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The Pros And Cons Of Police Reform

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Police killed over 1,000 people in 2015, 203 of whom were unarmed (Swaine). Police, in theory, were created to protect our people, but they have been systematically oppressing, killing, and committing acts of violence without being held accountable. Many claim that police are acting out of self-defense, however in 2015 only 34 police were fatally shot, four of whom died by accidental discharge of their own firearms. This number is down from 2014, when 47 US police were fatally shot (MintPress News). The media makes being a police officer seem far more dangerous than it actually is. Disappointingly, policing in our society has very little to do with justice and everything to do with punishment. Our justice system views punishment as justice, …show more content…

In December of 2014, President Obama proposed a $263 million investment to reform law enforcement agencies. The government intended to use this money over three years to expand training for police, give resources to police departments to encourage reform, increase the number of cities where the Department of Justice is involved in community engagement, and expand the use of body cameras. About $75 million of that investment was designated to the purchase of body cameras. The Body Worn Camera Partnership Program promised to match 50% of spending by states on body cameras, incentivizing law enforcement agencies to purchase them (The White House). The use of body cameras on police officers has been proven effective by multiple studies, particularly one by researchers at the University of South Florida. In a yearlong study, they randomly selected 46 police officers at the Orlando Police Department to wear body cameras and compared them against 43 who did not. They found that wearing cameras significantly reduced violence among officers. Incidents where officers used force declined 53% and civilian complaints against them dropped 65%. Additionally, there were significantly less civilian and officer injuries in the group wearing body cameras than in the group without them

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