ICPPUL > Police > Reform Ideas

• An equal or greater amount of attention should be paid to improving the “fabric” of America, so that police receive fewer calls.
• Efforts must be made to reduce the number of contacts the public has with police for minor or pretexutal reasons.  This is a rejection of the “broken windows” philosophy that police need to take draconian action to deter more significant crimes.
• The reason why police abuse is such an issue is because of the ways bad police behavior exacerbates underlying problems and distrust in government.

(Some of these suggestions are from other sources)

1. Instill in officers that laws are employed for a purpose and their job is to serve a larger good for the community. They should enforce the spirit of the law, not use the letter of the law or twisted version of the law to increase citations/arrests/generate revenue/power trip, etc.
2. End incentives to generate tickets and arrests. No fine/fee should be paid to an entity with a conflict of interest in generating the fine/fee. Instead of allowing police departments to pocket forfeited property, all proceeds must be assigned to cause that is unrelated and non-desirable, such, such as perhaps paying down the national debt.
3. End private prisons as they create an incentive to generate new offenders. a disincentive for offenders to be released early for good behavior, a disincentive for rehabilitation, and a further incentive for repeat offenders.  Transitionary employment should be available so that prison guards are not incentivized to have their union lobby against decriminalization of marijuana.
4. End/vastly reform qualified immunity.
5. Cops should be legally required to provide certain information and answer certain questions. For example:
   1. Full name and badge/personnel number
   2. Am I being detained/arrested?
   3. Full and clear explanation of reason for the action RAS (Reasonable Articulable Suspicion)/PC (Probable Cause) as well as
   4. the exact law being enforced.
6. The “modern policing” philosophies, such as “Broken Windows” or “Go Beyond the Ticket” needs to be ended or seriously re-examined.
   • If in 99% of the current cases, investigations don’t find anything serious,
     the system is irrationally over-policing, and someone (perhaps the civilian review board?) must propose reforms.
7. Police must be taught not to escalate minor issues into a major issue as part of a power tripping or revenue seeking.
8. Create a Federal code to follow like US Military UCMJ “The Uniform Code of Military Justice has Article 93 Failure to report an offense.”
   This can be used to counter the group “loyalty” that causes LEOs to overlook misconduct within the ranks.
9. Strong disincentives should be made against police tactics to limit the transparency of both the government and the public’s recordings.
   One such police tactic I’ve heard of involves deliberately reporting violations in such a way it can not be falsified by the available recordings, such as deliberately fabricating charges that a vehicle had crossed a line on the ground because most citizens to not have cameras mounted near the ground and are therefor unable to prove that this didn’t happen.This should be solved by changing existing laws and incentives for prosecution, but it is noteworthy that body cameras can be gamed.
10. All police should be required to carry business cards and provide them to the public on request.
    • Police should understand that because they act as agents of the government, they are subject to greater accountability (identification/transparency) than the public who are not acting “under color of law” and therefore are not often required to provide identification unless they have committed a crime (or are reasonably suspected) and therefore entitled to privacy.
    • Everyone who the police ask about ID must be given a card, with a link for independently evaluated feedback
11. Create a National Brady List, so LEO can’t just move and go to another city, county or state.
12. All incidents causing injury, especially lethal or requiring hospitalization, must be evaluated by independent outside Authority (federal perhaps)
13. Tighten up the definitions of vague (an possibly unconstitutional) laws that are often used to “trump up” the charges such as “disorderly conduct”/interference/hindering  should be viewed with suspicion if the offending party is not someone other than the responding police officers themselves.
    This prevents people from being charged for incidents in which there was no underlying crime.
14. Any participant in a police interaction should be able to receive a copy of all camera videos within 24 hours and of all police reports within 3 business days at no charge.
15. Establish review boards with citizens from the community on it that take complaints rather than an internal investigation that is often reluctant to find wrongdoing. All members of the review board should have easy access to all dash/body cameras and all public feedback/complaints.
16. Review boards and anyone involved with a police incident should be given immediate access to the videos at no charge.
17. Disincentivize situations where police make charges that they will later drop, as part of a game to get leverage, especially when police use force.
18. Police seem to be strongly incentivized to collect IDs for their paper work, even if they aren’t legally entitled to personally identifiable data. This leads to police behavior that violates the spirit of the 4th amendment.
    • Best Buy employees may claim that they “need” you to buy the extended warranty, but it is their problem, not yours. Police must not mislead the public that there is a legal requirement (such as saying I “need your ID”).
19. Provide very strong punishments for officers who bear false witness, such as saying “stop resisting” when the suspect is not actually resisting or when they plant evidence or falsely claim to smell alcohol or marijuana or that “you have small pupils,” suggesting drugs, or get away from my weapon. I’ve seen reports that police are coached to bear false witness about resisting arrest as a way to “play to the cameras” to claim justification for bad behavior or gain leverage.
20. There should be widespread studies to assess the reliability of police reports by comparing a sample of the reports to the bodycam and other videos.  This would provide judges and juries with a clearer assessment of the reliability of these reports.
21. Change the law so that police can not pull you over for defective equipment such as broken taillight unless the driver hasn’t responded to repeated notifications. Instead, make it easy for police to send a mail, text, or email notifying you of problem.
22. If police already have access to information (License Plates) that allows them to determine that a car/driver is legal, they shouldn’t hassle you
    to provide proof of registration or insurance. The only time when a driver’s copy of registration and insurance should be needed is if there is a discrepancy between the data the LEO sees and the driver’s paper copy. Also the government should continue to mail a copy of the registration for people who don’t have printers.
    • If this is possible, it should reduce LEO concerns about drivers reaching into the glove box to get a gun.
23. Change the law so that police can’t pull you over for minor traffic infractions, like failure to signal, unless the driver has received repeated (and documented) warnings.
    If officer safety is so important, why take the risk of a bad encounter for a minor infraction? These minor charges are often (sometimes falsely) used as pretexts. This misuse overrides their benefit.
    Instead, officers should have an easy way to e/mail/text you a reminder to signal.
24. Police must be coach LEOs to observe the suspect in non-emergency interactions rather than just barging in and demanding id and answers
25. Police must understand that orders are not valid just because they say say so.  Police must be able to articulate a valid law enforcement purpose when they give orders.  Every time an officer justifies their commands with “because I said so” they should lose one vacation day.    A lawful order is not anything a police officer says that is not illegal.   If an order to exit a vehicle is not required for officer safety, but is given as part of a power trip (rather than real concern for officer safety), or a fishing attempt, one can not assume that it is a lawful order.
26. Crack down on the weaponization of “officer safety.”  Emphasize that public safety and dignity are of equal importance to officer safety.  Officers who are so paranoid that they feel they must take such drastic steps should reconsider whether they should be police officers.
27. Institute photo radar so that police do not need to enforce speed limits / have the ability to use this as a pretext.
    (This would test whether people want the speed limits to be enforced neutrally and without pretext.)
28. Re-evaluate speed limits that have been set artificially low so as to enable leeway for exceeding the limit by 5-10 mph. Then have photo radar, strictly and non-subjectively enforce the potentially higher limits.
29. Configure 911 calls so the operator can hand off the call to the police officer who has been dispatched so the officer can start the investigation by interviewing the caller before arriving at the scene.
    • If officers can observe the suspect and the suspect is not causing immediate harm, the officer should be encouraged to interview the caller to better determine if the complaint is worthy of investigation
      • If the caller is alleging something that is not illegal – such a public photography – officers should take that into consideration when deciding if/how to question the suspect.
30. Attempts of the police to solicit a trespass/interference/disturbing the peace/etc. should be viewed with suspicion and may be considered a violation of 18 USC 242 and the 1st amendment if it is being used to trespass someone who is recording the police.
31. Retaliation against people for exercising their rights should be strongly disincentivized.
32. Any LEO that witnesses misconduct and does not report it is an accomplice.  
33. Initiate frequent testing for drugs and steroid use with automatic discharge for failure. End steroid rage.
34. If a LEO detains someone (ie for a reason), and the officer finds that reason to be unfounded, they should not fish for other possible charges.
35. LEOs must have more regular training in the constitution, the limits of their authority, stops, searching and common areas of ignorance (Legal training is much too low, especially compared to the amount of time it takes to become a hairdresser in some states)
36. Regularly test officers on knowledge of the constitution and relevant law. If officers consistently fail, they would lose their job.
37. Police supervisors should regularly review dash and body cameras and public feedback/complaints. Supervisors should coach
    LEOs on their behavior, including reviewing the RAS and PC for their Terry Stops.  This should be a regular process of officer development, like telemarketers are recorded for quality control,  independent of Internal Affairs. If misconduct is shown, there should be accountability.
38. The public should be available to anonymously file complaints using a form available on the internet, via phone, or in person with someone independent of the police department.  Some police department make it hard to file complaints  (by stonewalling). Threats, intimidation, and retaliation must be strongly penalized.  Accessing personal information for retaliatory purposes should carry additional penalty. If a police officer threatens to fabricate a reason for arrest/retaliation the officer should be terminated with prejudice.
39. If police turn off or obscure any cameras, no charges against the public should be admissible, as a deterrence for bad behavior. Police should also be punished for turning offf or interfering with cameras belonging to the public.
40. Strict scrutiny and potential sanctions must be held for police claims that they need bystanders’ ID and video of a crime scene as this can be a cover for retaliation or intimidation or part of an attempt to distract/impede bystanders from videotaping a scene.
41. Public review boards should have easy and automatic access to LEO dash/body cameras, police reports, as well as public feedback/comments.
42. There should be some sort of carrot like early retirement buyout for police who can’t hack it in the new system.
43. It sounds like you can “get a record” even if you are arrested and found innocent. This can cause problems that haunt the former suspect for years,
    causing various problems, including maintaining employment and housing.  The public should not fear “getting a record” if they are not found guilty.
44. Employ “mystery shoppers” who evaluate departments. This is like the pastor who pretended to be homeless or police decoy tactic that made the New York Subway unsafe for muggers.
45. Legal settlements involving officers should not have gag orders/secrecy. This can amount to the government paying the complainant to be silent about government’s misconduct.
46. The militarization of the police is a sign of failure. Some of this is due to an excess of military equipment and police who want to play
    as “operators”.   In other cases police have legitimate fears. The government needs to be honest about addressing the underlying causes.  A significant number of officers have a military background and bring military culture to the job.
47. Lawyers need to start an app so they can instantly FaceTime anyone in a situation like this. Hold the phone up and let the attorney interpret..
48. Government should study and reform how legal charges cascade, such as when someone is given a ticket and then they have transportation issues getting to the trial or paying the ticket, and so then the ticket turns into a bench warrant, which leads to an arrest, which leads to jail, but because they can not afford bail, they lose their job .. and things spiral downward from there.
49. A study should be done as to areas where dash cameras are are more commonly purchased  and where citizens have educated themselves.  This may be a sign that something is wrong in those jurisdictions.
50. The 911 operators or police need to be wary of Karens or reports that do not allege anything illegal.  Offers need to understand that if nothing illegal is alleged any interaction must be consensual.
51. Surveillance State: There indefinite retention of the public’s personal data should be scrutinized, especially when no criminal behavior was alleged.
52. Police must learn the trespass law — requiring that a trespass order be authorized by the property owner and the person being trespassed is given a warning and the option to leave without detention or identification.  Only if the person who has been trespassed refuses to leave or returns can the police detain and identify them.  This must be on the exam:
    • police can not trespass people from public property unless they violate some other law
53. Police must learn the difference between public an private property.  Property owned by the town, county or state is not private property — it is public property.  This must be on the exam.
54. The use of unnecessary directives at the end of an encounter should be deconstructed:
    • Corporal realized he was wrong but tried to hide it with last minute directives. A cops ego is so overpowering that it will never allow them to walk away without a directive.
55. Paint police cars teal, per Malcolm Gladwell.
    Call it “Sandra Bland Teal”. (Demilitarization) 🙂