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Police Discrimination Policy Memo

Decent Essays

I plan to write a policy memo that addresses the issue of police discrimination against African-Americans when it comes to using force. Despite several policies being implemented across the country, shootings of unarmed African Americans has still taken the media by storm in recent years. Many innocent African-Americans have been shot by the police, and this has led to violent protests. This is known as the Ferguson effect, and it has been known to lead to more crime. Additionally, police discrimination against African-Americans leads to a lack of trust in the police and tension between the police and the community. This could lead to an increase in crime, so it is important to combat the issue of police discrimination with use of force. Existing policies that target the issue of police discrimination in use of force include requiring officers to wear body-worn cameras and requiring them to attend implicit-bias training classes. However, there are some issues with these policies. Body …show more content…

Guns should be used as a last resort, and officers would be required to provide the offender with a verbal warning before pulling out their gun or shooting. Giving this warning might give the officer time to calm the person down and actually determine if the situation is threatening enough. Patrolling in pairs would also help to ease any fear, and it would allow officers to get a second opinion on whether they should be considering using lethal force. Finally, my policy would advocate for a more diverse police force. Not only does this refer to race, but it also refers to gender. Multiple studies have been performed showing that women police officers are less likely to use deadly force on African-Americans. Additionally, offenders are less likely to act in a way towards women police officers that would cause them to consider pulling out their gun. I plan to provide evidence from these studies in my

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