Police accountability has gone by the wayside. Over the last decade more and more police misconduct has come to light and fewer police officers are being held accountable. Because of the way Police departments are policed, a statewide initiative is needed. Currently police departments police themselves by way of an Internal Affairs department that handles complaints by the public. Akin to letting criminals police themselves, this practice is fundamentally flawed since these departments are not truly independent and typically answer to the police chief..
In order to have true accountability and external impartial agency is required. This could be accomplished by establishing such a department at the state level that would handle complaints against all police departments within the state. And this could be accomplished without costing tax payers a penny by simply requiring local PDs to pay a fee based on the size of their department.
Join me in starting a statewide "Police Accountability Department" and let's fix our police departments.
