Police Brutality, Unaccountability, and Use of Excessive Force in Law Enforcement.
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March 8, 2021.
Police Brutality, Unaccountability, and Use of Excessive Force in Law Enforcement.
Introduction
Despite the enactment of laws that aim to establish public trust between law enforcement agencies and the public, there has been an increase in the number of cases that point to police brutality, unaccountability, and excessive force (Kargin, 2016). These issues have had historical impacts on the people it affects, and there is a need to predict future presents based on historical evidence that elaborates such cases. Unlike previous centuries where evidence on police misconduct hardly came with any proof, current issues are different. With the increased use of technology, mainly the accessibility of mobile camera phones, recorded evidence has been provided in cases where police misconduct was witnessed (Kargin, 2016). However, despite the availability of proof, some issues still go under without proper prosecution. Enhanced by police corruption, lack of prosecution on law enforcement officers’ misconduct has led to public mistrust of law enforcement agencies.
Impacts of Failures of law enforcement
The law enforcement agencies are tasked with providing justice and fairness for all. In this case, the police officers are expected to arrest and apprehend suspected criminals within the legal requirements. The law requires the protection of the alleged criminal’s human rights until the judgment is passed on them in a court of law (“Assembly Addresses Discrimination, Police Brutality,” 2018). Therefore, the law prohibits mistreatment, torture, or any acts of brutality during the apprehension process. These include public beatings, public humiliation, and discrimination that come with both physical and emotional abuse to the suspect. Police brutality cases reported most resulted in the murder of their victims, either from shootings or the use of excessive force.
In separate accounts, police brutality has been associated with racial profiling, discrimination, mistaken identities, or misconduct. Evidence on such cases is easily accessible in available in CCTV footages, street cameras, or even on witnesses’ phones. However, public mistrust is aggravated by offenders’ slow trials, increasingly similar cases, or unfair practices such as police suspension and dismissals. Several accounts have attracted life imprisonment penalties and death sentences. Still, most claim the police officers are suspended, a decision that has seen the public involved in protests and riots regarding it as unfair judgment (White et al., 2020).
In other accounts, police unaccountability cases have been established where police enforcement officers fail to take responsibility for their actions or use their power positions to evade justice (Burki, 2018). The process of enhancing accountability is further hindered by police corruption within law enforcement agencies. This undermines the role of the judicial system at large. Evidence of police unaccountability can be cited on the counts of many cases that are still pending within the justice system, years and years after the case was first established. The public can critic such delays, especially in cases where there is sufficient evidence, as efforts castrated by the law enforcers to delay or avoid justice by all means.
Addressing issues on Police Brutality, unaccountability, and use of excessive force.
Despite unsolved cases associated with law enforcement problems, standard procedures have been set in place to hold police officers accountable for their actions. Some actions such as rehiring fired officers or issuing civil payouts to brutality make it challenging to eradicate police brutality, unaccountability, and police misconduct. Therefore, such activities are highly discouraged. The justice department has been called upon to investigate various accounts of the cases and determine the primary cause of police brutality to address the reportedly increasing number of police misconduct within the law enforcement departments (“Assembly Addresses Discrimination, Police Brutality,” 2018).
The department of justice has also made efforts to establish new policies that guide against police misconduct within their law enforcement agencies. Investigations aim to provide evidence or lack thereof on violations of federal civic right laws or evidence of hate crimes among the law enforcement officers (White et al., 2020). The policies ensure that the individuals are treated fairly according to the law’s requirements, and at the same time, crimes are controlled and order maintained.
The policymakers are also working on other reforms to address issues associated with police brutality. Recommendations have been issued to separate liability on actions of individual police offers from the civil payouts to victims (White et al., 2020). This will ensure that police are accountable for their actions. The policy requires police officers to pay individual liability insurance. Besides, police officers dismissed on misconduct issues cannot be employed or rehired by law enforcement agencies.
The establishment of civilian review forums has also played a significant role in reducing the cases associated with police misconduct. The civilian reviews provide a system independent of law enforcement agencies tasked with initial findings and giving reports on police conduct. This reform ensures that police are accountable and that police misconduct cases are well researched and recorded (“Assembly Addresses Discrimination, Police Brutality,” 2018).
Predicting Precedent Based on History.
According to historical evidence on cases of police misconduct, research reveals that patients have gradually reduced. The use of technology such as CCTV surveillance and camera phones has offered credible evidence that has led to the prosecution of civil rights violating officers. The argument of whether or not these cases have decreased may bring controversies within affected regions. Although the judicial system may show statistical evidence on reducing these cases, the presence of social media platforms has increased the awareness of police misconduct cases. The rate at which information spreads is very high, which may interfere with the investigation process on these cases. Therefore, sharing police brutality videos influences the speed with which the prosecution process is carried out (“Assembly Addresses Discrimination, Police Brutality,” 2018).
The cases of brutality associated with racial profiling and discrimination are expected to decrease with the establishment of reforms that protect all people from police misconduct without prejudice (Burki, 2018). The presence of rights advocacy organizations that fight against discrimination and increase awareness of civil rights. Although hate crimes may be hard to eliminate, the introduction of an individual liability instead of a civil payout will enhance personal accountability. Some moves aim at ending police spying. This will play a role in ending stereotyping, premeditated and hate crime shootings reportedly high among the police enforcement officers.
Assembly Addresses Discrimination, Police Brutality. (2018), 53(23). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.12a50.
Burki, T. (2018). Fighting for air: an experiment in community action. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 6(3), 177. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(18)30013-4.
Kargin, V. (2016). Police Use of Excessive Force: A Case Study of Lethal (Deadly) Force. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 12(1), 488. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2016.v12n1p488
White, M., Fradella, H., & Flippin, M. (2020). How Can We Achieve Accountability in Policing? The (Not-So-Secret) Ingredients to Effective Police Reform. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3720162