Abstract
In July, 2014 the death of Eric Garner, due to the use of a police chokehold technique, sparked major international concern. Only a month afterwards, in Ferguson, Missouri, the shooting of Michael Brown by an officer ignited riots and protest, and in November Tamir Rice of Cleveland was shot by police. He was 12 years old and had a toy pistol. An April 2014 report finding by the Department of Justice that the Albuquerque, New Mexico police department utilizes deadly force to an excessive degree was followed by a March 2015 report detailing racial profiling by the Ferguson, Missouri police department. This paper documents the reality of police violence, and solutions that have been confirmed through empirical studies. The solutions involve higher levels of training, the use of body cameras to measure accountability, and the use of non-lethal Tasers as opposed to weapons to control suspects.
Keywords: United States, police, violence
Introduction
On April 4, 2015, Walter Scott of North Charleston, South Carolina was shot and killed by a police officer after only a traffic stop incident. He was black, and the officers were white. The policeman in the case has been charged with murder. The evidence is a cell phone video. America has a very high homicide rate from routine police incidents, and no serious remediation effort seems to exist as of today.
Cases and Analysis
However, the other side of the story is that as recently as 2013, 49,851 officers were assaulted while performing their duties. That’s an injury rate of 29.2%. 27 officers were murdered that year. In terms of trends and information, that is sadly lacking. The FBI Director asked for statistics on trends and demographic data on shootings and was told it was not reported through the FBI’s Crime Reporting Program. All reporting is voluntary and thus incomplete.
There is an interesting statistic published by ProPublica, a journalism outlet, which concluded that young black men are 21 times more likely to be shot by the police than a white counterpart (Wihbey and Kile, 2015). Racial profiling seems to exist. If a person is a person of color, they are more likely to be stopped and in certain cases, killed.
A 2011 report developed by the National Institute of Justice examined the effectiveness of Tasers in dealing with suspects. The report found that injury rates varied widely when officers used force. The rates were 17 to 64% for the citizenry and 10 to 20% for the officers. Tasers can reduce the rate of injury. The odds of injury to the suspect decreased by 60% with the use of Tasers. However, multiple use of Tasers on suspects caused a significant fatality rate.
A mandatory use of body cameras may be a solution. Officers would tend to use less violent means on subjects by the nature of its use since they would have foreknowledge that all of their activities were being recorded for later analysis and open inspection.
In fact, Arizona State University did a study on body camera usage, and determined that only one year after the Rialto, California police department required all officers to use this apparatus, that complaints of force dropped 90% and use of force dropped 60%. Improved police behavior occurred right after the implementation of the regulations (Wihbey and Kile, 2015).
In fairness to officers, however, the press and mass media often distort the use of force, stating that it is caused by all officers across the board. However, a study in Criminal Justice Policy Review determined that police officers who have higher educational levels and higher experience levels use less force. Training programs and accountability via body cameras would thus be an on-point solution according to this study.
Let’s look at the case of Walter Scott. He was pulled over for a traffic violation. He happened to owe child support. This incident happened in South Carolina. Apparently frightened since he owed support, he ran away from the police. He was hit by four bullets in his back, and one on the side of his head. The police officer then walked over to his body and handcuffed him.
Another South Carolina police officer shot Levar Jones for trying to reach for his driver’s license. Eric Garner, totally unarmed, was choked to death on Staten Island due to the offense of being arrested for selling cigarettes on the street without a license. Tamir Rice was shot in a park in Cleveland for playing with a toy gun (Edwards, 2015).
These avoidable killings continue, despite having studies and evidence that there are solutions. Police are trained for action, and at times this mindset leads to actions beyond that of a reasonable man, even to those of vigilante proportions. De-escalation technique training is sadly lacking, or it is not taught at all.
Force is different than brute force or deadly force. There is a continuum that officers need to be trained in. Perhaps the only reason that the North Charleston killing was discovered was the video. Swift charges were brought. This is commendable. But this may be an isolated incident. There appears to be a systemic problem.
According to Reuters, the U.N. watchdog has urged the U.S. to halt excessive and unnecessary force by police. Minorities are apparently the victim of these disparities of justice. This is the conclusion of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination (Nebehay, 2014).
The U.N. report said that the Ferguson, Missouri shooting was not an isolated event. There is a larger problem, and racial bias is obviously a part of it. Just using deductive logic would lead to this conclusion. Law enforcement officers have not been properly equipped, trained or monitored. There is inadequacy in the training process.
22 U.S. states have “Stand Your Ground” laws, which is controversial. It is a self-defense to these killings. It provides according to the U.N. report an immunity from prosecution which encourages useless violence and deadly force.
Conclusion
Lethal force incidents need to be the subject of nationwide reporting. The data doesn’t exist, and we need to authorize its formation, distribution and analysis. Remediation of police department practices and training need to follow. Fair and humane enforcement of the law cannot exist without justice against the perpetrators. The crimes are so obvious and blatant that one wonders when justice will occur.
