Opinion: Police reform doesn’t exist in 2021

The system that has allowed for police misconduct to continue has gone on for too long and needs to be altered immediately. 

With the track record of police brutality in America, an effective policing reform bill to weed out bad cops simply does not exist in today’s society.

Legislation to put an end to bad law enforcement and police misconduct has already been introduced several times historically, mostly during crucial times of racial injustice. 

Prior to 1967, white men were responsible for creating laws that were largely discriminatory against America’s minority communities, leaving them vulnerable to societal injustices. These included freedom of speech laws, protection laws, and laws that gave freedom to primarily white men.

According to Time Magazine, it was only a little over 300 years ago that police were used to patrol white neighborhoods to ensure their safety from “misbehaved” minorities. 

Primarily in the American South, police were tasked with capturing slaves that attempted to escape from slave owners. 

It’s obvious that policing systems that were once used to preserve slavery have no place in modern society. The system used today would need to be completely dismantled to rid itself of the deep rooted racism and bias that was engraved during its creation.

Present-day attempts to hold police officers accountable have mandated the use of body cameras to correct the abuse of power and misconduct. 

Unfortunately, an annual average of 900+ people are still being shot and killed by officers throughout the country with an increased death rate for people of color, according to statistics by The Washington Post. 

Although police reform bills have previously been attempted, in recent years the movement has seen a significant increase in support with the help of social media apps like Twitter leading to further attempts of reformation. 

The misconduct of police officers nationwide has become a dominant topic with the use of mass media to help highlight the murders of black people in America. 

Recent examples include the killings of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Elijah McClain in Colorado and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

These incidents have resulted in a new chain of police reform bills to legislators, such as State Sen. Steven Bradford’s authored bill SB26. 

The bill is supposed to prevent police officers accused of wrongdoing from being able to go from one law enforcement agency to another. This previously gave officers the opportunity to start fresh. 

On paper, this appears to be an effective idea to prevent further misconduct from police officers, but nothing in this bill can help prevent these wrongdoings from occurring in the first place—implying that the entire police system is the problem, not just select officers.  

Current bills and laws often get stuck in the political pool for months at a time, being of no use to the public’s safety as police misconduct continues. 

Programs that should replace the current system would consist of organizational transformation, community partnership, and problem solving together. 

The ultimate goals of these changes are to reduce neighborhood crime through improved relationships and direct partnerships between police and the community. This would give equal voice and power to police and the public.

A full dismantling of our current justice system is essential for the redistribution of resources into organizations that focus on the community and reduce the need for penal punishment, while still maintaining public safety.