ReesClark.com
Momentum
License police to upgrade the profession
Noting all the "strange and unexplained" deaths of citizens in police custody. IMHO: Police officers should be licensed under rigorous, nationally standardized qualifications and procedures. They should apprentice under experienced training officers (separately licensed), and they should be subject to strict performance standards.

Breaches of faith, including unnecessary violence or obvious bias, should be cause for termination and suspension or withdrawal of license, and a registry of lapsed licenses should be maintained at the national level, blocking failed or abusive officers from moving on down the road.

Using "crowd sourcing" the necessary standards could probably be created within a year and presented to Congress, which should enable legislation with procedures for constant review and improvement by the same open commentary; the politicians should be left out of the definition of goals and procedures and merely create and approve the statutory language to meet legal standards.

States would have to conform to qualify for all future government grants related to law enforcement, which would quickly shut off the "big gub'mint" arguments. Administration via the WWW would be relatively easy. Money could come in part from assessments of all police agencies for program administration and from termination of all programs to supply military grade weapons to local police.

Licensing and professionalism would attract the best among us to the ranks of the police, leading to greater public confidence. This is not hard; it just takes a bit of will power, an open forum and a few thousand caring citizens with web browsers.

Sign in to post a comment!