Local government scholars call for increased public reporting and accountability to stem police brutality By Luke Perry
Protests continue throughout upstate New York and around the country following the killing of George Floyd in police custody on May 25. Local government and law scholars recently discussed why police brutality occurs and what reforms can help mitigate this.
Nina Moore, Chair and Professor of Political Science at Colgate University, told Ivory Tower (WCNY in Syracuse) black people are “much more subject to excessive police force, to verbal abuse, to being handcuffed, even when they’re not arrested, and also to being searched without their consent.” Black people killed by the police are also twice as likely to be unarmed than white people.
Police brutality persists for several reasons. The first is a “lack of accountability on the part of the police officers who engage in these behaviors,” Moore said.
The second is the public, who are complicit “in so far as a majority of Americans believe that blacks are more violent than others.”
Lastly, some elected officials “shamelessly use fear for their own political purposes” and adopt policies that lead to “overcriminalization and then more interactions between blacks and the police, and the cycle completes itself,” Moore said.
Kristi Andersen, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Syracuse University, believes that in addition to helping overcome racism, reducing police brutality makes monetary sense. Police mistreatment lawsuits are “incredibly costly,” Andersen said, totaling over hundreds of millions dollars annually for big cities.
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Robert Spitzer, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at SUNY-Cortland, said “police unions have played an adverse role” in efforts to reduce police brutality. Police officers are insulated from public oversight and scrutiny, records of misconduct are sealed, and “police training really struggles between the principle that you should deescalate violence on the streets versus the warrior culture” that comes with a more militaristic approach to public safety.
Spitzer noted that in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered, there were 2,600 civilian complaints about police mistreatment since 2012, but only 12 resulted in disciplinary action, mostly “written letters of reprimand and nothing more.”
The New York State legislature is working on a police reform legislative package, expected to pass in the next few days. A key provision repeals Section 50-A of the state’s civil code that keeps police disciplinary records from becoming public.
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Lisa Dolak, Senior Vice President and Professor of Law at Syracuse University, has been “shocked daily by the continuing videos, displays we are seeing of police brutality against people who are just standing by or sitting by and filming them, including members of the media.” Examples include an elderly man thrown to the ground in Buffalo as well as a Post Standard photographer in Syracuse.
According to Andersen, additional training has not reduced police killings. Other reforms have been more effective, including comprehensive and public reporting of abuse of power, rules that require exhausting all other options before using deadly force, and banning certain techniques, like choke holds and strangle holds.
Andersen believes progress can result from “holding these people accountable, publicizing what they do, and trying to prohibit officers from using the most dangerous techniques.”
“Civilian review boards, which exist in pretty much in every city, are toothless tigers,” Moore said. “They investigate, they recommend discipline, but ultimately it is the police chiefs who decide whether to discipline their own officers.” Moore believes that problematic police behavior will continue without related structural changes.
Over 6,400 people paid their respects to Mr. Floyd yesterday at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston. Floyd’s funeral will be held today.
Luke Perry (@PolSciLukePerry) is Professor of Government at Utica College
