(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Law Enforcement Reform: Recruiting [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-01 It could be that law enforcement corruption and abuse has actually gotten better over time. However, in today’s world, where news is practically instantaneous, more in depth and travels greater distances easily, we are more aware of these problems than we ever have been. Also, as support for minorities and women gain ground, there is less tolerance for illegal law enforcement actions. This is not just a problem in the United States, or in the Euro-centric world. It is not just a problem in the developed world. Problems with law enforcement officers is a worldwide phenomenon. The public’s response, at least so far, at least in some countries, is to use civilian oversight boards to try to control the worst of these cases. While these are certainly a good idea, they do feature a couple of problems. First, they depend on abuses being made public. Secondly, they only address problems that have already occurred. If we get down to the root cause of all this, it has to be admitted that we are doing something wrong with the way we hire law enforcement personnel. Basically, we depend on hiring people who apply for these jobs. Let’s look at who these people are and what attracts them to this kind of work. After all, it is a dangerous job. Officers get injured and killed on an all-too regular basis. And while officer pay has gotten better, it in no way compensates for some of the extreme dangers involved. While it is true that being in the military can be more dangerous, this is usually just during times of war. As responsible voters, part of our job is to ensure we elect political representatives who will try to keep our family members, friends, neighbors and other members of our country as safe from war as possible. No one in a democracy has ever gotten elected saying they wanted to start a war. In fact, getting killed is so unpopular that countries usually have to depend upon a draft or other means of forced enlistment during wartime. However, we do expect people to volunteer to serve in our law enforcement agencies. This is certainly not to suggest that people be drafted into police work. Besides the potential danger, what other drawbacks keep most of our workforce from applying for law enforcement positions? The name itself is one drawback. We depend upon these people to enforce the laws of our local communities, counties, states and federal government. With the exception of dictators, no one likes all laws and regulations of their society. Alright, maybe Moses. But other than that, we all have laws we disagree with. Even politicians will tell you they don’t agree with all the laws they enact. Even those they vote for, they will readily tell you, are more often than not compromises. It would defy anyone’s sensibilities to think that law enforcement personnel are any different. So what makes some people willing to enforce laws whether they agree with them or not? For one thing, this question starts with an unproven assumption that all laws are uniformly and equally enforced. The truth is, the opposite has been proven to be true all too often. But the issue starts with concept of authoritarianism. This features the idea that rules and rule-makers are not to be questioned. This only becomes corrupted when either the rule-makers or rule-enforcers decide that the rules don’t apply to them. This is the idea behind the theory of separation of powers. The executors are supposed to monitor the legislators, and vice-versa. The theory broke down early, however, when people realized how easy it was to transfer from one side to the other. Authoritarianism starts with the concept of hierarchy. Since it’s not possible for everyone to be involved in rule making or enforcement, a vertical system had to arise, putting some people higher than others. Obviously, this implies that some people are superior to others. None of this will work without tradition. Once a person begins to question it, they question tradition itself. And so, people who are able to enforce rules and laws without question tend to be people who have a strong, basic belief in tradition. This is the same thing as saying that law enforcement personnel are almost always conservative. They believe in keeping things the way they are. To suggest change is the same thing as questioning tradition, authoritarianism, and the idea of a power structure. However, people who are drawn to law enforcement aren’t simply conservative. They are also attracted to the idea of physical enforcement. That is to say, they are drawn to the use of violence to make people obey. This is where the status quo in law enforcement gets truly dangerous. Every nation is confronted with the fact that some people will break laws unless they are physically restrained from doing so. Persuasion and reasoning will only work to a certain limit. Most people obey laws because they realize that society will not work without such limits. People don’t kill or rob because doing so would mean the same thing could happen to them. Most people are reasonable enough to accept that “getting away with it” is not a good enough excuse to do such things. This breaks down, of course, in any system where people feel that they are superior to most others. Some simply use this as an excuse. Others believe that because they are “better,” they will not get caught. But the bottom line is that physical action must occasionally be used to either deter people from breaking the law or catching and punishing them after the fact. This further deters most people from breaking laws. However, there are always people who believe that either they won’t get caught or that they can evade or overpower efforts to physically restrain them. And so it follows that people who actively seek out employment in the field of law enforcement would feel comfortable using such force. The unfortunate truth is that, all too often, such recruits are not only comfortable with it but are at home with it. They are aware enough of its regular occurrence that it could be claimed they look forward to it. It could be argued that, in developed countries that often present entertainment in the form of television and movie stories involving law enforcement, that potential recruits — from an early age — have wallowed in such violence. In such societies, one either grows up to prefer a line of work that allows such physical actions, or one grows up to prefer observing it vicariously through the actions of others. Either way, the boundaries have been set. To sum up what I’ve stated so far, people who actively seek out employment in the various agencies of law enforcement tend to be fans of authoritarianism, conservative in nature and politics, and comfortable with inflicting physical force upon their fellow citizens. And yet, at least in the current stream of events, a lot of people are alarmed that police and other law enforcement personnel exhibit these very traits and tendencies. It is though, upon squeezing lemons, that one is surprised to get lemonade. Perhaps the reason for such current alarm comes from the expanded range of issues people have come to expect law enforcement to solve. When people are unhappy (which, let’s face it, is most of the time), they tend to rebel against the rules that make them unhappy. Some people are violently rebellious, killing those they hate or stealing to increase their wealth — which they believe will make them happy. Such people rightly fall under the purview of law enforcement. But usually people rebel by either protesting loudly, refusing to follow orders, or making threats of violence. However, for any given rule, there is a majority who approve of it. Their feelings are hurt that everyone doesn’t agree with them and appoint others to violently repress those who have hurt their feelings. When put in these terms, it’s easy to see what nonsense this is. However, it’s seldom if ever put in such terms. Instead, people talk of being afraid, of moral codes being broken, or of being psychologically damaged. Such claims need to be called out for what they are: threats to groups’ and individuals’ rights. Making someone unhappy should never be against the law and we as voters need to pressure our political representatives to make such changes. While being large and black is rather obviously not against the law, so should — for example — choice of sexual options between consenting adults. But in terms of this essay, law enforcement should not have the job of making the majority of people happy. If someone insults you, take them to court for slander or libel, but don’t have them arrested. If someone’s actions make you unhappy, you are certainly free to complain about it, but not to have them arrested. If someone hurts your feelings, you can try to legally hurt their feelings but not to physically hurt them or have the police hurt them. It is not anyone else’s job to make you happy, or happier. It is not the government’s job. And it is certainly not the government’s right to hire agents to try to make you happy. Law enforcement should not be in the happiness business. If they were to self-reflect (something people drawn to the job field aren’t naturally disposed to do), police and other such agents of the government would be happier if they weren’t put in such predicaments. Enforcing such laws are just the kind of things that make them unpopular to begin with. So taking such chores away from law enforcement would the right step. Certain governmental bodies are already moving in such directions. Social workers and mental health professionals are already being substituted in some of the more obvious cases. However, none of this solves the problem under consideration here: that all too often the wrong people are being hired as law enforcement agents. We need to stop hiring those who volunteer for the work. It is not a pleasant line of work and we should be immediately suspicious of anyone who doesn’t think so. This doesn’t mean we should automatically turn away those who recruit themselves, but we should ask them in some depth exactly why they are drawn to the line of work. If they are of conservative values, that in and of itself should not be disqualifying. However, if they are attracted to the potential violence, that should be cause enough to turn them down. It seems more than likely that this will lead to a dearth of potential candidates. It even seems likely that turning away eager recruits will result in having to actively seek out recruits who would actually be better. No doubt there will be those who immediately decry this method because it will mean a great cost in filling the necessary ranks. In the long run, though, this method will actually save money. Money that is currently spent on settling lawsuits against the employers of corrupt and abusive agents, meaning the taxpayers. This is of course hypothetical and will be waved off by supporters of the status quo, who feel that corruption and abuse allegations are exaggerations. Once law enforcement has rebranded itself as agents of violence only as a truly last resort, then and only then will the job field attract the kind of people who are actually needed. Until then, governments need to redefine the kind of employees they are looking for and actively go seek them out. De-escalation needs to become the pivot which all such searches revolve around. We the people need to demand our political representatives make this change. Our political representatives need to realize that this change will actually make their constituents more likely to re-elect them. Our law enforcement agencies need to embrace this change because it will reform their image, make people like them more, and make their lives — if not easier — at least a little safer. 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