I’m with you on this. When the cops show up everyone should be at least slightly relieved. Your immediate thought should be,“Oh thank goodness somebody is here who knows what to do and is gonna make sure we’re all safe.” Tbh I think they need to be reformed and subsequently regulated the way doctors and nurses are. In fact, I suspect lawyers may actually be regulated similarly and could perhaps form an even better basis for licensure and regulation than I’m explaining here, but police do share a responsibility for people’s immediate physical safety in a similar way to doctors and nurses.
We have codes of ethics as to how we’re supposed to prioritize the end goals of the situations we’re expected to resolve. For cops it could be something like (in order):
All humans exit the situation with as little physical and psychological harm as possible, and with all legal rights preserved. (Animals too, but obviously humans would take priority).
All evidence and documentation of the situation is collected and preserved as faithfully as possible in the event of judicial proceedings.
Preserve property and ensure it stays with or can be returned in a timely manner to the rightful owner. (Right now it’s 3-1-2 and often they don’t care who the rightful owner is.)
We have rigorous schooling (and accreditation processes for those schools to try to keep them up to standard) that teach all of the above plus the details they need to know how to uphold those standards. In particular I would like them to know:
Legal aspects of enforcing the law including the basics of what is and is not illegal for both them and others to do.
To what extent they need to intervene with each violation and at what points people begin losing rights (when you’re hitting someone you can be physically held and detained to prevent you from continuing to hit people).
How to preserve evidence (then terrify them with the legal ramifications for not doing so properly).
Basic body mechanics as they pertain to physical and mechanical restraint and seclusion (I’m a psych nurse and have been restraint trained for 7 years now. It’s been drilled into me all through that time to never ever in forever restrain someone face down. I looked into it and even cops are supposed to only have someone facedown long enough to get them cuffed, then immediately turn them on their side. Facedown restraint is one of the easiest ways to even accidentally kill someone, and if that’s been properly taught to you toy can barely call the act accidental anymore.).
basic psychology including a broad overview of both developmental and abnormal psych, including psychosis, mania, anxiety disorders (including PTSD) autism, intellectual disability, and personality disorders. Particularly things like the paranoia that’s characteristic of psychosis, and that yelling at ppl with autism is not likely to produce any favorable result.
Smaller localities could accept lower levels of education or licensure to accommodate the difficulty of obtaining staff for more remote or less funded departments provided they still have the recommended number of staff with higher licenses supervising and intervening as needed (ex: Many heathcare entities utilize CNAs and LPNs to assist RNs provided what they are doing is within their reduced scope and monitored appropriately. An example could be allowing the lower level license to be the second officer provided the other officer they are accompanying does have whatever is decided on as the necessary licensure, or that that person is on duty in a more central location to be called out as needed).
**Regulatory oversight boards that:
Accredit the educational programs
Administer licensure exams
Issue licenses
Review complaints against people’s licenses
Revoke or restrict licenses as needed
Pursue people legally for fraudulently claiming to have a license or a higher or less restricted license than they do
Personally paid malpractice that:
Pays for an attorney to defend this person’s if they are facing board or other legal action
Becomes progressively more prohibitively costly for the individual if they are found to be abusive or negligent