this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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At least 1,201 people were killed in 2022 by law enforcement officers, about 100 deaths a month, according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit research group that tracks police killings. ProPublica examined the 101 deaths that occurred in June 2022, a time frame chosen because enough time had elapsed that investigations could reasonably be expected to have concluded. The cases involved 131 law enforcement agencies in 34 states.

In 79 of those deaths, ProPublica confirmed that body-worn camera video exists. But more than a year later, authorities or victims’ families had released the footage of only 33 incidents.

Philadelphia signed a $12.5 million contract in 2017 to equip its entire police force with cameras. Since then, at least 27 people have been killed by Philadelphia police, according to Mapping Police Violence, but in only two cases has body-camera video been released to the public.

ProPublica’s review shows that withholding body-worn camera footage from the public has become so entrenched in some cities that even pleas from victims’ families don’t serve to shake the video loose.

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 95 points 11 months ago (4 children)

we get it. cops are cowards. why else would this be one of the only countries where officers are lethally armed around the clock. cowards.

[–] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world 44 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And cowardice bred from ignorance and stupidity. It's not even that dangerous of a job comparatively. And many including myself believe it would be even less dangerous if they stopped arming themselves like they're going to war.

[–] girlfreddy@sh.itjust.works 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It would be nice if counties stopped allowing them to buy armoured vehicles and ... this is a big one ... gave every one of them a psych eval prior to hiring.

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

They need a third party psychological deprogramming once per year. They're hired and paid based on the fact that they won't question the way they enforce laws and the tactics that they use.

[–] ElJefe@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Police forces are working exactly as intended. The reason they aren’t changing is because they protect the ruling class by intimidating the public. As long as the ruling class is protected, there will be no reason to fund psych evals; there will be no reason to hire decent human beings.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah there’s no other reason a nation as peaceful within its borders as ours would provide its police with fucking mraps

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

They need to not exist as we understand police.

[–] MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

cops should be tested for steroid use randomly and monthly.

My guess as long as 320 million people have 434 million legal firearms the cops are not going to give theirs up either.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There's a lot of things we need to do if we want police officers to remain armed.

  1. Require officers to always patrol in doubles or more. (Many of the police involved shootings are panic shootings. A buddy who can help would reduce this.)

  2. Require less than lethal force at least be attempted unless you're already getting shot at. (Currently police can shoot you if you twitch wrong or just have an object in plain sight like a gun, knife, or cellphone. We know this because they've done it and had no reprecussions. So now they lose the shoot first privilege.)

  3. Ban them from conducting traffic stops. Stand up an unarmed traffic specific force that doesn't have the authority to arrest anyone or run warrants. They are specifically for civil traffic enforcement. (Many police involved shootings stem from stupid things like something hanging from the mirror or even just going 10 over the limit.) To be clear, you'd still need police officers for things like DUI. Felony speeding and such can be handled with cameras and actually taking cars away. Yes that's harsh in the US, but see how fast people decide it's not worth their car to go faster. (And yes speed is directly related to more accidents and fatalities in those accidents.)

  4. Required marksmanship and tactical training. You don't get to carry a gun you haven't certified in and certification is a bit more intense than beer and bullets with your buddies at the range. If you want to tell us you're constantly at war then bring in some combat infantry veterans to design your certification program. Something like 90% hit rate on random targets while your heart is in the cardio zone and someone is randomly setting off artillery simulators. Yes that's well above what the Army or Marines officially requires but you keep telling us how highly trained you are and how dangerous your job is. Prove it with the drills we did before combat deployments.

  5. Always on cameras with gunshot detectors. When the detector goes off it automatically starts uploading a feed to the ACLU. If your camera is conveniently blocked then not only do you not get qualified immunity but it's also a sentence enhancement if you're convicted and charges for destroying evidence.

We act like there's a binary solution to the problem of police accountability. But it doesn't have to be binary. The only unacceptable thing at this point is to continue allowing police to have all the power and none of the accountability.

[–] hh93@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

why else would this be one of the only countries where officers are lethally armed around the clock

Because it's also the only country where many citizens are lethally armed around the clock I'd guess

If you stop a random person in traffic in Europe for routine control then it's extremely unlikely that they have a gun in their car and even less likely that they will pull it on you.

If you are permanently having to think about scenarios where random people pull a gun on you because it's not a very unlikely situation to happen then it's not unreasonable to expect certain paranoia to start to form...

While the stats for "people killed by police" are always shown around I'd guess that the "police killed by citizens" also is much higher in the US.

Gun control is the only solution that even has a chance to remove this spiralling violence of trigger happy cops imho

[–] charonn0@startrek.website 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Google tells me that less than 2% of Americans carry a gun.

[–] hh93@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I'd guess a police officer is seeing more than 50 random people a day though which makes it a daily occurrence to be in contact with people carrying which actually strengthens my point

[–] steveman_ha@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

You'd think at some point they'd adapt to the stress of such a situation (especially since they literally signed up for it, and ostensibly trained for it), so that they can handle it effectively without murdering others, though...

Soldiers fighting wars in hostile countries are (in theory) held to higher standards in this way.

[–] charonn0@startrek.website 2 points 11 months ago

A cashier at Taco Bell sees more than that.