Bad Cops Do Not Define Police. Police Reform Is Needed

 When cops commit criminal acts, including murder, they represent themselves, not policing as a whole. Policing is one of the only professions where the bad apples are used to define the entire profession. There are few other professions where the bad apples in the profession are often used to define everyone in the profession and the profession as a whole. 

R is a retired cop that is intelligent, courageous, conscientious, and was an overall excellent, hardworking cop. Bad cops do not define him. They never defined him. Anyone that judged him or judges him or anyone like him on the basis of the actions of another is incredibly narrow minded. 

When all police are defined by the actions of a few, it is not out of a quest for justice or for better policing. It is to fulfill an agenda that does not have the greater good in mind. Or it comes from narrow mindedness and ignorance.

As already discussed in previous videos ad nauseum, police reform is needed. Policing needs to be efficient, professional, and effective. Its core mission is to serve and protect by patrol. Patrol on foot, where cops walk assigned beats on foot and become integral parts of the neighborhoods they serve, is the only true community policing, and yet remains virtually nonexistent. Cops are needed on foot, especially in urban areas and in high crime areas. Serve and protect, performed by patrol, including by cops walking beats, is the core mission of policing.

The core mission is not to generate meaningless numbers or statistics. The core mission is not to create bureaucratic structures filled with do nothing positions, laziness, paper pushers, bureaucrats and more. Many off the street positions can be eliminated. For example, captains and lieutenants are already off the streets, and there is no need for both ranks. There are many areas, small and large, in which policing can be made efficient, cost effective and far better. Layers of police, police brass, exempt rank, other officials and more off the streets in cushy jobs must end.

Serve and protect through patrol is straightforward. It is too often subordinated to the agendas and whims of politicians, police brass that lick the boots of mayors and other politicians, and others.

Unfortunately, the discussion about police reform continues to not be had. Instead, police reform is used to score political points and serve political agendas.