Law and Policing Reform

photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Fibonacci Blue

Law professor and writer David Danté Troutt has imagined a safer and more just policing policy in the United States in his recent The Nation article "Is Racial Justice Possible in America?"  With the recent deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice at the hands of police officers, Troutt suggests that we need to change the way we think about police brutality raising our disdain for such behavior to the level of our abhorrence of pedophilia, rape, and domestic assault.  Troutt suggests reform policies which we must consider adopting if the U.S. is to end the scourge of police violence and the killing of unarmed African American citizens. 

Per Troutt: "We probably don’t need another national conversation about race as much as we need one about law reform. And let’s be clear: justice is far from impossible to imagine. What’s required is more constructive policing methods to rebuild trust:

§ Cops must wear cameras and microphones to preempt exculpatory storytelling.

§ Cops must be well trained in avoiding implicit bias, so they don’t dehumanize the public they serve. In fact, judges should be urged to allow juries to hear evidence of implicit bias among police officers.

§ Police departments must finally keep reliable records on their use of deadly force so we can stop guessing at the numbers.

§ Prosecutors should more aggressively seek manslaughter charges rather than murder charges, so that lethal mistakes don’t go unpunished.

§ The appointment of special prosecutors in questionable cases should be routine, to avoid the conflict of interest between prosecutors and police.

And when the local politics are insurmountable, we need an amended federal statute with a legal standard that cherishes the protection of life—the greatest civil right. These reforms would bring a lot less shooting and a lot more accountability. That would bring us closer to justice."