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Given how police as an institution is failing, I wonder if there is a way to "reboot the system" (#RebootThePolice?) in a way that prevent bad culture to reproduce within. Like building a new corps of police ("NeoPolice") alongside existing police with same responsibilities, but with a more stringent process on recruiting, training, internal culture, values, etc. And have it slowly supplement the old, dysfunctional police. Some rationale:
- When something is really broken, non amount of repair can fix it, you need a new thing. Shifting some policing responsibilities to other institutions (eg Defund the Police) might reduce the negative impact of a failing institution, but doesn't fix it.
- We need a transition plan if we defund/abolish the police, and so far there is none to replace the police core responsibilities (around the use of force)
- New competition drives innovation, and having a new police force can shine the line on how much better our experience of the product can be, driving further change. It'll require strong, sustained leadership to build those institutions from scratch which will be difficult, given how police is mostly a local institution and the resulting outcome can vary greatly. (For the curious, check how Brazil transitioned to a new currency to stop inertial inflation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidade_real_de_valor Similar mindset, albeit for a completely different domain) |
I don't think we can consider "police" as a single institution, or in isolation. The character of the police in a particular locality depends on the local government of that locality. If the police are corrupt, it is because the local government is corrupt. That is going to vary widely from locality to locality, and fixing it cannot be a matter of simply changing the police alone; it has to be a matter of changing the local government.