America Needs Police Reform in 2022
1,136 Americans lost their lives at the hand of police officers in 2021. 1,136 people were killed by those who promised to serve and protect. Mappingpoliceviolence.org shows that the United States went only 15 days in the entirety of 2021 without a cop killing someone. Police brutality affects each and every corner of the U.S. At least 2 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia were killed by police in 2021; the highest number being 153 in California. Police are not meant to kill, they are not executioners. Clothing store dressing rooms, traffic stops, bedrooms, and sidewalks are not supposed to be murder scenes.
As America enters 2022, the Biden Administration must push harder for nationwide police reform. Improperly trained and dangerous police officers have cut too many lives short already. According to the US Department of Justice, the average basic police academy is roughly 840 hours or 21 weeks. In just 147 short days, the average American adult can be given the title of police officer. Compared to other developed countries, this is an extremely small amount of time. According to the Insitute for Criminal Justice Training Reform Report, the average training time is over 5,000 hours in Finland, 4,000 in Germany, and 3,500 hours in Australia. The harmfulness of America’s comparatively fleeting training is made evident by the incompetency exhibited by current police forces.
While some cities have banned dangerous practices like neck restraints or no-knock warrants, this is only grazing the surface of the underlying issue. So many policies and normalized practices continue to allow police brutality. No one should have to lose their life over a misunderstanding, yet it happens constantly in modern America. Officers need to be held accountable and trained better. The Hechinger Report says the first step is to standardize police education. They refer to the police force as “…a complex patchwork of hundreds of different programs…” Every single police academy follows a different set of rules and uses varying training techniques. In addition, very few mandate training in “…anti-bias, conflict resolution, and other approaches that experts say could help mitigate violence.” This is only encouraging the violence we see in our police today. Unnecessary use of force, violence, and aggression needs to be stopped. Communication, rational thinking, and non-lethal techniques must be used instead. Compared to other wealthy countries, we have one of the highest rates of police violence.
In addition, it is very clear this is a problem that is deeply rooted in racism. Police disproportionately kill minorities. Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than white men. Black women face a similar statistic, they are1.4 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than white women. Roughly 1 in 1,000 black men and children will be killed by an officer. Furthermore, fatally shot Black Americans are twice as likely to be unarmed when compared to white Americans. “We need the harm to stop in our communities. We need the damage to be repaired. We need to be able to have the opportunity to have a life of dignity, and the possibility to thrive,” as Opal Tometi, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, said. We cannot move forward as a country as long as there is such an immense inequality that ends lives daily.
A step in the right direction for the Biden administration is supporting bills like The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Not only would it correct the previously listed problems, but it would provide so much more benefit to the country, including the mandatory use of bodycams and dashboard cams, limiting police militarization, developing a police misconduct registration, and mandating training against discriminatory profiling. All of these would significantly cut down on the amount of police brutality while holding those who refuse accountable. While members of the Senate failed to reach an agreement in September of 2021, this is not something the Biden Administration should comprise on. The safety of American citizens should be the utmost priority. No innocent person should ever have to be scared of being murdered by those sworn to protect.
There is no quick fix or cure-all for the current American justice system. It is something that will take time and change. It can, however, start with the police force. The problem will not go away, and the American people have spoken. We want police reform, we deserve police reform. It is up to us and our elected officials to ensure this change happens. As we enter a new year, our eyes must remain on the target of police reform. We will not and can not settle for anything less.
