Explorations in Policing, Faith and Life (With a hint of humor, product reviews, news and whatever catches my attention)

Monday, June 1, 2020

Solution-less Problem of Perceived Racial Inequality in Law Enforcement

It has to be said, there is no systemic racism in law enforcement.  Frankly, in my 23 years in law enforcement I do not even know one officer that was bias against another group based on their race, ethnicity, orientation, creed, sex or...whatever.  Does this mean that like machines our services are identically provided to everyone in the same measure?  The answer is "no", and usually that is based on an individual basis.  Case in point, I responded to a fraud call where there was a complainant who paid for a product that was clearly counterfeit and wanted to get his money back.  The complainant refused to provide me with his name, how much he felt he should be refunded and said, "Just get my F@#$ing money back!"  Needless to say I did not stick around long, and he did not get access to our full resources, but it was not because he was a member of a group.  It was due to him being a crazy jerk.
 
This is not to defend any officer's illicit, stupid or negligent behavior.  There is not an officer that I have spoken with about Floyd that felt that officer's behavior was nothing but stupid and reckless.  We are trained not to use choke holds and to stay off the neck unless deadly force is necessary and clearly this was not the case.  The image of the officer kneeling on his neck, being a smart-ass with his hands in his pockets is proof he needed to be fired and investigated for criminal conduct.

Okay that out of the way here is my basic point.  A problem that does not exist can never have a solution.  Nor can a metric be created to provide data to measure the solution's effectiveness.  So here we are...we will never have a solution for this issue, which is not real, and thus can never show a reduction.  Chicago had 490 murders in 2019.  That's a real problem with supporting data.  If I come up with a potential solution and it is enacted, the test of its effectiveness is also simple.  If murders go down, significantly, then it worked, if they do not then it did not.  The rage over the perceived racial bias in the treatment of people by police will not decrease because no one can show improvement or reduction.  So like every other incident of this type the different governmental bodies will impose new rules, procedures and standards for which we will all comply and much like the traffic stop data, it will show there is no bias and no continuing bias.  Eventually every law enforcement officer will be audio/video monitored throughout their entire shift.  When a racial bias does not present itself, it will simply either be ignored or conspiracy theories on how we are manipulate the image/data will come forward, as it has every other time.  But the negative feelings will continue and frustrations mount and will explode into senseless violence once again when another person dies in police custody for whatever reason.  There is no emotional relief possible.  There is no ability to feel like this is getting better because it does not exist in the first place, thus creating a cycle that will continue to repeat well beyond my future retirement date and be an issue for officers for decades to come.