EXPLORING LAW/POLICY PATHWAYS
Ending Police Brutality: Exploring Law/Policy Pathways
Introduction
In the past, confrontations between law enforcement officers and citizens have been largely reported from the perspective of police officers. However, thanks to the growing availability of portable smartphone devices with cameras, Americans have been presented with yet another perspective to the said confrontations. As a consequence, there are many who now believe there is need for deliberate measures to be taken to oversight the utilization of lethal force by our law enforcement officers. The death of George Floyd, which was captured on camera, clearly demonstrated inherent gaps in as far as police oversight is concerned. It demonstrated the need for sweeping reforms to ensure or guarantee police oversight. This is more so the case when it comes to bringing an end to racial profiling and promoting the accountability of our police officers. It would be prudent to note that although there is a clear need to undertake deliberate measures to ensure that police officers serve the people that they swore to protect in a better manner, there is no clear cut way on how to go about it. From a policy and legal perspective, there are a number of pathways that could be followed in an attempt to curb police brutality and promote greater accountability within the police force. The said pathways are; legislative, judge-made, civil jury, as well as ballot issue. This text presents an argument in favor of the legislative pathway.
Discussion
Before highlighting the most ideal pathway that ought to be embraced in efforts to guarantee effective police reform, it would be prudent to first take into consideration what such reform would ideally entail with special focus in this case being on the George Floyd case. In essence, the killing of Floyd brings two issues to the fore, i.e. the issue of police misconduct and the issue of discrimination. These are the two concerns that any attempt at correcting the problem should address. It therefore follows that in selecting the most viable or ideal law/policy pathway, there would be need to be cognizant of the fact that this happens to be an issue of great public interests and could potentially be emotive (as a consequence of the race factor). As it has been pointed out in the introductory section, the ideal pathway on this front would be the legislative process. It would be prudent to note that to a large extent, bills emanate from the need to fix an existing problem (Sweet and Mathews, 2019). There is no doubt whatsoever that the country is in need of police reform. In this case, legislation is seen as the best avenue to advance this agenda.
To begin with, it should be noted that at present, there are a number of laws already in place that seek to limit police misconduct and ensure that law enforcement officers do not overstep their mandate. A good example would in this case be Title 18 of the US Code which, according to Roberson (2017), makes it mandatory for police officers to adhere to the relevant legal standards as well as provisions of the Constitution specifically with regard to ensuring that the citizens of this...
…effectively fight crime. It therefore follows that an issue that is likely to invite significant scrutiny and attention ought to be subjected to a
framework that makes it possible to work through differences in opinion or perspectives. To a large extent, unlike the other three policy/law pathways, the legislative process has special inbuilt mechanisms designed to unlock any standoff if need be. For instance, the Senate could see the need to make some amendments to bill after it is passed by the House of Representatives. In such a case, a Committee Conference would come in handy. The said conference brings together both Chambers members so as to iron through any differences (Hay, 2017). This consultative framework seeks to ensure that agreement is reached regarding any contentious clauses.
Conclusion
In the final analysis, it is clear from the discussion above that success in reigning in police misconduct will largely be determined by the law/policy pathways embraced going forward. In this text, a compelling case has been made for the legislative process. To a large extent, this appears to be the only approach towards ensuring reasoned analysis and evaluation, enable the emergence and implementation of the best suggestions (i.e. as a consequence of greater opportunities for further refinement), and promote consensus building. However, the legislative process also happens to be rather slow owing to the fact that at any given time, there are numerous other bills that require the attention of Congress. However, in my opinion, there are plenty of opportunities for a bill of this nature to be fast-tracked owing to its relevance in as far as…
