Do you think qualified immunity or training is more to blame for LEO problems today?
Really, really good question! Let’s tackle your question as two separate ones.
When it comes to “qualified immunity” it is interesting to note its origins. Qualified immunity actually protects government officials from all but the most egregious of their crimes. Yes, qualified immunity protects cops from accountability for most of their criminal and unconstitutional behavior. Qualified immunity is legal protection for government officials in the performance of their duties; normally, discretionary duties. But qualified immunity derives from absolute immunity. Absolute immunity provides complete immunity from criminal prosecution and suits for damages, so long as government officials are acting within the scope of their duties. Meaning they are doing what they have been trained to do so they can get away with virtually anything as long as they can justify it as what they were trained to do.
Hang in there with me…absolute immunity comes directly from the legal principle of sovereign immunity. Meaning, sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine whereby a government cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution. And guess where that concept came from? The rule of kings, monarchs, or dictators over countries and its citizens with absolute power.
So the concept of qualified immunity come from the legal principle of allowing government officials almost complete legal immunity for monetary damages originating from their bad/criminal/unconstitutional behavior.
All of this means that cops can do as they please knowing full well they will probably not be held monetarily or criminally liable for their actions. Cops are normally only held accountable when their most heinous actions become public…and then only if those actions can’t be covered up.
Interesting to note that federal cops enjoy a much higher level of qualified and absolute immunity protection based on the DOJ having a broad interpretation of sovereign immunity.
Did you pick up on that? It is the DOJ for federal cops must prosecute, state Attorney Generals’ offices, or local prosecuting attorneys must bring criminal charges against non-federal cops. And how likely do you think that is going to be common…bringing charges against those you work closely with?
So yes, qualified immunity for cops is a HUGE problem. It gives cops an arrogant swagger to treat people virtually as they wish…knowing they will probably never be held liable.
Moving on to training…oh, boy. In the US the average cop trainee spends about 20 weeks in formal training before hitting the streets. Sounds good to you? Well, in the developed world (100 top developed countries) we rank at the bottom part of that list for police officer training. For example: 1) Finland requires almost 7 times more training (5,500 hours vs 800 hrs), 2) Australia requires nearly 4.5 times more training (3,500 hours vs 800 hours). And many of those developed countries require an academic degree whereas the US normally only requires a GED.
Hey, did you know that less than 37% of high school 12th graders reached or exceeded the academic preparedness benchmarks for both math and reading. And police trainees only need a GED?????
Couple of interesting facts:
- Police trainees spend 5 times more hours on firearms/weapons training than deescalation training.
- US police academies virtually ignore communication skills training.
- In 2020 less than 50 cops were killed in the line of duty.
- In 2020 civilians where shot dead 20 times more than cops, more than 10% of those civilians were unarmed.
- 90% of all police calls are for non-violent issues.
- Police trainees get only a couple of hours training on mental health self-care, if any. Cops are 5 times more likely to kill themselves than be killed by homicide on the job.
- Police training expert states, “you see officers very rapidly escalating from initial communication to the actual physical use of force, because this is how they train.”
- In the US, the escalation of force is at the discretion of the officer, whereas in countries such as Norway and Finland [and most other developed countries], there are more rigorous rules as to what is considered justified use of force.
About 1,000 civilians a year are killed by cops, that’s 35 people per 10million citizens. Doesn’t sound too bad, right?
In Canada it is 10 people per 10million citizens. In Australia it is 8 people per 10million citizens. In England it is 2 people per 10million citizens. In Japan/Norway/Iceland/New Zealand it is 0 – 2 people per 10million citizens. Is that an interesting statistic to you? And I wonder why it is so much lower in ALL other developed countries?
Just a couple more facts…training duration in police academies by state:
- 11 weeks – GA
- 12 weeks – MS, MN, ND, SC, TN
- 13 weeks – AR, SD, WI
- 14 weeks – KN, IL
Does that make you all warm and fuzzy…within 2 – 3 months brand new LEOs are released on the streets of at least 11 states armed with pistols, ARs, shotguns, mace, steel batons, and handcuffs. And these same brand new cops have been trained 10 times more on weapons and how to escalate use of force than how to deescalate non-violent interactions with civilians…or even ‘how’ to communicate with those they are to protect and serve. Oh man, I feel better already!
So is the training of police officers a problem in the US? Of course!! The facts speak for themselves. Their training, or extreme lack of it, is not just a danger to civilians but also a danger to the cops themselves.
Your question was…”Do you think qualified immunity or training is more to blame for LEO problems today?”
I think they are tied…for second place. They are both an obvious problem…very, very serious problems. But, in my opinion not the worst on the list of problems.
How often do we hear…”To Protect & Serve”???
In the US only about 18% of all reported property crimes are solved and only about 45% of all violent crimes are solved. So clearly US law enforcement agencies and law enforcement officers are near complete failures.
Now listen to this…in 2020 there were 6.5million property crimes reported in the US. Also in 2020 there was more than 1.6million violent crimes reported in the US. That is over 8million crimes for 330million US population. Oh, those are only the reported crimes…only about 40% of all violent crimes are reported to police and only about 32% of all property crimes are reported to police. So the real numbers are over 20million crimes against US citizens each year…that aren’t prevented.
So the average US citizen is likely to become a victim of a violent crime every 30 years…meaning raped, beat-up, or murdered…and far less than ½ of those crimes will ever be solved. And the average US citizen will be a victim of a property crime every 16 years and forget it ever being solved.
Think about those two stats for a minute…The average person in the US will live to 80 years of age. That works out like this…
- You are likely to be the victim of a violent crime (raped, beat-up, or murdered) 2 – 3 times.
- You are likely to be the victim of a property crime 5 times.
How is that whole “to protect & serve” thing working out for you!?!?
Back to what I think is the #1 problem…”Mission” !!!
I guess you could call it a problem with their culture as well as their mission. LEOs need to focus entirely on solving crimes…period! By solving crimes you will by default get to the “bad guys” in society…and they go to prison or get hung.
But do you think LEOs or their agencies will do that? Or, are they even capable of that kind of shift in culture / mission or mindset?
Ah, if they were capable of it, they would have done it by now don’t you think? Why else would those agencies tolerate being such utter failures at their job?
Then again…is it possible their ignoring of their responsibility to citizens and shift from peace officers to law enforcement officers over the last 65 years was by design?
Then again…think about this for a minute…if you wanted men and women concentrating on enforcing laws vs solving crimes and protecting citizens…I guess a great way to go about that would be to have poorly trained LEOs…and their limited training geared more towards using force with weapons against citizens than solving crimes.
Then I guess the next logical question to ask would be…what kind of people would want cops like that…and for what purpose?
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