Saturday, May 21, 2016

POLICE CHIEFS BITE THE DUST AFTER SUSPECT KILLING SCANDALS

In contrast to prior years, police chiefs in major cities with suspect killing scandals are now being fired or forced to resign.  The prolifieration of inculpatory videos, media coverage, public outrage, including the BLM movement, have radically altered the environment.

"Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco defended his police chief, Gregory P. Suhr, for months — in fact, he kept saying good things about him even as he forced him out of the job. “The progress we have made has been meaningful,” Mr. Lee said when he announced that at his request, Mr. Suhr had resigned.
Mr. Lee would get some vehement disagreement from protesters who have demanded Mr. Suhr’s ouster over a string of fatal, racially charged police shootings. But what happened in San Francisco mirrored recent events in Chicago and Baltimore, where in the furor over killings by the police, mayors got rid of their police chiefs — even as they and other civic leaders insisted that the chiefs had been moving things in the right direction."
 
It all starts at the top and cannot be fixed if there isn't good leadership.  However, this is just a first step.  Police culture needs to be changed, discipline needs to be tightened, body and car cams need to become mandatory nationwide, recruits and transfers need to be seriously screened.  And those a just for starters.

No comments:

Post a Comment