Many times I’ve seen situations where the people protecting us have for some reason brought us harm. Many times this is due to racism or discrimination, but sometimes it’s just outright miscarriage of justice. The problem lies with the fact that people are carrying a badge of power and an arsenal of weapons after very inconsistent training between departments. When it’s time to actually prosecute one, they are tried as regular citizens instead of anything different because they are officers.
Here’s my proposal and hear me out. Put the police under the DOD and under the DOD they will be subject to the following:
- Trained under national military standards. This includes equality training, physical fitness, weapon training, riot control, pressure management, rules of engagement, and many other ways to resolve conflict with minimal violence.
- Recruited like the military. After going through a recruiter, have the candidates go through MEPs to evaluate mental, physical, and emotional capabilities of doing the job. A contract with a liaison officer is proposed to the candidate and signed for a length of time. Officers can be active or reserved with access to benefits during and after service.
- Held accountable like the military. I know of multiple occasions when police have acted out of character(most recent to my knowledge is George Floyd killing) and they were held accountable in an unsatisfactory way in the public opinion. My solution to this is have the police held under the UCMJ and not be ever tried as civilians in court. If imprisonment is necessary, they will go to military prison. Court martials are a possibility for them, and most importantly the ability to give them dishonorable discharges.
- Discharging system: Just like the military, every officer who is discharged from duty will receive a DD214 with the details of their discharge including their discharge status and why. (Example: Someone can be dishonorably discharged for police brutality and misconduct) For honorably discharged officers this means they hold veteran status.
Concerns about militarization of the police
I understand that it, at first glance, cause some worry in militarization of the police but there are many benefits to society and law enforcement to have a more selective approach to recruiting officers and consistently trained at national standards. But here’s a few things that can sweeten the deal.
- Nationally trained, locally assigned: Police officers after going through their training (basic training and school for their specialty) will be assigned to local and state departments and their jurisdictions will be limited to their assigned regions but backup can be called from between departments if necessary. This will also help small towns without the local government bandwidth to have a developed police department.
- Military training makes doing tedious tasks under pressure almost the center of its focus. Have you ever wondered why in the Army they have drill sergeants screaming at them during every thing they do? It’s because they are trying to develop mental resilience to be applied to the combat field. For this reason, there will be less fear based violent responses from police in the heat of a moment.
- Justice is carried out in an unfamiliar environment for them: If and when an officer needs to be legally held accountable for their actions, it will be done in a military court instead of the local courts that they are used to. So no corruption can take place between the officers and the judge who tries them. Their imprisonment being in military prisons also reduces the risk of seeing people that have been involved with their cases.
I know this idea could use refining but I think it is a solid one to curb police brutality and other misconduct.