Better Recruiting, Vetting, & Training Makes Better Police

We have a police problem in the United States. Too many unarmed people are killed, and too many officers treat minorities differently than they treat whites. It was hoped by many that the publicized deaths of George Floyd and others would spur reforms that would improve policing. Sadly, that has not happened. Congress has refused to pass any reforms, and even worse, it seems that many police officers have become more radicalized. How did this happen, and what can be done?

The following is part of an op-ed by Frank Figliuzzi (ex-FBI special agent and assistant director for counterintelligence) on this at MSNBC.com:

How did radical, even violent, extremism infiltrate the ranks of departments across the country? While racism, extremism and bias in policing aren’t new phenomena, this current conduct has surfaced with startling brazenness. At least three factors contributed to a perfect storm of dangerously polarized policing:

First, President Donald Trump strategically cultivated cops in his bid to win and maintain power by recruiting those who already wielded it. “Cops for Trump” rallies, often led by then-Vice President Mike Pence, played out in packed venues across the country, including one where Pence warned officers that they “won’t be safe” if Joe Biden were elected president. Trump also promoted the false notion that only his supporters were defenders of police, which caused most police unions, including the country’s largest, to endorse Trump for president.

Second, the violent summer of 2020, triggered by the murder of George Floyd and the routine excessive use of force by police, led to civil unrest. Those nationwide protests didn’t just require protracted police presences — the protests were aimed at the police themselves. While most Americans were validly questioning and appalled by the police brutality in the Floyd case, over 2,000 police officers were injuredby protesters. To police, the violence against them became a self-fulfilling MAGA prophecy — caused not by their own colleagues’ misconduct but, as they were led to believe, by far-left liberals and minorities intent on destroying the country.

Third, the “defund the police” movement was the wrong branding at precisely the worst time in terms of police perceiving that they, indeed, lived in an “us versus them” society. In fact, it wasn’t just the police who bristled at the notion that their agency budgets could be slashed and their jobs reassigned. In Minneapolis, voters last week rejected a proposal to abolish the police department and turn it into a reshaped public safety agency. But for many officers, the radicalization process had already happened.

Counter-radicalization of police officers won’t be easy, but it can be done. The answer isn’t to defund the police, because, in reality, corrective measures are likely to require increased budgets. Those measures must include changing the way police candidates are recruited. Targeted recruitment of college-educated, proven problem solvers, from a wide variety of academic, cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, will take more money, not less. Enhanced screening and vetting, including polygraphs and social media analysis, to identify and weed out those applicants more likely to default to physicality over verbal de-escalation or to act upon biases and violent ideologies, can be accomplished — but again, it will cost more, not less. Such vetting and background investigation can’t end with the application process but rather must be systematically incorporated throughout officers’ careers.

Applicant interview panels that include diverse citizen representation are already used in some progressive departments but should become standard. And training in civil rights, de-escalation techniques and cultural awareness must extend beyond academy graduation. Again, this all requires more funding, not defunding. Last, steps must be taken to break the chokehold that police unions have on change and progress. Union objectives should shift from preserving the status quo to improving how officers are equipped to better protect their communities. That means pushing back against mandatory union sign-offs on promotions and career panels, even if it means taking the unions to court.

Getting all of this right will take persistence, time and money. It’s not about defunding the police or abolishing the police; it’s about reimagining the police.