In my 30 years as a government investigator, I did thousands of background investigations, and many were on police officers. I also investigated complaints of discrimination in employment, and I served as a federal election observer under the Voting Rights Act. I think I know police agencies and police work quite well, and I came to know the issue of discrimination quite well. I retired over ten years ago, but I've spent a lot of time the last four years working on the issue of mass incarceration, and that has required me to study a number of police agencies.

There is no doubt in my mind that racial prejudice exists in almost every police agency in the United States, as it exists in most segments of our society. In most agencies, it is what I would call "occasional," but even in the best agencies I have heard comments from officers that were blatantly racist. I think I have encountered incidents of racial prejudice more often in police agencies than I have in other segments of society, and I'm not sure of the reason for that. Still, it was never at the point where I would say that racism was widespread or "systemic" in any of the agencies I've studied. On the other hand, I've read a lot on the subject, and that has made it clear to me that there are some police agencies, not only in the South, where racism may well be "systemic."

I've seen many instances of police misconduct where racism may indeed have been a factor; but only a handful where I would say that racism was the primary causative factor in the incident. In most cases, police misconduct is just misconduct, and racism is just one of many causative factors. I mentioned many of those factors above:

But cops will be cops, and they tend to get carried away when they're involved in chases. Young cops tend to be heavy on adrenaline and testosterone, and a little light on experience and patience.

Certainly, racism plays a part in some of this, but it is rarely the primary issue. In addition, most racism is subtle and almost impossible to prove - which means you're not going to get very far in efforts to eliminate police misconduct if you make racism your primary focus.

Two very important things would be to strictly regulate the use of weapons (including Tasers) and the use of high-speed chases - and full documentation and review of all incidents involving weapons or chases. I'd like to see a requirement for authorization of handgun use and chases from a supervisor two levels above the officers involved, whenever practical. Perhaps it would work to require immediate suspension and investigation of every officer involved in weapons use or a chase - not allowing the officer back to work until there's at least a preliminary determination that the action was justified. It's also essential that jail facilities be strictly supervised, to the point where officers and inmates are not able to do anything unobserved.

My criminal justice advocacy group is working with our county on developing a system of constant analysis of the law enforcement agencies in our county, from police agencies to the district attorney and courts to the jail. We've found that it's far too easy for law enforcement functions to do what they do without outside observation, and it has often been difficult for us to obtain data that will tell us what is actually happening in our law enforcement system. The public and the press and the county board of supervisors get very incomplete information, so we tend to make decisions based on anecdotal evidence.

Yes, I believe that there is widespread misconduct and mismanagement in U.S. police agencies, and perhaps we have trusted our police agencies too much. They need to be under constant scrutiny by the public, by the press, and by elected officials - and all elements of secrecy must be eliminated from the law enforcement system.

Yes, there is racism in U.S. law enforcement - but it is only the tip of the iceberg. We need to look a lot deeper.

-Joe-