End Police Brutality

Police brutality has been a problem in the United States for decades. This problem has taken countless lives over the years and needs to end. The police have shown they cannot self-regulate and as a result, there needs to be sweeping reforms to ensure the police protect and serve the people. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the innumerable others who lost their lives due to these police policies cannot have died in vain.

While the recent protests are long overdue, we need a unifying goal and a concrete solution for lawmakers and police to take us seriously. The solution needs to be practical and effective. To this end, we propose 5 steps with the details necessary to make these critical changes a reality.

1) Demand Oversight
2) Create Equality
3) Encourage De-Escalation
4) Incentivize Reporting
5) Mandate Transparency

With these 5 points we can fix the problem and make a nation that is safer for all peoples. Civilians and police of all colors.

Details on how to solve these 5 points can be seen below.

1. Establishment of an oversight body directly responsible to civilian administrators

• The body will have special investigators and special prosecutors who have no cooperative interactions with active duty police officers
• No active duty or retired police may serve as administrator
• Audits over the body to happen not less than once per year
• Audits must be conducted by a civilian auditor
• The auditor shall make a full investigation as to the thoroughness of investigation into claims and the frequency at which claims were investigated

2. Treat police equally before the law

• End qualified immunity for police officers in the course of their duties
• Use of deadly force must be judged at the same standard as individual self defense

3. Focus on de-escalation rather than militarization

• Focus training on de-escalation
• End no knock raids
• Limit the 1033 Program (the program that allows for local police to buy excess DoD gear)

4. Encourage reporting of misconduct among police officers

• Treat all police who have knowledge of misconduct of their fellow officer and do not report or stop them as accomplices
• Any police officer who provides information leading to the arrest of a fellow officer as a result of misconduct shall receive a monetary award

5. Ensure police transparency

• Body cams must be worn by all active duty officers at all times
• Interfering with or tampering with body cams or footage shall be sufficient basis for an obstruction of justice charge and removal from the police force
• All body cam footage must be kept for a period of not less than 30 days
• Body cam footage shall be made available to the oversight body and any complainants upon request
• All reports of police misconduct must be available to the public
• All reports of deaths in police custody or as a result of police actions must be made available to the public