Where Are The Good Police Officers?

I often talk about my law enforcement career and the things I've experienced over the years. Some folks find it interesting, some do not. It just feels good to talk about it from my perspective. The emotions I felt, the things I saw, the view of the best show on earth (cops call law enforcement careers that) and the things I experienced. I try not to filter too much. I want you to have the raw emotion, the feelings and set the scenes properly from what I remember. 

  

Today I thought, I want to talk about the things we see on the nightly news, in our newspapers and on social media. I've talked in the past about the theory I have I've coined the “social media effect”. It’s a theory I have were a given situation or incident is played over and over from different viewpoints and opinions on social media. This magnifies the occurrence and often skews the facts of what happened. 

But what I decided I am talking about  isn’t any of that. I want to talk about George Floyd.

George Floyd

“George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee on Monday, in an episode that was recorded on video and that sparked large protests in Minneapolis” - New York Times

To America's Police Officers- I believe it’s important that we talk about George. We understand what happened and we do something to proactively prevent it from ever happening again

So what happened? The problem is in our electronic-have-to-get-information-now social media platforms we often get filtered information. We get skewed information. We get the wrong information. In this case we only have to use our eyes and ears.

I don't know anything about Mr Floyd. I don't know if that is even important right now. I know he had a family who loved him very much. I know he had friends. I know he has a community that is outraged. In my opinion, based on the totality of what I have seen thus far, they have every right be upset. I am upset with them.

We ARE better than this.

How do we prevent this from happening? How do law enforcement agencies combat this? 

How is this fixed? 

Theodore Roosevelt said “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

The answer is simple but requires work.

It’s about training, standards and accountability.

We must invest, with vigor in our personnel as we have invested in other socially responsible programs. There needs to be a paradigm shift in training that stresses common sense and practical procedures. Procedures that both insure the safety of our personnel and those that they encounter.

We must have high standards and training for those that do not meet standards. Dismissal for those that cannot be remediated.

Is this harsh? Sure it is, but the public deserves the best service possible.

Accountability needs to go both ways. Our personnel need to be held accountable for their actions. Our law enforcement leaders need to be held accountable for their personnel, period. The truly bad guys need to be held accountable for their actions. 

The x-factor is here and one that people do not want to discuss is the public, individuals being held accountable. Our laws in California have become ridiculous to the point that the bad guys are leaving the jails before the police officers get to their cars in the jail parking lot. We need to repeal and replace with something smarter and better AB 109 and Propositions 47 and 57 in California. They are utter failures in my opinion. - But I digress as this is not a rabbit hole I want to fall into and discuss.

Can we afford Training, Standards and Accountability? I do not see how we can NOT afford them. Our government spends tons of money on programs that to some seem fairly pointless. Being a guy who worked in government (I guess I still do part-time) I can assure you that I have seen my fair share.

So how do we move forward? Well I think it takes a leadership at the highest levels to make bold and brave decisions. I think it could start with one voice from the public - just like a single drop of rain, can eventually create a flood.

I call upon our politicians on both sides of the aisle. I call upon law enforcement leaders. I call upon law enforcement officers. I call upon those great and strong law enforcement organizations to lend their collective voices.

I will be the first to say it -

I want our law enforcement officers to have better more consistent training. This needs to be a priority and not an afterthought. I want to see high standards for performance and training for our law enforcement officers. I want to see accountability.

I asked in the title of this blog "Where are the good police officers?" The answer is most all officers are great and good. They serve their communities with honor and are truly caretakers. I am proud of them and I am proud to have served alongside them. They are as upset at this as all of you.

Thank you for reading this and listening to me. Please share this with your government representatives and politicians.

Please be good to each,

Dave