Data scientist Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) is the cofounder of the police reform group Campaign Zero. In a spectacular thread from Oct 2019, he lays out the evidence for which interventions improve policing, and which ones are a waste of time/money.
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What doesn't work? Better training, implicit bias workshops, bodycams. These programs are uneven and the evidence doesn't support the idea that they reduce police violence.
Thankfully, there is evidence to support a list of low-cost, practical interventions that DO work.
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Thankfully, there is evidence to support a list of low-cost, practical interventions that DO work.
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30 years' worth of research supports the idea that use-of-force policies reduce police violence.
useofforceproject.org
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useofforceproject.org
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Demilitarizing the police - stripping them of the weapons and armor that they get as cheap surplus from the US military - works. Obama ended this practice. Trump renewed it. Military contractors - who make bank from it - lobby for it constantly.
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Fix police union contracts. The contracts that police unions sign with cities are bad jokes: "Purging misconduct records, reinstating fired officers, dept funding."
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…
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marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…
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Use data to do "predictive policing" - not predicting crime, but predicting abusive cops.
chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-…
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chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-…
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Invest in orgs that support poor and marginalized people, and establish police alternatives - for example, divert 911 calls related to mental health to mental health professionals, not cops (likewise, divert calls about homelessness to social workers, etc).
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Fund the DoJ and direct it to investigate police departments: "Departments that receive federal intervention have 25-30% fewer police shootings than those that do not."
vice.com/en_us/article/…
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vice.com/en_us/article/…
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This stuff works. Adopting just some of these proposals in Oakland reduced the number of people shot by cops from 8/year to 0/year.
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To learn more about Campaign Zero's research, watch this video of them presenting all of it to Portland City Council.
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While some of the specifics of this were surprising to me, the overall message is just commonsense. Tell cops they're not allowed to use violence. Don't outfit them like an army.. Punish and fire cops who break the rules.
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Don't use cops as social workers, mental health counsellors or addiction therapists.
When you put it that way, it's clear that the only reason we're living through an epidemic of lethal police violence is that we chose not to do something about it.
eof/
When you put it that way, it's clear that the only reason we're living through an epidemic of lethal police violence is that we chose not to do something about it.
eof/
