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I think it needs to be a multi-pronged approach:
There need to be financial penalties that affect entire departments so that officers are encouraged to self-police, and root out bad actors who are negatively affecting their own livelihoods. This could then be backed up by a citizen review board where officers wages or pensions are not collectively sanctioned if they can reasonably demonstrate that they attempted to report abusive or unethical behavior, but it went unacknowledged by management or senior staff.
All individual State & Local police unions need to be folded together with the normal labor unions for State, City, or County workers. This accomplishes two things: it removes the power of individual collective bargaining where they can hold those jurisdictions hostage at the expense of all the other employees, and it also makes them part of the community of workers & citizens that they SHOULD be representing. Until we make a structural change back towards community policing where there is a strong emphasis on improving public relations, listening to public feedback, and focusing on issues that are impacting the people in their communities we will continue to have this artificial separation of ethical priorities where police operate as an enforcement arm of the government rather than an integral part of a communities' social welfare & safety net.
Lastly, I agree with your sentiment that police should be held to the same standard criminally and ethically as any other private citizen. We can no longer allow there to be this veil of ignorance where we turn a blind eye to the violence that is perpetrated by police, and where their behavior is just written off as being "part of the job". Getting to that point requires strong leadership with an emphasis on continuing training, education, and resource management that is directed more towards accomplishing community goals rather than buying surplus military equipment.
All of these things are going to be difficult, and it is likely that we will have to suffer the consequences of our inaction & complacency. Many police will quit their jobs, like we have seen in Seattle for example, and it will take a long time to get better quality officers who care about doing their duty in a humane way. I have doubts about whether or not most people are willing to suffer these short term consequences in order to build a more positive future for the profession. Only time will tell, but I for one would rather start that journey rather than burying our heads in the sand and kicking the can down the road for another generation or more...
That was a very sensible post and I agree with your points, it would make a vast difference. I felt like in many ways this was tried in the 90's but I could be misremembering, however it did seem like an era of Police Reform that sadly backtracked after 9/11 and Bush
I can't really speak to what policing was like in the 90's because I was just a bit too young to remember. I totally agree that things changed for the worse after 9/11, and seem to have both regressed as well as becoming more visible due to the internet.
I don't claim to have all the answers, and I am by no means anti-police. I respect that it is an incredibly difficult job that taxes the psyche of those who choose to pursue that career path. There needs to be a mutual respect, and strategy between the population and its public servants. It is just a microcosm of the major societal problems we are wrestling with in the United States more broadly.
I wish people would put a greater emphasis on pursuing well-being through creative problem solving rather than focusing on partisan politics or the "culture war". If we could start by focusing on issues where there is positive public sentiment rather than hyper-focusing on small ideological differences I think most people would realize that their differences don't really matter as much as they thought. I choose to be cautiously optimistic that we can get there.