It is clear that the current system is problematic. 52% of U.S. adults report not having confidence in the police (Pontzer, 2023). 12.9% of participants in Briere and Runtz’s study reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after experiencing police aggression, and the researchers suggest that the percentage may have been even higher if instances where an individual heard about police aggression was included as a factor alongside direct exposure to police aggression. 56% of Black participants in the same study reported some level of fear of being killed by police (Briere & Runtz, 2024). Even police officers seem to be concerned with the level of aggression exhibited by their peers, with 61% of Black officers, 44% of Hispanic officers, and 37% of white officers reporting they worry that some of their colleagues do not spend enough time diagnosing a situation before deciding to use force (Pontzer, 2021).
The current state of police education is negatively impacting all parties involved. Police officers themselves are conditioned to be fearful for their lives all of the time, which is usually recognized outside of law enforcement as a serious anxiety disorder. And obviously, the communities they police are negatively impacted on every level as their members are harassed, targeted, and killed for reasons completely out of their own control. Then the victims are blamed by the public and by the courts for not reacting with complete calmness when confronted with an armed and dangerous police officer (Kincaid, 2024).
With the problem area identified, the question remains of how to properly reform the system in order to prevent discrimination and violence. Several ideas have been floated, but largely they have not stuck due to the aforementioned resistance by police departments themselves and the lack of interest and support from anyone outside the affected localities.
Some have suggested additional training in racial diversity and deescalation. While additional training is definitely required, the main issue is decidedly not the lack of deescalation or racial diversity training so much as it is the overabundance of force training and the overall warrior mentality that permeates cop culture. Additionally, the current climate of police departments, especially within conservative states, contributes to a lack of receptiveness to any form of reeducation, whether intentional or not (Hoang et al., 2024; Pontzer, 2021). Succinctly put, “The emphasis on violence, war, and winning must be eliminated from academy training” (Simon, 2023, p. 1039).
There have also been lofty discussions about rebuilding trust between Black communities and police departments. This places all of the blame staunchly on the shoulders of the victims for not cooperating well with police when they have historically not been given good reason to believe police actually want to help them (Kincaid, 2024; Simon, 2023). It is completely unhelpful to point fingers at the communities who are statistically, undeniably proven to be at higher risk of violence at the hands of police, and it is likewise unhelpful to suggest that police departments simply increase demographic diversity within their hiring process (Simon, 2023). The lack of diversity within departments is symptomatic of the departments’ racism, sexism, and ableism; these problems cannot be addressed without first treating the root cause (Simon, 2023).
The real winner here is policy intervention, with the caveat that it must be followed by intentional execution. Kincaid (2024) recommends that police departments shift to lean more heavily on the guardian half of their dichotomy– focusing on community and service rather than crimefighting and war. Based on the evidence collected, it is reasonable to assume that the only appropriate way to respond to this issue is through an overhaul of the system. However, with the addition of Hoang et al.’s study, it is important to note that racism needs to be addressed during public education as well. Ignorance regarding systemic racism and its effects was a very strong indicator that officers would be unresponsive to racial diversity training later on down the line, and such a simple concept is something they arguably should have learned by the time they graduated high school (Hoang et al., 2024). Quite frankly, all of these prejudicial issues within the police force are reflected in society as a whole; they are simply more visible on this smaller scale because of the extreme violence committed by police officers. Therefore, additional programs to address underlying prejudices and discriminatory practices within society itself are needed alongside police reform (Kincaid, 2024).
Police training directly impacts rates of brutality and violence against already marginalized communities on multiple bases, which is reflective of social issues and discrimination across the United States as a whole. As such, the best method to address the issue is through policy intervention and an almost complete overhaul of the entire system, accompanied by implementation of social programs that will support resolution of these problems on a larger scale. Without redress, it can be reasonably expected that confidence in police will continue to drop and these communities will continue to be harassed and abused based on harmful and inaccurate stereotypes.