Policing in the U.S. is broken, asserts Vox, offering ideas on how to fix the profession. Whether it’s Baltimore, Cleveland, New Orleans, or Ferguson, the U.S. Justice Department has found horrific constitutional violations in how police use force, how they target minority residents, how they stop and ticket people, and virtually every other aspect of policing. These issues come up time and time again, no matter the city that federal investigators look at.
Vox discusses eight major policy ideas that it says “could be done even under a Trump administration that fashions itself as “tough on crime,” because almost all policing is done at the local and state, not federal level. The eight ideas: Police need to apologize for centuries of abuse; cops should be trained to address their racial biases; cops should avoid situations that lead them to use force; officers must be held accountable in a very transparent way; on-the-job incentives for police officers need to change; we need better standards and better pay for police; police need to focus on the few people in communities causing chaos and violence, and we need better data to evaluate police and crime.