Evaluation of Actions Used to Reduce "Police Brutality" in the U.S.

Police Brutality is one of the biggest crimes against civil rights in the United States today. The cost of having trials with officers accused of police brutality is costing the tax payers millions of dollars every year. For example, the expenses of brutality claims reached an astonishing 20 million dollars for the city of Los Angeles between the years of 1987 and 1990 ("Remedies"1). The city of New York, under Mayor Giuliani, went from paying $14.6 million in police brutality cases to $31.2 million in only four years ("Nation" 126). Rodney King, a man of African American descendant and a victim of severe police brutality, won $3.8 million dollars after the lawsuit on the city of Los Angeles in 1991("Remedies" 2). Situations like these have made citizens more aware of police brutality and the necessity to come up with solutions has risen as well ("Remedies" 1). The neglect of Civil Rights involving officers, who commit brutality acts against civilians, has also brought the attention of the people, as well as the politicians, on the fact that police brutality is a big issue and it needs to be dealt with.

A major suggestion to help reduce police brutality is higher levels of discipline emphasized on police officers who are convicted with excessive force on civilians. According to Remedies, "Police experts, especially former officers, believe that appropriate discipline is perhaps the most important step in solving the problem with police brutality" ("Remedies" 4). In most cases, sentenced police officers get promoted rather than getting fired by their respective Police Departments, and this is the main reason why the American people complain about the failed discipline that is exercised. The promotions lead to underestimation of the actual crimes by officers all around the country and continued malicious behaviors occur among officers even after the punishment. Some departments even go to the extent of punishing their officers for the use of foul language. According to former Chief McNamara of the San Jose Police Department, the officers are no better than the criminals themselves if they break the rules ("Remedies" 4). Civilians expect the police officers to behave in a just and respectful manner, regardless the situation. So any officer who commits acts of misbehavior should be held responsible for them and deal with the consequences that come with them ("Remedies" 4). The "Nation", a weekly magazine that covers political and cultural issues, argues that a method that has proven to be effective in disciplining police officers is the establishment of Civilian Review Boards. Without a proper Civilian Oversight the brutality is more likely to persist because there are no other systems of accountability within the actual police departments that will examine brutality cases effectively (124). The Civilian Review Boards believe that an outside source is necessary to inspect and examine all the cases involving police brutality ("Remedies" 5). On the other hand, police departments who disagree with the fact that they need to exercise such severe punishments on officers who break the rules, argue that civilians do not completely understand the job of police officers and thus are not qualified to judge their work. They imply that it is up to the departments themselves to punish their employers without the involvement of civilian consent ("Remedies" 5).

Integration is also one of the major remedies that are suggested to decrease police brutality. During the past thirty years, police departments have mainly been filled up by white male officers. But during the 1960's a series of laws were passed that prohibited discrimination in employment and it made no exception in the hiring of police officers. Police departments all over the country started employing more black and women officers. According to Remedies, more integrated departments minimize police brutality complaints and encourages a better understanding between the community and the police ("Remedies" 4). During the riots of the 1960's, when the police departments were not as integrated as they are today, minorities as well as others viewed the police force as discriminating because they did not represent the minorities of the country. For instance, no major posts in the police departments were held by blacks during the early 1960's. Today that has changed and black police chiefs and commissioners have increased by almost up to a dozen. A police department serves its society best by representing it in finest possible ways, hiring more local ethnicities like Hispanics, Asians and other minorities if these are present in the society ("Remedies" 5).

Both of these suggestions are realistic and might work very well in reality. But stricter discipline, with the addition of the Civilian Review Boards investigating police brutality cases, would presumably have greater success in reducing police brutality than would integration. Stricter discipline is in a sense more effective in dealing with the problem because it comes up with clearer results. If an officer commits a crime, he or she is going to get punished. But with integration you want to please the people of the society by integrating more minorities in the police force, which is totally different from discipline and will give totally different results.

The most important aspect of this problem is to actually show people that police brutality still happens today and that it could happen to anyone. The ultimate remedy within any society lies on its people and their expectations on themselves and their police force. No one else can make a change for a society than the society itself, this meaning the people living in it.