Police Reform Concept

 This blog is a little long than normal, because there is so much to say. My normal articles for my political blogs will not usually be this long. 

 

Now first before anyone jumps down my throat, I would like to say that I support the police that are good, not the corrupt bullies or the ones that have a ego attitude. I also support that we need to minorities equal rights as well. So with that I have come up with a good solution, we don’t need to defund the police just retrain them. This will be a long and timely situation that needs to be done, and I believe that it will make police crime drop to almost nothing.

The police should be required to attend the police academy for four years no less, have at least have a bachelours degree in Constitutional Law and Psychology. They need to be required to take a mental test every six months while in the Academy, this should be the beginning to weed out many of the bad seeds that want to be a police officer. If a Lawyer needs eight years of study, then the police should have more than six months.

Six months is not long enough to train people, yes, I know that the military trains their people in thirteen weeks, but that is a completely different scenario, and different types of training. Police training needs to take longer especially when they need to learn certain laws. The police need to take responsibility for all their actions, and then Undertaking an effort to get the communities working with them. Such as having community meetings, going door to door meeting and introducing themselves to every member of the community and stop people to talk on their daily patrols. Making major appearances and getting the communities with how policing should be done in the area of the community. The police need to make and keep a contact with the community. A face to face is one of the best acts of the community.

The trust needs to be rebuilt in the community, and that’s not going to happen until the police are trained to address their racial bias and some of its deals with the community inequality. To this extent this part of the training should help stop the bias by focusing on the factors and not the skin colour. The training of cultural diversity should be about half of their four-year training.  Along with meditation and conflict management. We need to stop using the police in deployment aggressiveness, they are not a military force and should not be used as such.

 We need to start having the police be held accountable for all their actions in a very transparent way, such as being held to a community hearing along with an IAB hearing, everything needs and should be made public during the community hearing. The aftermath of misconduct should be severe and be a strong force for Community Justice. The lack of accountability is so staggering for a police officer, that they think they are above the law.

Community Civilian complaint review boards which is an oversight community for the police, which is crucial and good for the accountability, along with that appoint a independent prosecutor for the community to have a trust and so the police can be held more accountable which also would end the process of the police determining guilt or innocence.

Another thing that has been mentioned but added here for detail is getting rid of the militarized style police tactics, such as tear gas, riot shields and heavy armoured vehicles. These don’t suggest that the local police or any police are there to protect and to serve the community. These are not the tactics that a democracy should be using on its own people. The military should be the only organization to have military grade weapons not the police.

The police need to be set to a higher standard for protecting and serving the community. They need a new set of guidelines that point out that they work to protect the community and that is who they need to serve. The police do need a better pay system as well, they tend to do more work and that work can become dangerous at times. I believe that the police should be paid better than any politician, because a politician should be paid less than a Teacher, Police and Fire/Rescue service these three are the most important set in any community.

The police should be trained to focus on hot spot policing, most of the crimes in cities are perpetrated by just a few in a specific part and with the help of the social serviced in the communities. These would help with the situation of the police working with the community to end or lower crime to a non-existent matter.

Police also need to remember all the time – that Innocent till proven guilty is the fundamental right of every citizen in every community. The police must be trained in dealing with the mentally ill who are not criminals, and this must be done with all the other retraining. The blue wall of silence needs to be destroyed and to go away. If a police officer commits an act of violence or a crime, it is the other officers sworn duty to turn that officer over to be prosecuted for said crime. The community is the first and last line that they should be defending, not a corrupt officer who had committed a crime.

If there is a police retaliation about the police that did there duty, such as those police that are bullying shall be brought up on charges as well. These actions of ridding the blue line will also bring confidence to the community.

Police misconduct needs to be taken seriously and stopped before it gets out of hand, this would also require longer retraining. The longer training is the best starts to do all that and making the community feel better about their police force.

AS I have written an oath and a set of commandments for Politicians, I have also created a set for a Reformed Police Community.

The word force also needs to stop being used, instead they will be called the Police Community, because that is who they actually work for. A police community would feel more welcoming to everyone and therefore a better police and community Relations, which is the major point for the reformation.

The Police Community Commandments

Every Police Officer that has completed the four years at the Reformed Police Academy and two years of college in LAW and Psychology with passing a rigorous mental test and evaluation. The police must swear on an Oath and Honour these sets of Commandments.

1.      Thou shall protect all members of the Community from harm.

2.      I am a public servant and therefore the community is my manager.

3.      Remember your oath to protect the constitution and the people it was written for.   

4.      No matter what your beliefs are, do not push them on to others.

5.      Everyone is presumed Innocent until the courts say otherwise, Not you.

6.      You always need to work together with the community.

7.      You are the guardians of the community and must be friendly, polite, courteous and always vigilant with the community.

8.      You are not above the law and should never assume that you are.

9.      The community again is your most important part of your job and should always be the protector of said community.

10.  Diplomacy is your first and foremost solution in the community, than action on defusing a hot situation is your second.

The police need to stop acting like bullies and knowing what is best for people. They need to act like civil servants and not the masters. They are not the masters of anyone, but themselves, just like everyone. No one is the master over anyone, the police are there to serve a function of community service.

Body camera’s will always be on all police , and they can not be turned off by the police officer themselves. If a police officer tries to tamper with the camera in any way, the officer will be removed from service without pay until a community investigation by the community council and IAB is concluded.

To protect and to Serve must be replaced on every single police car and vehicle in service to the Police Community. The use of any type unmarked police vehicles will be done away with, Unmarked cars are used to put fear into the community and the police are not for fear but for community service.

For the police that are already on the job would have to go through the retraining program as well as getting a college degree. If they refuse or close to retirement, then they will be let go if they refuse and given a small severance package and can never work in any police or security agency again. If they are close to retirement, they may be given early retirement for their service.

Everyone from the Commissioner down to the beat officer Shall go through the retraining program, the retraining only works if everyone does it.

The police ca never demands anything from any citizen. They must always ask politely of the community. If the citizen or other community member refuses, then the police must go through constitution legal channels. No more threatening the community person if they don’t do what the police want.

The community needs a better relationship with the police community. Everyone needs to work together and respect each other. Yes, respect is earned and not forced or threatened, but with the police respecting the community and then the community will respect the police.

Defunding the police is not the answer but retraining them and reorganization is the best for all parties in the community.