The Dallas Police Chief is dealing with the aftermath of a horrific crime, the murder of 5 people and wounding of 6 others, in targeted anti-police killings. There are many many layers to this, and I’m working on a blog post which dives pretty deep into the whole issue, but that’s going to take more time to prepare.

But these views reportedly held by the Dallas PD Chief caught my eye and compelled me to pen this post:

During the question and answer period, Chief Brown did highlight that the police need our help, and that they’re being asked to do too much concerning chasing loose dogs in the city, tackling the shortfalls due to a lack of funding in combating drug addiction, the shortfalls from lack of funds to help the mentally ill, and every other societal ill is being placed at the feet of law enforcement. These are societal issues that weren’t meant to be solved by police.

I agree, Police are being asked to do too much… and the list is so much longer than the one he offers here.

If we peel back the layers of this issue, which like I said I’m doing in another ‘rabbit hole’ post which goes deep into the many issues surrounding the violence in Dallas, we arrive at one uncomfortable underlying fact: Police are having too many adversarial interactions with the public over non issues. There are too many ‘crimes’, too many triggers for the police to pull you over and initiate what for most people is a deeply unpleasant encounter which usually ends in your wallet being lightened… and too many of these encounters are turning into flashpoints for violence either against the police, or by the police.

Add to that the fact that in the US police have only a few months training, and a ‘warrior cop’ mentality in which they believe they are the ‘thin blue line’ holding back a tide of chaos and anarchy, and you start to see how police departments across the US manage to rack up such a startling body count every year.

So bravo to Chief Brown for scratching the surface of the real issue here… that the public are over policed… but he doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Let me put a finer point on the issue by making a blanket statement which I believe to be obviously true, but seems to generate much debate and disagreement: All laws are enforced at the barrel of a gun. The penalty for breaking any and every law is death. Sounds a little overly dramatic right? The only time the above is not true is if you submit to being punished for the non-crime in question. Jaywalking becomes a capital offence if you refuse to pay the fine, are found to be in contempt of court, and then try and protect yourself when men with guns and bullet proof vests invade your home to enforce the ‘law’. It can also become a capital offence if you try and run from the police officer who wants to ruin your day by fining you in the first place, and things get out of hand.

It is literally true that any crime, no matter how petty, can end up in a ‘justified police killing’. Where the ‘offender’ is shot dead, and the police officer pulling the trigger is cleared of any wrong doing.

So the logical conclusion to this must be that we should only involve police in issues worth killing for. If it’s not worth killing for, don’t get the police involved. Ever.

On that basis, let me do something I very rarely do… agree with an article on HuffPo, which suggests that police departments should run much more like fire departments… ie, they should stay in their office until someone calls them. They’re not out on the streets looking for trouble, or opportunities to ‘protect and serve’. They’re ready at a moments notice if someone needs them, but they are safely out of harms way, and out of the public’s way, unless someone calls.

But of course, this flies in the face of so much of what is considered ‘good’ policing these days. We’re told that proactive policing is the way to go, that ‘broken windows’ policing, where officers crack down on petty offences and throw people in prison every chance they get, is a crucial tactic for reducing serious crime… and there’s some statistics to support this argument. (and many statistics to dispute it, but that’s another post for another day)

But then again, there’s growing evidence that this aggressive form of policing is driving a deadly wedge between the police and the public they supposedly serve… and there’s a trend towards increasing police killings every year which may also be a consequence of this aggressive, petty form of policing.

We need to return to the idea that police officers are ‘peace officers’. They should never be put in situations where they create conflict such as traffic stops and petty fines for non-crimes, they should be called upon where there is conflict to restore peace, such as when a crime has been committed or a person needs their help for any reason. If officers were re-trained to this peace keeping mentality, and laws were changed to remove the vast number of petty but dangerous interactions between warrior cops and a frustrated / disenfranchised / intimidated public, then we’d see killings by cops, killings of cops, and attitudes towards cops, all improve.

So bravo Chief Brown, you’re on the right track. Now take your logic to its conclusion and start making changes that will save lives…

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