Modern Policing Can’t BE “Reformed” Because The Abuse Is Institutionalized

I’m sorry, but I honestly believe the title to be true. Modern policing cannot be changed substantially, only modified. Because when you attempt to make systemic change, that logically means that you are going to change the system itself. After decades of sanctioned practice, racism and police abuse of force are so woven into the system that you can no longer untangle that ball of yarn.

For instance, do you honestly believe that Derek Chauvin is a rogue cop, or a bad apple? What Derek Chauvin is, is a sacrificial lamb, simply because he fucked up so badly that it became impossible for the city and department to stand by him.

Sweet Jesus! Derek Chauvin piled up 17 community complaints for excessive use of force in 19 years! Do you honestly believe that he wandered merrily along without his Sargent, Lieutenant, Captain, or the Office of Professional Standards not starting to put these pieces together and completing the puzzle? Don’t be ridiculous. Like the church with a pedophile priest, as long as they could bury the paperwork and shuffle him around, they didn’t need to deal with him.

Because no member of police command wants to fuck with the police union. What good does it do for a Commander to give a bad cop the kind of sanction that could force him to alter his thinking. Say a 30 day suspension, and then walk into the station the next morning to find that half of the force is out with a case of the Blue Flu? That’s why verbal or written reprimands are so common, they stay in house, with no effect to the pay or benefits of the officer.

And please remember. I grew up in the cop culture, I had a grandfather and uncle on the force in Chicago in the 60’s and 70’s. And while systemic racism and abuse against minorities was already prevalent and built largely into the system, in most cases, at least in Chicago, in non minority neighborhoods, the police relationship with the largely white communities was largely tolerant, and even positive.

I have long believed that what finally flipped that equation were the anti Vietnam war protests. It wasn’t so much the long haired freaks, the cops had long ago lumped them into the same soup as the minorities. But when suddenly middle class whites, not only teens and 20 somethings, but mothers and even middle aged white men, started joining and mingling with the protesters that were calling the cops Pigs!, and throwing things at them, at that moment they became the enemy. And while the level of contempt never came anywhere near what minorities were going through, suddenly traffic stops and confrontations became a little more fraught than they had been.

The other thing that changed the culture was the sudden introduction, in the late 80’s and early 90’s of veterans, especially veteran Military Police, into civilian police departments. Military Police do not serve and protect the soldiers under them, they ride shotgun over them. Their word is law. And the very training that police forces felt made them such attractive candidates made them fundamentally incapable of effectively dealing with a civilian population that were autocratically under their direct control. The words To Serve And Protect were not part of their shared professional experience.

So you tell me, how do you fix an autocratic, inherently racist system like this? Good luck with that. Remember, rogue cops like Derek Chauvin are only the ones that we know about, how many other bad apples are there out there, being shuffled from precinct to precinct, just trying to keep them one step ahead of an administrative hearing? And exactly what conduct and how much of it is excessive, and grounds for termination? The unions will have a field day with that one.

One of the suggestions that are floating around out there with a lot of credence to them is to increase the amount of psychological testing applicants receive, with a greater emphasis on unacceptable traits, as well as more and enhanced training in de-escalation, as well as minimal use of force, with service weapons as a last resort. And I’m down like LeRoy Brown with that one. Except it won’t work.

Because sooner or later, those shiny new, community oriented officers are going to graduate training. And what happens then? Well, they’ll be paired for a specific period of time with a training officer, and once they’re done with that, likely assigned a permanent partner. What do you think the chances are that those training partners, and later permanent partners, are going to be kindred spirits with the new community policing oriented officers? How about nil. They are going to be veterans of the already existing, inherently corrupt system. But these rookies are going to be desperate to be good cops, and good partners. Which means impressing their coworkers. And inevitably, that means prostituting their training, and becoming one of the guys.

Have I made my point? You can’t reform an organization that is corrupt at it’s core. You could arrest every Godfather, Consiglieri, and Capo in the 5 families, but you’re never going to turn the Mafia into the Knights of Columbus. The two are just incompatible.

But, being me, I do have a suggestion. But it would cost billions, and hurt like hell. First, come up with national standards for police training in the United States. Any police department receiving federal funds must accept those standards, which would include legal limits of the power police unions could have over the departments and city. Any officers already employed by the city could apply to go through the program, with full restoration of their seniority and benefits upon completion.

Then you train like a bastard maniac. But upon completion of training, you do not just scatter them into the four winds into the den of the wolves. When you have enough trained officers, you take over a precinct! You insulate those officers from outside influence from other officers, and allow them to build a brotherhood, and begin to repair relationships with the community. And you keep taking over precinct after precinct, until it’s finally Out with the old, and in with the new! You don’t try to reform a corrupt culture, you create a new one.

Is it perfect? Of course not! God knows I have my flaws. Is it doable? I honestly don’t know, although it really does hit all of the bases required to convert the culture, and hopefully start to mend the long broken relationship between communities and the police who are supposed to protect and serve them. But what I do know is that it is going to take a radical solution to finally fix this once and for all. Just think back to the civil rights struggles we have all seen and lived through. We can be better than this.

Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35