OFF THE WIRE
The timing seemed perfect: Amid outrage over deadly force across the
country, California appeared poised to set an example in addressing the
toxic distrust between poor communities and police.
Now the odds of change here seem long, and it’s a disgrace and a
pity. Muscled by law enforcement, elected officials have backed down
from one reform after another.
We trust law enforcement to protect us and maintain order; we arm
them with lethal weapons and give them the benefit of the doubt in
life-and-death situations. We reward them with fair pay and pensions.
It’s not too much for taxpayers to ask for transparency.
Yet even Attorney General Kamala Harris seems to fear the
thin-blue-line blowback. Last month, she disavowed the need for
baseline, statewide body camera rules. A “one-size-fits-all approach,”
she called it, as if police oversight should depend on local customs.
via A lost opportunity on police reform.
The timing seemed perfect: Amid outrage over deadly force across the country, California appeared poised to set an example in addressing the toxic distrust between poor communities and police.
Now
the odds of change here seem long, and it’s a disgrace and a pity.
Muscled by law enforcement, elected officials have backed down from one
reform after another.
A smart plan for statewide body camera guidelines stalled
after law enforcement lobbyists insisted that cops shouldn’t have to
file reports on shootings until they see the video evidence against
them.
A sensible measure requiring independent investigations of police shootings was shelved when law enforcement balked at oversight from any prosecutors but local district attorneys.
Even the push for data has
struggled. Last week, a bill compelling local authorities to share more
information about the number and reasons for police stops barely made it out of the Assembly.
A separate measure that would have required all agencies,
including the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,
to report when someone is hurt or killed during an interaction with law
enforcement died in committee.
Another bill quantifying deaths in custody
remains in contention, but Assembly Bill 71 doesn’t extend to
correctional officers, and it only covers one kind of lethal force by
two kinds of law enforcement: shootings by sheriff’s departments and
police.
Good grief. California should lead on these issues.
There’s no excuse for this namby-pamby reluctance to ask for
accountability.
We trust law enforcement to protect us and
maintain order; we arm them with lethal weapons and give them the
benefit of the doubt in life-and-death situations. We reward them with
fair pay and pensions. It’s not too much for taxpayers to ask for
transparency.
Yet even Attorney General Kamala Harris seems to fear the thin-blue-line blowback. Last month, she disavowed the need for baseline, statewide body camera rules. A “one-size-fits-all approach,” she called it, as if police oversight should depend on local customs.
We
have statewide standards for all sorts of police work, from collision
investigations to SWAT team training; body cameras should be no
different. But Harris, who is running for U.S. Senate, needs law
enforcement endorsements, too.
We can’t erase the lessons of Staten Island, Cleveland, Baltimore, Tulsa, North Charleston. Technology is forcing the nation to confront bad police work that we’ve let slide for far too long.
According to The Washington Post,
law officers have shot and killed nearly 400 civilians nationally since
January. Many were saving lives; some were hardly heroic. But only
about half showed up in federal counts that are supposed track such
shootings, largely because police don’t like change and lawmakers are
afraid to force it.
At some point, politicians need to forget
their next elections and do the jobs they were hired to do by the
public. How about now?
