Social workers, Crisis intervention teams, psychologists and a whole lot more. Police work doesn’t necessarily just consist of shooting people. But I guess in the US that’s a radical viewpoint.
Policing in the US rose largely out of slave patrols. You can’t just tell them to hire social workers and expect any change. The problem is so deeply rooted and systemic that you have to eliminate the entire concept of police and start from the ground up.
If I was in charge of replacing the police, part of the changes would be limits on serving as an officer and other roles. This would encourage fresh blood to replace the old, and help prevent corruption: Former police officers can end up under the batons of their successors, if they don’t ingrain good values into the next generation.
By breaking up the career and authority of police officers into discrete chunks, we can also prevent power accumulation via social bonds among them. Something like:
1 year of academy -> 3 years as officer -> 1 year paid remedial education -> 3 years as officer -> 1 year paid remedial -> 3 years as officer, etc.
While we would lose raw efficiency due to elections, education requirements, and so forth, I think something like this would help prevent police from becoming a vile cornerstone of society.
Social workers, Crisis intervention teams, psychologists and a whole lot more. Police work doesn’t necessarily just consist of shooting people. But I guess in the US that’s a radical viewpoint.
Policing in the US rose largely out of slave patrols. You can’t just tell them to hire social workers and expect any change. The problem is so deeply rooted and systemic that you have to eliminate the entire concept of police and start from the ground up.
If I was in charge of replacing the police, part of the changes would be limits on serving as an officer and other roles. This would encourage fresh blood to replace the old, and help prevent corruption: Former police officers can end up under the batons of their successors, if they don’t ingrain good values into the next generation.
By breaking up the career and authority of police officers into discrete chunks, we can also prevent power accumulation via social bonds among them. Something like:
1 year of academy -> 3 years as officer -> 1 year paid remedial education -> 3 years as officer -> 1 year paid remedial -> 3 years as officer, etc.
While we would lose raw efficiency due to elections, education requirements, and so forth, I think something like this would help prevent police from becoming a vile cornerstone of society.
Those things are separate from police in the US. Probably intentionally.