I have a couple of ideas in here, but I think there's a bigger idea that I can no longer avoid: there are way too many police officers in the US. It's not just a bad apples problem, it's a too many apples problem.
The typical math for figuring if more cops should be hired is 'how much crime does one officer prevent?' The cost of that officer, measured in damage to a community, is never monetized.
And police don't prevent crime, they deter it. Prevention is giving access to resources and supports. Deterrence is about instilling fear in another. Fear is so outrageously costly. Just look around.
And the police aren't getting better. Police have more resources and better pay then ever, and there are half as many crimes to investigate today. But the clearance rate hasn't gone up at all in 30 years and most crimes remain unsolved.
The fact is, police are having a terrible time recruiting. The pay is good, benefits are better than ever. But fewer qualified applicants. Why? Because policing doesn't have the same community status as it did in the past.
Police are experiencing a huge legitimacy crisis. Police authority cannot be demanded, it has to be earned. That legitimacy crisis is being wildly exacerbated on the streets right now. Tonight.
Every time a police union doubles down supporting a bad cop, all cops are punished in the market of public opinion. Which creates defensiveness in the ranks and the spiral gets worse. And we get #GeorgeFloyd. Which will make it worse, not better.
We need to lighten the touch of the criminal justice system. We need fewer officers, who are better trained. We need a system that balances the harms that are inherent in deterrence, suppression and surveillance with the good police could do.
We need good cops, perhaps now more than ever. We need patient, tolerant, unbiased, hardheaded, softhearted cops. They are out there and we need a system that identifies them and rewards them and roots out evil.
Fin.
Fin.
Coda: Local police agencies spent $90.6 billion on local police in 2015 (that's the most recent data from BJS). That's between one quarter and half of your city's budget: gq.com/story/cops-cos…
