4 ms·

I never see a shortage of cops anywhere due to a lack of people applying. The idea that they're going to flee to other cities because we don't allow them to blo

I never see a shortage of cops anywhere due to a lack of people applying. The idea that they're going to flee to other cities because we don't allow them to blow up houses and murder people with impunity is ridiculous. If we need higher compensation to adjust for not having a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy then I'm fine with that. We need cops to stop being murderers.

dragontamer 7y ago
> I never see a shortage of cops anywhere due to a lack of people applying. There are different grades of Police Officers. You want the college-educated, criminal law graduates in your city. That's how you get fair-cops. This pool is smaller than you'd expect. There are PLENTY of high-school thugs who want to be Police Officers. But its very short-sighted to base your police force primarily on that pool of applicants. > If we need higher compensation to adjust for not having a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy then I'm fine with that. Its not just compensation. Its perceived safety, and other issues. A college-educated cop might be willing to take $50,000 / year if they only have to patrol safe neighborhoods in suburbia, but the same cop will need to be paid $70,000+ to patrol a dangerous ghetto (which happens to be the areas which most need a fair, well-educated officer). Bonus points: safe neighborhoods in suburbia also want officers to patrol their gated communities. "Rent a cop" services provide ample opportunity for overtime with very low risk. The ghettos simply don't have the money to offer this opportunity. That's why I'm saying that there are too many small police departments out in Suburbia: taking away the good officers from the areas that truly need them.
- whamlastxmas 7y ago
  I suspect if we make cops accountable and change their training to quit fucking shooting people at the drop of the hat, the high school bullies will quit trying to be cops because they can't lord their impunity over everyone. Ultimately the situation we have in the US is unacceptable and something needs to change. It doesn't matter how expensive it is, cops need to quit murdering.
  - dragontamer 7y ago
    > I suspect if we make cops accountable and change their training to quit fucking shooting people at the drop of the hat That's called sensitivity training and its widely deployed in the richer areas... but poorly deployed in poor police departments. Sensitivity training, Diversity training, De-escalation training, etc. etc. Police departments know about this style of training and have names for these programs. It costs money though, money that not all Police Departments have. If you think your local Police don't have enough sensitivity training (or whatever), either talk to your local Mayor, or local Sheriff, or police commissioner, or board (every town's political structure is different), and try to push more of it. There's probably budgetary constraints involved, but I don't think anyone's really against the idea of good training for their local cops.
    - whamlastxmas 7y ago
      On another note, thanks for a level headed discussion

dragontamer 7y ago

> I never see a shortage of cops anywhere due to a lack of people applying. There are different grades of Police Officers. You want the college-educated, criminal law graduates in your city. That's how you get fair-cops. This pool is smaller than you'd expect. There are PLENTY of high-school thugs who want to be Police Officers. But its very short-sighted to base your police force primarily on that pool of applicants. > If we need higher compensation to adjust for not having a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy then I'm fine with that. Its not just compensation. Its perceived safety, and other issues. A college-educated cop might be willing to take $50,000 / year if they only have to patrol safe neighborhoods in suburbia, but the same cop will need to be paid $70,000+ to patrol a dangerous ghetto (which happens to be the areas which most need a fair, well-educated officer). Bonus points: safe neighborhoods in suburbia also want officers to patrol their gated communities. "Rent a cop" services provide ample opportunity for overtime with very low risk. The ghettos simply don't have the money to offer this opportunity. That's why I'm saying that there are too many small police departments out in Suburbia: taking away the good officers from the areas that truly need them.

whamlastxmas 7y ago
I suspect if we make cops accountable and change their training to quit fucking shooting people at the drop of the hat, the high school bullies will quit trying to be cops because they can't lord their impunity over everyone. Ultimately the situation we have in the US is unacceptable and something needs to change. It doesn't matter how expensive it is, cops need to quit murdering.
- dragontamer 7y ago
  > I suspect if we make cops accountable and change their training to quit fucking shooting people at the drop of the hat That's called sensitivity training and its widely deployed in the richer areas... but poorly deployed in poor police departments. Sensitivity training, Diversity training, De-escalation training, etc. etc. Police departments know about this style of training and have names for these programs. It costs money though, money that not all Police Departments have. If you think your local Police don't have enough sensitivity training (or whatever), either talk to your local Mayor, or local Sheriff, or police commissioner, or board (every town's political structure is different), and try to push more of it. There's probably budgetary constraints involved, but I don't think anyone's really against the idea of good training for their local cops.
  - whamlastxmas 7y ago
    On another note, thanks for a level headed discussion