Real Police Reform that is Desperately Needed.

SavannahMann

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Nov 16, 2016
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I have spent years considering Real Police Reform, and I have settled on a few changes that would make things better for real, not for some imaginary nonsense, but real.

1) Integrity Checks. Those people who are granted access to Top Secret Material are given Polygraph tests regularly. These tests are so we can identify anyone who is giving away secrets to anyone who isn’t supposed to have it. When there is a special circumstance, then everyone with access to the materials, is tested again right away. As an example, when Snowden leaked the information, everyone who had access to that information was tested to find the person who had leaked.

Why not have our Police given Integrity Checks as well? Now, we can’t throw someone into jail, nor charge them with a crime based upon the results of a Polygraph, but we can stop them from exercising the power of the Police. In other words, taking their badge and gun. I am not unreasonable, I understand that people have bad days, personal events, and life difficulties that would affect the test. My proposal is that when someone fails, they can retest in a couple weeks after taking time to address the personal issues that are affecting the test. If they fail the second time, well we need to have a long talk with them, and see what is going on, and if the failure is personal, or professional, but either way, they don’t need to be on the street.

The questions would be limited and general. Since your last polygraph, have you used or seen excessive force used. Have you lied, or seen another officer lie. Have you planted evidence, or seen it planted. Twenty minutes and done.

I am well aware that the test won’t catch everyone, but that is why have you seen it comes into play. A Sociopath can pass the Polygraph, but it is exceedingly unlikely that every cop is going to be a Sociopath. The only way to pass the polygraph is if the “good” cops start talking and reporting what the “bad” cops are doing. Thus ending the code of silence that exists.

2) Real Investigations into Police Use of Force. The model we should use is based upon the NTSB’s investigation of Airplane Crashes. Finding out all the little details, to build as complete of a picture as possible, to insure we learn all we can to make sure that something like this is unlikely to happen ever again.

There is a famous crash called the Queens Catastrophy. American Airlines Flight 587 - Wikipedia

In it that flying pilot, or Co-Pilot who was at the controls, screwed up and broke the tail off the plane. The investigation determined that pretty quickly. They also used the information from the Black Box to determine that the actions of the Co-Pilot had caused the tail to break off. But they did not know why, and kept digging. The digging resulted in discovering that the American Airlines training program, which used simulators, had a scenario that was totally unrealistic, for the best of reasons. The Instructors wanted to teach the new pilots that you never stopped flying the plane. If something didn’t work, you didn’t just quit. You kept on, fighting to regain control and controlled flight right up until you struck the ground. Good intentions, but bad choice. The lesson learned by this particular Co-Pilot was that small control actions in a Wake Turbulence Event, were useless. It was Pilot Error, but because they kept digging, they made the repeat of the accident far less likely. We learned why.

Treating the use of force as a strictly criminal investigation doesn’t even scratch the surface of why. That’s why we keep learning the wrong lessons from events. The famed Miami Shootout is one example. This video is very long, but it shows the real reason that so many died on that day. It wasn’t inadequate equipment, but inadequate marksmanship. When three people fire their 9MM pistols empty, sending about a box of ammunition at the baddies, and the three get maybe one hit between them, we have a problem with marksmanship.



When we spend the time to learn the why, not just the what, and if it was legal, we can make appropriate changes that actually increase Officer Safety, instead of decreasing it.

3) Treat Internal Affairs investigations as the Military learned to treat NTC. What I mean is that right now officers are unlikely to report suspicions because if they are wrong, the “good” cop is tarred by the idea that Internal Investigations even looked at him.

When the Army opened up the National Training Center, they set it up to be hard, nearly impossible, to waltz through. The Opposing Force wasn’t a scratch team of people assigned as part of a temporary support training rotation. They were assigned to it, and became known as the Best Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiment in the world. The OPFOR regularly cleans the clock of regular army units. The training is supposed to make Combat look easy by comparison. Because your enemy is just not going to be as well trained as the OPFOR at NTC.

At first the Army reacted badly to this reality. Commanders were relieved for Gross Incompetence, complaints were filed, and careers were destroyed. In time, we learned that it was supposed to be hard. I went to NTC became a badge of honor, and the stories from folks who had been there started with. “We went, and got our asses kicked.”

I went, and we got our asses kicked.

But we were supposed to get our asses kicked. You learn more from a defeat, if you are honest, than you do a victory. And that was the entire point of the NTC, to learn, so we do better when the bullets are really flying. Thus we make Training Bloodless Combat, and Combat Bloody Training. We save lives of our troops.

We need to view Internal Affairs the same way. Chances are, the investigations are going to turn up good and well within policy reasons for the behavior. But we won’t catch the real bad cops, if we don’t know what is going on, and that means reporting what you see and think to the right folks. Maybe the big new truck that the Sergeant is driving is because his Mother died and he got Life Insurance money. or maybe it is because he is taking bribes. We need to know, for sure.

Using these simple changes, we can turn the police into what they are supposed to be, and are by legend, instead of what they are now, which is not even a shadow of the honest and trustworthy LEO’s they are.
 
1) Integrity Checks.
This is a VERY good idea, as it protects both the public and the officer.

2) Real Investigations into Police Use of Force. The model we should use is based upon the NTSB’s investigation of Airplane Crashes.
I agree. Every use-of-force matter should be investigated by an independent body. The purpose should not be to find one way or another, but solely to establish the facts.
3) Treat Internal Affairs investigations as the Military learned to treat NTC.
This is likely the reason for many of the shooting situations. Poorly trained and under-qualified candidates make dangerous police officers.

It would help to pay them a bit more, to get better, smarter candidates.


Finally:

I would never join a club that would have someone like me as a member. Marx.
That would be Groucho Marx....not Karl...
:lol:

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