than an area that is rather affluent?

Taking this further, truckers kill more per year than police.Let's include a BA/BS college degree for them, too, for more credential creep!

 

[alcoholbob]

Since the college degree point keeps coming up, I'll paste relevant portions of his argument on that item. I think it's actually very compelling. I'd keep in mind that this is not saying "send all police officers away to get college degrees", but to require them to have gotten degrees.

KING: Police officers should be required to have a college degree

...

Study after study has proven that requiring police officers to earn a four-year degree, any four-year degree in fact, would radically improve virtually every metric essential to good policing. According to Mark Bond, a 29-year-veteran of law enforcement and firearms training who summarized several prominent and respected studies, benefits of a four-year degree include:

• Better behavioral and performance characteristics
• Better skilled with independent decision-making and problem-solving
• Better skilled at articulating their thoughts
• Greater aptitude for innovative thinking
• Improved adaptability
• Fewer on-the-job injuries and assaults
• More proficient in technology
• Enhanced grant writing abilities
• Improved budget and management abilities
• Fewer departmental disciplinary actions and internal investigations
• Less likely to be involved in unethical behavior
• Less likely to use force as a first response
• Enhanced report writing skills
• Displays maturity for age
• Better at discovering extra resources
• Demonstrates enhanced department responsibilities
• Less use of sick time (work ethic and seeing the big picture)
• Greater acceptance of minorities (diversity and cultural awareness)
• Decrease in dogmatism, authoritarianism, rigidity and conservatism
• Improved communication skills (oral and written)
• Fewer formal citizen complaints
• Promotion of higher aspirations
• Better adapted to accepting critical feedback on job performance
• Enhancement of minority recruitment efforts
• Intellectual personal growth
• Better adapted to retirement and second-career opportunities

...

Every lawyer is required to have a four-year degree, a three-year law degree and pass a series of brutal exams.

Of course, every doctor is required to have a four-year degree, a medical degree and several years of experience before becoming certified.

Somehow though, not a single state in the country requires police to have a four-year degree. While a few larger cities now require officers to have either two years of college or a mix of police and military experience, many police departments have set the bar so low that all you need to become an officer is a pretty clean criminal history, a high school diploma or GED, and a willingness to attend police academy for eight to 10 weeks. That's just not good enough. No other profession in America with has so much on the line, so much risk involved, requires so little of its workforce.​

Pretty much everything you listed is a proxy for IQ. Thats why alot of tech companies are hiring coders (many of them to 6 or 7 figure annual salaries) straight out of high school now after giving them indirect intelligence tests. All college really is for your typical employer a proxy for an IQ test anyway. The majority of college entrance tests after all originally were variations of IQ tests.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Some excerpts from that...

A third group of studies has found that college-educated officers and non-college-educated officers do not behave differently in regard to their use of force (i.e., useneither less force nor more force). Analyzing 7 years of shooting data from the KansasCity, Missouri Police Department, Sherman and Blumberg (1981) found that officer education appeared to have no significant effect on discharging firearms when con-trolling for assignment, age, and length of service.
5
Four years earlier, Inn and Wheeler (1977) produced similar results, finding that college education did not cause signifi-cant differences in shooting incidents among officers. In addition, Hayden (1981)found that individual officer characteristics, including education, did not predict thedecision to use deadly force.In sum, Sherman and Blumberg (1981) noted in the early 1980s that “depending onwhere and how police use of force is measured . . . more educated police officersappear to use force less often, more often, or just as often as less educated officers”(p. 318). To date, the effect of education on police use of force behavior still remainsinconclusive as the above review indicates. Nonetheless, it does appear that morerecent findings have gravitated toward college-educated officers using force less oftenthan non-college-educated officers.

Model 2 controls for the effects of suspect characteristics. Introducing these vari-ables does not mediate the influence of officer education level on the probability of force occurring. With the exception of suspect demeanor, which is not statisticallysignificant, all the suspect-level measures are related to the use of force in the hypothesized direction.

So officer education does predict use of force (but not arrest or search rates), but not in any kind of racially-dependent manner. Is the moderate increase in use of force a bad thing on its own if it is unrelated to potential racial bias?

Most of the other stuff is just typical barely-defined education-industrial complex puffery, "Greater aptitude for innovative thinking", "Better at discovering extra resources", etc, the kind of stuff that makes baristas feel important for their useless degrees.

 

[mizzou]

Pretty generic stuff, I really don't feel against anything he said. Nothing was really groundbreaking either.

What it's really going to come down to is we are going to have to start paying more money for policing. Body cameras, years and years of training, four year degrees. This is going to cost quite a bit of money. Some agencies pay pretty well, but overall, especially in the south, cops make terrible money.

 

[leper84]

NY Daily News - Solutions For Police Brutality by Shaun King

SOLUTION #4: Bad Apples MUST Be Fired - they are toxic and dangerous

SOLUTION #6: Policing for profit must become a banned practice. A profit motive must never undergird law

SOLUTION #9: Require cops to live in or near the areas they police. It's too easy to mistreat strangers.

SOLUTION #14: Good police officers must actually speak out on bad cops

SOLUTION #16: We need to unleash the full power of body cameras

SOLUTION #21: Police must be immediately filmed making a statement after each use of force incident

SOLUTION #22: Independent review boards must oversee investigations of police misconduct

SOLUTION #23: Police misconduct cases must be tried by special/independent prosecutors
​

He actually had a few good points. Too bad he had to water down the rest with complete nonsense. I don't know anyone who wouldn't agree those eight points, maybe if BLM could work on not rioting, assaulting and mudering; and start effectively expressing points like these they would actually get some change.

 

[rudder]

Couple of items... Definitely keep an eye on PTSD. Soldiers get PTSD from constantly being in an environment where an IED or sniper or kid with a gun can take them out. It is reasonable to believe that police working in gang infested areas and not knowing whether a contact could result with them getting shot in the face would lead to PTSD. Maybe need to rotate police patrols.

College degree? Smaller departments can't afford to hire someone who has student loans to pay off. Plus I would think a 2 year stint as a soldier in law enforcement would be better than a 4 year degree.

Diversify departments? If a community is 80% black and the police department has only 20% of officers are black... You can't assume the department is racist and doesn't want blacks in that case. There may be a stigma of working for the man that leads to some areas where young blacks don't go go into law enforcement. Just like people saying everyone should serve 2 years in the military... People who don't want to do that should not be forced. I don't want someone to work as a cop unless they have a genuine desire to do so.

And police black communities less? You mean like the ones in Chicago and Baltimore. This one is not very wise.

 

[rudder]

And....

Taxpayers should not have to bailout police departments. If a department is ordered to pay a settlement it does not hurt them one bit.

Although this would be a hard one to fix. Can't very well bankrupt of police department but there needs to be an incentive for a department to be on the up and up. The Alburquerque police department is on that is notorious for police brutality.

 

[rudder]

Oh yeh one more. Since most firearm deaths aside from suicide are drug/gang related we need to take away the financial incentive leading to gangs using violence to protect the drug trade. Legalize marijuana nationwide. Let the peons have their smoke.

 

[Zaap]

I don't know what would actually make some mythical "better police force". Unfortunately, neither does Shaun King. The only difference between us is he *thinks* he knows, along with a lot of other people whose resumes show exactly ZERO qualifications on the subject.

About the only person who would actually know, is someone with decades of real world experience structuring police forces. I'd like to see that person's list.

Meanwhile, where's a list of what individuals can do to be better communities the police have to serve?

 

[KMFJD]

And....

Taxpayers should not have to bailout police departments. If a department is ordered to pay a settlement it does not hurt them one bit.

Although this would be a hard one to fix. Can't very well bankrupt of police department but there needs to be an incentive for a department to be on the up and up. The Alburquerque police department is on that is notorious for police brutality.

Watch as property/cash seizures go up the more they become cash strapped, slippery slope indeed.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

SOLUTION #8: Take women from 12% of police to 50% of police - they are more professional, less brutal, and just as effective

Holy shit, that is the funniest thing I've read all week! You sure that wasn't Feminist Frequency (aka, Jonathan McIntosh) that wrote that list?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

SOLUTION #10: Communities of color actually need less policing.

Chicago is a prime example of this policy in action:

Chicago's murder rate soars 72% in 2016; shootings up more than 88%

(article is from April, current total murders up 70% 46%, shootings up 44%)

The rise in violence comes as the police department reported a decrease in investigative stops by cops on the streets during the first two months of the year. The police department entered an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union, which went into effect Jan. 1, to record contact cards for all street stops after the organization criticized the city's police for disproportionately targeting minorities for questioning and searches.

Reducing policing in "Communities of color" only gets more blacks killed.

FWIW, this year cops have killed 793 people nationwide:

Blacks killed by cops: 194 of 793
Whites killed by cops: 388 of 793

Total murders in Chicago alone so far this year: 545 (415 black victims)

What a tool that Shaun King fraud is, trying to get more blacks killed.

 

[WelshBloke]

How about making the police responsible for providing at least basic first aid and calling paramedics after they subdue someone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rakeyia-scott-video-call-the-police_us_57e59706e4b0e80b1ba22256