Well, what is your solution?
I don’t know of a way to ensure that bad folks are kept out of any profession. You have to wait for them to trip up, and by then the damage is done.
> Well, what is your solution? <
Great question. One of the problems is the concept of “qualified immunity”, meaning that bad cops usually cannot be sued personally. The city must pay for their trash behavior.
I would not completely abolish qualified immunity! It is a valid concept in that the police must often make quick decisions while under stress.
But what about the cops who casually violate an innocent person’s constitutional rights? Cops who decide to escalate a situation just for the hell of it. Cops who decide to bully a person just for the hell of it.
Those cops can be sued. But they don’t pay. Their city does. Maybe if the cops themselves paid (and carried their own insurance) there’d be a bit more restraint.
Easy, the same one that exists for doctors, attorneys, plumbers, etc.. a requirement that they be bonded and insured individually. The one’s who repeatedly step on their dicks will be unable to afford the insurance eventually. And yes, end qualified immunity, a legal decision that was made up out of thin air.