Behind Closed Doors: A Look at Police Transparency

At the end of the day the police are human, too. They make mistakes, just like anyone else. We at the Committee for Police Embetterment know that, and keep that in mind with every article we write. However, in that same vein, we feel that the police should be held just as responsible for their actions as every other citizen. When a citizen makes a mistake that results in the harm or death of another citizen, they are almost always punished in some way, either monetarily or by serving some sort of sentence. Now we realize that the Police are often forced to commit acts, which is of course, fine. We do not expect officers to throw their lives away, but if they make a mistake of some sort, such as holding a suspect in a grab that does allow them to breathe properly, or accidentally discharging their firearm into a bystander, we fully expect them to be punished equally to any other citizen. Now, I know officers lay their lives down for us citizens every day, which is why this article is not directly criticizing them as individuals, this is critical of the system as a whole. The system will often protect officers whose misconduct resulted in injury, and that is something that cannot be tolerated. What I feel is needed is greater transparency in police actions, which used to be enforced by research by numerous citizens (source) .  The people generally most affected by this are minorities, the poor, or protestors, as they are the most common demographics that police commit misconduct towards (source). There are quite a few regulations in place (source) but quite a few are not strong, and many are not enforced.  This actually the main cause and factor that allows misconduct, the lack of supervision and the lack of supervisors reprimanding officers after their conduct. (source)  We need to make a push to see things that the police don’t let us. Not all content, obviously, since quite a large portion of it is sensitive, but if we can prove that the information we seek is relevant and necessary for us to obtain. Then, perhaps, we can make a change for the better, and get rid of the officers that repeatedly commit misconduct, the “bad apples” of the bunch, so to speak.

-Gino W.