When Police Lie, the Innocent Pay. Some Are Fighting Back

Like many things, you can't create a "static system" and get perfect results. That's what Checks And Balances are about in the Constitution. That's what iterative development is about. That's what iterative marketing/sales is also about.

Most of the time, expecting a one-time, static, created thing to "fit" or "match" or "perform" well is moronic.

Whenever you have a manager who wants things that have never been done (e.g. advertising, tech design, etc.) to be 100% perfect a priori (e.g. a Waferfall project plan), you will always fail.

Iteration and feedback loops are the magic solution, along with having some "decent" and "obvious" good planning. An EE would call this a PID controller: predictive, reactive and presently aware forms of correction.

So having restrictions on IQ for police is a self-evident form of "bad planning".

Not having proper independent correction with truth and teeth, is an example of "bad feedback".

So good policing must be a "process" and not some static imagined state based on statistic or metrics that don't have ties to anything related to the mission and goals (e.g. hiring minorities for no other reason but that you want minorities rather than on merit!)

You might be interested to read the book Sundown Towns: https://thenewpress.com/books/sundown-towns

The author shows via census data and historical research that there were towns all over America where Black people weren't allowed after sundown. This happened from the end of Reconstruction up to the civil rights era. A large amount of that was never documented, so we don't know the mechanisms. But for the places where it was, this ethnic cleansing was often directly enforced by the police or tacitly supported by them when they ignored white intimidation and violence.

Growing up in western Michigan, I had never heard of this. But it turns out many towns I was familiar with were examples of it.

This is a better example, which also illustrates that planting evidence is a criminal offense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UANRvFNc0hw

And to GP's point, here's an NYT investigation into a suspicious arrest from 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrfZuPFrH8A

I’d start by looking at overseas policing and taking lessons from them. Look at basing around something like Peelian principals. Find and adopt practices that discourage corruption, just one easy example here is to do away with overtime, cops become salaried and receive TOIL if they work extra hours but are not incentivized to make work. Actually ask questions and study things like, does carrying a gun all the time make an officer safer, in every circumstance? Is it situational? Does it make the public safer? Etc. Build a new curricula around these principals and findings from your studies, with state level police colleges for training. Then start building out a new state wide police service that over time absorbs the functions of various municipal and county departments. Existing officers who want can go through training and continue their careers in the new service, assuming they qualify. Set up an independence conduct commission to be overseen by the public, selecting a jury at random to review cases. (Not an elected position.)

And of course, never stop actually asking the questions how can we improve what we are doing with the principals we have set out.

That's basically like a complete software rewrite. If you don't change the environment this works in you end up with the same set of problems eventually. There are a ton of things that could be done to improve american policing. But it's just for ideological grandstanding. This is pretty much the same with healthcare. It's clearly f..ed up but just used as a partisan tool for to win voters.

Clearly they wish to wipe them out /s

Build robust systems for accountability and oversight. Trust but verify thoroughly.

This discourages the casual deceiver, but also identifies the motivated.

Why not a clean slate and improvements/checks and balances together, because the current crop of cops have lost the faith of a lot of people.

Google LAPD gangs.

>And innocent people get hurt.

You're saying that everyone lies except for "innocent people"? Where are these innocent people you speaketh of? There's no such thing as "innocent people." Everyone lies their asses off, everyone. There is no such thing as innocent.

They could raise the requirements to become a cop, and change the structure of organization.

1. Require at least a bachelor's degree in anything.

2. Nix all paramilitary training.

3. Make each cop civilly/criminally legally liable for for their third screw up.

4. Hire only people over 25.

5. Dissuade military personal, including veterans, from thinking they have a job waiting for themselfs after their stint is up. (We do not need miitiary trained soldiers. We need Sociologists, and Psychologists.)

6. Cameras should be on every cop, without a way to turn the devise off. (Any complaints could then be verified by a third party.)

7. Get rid of all out little police squads. A cops would be federally licensed, and trained. Preferably stationed where they are needed. In my county of Marin, most are not needed.

8. And let's be honest. Most Cops are just Revenue Collectors. They are not going to be there to save our lives. To anyone saying, there won't be enough people applying for the job. Come on? There are a lot of people whom would like to become Police Officers. It usually those people, people who just want an honest job, whom are not hired. Get rid of all the cowboys, and hire level headed people. Ban all high speed chases, unless it involves a kidnapping. Require all police to obey every road law we are expected to abide. Make all uniforms Orange, or Pink. At least we could see them comming, and the bright colors might make the right people apply?

9. I'm not going to debate. I'm sick and tired of looking in my rear view mirror, or trying to figure out what hedge they are hiding behind. I'm as white as they come. I can't imagine what minorities have to put up with.

I don't understand why lying by police, prosecutors or misbehavior by judges is not made into a serious crime that gets punished very harshly. These people are entrusted by society with a lot of power, often over death and life, so the standards should be very high.

If you were correct, police departments around the world would be equally corrupt. But living in different cities and countries will quickly persuade you that's not the case.

Marginal improvements can work if the people making the improvements agree on what "improvement" is. But expecting corrupt cops to get serious about stopping corrupt cops is different. A clean slate (plus structural improvements) may be your best bet.

Checks and balances don't work when the entire system is for the injustice. This isn't an issue with the system, but it's an issue with the people and how they feel police should be used against marginalized groups. Even when caught, every step of the system works to shield police from any form of accountability.

Also the police service of Northern Ireland was rebuilt from the irrevocably prejudiced RUC.