At least 1,201 people were killed in 2022 by law enforcement officers, about 100 deaths a month, according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit research group that tracks police killings. ProPublica examined the 101 deaths that occurred in June 2022, a time frame chosen because enough time had elapsed that investigations could reasonably be expected to have concluded. The cases involved 131 law enforcement agencies in 34 states.
In 79 of those deaths, ProPublica confirmed that body-worn camera video exists. But more than a year later, authorities or victims’ families had released the footage of only 33 incidents.
Philadelphia signed a $12.5 million contract in 2017 to equip its entire police force with cameras. Since then, at least 27 people have been killed by Philadelphia police, according to Mapping Police Violence, but in only two cases has body-camera video been released to the public.
ProPublica’s review shows that withholding body-worn camera footage from the public has become so entrenched in some cities that even pleas from victims’ families don’t serve to shake the video loose.
we get it. cops are cowards. why else would this be one of the only countries where officers are lethally armed around the clock. cowards.
cops should be tested for steroid use randomly and monthly.
My guess as long as 320 million people have 434 million legal firearms the cops are not going to give theirs up either.
There’s a lot of things we need to do if we want police officers to remain armed.
Require officers to always patrol in doubles or more. (Many of the police involved shootings are panic shootings. A buddy who can help would reduce this.)
Require less than lethal force at least be attempted unless you’re already getting shot at. (Currently police can shoot you if you twitch wrong or just have an object in plain sight like a gun, knife, or cellphone. We know this because they’ve done it and had no reprecussions. So now they lose the shoot first privilege.)
Ban them from conducting traffic stops. Stand up an unarmed traffic specific force that doesn’t have the authority to arrest anyone or run warrants. They are specifically for civil traffic enforcement. (Many police involved shootings stem from stupid things like something hanging from the mirror or even just going 10 over the limit.) To be clear, you’d still need police officers for things like DUI. Felony speeding and such can be handled with cameras and actually taking cars away. Yes that’s harsh in the US, but see how fast people decide it’s not worth their car to go faster. (And yes speed is directly related to more accidents and fatalities in those accidents.)
Required marksmanship and tactical training. You don’t get to carry a gun you haven’t certified in and certification is a bit more intense than beer and bullets with your buddies at the range. If you want to tell us you’re constantly at war then bring in some combat infantry veterans to design your certification program. Something like 90% hit rate on random targets while your heart is in the cardio zone and someone is randomly setting off artillery simulators. Yes that’s well above what the Army or Marines officially requires but you keep telling us how highly trained you are and how dangerous your job is. Prove it with the drills we did before combat deployments.
Always on cameras with gunshot detectors. When the detector goes off it automatically starts uploading a feed to the ACLU. If your camera is conveniently blocked then not only do you not get qualified immunity but it’s also a sentence enhancement if you’re convicted and charges for destroying evidence.
We act like there’s a binary solution to the problem of police accountability. But it doesn’t have to be binary. The only unacceptable thing at this point is to continue allowing police to have all the power and none of the accountability.
Because it’s also the only country where many citizens are lethally armed around the clock I’d guess
If you stop a random person in traffic in Europe for routine control then it’s extremely unlikely that they have a gun in their car and even less likely that they will pull it on you.
If you are permanently having to think about scenarios where random people pull a gun on you because it’s not a very unlikely situation to happen then it’s not unreasonable to expect certain paranoia to start to form…
While the stats for “people killed by police” are always shown around I’d guess that the “police killed by citizens” also is much higher in the US.
Gun control is the only solution that even has a chance to remove this spiralling violence of trigger happy cops imho
Google tells me that less than 2% of Americans carry a gun.
I’d guess a police officer is seeing more than 50 random people a day though which makes it a daily occurrence to be in contact with people carrying which actually strengthens my point
You’d think at some point they’d adapt to the stress of such a situation (especially since they literally signed up for it, and ostensibly trained for it), so that they can handle it effectively without murdering others, though…
Soldiers fighting wars in hostile countries are (in theory) held to higher standards in this way.
A cashier at Taco Bell sees more than that.
This is a bullshit comment.
Dont get me wrong, im not saying they arent cowards or whatever, but only country where cops are lethally armed? Honey, thats not the reason your cops are snowflakes lol.
Here in my country cops wear guns as well (though in a holder that has to be at all times closed unless needed) yet here we are… With as good as 0 “accidental” deaths by cops.
Therefor, your comment makes no sense.
i didnt say only
You said “one of the only”.
The UK is the only Western country I know of where cops don’t normally carry a firearm. It’s a very distinctive feature of the UK police, not the default or something that makes the US stand out. Even in Scandinavia the cops armed.
The differences between the US and the rest of the developed world lie elsewhere, in a multitude of unaddressed systemic issues.
yep, my mistake. thank you!
Yup, and not only that, police keep getting polled in the UK and they keep saying they don’t want guns
Fair, that you didnt, I misread that part by the looks of it!
That said, i think my point stands that being armed has nothing to do with the issue. And before anyone calls me a gun loving guy, i dont like guns at all tbh
do you feel your every day police officer should require lethal armament at all times or do you possibly feel (as i clearly do) that other countries have proven this isnt a requirement?
I feel like it all depends on the country, or even environment. If it is a hostile area they should be equipped to deal with it. However, with this i assume that the police and/or officer take full responsability IF things go bad. We are all humans, and mistakes can happen, but if a gun is pulled, it should be a very bad scenario and a last resort.
Like all things, i dont think its just black and white. Life aint like that
thats a great point. im talkin about the good ol u.s. here. ive worked with cops. most will tell you, you know how many times they use their weapons? never. most never fire shots on duty.
and its true, the stats bear out… most united states police officers have never fired their weapon on duty.
perfect, then you dont need that gun.
The problem is that other nations don’t have a 2nd Amendment that guarantees the right to bear arms.
yeah, thats not really what im getting at.
i understand the functional difficulty in weapons control in a country where they are en-codified, but that doesnt mean we cant point out the vulgarity of these human killing devices.
it reminds me of a recent rick n morty episode where they couldnt physically stop people addicted to a thing, but they were able to completely dissuade their addiction by forcing them to see the grossness of their actions.