Campaign Zero

[mujerchingona]

I tried to search for threads on this here and CEP but only saw one in CEP back in 2015 when it was first introduced, and only a few comments about the layout of the website.  Thoughts on this? Was trying to shift the dialogue on social media to actual police policy reform and this looked like the most comprehensive solution offered.  Want to make sure I'm not missing something by promoting it.

www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision

[DesertMoon]

It has some great ideas, and some idea I really don't see working. It's a place to start though, I like that people are coming up with ideas.

[andwhat]

I think the biggest problem is there isn't national guidelines. So you have different states, jurisdictions, etc with different rules. Most larger departments have most of that in practice already, but it is never going to be to the public's satisfaction because it isn't like TV. I really don't like when people say police more like other countries. Those countries do not have citizens carrying weapons. So doing something like that would have citizens carrying guns and officer with less than lethal weapons. The weapons officers carry are in response to what they face not really the other way around.

I am a big proponent of more and extensive training. The problem is that funding comes from taxes. To really implement these objectives departments would probably need to double in size because you would have so many people in training you would not have enough officers on the streets if it were implemented correctly. So people have to be willing for their tax dollars to go up a lot. I would be in favor of Federal funding for military style equipment being used for national standard training instead.

Definitely in favor of body cams. The concerns have come from citizens groups more than the police. So you have to find that balance. Right now it is for the officers to turn it on themselves. But if you are in a life or death situation, you are not going to turn on your cam even if you are doing everything 100% right. You just aren't going to be thinking about that. So there has to be some way to balance that.

[mujerchingona]

Yes I can see that argument. I think the biggest critiques I found online about this is just that, that most major police departments already have most of these policies in place. I do agree that it shouldn't be most, it should be all and federal guidelines could help standardize that across all departments. Also think that even though this is the gold standard policy, it can't be effectively implemented without increased funding. Particularly for training and body cam technology. I wish their could be a federal push to implement these policies and channel some department of defense funds into our police departments. So much money wasted on defense spending for wars in other countries when the war is going on in our own country!