Before I start, the murder of police is not acceptable. The killings in Dallas and Baton Rouge appear to have been committed by disturbed individuals, representing no one but themselves. Parenthetically, the sole comment by the NRA about these murders was to send condolences to the families of the officers. It seems to me the least they could do is to revoke the membership of the killers.
Regarding the killings of civilians by police, I have a modest proposal.
From what I’ve learned, there are about 1000 civilians killed every year by police in America. These deaths are not tracked[1], other than by a few journalists trying to understand. What has happened over the past few years is not that many more people are being killed, but that we are starting to hear about them, and to see them by video. Sometimes, perhaps most of the time the use of lethal force is justified, but in an unfortunate number of cases it is not.
My own outrage arises from three factors:
- The people being killed are disproportionately black.
- An alarming number of killings seem to be made by ill trained, incompetent officers who should never have had a badge in the first place.
- Very little is being done to reduce the carnage. Cities try to avoid consequences and try to hide evidence until the affair fades away. District attorneys sandbag their cases (if any) against police to avoid damaging their relationships. Police unions and non-involved officers tend to support their incompetent fellow officers.
I don’t think that bringing murder charges against police is the answer. Prosecutors, judges, and juries give a lot of deference to police, and it is very hard to get convictions. When cases fail, even when they fail for good reasons, the public is outraged again, and the government shrugs and says “we tried”. I also don’t want police to be so nervous about personal liability that they can’t do their jobs. In egregious cases, sure
So what should be done?
My proposal is that for any civilian killed by police, there should be an automatic five million dollar award to the victim’s family unless the police have unambiguous video and audio evidence showing the individual presenting a clear threat and that the police exhausted every non lethal means for resolution. Further, there should be an immediate threat not created by the police themselves. No-knock warrant? Better be sure you don’t kill the residents. Broken tailight? It’s the policeman’s responsibility to make sure the occupants of the car go home safely.
What about suicide by cop? There are likely people so desperate that getting themselves killed for a large payday looks like a good idea. That’s where the video comes in. If there is clear video evidence, then no payout. In addition, as police learn to defuse situations and develop better non-lethal tools, the rate will drop.
What about the large civil penalties already paid by cities in egregious cases? They haven’t done much to solve the problem. The awards have to be immediate, public, and humiliating for the chain of command and the politicians. Too often, such awards are years too late and never reported. Perhaps the awards should be scaled according to the complaint record of the officers. That should give the chain of command incentives to remove bad apples from the barrel. If police union contracts forbid firing, fine. Bad officers should report for duty and just sit somewhere where they are not killing people.
My point is, the police have a responsibility not to kill unarmed or innocent civilians. It doesn’t really matter if the killing is not judged criminal and the officers involved are not found liable. The police have a responsibility not to kill civilians.
[1] There needs to be central reporting of every police involved killing.