The case for a well-funded organization for wrongful death lawsuits against cops who kill.

[unblock]

4. i applaud that you're trying to come up with a solution

but i think we need to be more direct and proactive.

suing towns after the fact and trying to bankrupt them at a time when we want them to spend *more* on more sensible police training doesn't seem to me like a very effective plan. moreover, civil suits can take years to run their course. finally, this will force towns to cut back in other areas as well. if a town has one of these horrible incidents, i'm not sure how cutting library funding and road repair and so on will help the situation.

if i'm missing the point and it's really all about deterrence for other towns *before* a tragedy happens, unfortunately i think this won't be particularly effective either. many communities will simply "hope it never happens here" as they no doubt do already. when faced with the real cost of extra training against what they figure is a low-probability catastrophe, most people will overweight the real cost that's in front of them. remember that humans are terrible at evaluating risk, particularly low probability risk.

i'm thinking more of a national policy, i'm no expert, but i'll throw out a few ideas that may be stupid but maybe others can improve on them:
- require policy to volunteer in the communities they patrol, something like the way lawyers are required to do pro bono work.
- stop training police to empty their guns into center mass. i get that this is the most effective way to "neutralize a threat", but it's only appropriate in certain limited situations. at minimum, you have to be absolutely certain you're right, you have to be absolutely certain there's no need for more bullets after (e.g., no second threat) you have to be absolutely certain that nothing short of death is appropriate, etc.
- don't over train with target shooting. pulling out your gun and shooting should be a last resort, not something where muscle memory takes over.
- train police better in diffusing situations
- train police better in trying to arrest someone safely rather than immediately (e.g., be patient and wait for backup)
- train police in doing more from positions of safety, e.g., i'm not sure all traffic stops really require the police leave their car.
- you kill someone on the job, you lose your job unless clear evidence exonerates you. that's encourage police to wear body cameras.