To: United States Congress

BACKGROUND

The misuse of law enforcement authority has been witnessed of consistent rhythm, as abusive devices against citizens increase in visibility and these instances continue to result in numerous amounts of wrongful imprisonment and officer induced deaths, and large expenses on community funds from the numerous filed and awarded lawsuits, regardless of the racial associations of these victims, over the years, and this phenomenal pattern may not be profound of historic record. Nonetheless, this reality has crept into the homes of many, on either side of the conversation, and this may be credited to the advancement of technology. The abusive practices in authoritative power have reached a breakage point, however, because it has become so much more exposed than ever before. The communication of the oppressed is less impeded, so, now, there is outrage among the citizens. People have grown fed up with the gross negligence and to some degree the callousness of those who were sworn to uphold the law, as they experience continuous inappropriate police interactions. People have lost faith in those who continue to be caught red-handed or with their hands in the cookie jar, to use old phrases. There has been some urgency to address this critical issue. Still, some say, not urgent enough.

Presently, there has been an order passed down from the Executive Branch of the government which mandates the implementation of body cameras on all uniformed officers—something that is going to take time to reach full implementation. Some people have a problem with this new order, because they believe body cameras to be insufficient, and they point to some of the gross and offensive actions of officers in their eyes, that have already been cast from out of the dark through cell phone camera activism or other means. People criticize the insufficiency of police vehicle dashboard camera processes, altogether. The officers that are caught on camera get absolved of more frequency than they do not, what is for sure. Further sentiment on the matter can be reviewed in Kimberly Fain's Viral Black Death published in JSTOR Daily and focuses on injustice against Black people.

Ironically, Black people, and in general Black men, they just seem to make up a large chunk of the news, but this matter is not exclusive to Black people The Guardian has created a project titled The Counted which aims to record a national death by cop database. The project reports that, in 2015, it has recorded "32% of the 135 black people killed by police had been unarmed, compared with 15% of the 234-white people" (Swaine, Laughland and Lartey 2015). It is not relevant to a point here, whether the objects of the police firearm discharge were unarmed or not, but the fact that 369 people were killed of whom happened to be unarmed, although a larger portion were White and not Black. Properly, this is not to neglect the fact, the figure does indicate a disproportional percentage, with 32% vs. 15%. However, the point is this, that it matters not the color of the skin or racial category that a person belongs. In this petition, what matters is that people are dying by the lethal and deadly force of law enforcement whether justified or otherwise.

Reasonably, with so many acts of abuse associated with the practices of police and the ample amount of public controversy that surrounds those activities, where concern is embedded in the hows and the whys, one may deduce, more efficient surveillance of police interactions would be the end-all-be-all to the issue. Sadly, the numbers say otherwise. Still, it must not be construed, as fact, a notion understood that officers of the law are not tasked with a tough job, but such a measure may depend on the particular circumstances of the individual assignments of an officer. In any case, although individuals engage in misconduct and abuse the public trust awarded to them under the color of law, the job duty of the police is to enforce policy of the total community, within their jurisdiction and such does oblige interactions with all members which included the kinds of individuals that the average citizen would rather not enjoy an encounter with.

In the year 2000, the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) began to disperse the funds required to enable law enforcement offices throughout the nation to purchase vehicle dashboard cameras, to protect officers and to support the community against accusations of misconduct. The move increased the number of police vehicles equipped with cameras from 11% to 72% according to police one dot com's website (Newsletter 2017). Still, the misconduct did not cease. In a USA Today article published in 2007, it is claimed, "cases in which police, prison guards and other law enforcement authorities have used excessive force or other tactics to violate victims' civil rights have increased 25% (281 vs. 224) from the fiscal years 2001 to 2007" (Sirota 2011). This means that after dash cameras were implemented the abuse increased. Therefore, it is apparent, there is no matter that the officers are recorded, according to this data. In the USA Today article, another part pointed out "the nation's largest police union fears that agencies are dropping standards to fill thousands of vacancies and "scrimping on training" (Sirota 2011). Not only are police permitted abusive freedom of movement but this privilege is distributed amongst lower quality individuals than should be allowed, carelessly. Police carry tremendous authority to cause extreme harm to people and such procedures should be tended to with careful hands, ponder a medical model of social care. The lower standard of police hiring practices is some cause for alarm. If not, at least, the standards are cause for some careful attention.

If one was to scour the internet in search of requirement criteria for police service, they may be surprised by what they find. All of the major cities of the major states, to include Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami and New York, a person can become a police officer, with a minimum educational requirement of a G.E.D. The truth is that, a person need only a less-than-high-school-level-education and they are qualified to enforce laws that govern society, carry guns and to murder people, under the color of law. The latter of the cities mentioned, id est., New York is the only of those cities which require a minimum of sixty college units (the equivalent of an Associate Degree). Yet, there are ways around that requirement.

In the New York police officer recruitment requirement criteria, to become a police officer, "You must have earned 60 college credits with a minimum 2.0 GPA from an accredited institution or 2 years of active military service in the U.S. Armed Forces, in order to be appointed to the title of Police Officer." (Department n.d.). That means, critically, an individual who has returned from military service is presumably fit to police his/her own fellow citizens, still with only a G.E.D.

It may be a logical concern, actually, that there be better diligence exhibited of labored effort, about the reconstruction of the law enforcement institution, to deal with the sociocultural inefficiencies, because there is a serious lack of care that degrades the security of the domestic welfare of the people. The police are supposed to effectuate the integrity of the political order that is maintained of society, but principally, people believe the police fail to uphold their portion of the defense of the peoples' constitutional rights and privileges; that they continue practices of indignation, but those practices do have the potential to be addressed through appropriate educational measures, factorial to the social awareness and the cultural decision-making ability of police officers, inter alia. Without law and order, it can be presumed that social chaos will reign, although such chaos has become the reality in this country. Education may be a positive step towards solvency, but it should not be misconstrued to solve the whole problem of authoritative abuse or other malicious police practices. In any case, education does blunt the careless blow of bad policing, as it develops the skills, raises awareness, and increases the communication of the officers in the community and the overall efficiency of the entire department.

CALL TO ACTION

This petition is a sentimental expression of the body-politic and a manifestation in the implemented appeal about these mandatory orders, prerequisite of professional certification:

• It is the opinion of the United States citizens, that any civil servant tasked with the maintenance of society to such degree that they wield the authority to carry weapons and to administer policy enforcement through the application of force, should have acquired an ample formal education, within the facilities of an external higher education institution.

• It is the recommendation of the people of the United States, that all officers of the law be required to have achieved a master degree, but with any degree, at minimum eighteen college units, at an accredited college or university, in an area of study within the social sciences.

• This mandate shall be satisfied, before the graduation process from any law enforcement training academy is considered complete and the officer eligible to be certified.

• This petition is decided about incoming recruits and it will have no effectual presence about personnel already on duty.

This petition requests adherence to the suggestions which have been presented herein, that this educational mandate for officers of the law be developed with care to allow for refined competency and improved preparedness of law enforcement officers, thereby improving the overall performance quality and the ability of law enforcement officers to provide total community care.

References

Department, New York Police. n.d. "Hiring Process." NYPD. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/careers/police-officers/po-hiring.page.

NEWSLETTER, LEGAL. 2017. "Benefits of Police Body and Dash Cameras." Legal News Letter. October 12. Accessed 2017. https://legalnewsletter.org/benefits-of-police-body-and-dash-cameras/.

Sirota, David. 2011. "Why we need to police the police." Salon. May 20. Accessed 2017. https://www.salon.com/2011/05/20/police_surveillance/.

Swaine, Jon, Oliver Laughland , and Jamiles Lartey . 2015. Black Americans killed by police twice as likely to be unarmed as white people. June 1. Accessed 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/black-americans-killed-by-police-analysis.