Force and Police Oversight

Police brutality, in the public eye, seems to be at the forefront of social justice issues in the US. Cases of brutality and racial profiling gain awareness rapidly through social media. Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 were, if self-reporting protest participation was accurate, the largest protest movement in the history of our country. 

It’s important to remember that the criminal justice system starts with policing. It is the police officer’s duty to carry out justice, just as it is the judge and the attorney and the lawmaker. Without police, the rest of the criminal justice system could not function. They are at the frontlines of the CJS and are the common connection between society and the courts and prisons (which is kind of an apt metaphor because so many modern police practices are modeled off the military).

Ironically, these enforces of justice have a job that is hard to carry out in a completely just manner. Few would go to trial willingly if they broke the law. That is why the police arrest and use force. Unless we overhaul the entire criminal justice system, this is how our state must function. Even though the job is a high pressure situation that requires quick thinking, with the lives and injuries of themselves and others at stake, there still must be consequences for when someone messes up (and for when someone blatantly abuses their power).

So who oversees the police? It’s a more complicated question than it sounds. There are police chiefs and commissioners, who don’t really count as an outside check. Then there are the courts, which have an interesting relationship with the police, and one that I want to learn more about next week. 

Until then I want to share a statistic: only 39% of Americans trust the police are adequately trained and use force justly. And I also want to leave you with some questions to think about that pair with learning about police oversight. If you were to start a state from scratch, what would your police force look like? Who and how would oversee it? 

See you next week.