Philando Castile - How Can We Prevent This?

Photo Credit: LLroomtempJ

 

How do we stop things like what happened to Philando Castile from happening? There are several areas that can be addressed. The two areas that stand out to me are how we determine who gets to be a police officer and how we determine who gets to stay on as a police officer.

 

Since police officers have great job security these two areas are essentially one in the same. The officers we hire are the officers we keep until retirement. 

Just to make sure that we're on the same page - this post is not about what justice for Philando looks like - it is about how we prevent this from happening again.

Justice is difficult. The fact is - officers are rarely charged with crimes and rarely convicted when charged. This is because police are hired to make judgment calls - so it will be difficult to hold them criminally liable for doing the very thing they were hired to do. What we can do, however, is a better job of assessing their ability to make good judgment calls before hiring them and not hesitate to let them go when they demonstrate poor judgment on the job. 

It is often the case that we err on the side of job security FOR police who show lapses in judgment rather than on the side of protection for the community FROM officers who show lapses in judgment. This can be a function of a few things, top of mind for me are negligence, the blue wall of silence and/or very strong collective bargaining agreements with police unions that prioritize job security above public safety.

So what can it look like to do a better job assessing police? Here is an abbreviated solution suggestion:

1. Create a high national standard to become/maintain status as a police officer

Possibly the equivalent of a security clearance with in-depth background checks and tenure reviews for existing officers, etc. One thing this accomplishes is putting an end to police officers who mess up in one town getting rehired as police officers one or two towns over. Every police department would have to check every prospective & current police officer's federally administered security clearance before making staffing decisions.

With this standard, demonstrated lapses in judgment can be grounds for revocation of this clearance. No grace here - you mess up, you're gone. Excessive force? Gone. Impropriety? Gone. There are obvious implications here for collective bargaining agreements that are currently in place - my radical recommendation is to rewrite each of them to ensure that the safety of the public is what is held in highest regard, rather than the job security of police officers.

2. Higher police salaries

The job is just as hard, but with higher standards comes lower job security.

To address lower job security and to ensure a steady talent pipeline, police officer salaries would need to increase by a factor of 1.5-2x - if not more. In my mind, the higher societal benefit (e.g. prevention of another Philando Castile-like murder) is worth the cost. Higher salaries will also attract better talent - solid people with solid judgment who previously would have pursued careers in...say operations at a technology company... who will now answer the call to protect and serve.
  

3. Independent federal oversight of police departments

This is unlikely to happen in our current administration, but common sense is bound to return to the oval office after this Trump disaster is over and we may see the federal government return to playing a role in holding rogue police departments, like the Chicago Police Department, accountable.

Similar to how the centralized national security clearance would protect citizens from officers who've been fired from Police Departments in a particular municipality moving to their city and getting hired back on, centralized oversight (e.g. A federal complaint and review board) will help to protect citizens from corrupt departments who do not uphold the national standard. Something like this will also potentially help to address the blue wall of silence by giving local officers an authority to easily appeal to that is above local leadership who will theoretically be not corrupt.

4. Police department consolidation

There are too many police departments in this country. We currently have 18,000 with independent standards and oversight/non-oversight. I would propose 51 (50 states and Washington DC). It is easier to manage consolidated entities.

5. (added 5/26/2020) Private Liability Insurance

Police Departments are funded by tax dollars. What this means is that in most places in the United States, when police departments are held financially accountable for officer misconduct, the taxpayers are ultimately financially responsible for paying settlements.

New York City paid out $230mm in 2018, they paid $335mm in 2017. Numbers these large are not unique to New York City.

What is often lacking, however, is for police departments to be held accountable to institute meaningful change that reduces taxpayer's financial risk exposure.

The aforementioned Federal oversight can help here, but I propose that private insurance for police departments would be effective at curbing misconduct. Insurers have a powerful incentive to affect meaningful change that reduces risk - profit.

There would be no politics, partisanship or #bluelivesmatter in the way to prevent meaningful change. There would only be actuaries and adjusters who set risk-adjusted rates that say what must be done for the insurance policy to remain in place (e.g. "if this cop stays on the force, your annual policy rate will increase by $5,000,000").

If risk within a particular department is too high, a point would be reached where insurers will exit the market and refuse to issue policies - similar to how private insurers do not write flood insurance policies to homes in particularly risky flood zones - or how insurers refuse to insure (or charge a really high rate to) drivers who have had multiple speeding tickets.

If the department refuses to make changes, the insurer refuses to issue the policy and the department must disband. This has worked in pockets across the country. If the measures proposed above are implemented, we would see federal takeover of state police departments that do not have liability insurance.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

POST SCRIPT (6/19/17): It is important to note that Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who shot Philando Castile, had a clean departmental disciplinary record, graduated at the top of his class while studying for a degree in enforcement from Minnesota State University and was considered to be polite, friendly and helpful, having a sincere interest in public service and he was loved and lauded by his friends and classmates.(source). 

So it goes without saying that my recommendations are not a panacea - but I still stand behind them as a potential move in the right direction. I believe that corruption and protectionism are the problems that plague our police departments and I believe that addressing those issues will keep bad cops off the streets.

POST SCRIPT (6/9/2020): It is important to note that Jeronimo Yanez also attended a controversial police warrior training which trains police to be warriors who are ready to kill to protect their communities. The short-term solution here is likely to prevent police departments who send their officers to this training from receiving and federal, state-level or county-level funding and possibly to also mandate some sort of "anti-warrior" training at all levels.