Police brutality in America is getting worse—not better.
That's not pessimism. These are the facts.
As of today—September 22—at least 865 Americans have been killed by police so far in 2015.
As of the same date in 2014, the number of people killed by police was 804.
At this pace, 2015 is likely to be the deadliest year ever measured at the hands of American police.
In 2014, 1,106 people were killed by American police. We are currently on pace to break 1,200 for this year.
The problem is complicated, nationwide, nuanced, and deeply entrenched in the new American way of policing. No single policy will curb this trend and it is very possible these numbers may get worse for many years to come without drastic changes, including real consequences for police misconduct.
So, here we are. It's a mess. It's on our watch and we have to do something about it.
Below are the three biggest policy shifts are that could actually freeze or reduce this growing problem.
1. Body cameras nationwide, with universal policies on their usage
The overwhelming majority of people (like 95 percent or more) who are killed by police are killed without it being filmed in any way.
Very specific rules and guidelines on their use, storage, access, etc., must be applied nationwide for it to really work, but if all police in America wore body cameras and they could not turn them on or off, never had access to the footage, and were stored by a secure third party and made available to the public at the same time as police, it could change things.
Ultimately, the following two policies would be needed in concert with an effective body camera policy. What we do know is this: In the few cases where we have officers who've been indicted for murder over the past year, like in the shooting deaths of Walter Scott and Sam Dubose, the only reason those officers were indicted is because they were filmed.
2. A complete overhaul on how law enforcement handles mentally ill men, women, and children
Some studies suggest that up to 50 percent of people who are killed by police were struggling with mental illness, and are often completely incapable of interacting with them in the ways officers too often demand they do. Everything about how 911 calls are reported, questions are asked, calls are routed, and law enforcement is dispatched to emergency scenes has to be scrapped and rebuilt to consider the mentally ill. Mental health professionals and ambulances need to be sent to many scenes where officers instead show up with body armor and loaded guns.
If we sincerely addressed this issue, we could see a drastic decline in police murders.
3. Truly independent, powerful review boards for all police misconduct
Police are using lethal force in record numbers for one primary reason: They can. Local prosecutors are the biggest fans of police in all of government. They are partners with one another inside of the same system. To expect local prosecutors to fairly adjudicate cases of police misconduct will never work. Ever.
It's only when truly independent review boards that actually have power to make binding decisions are put in place that we will see officers who deserve to be aggressively prosecuted handled as such. Until then, district attorneys are consistently dismissive of some of the most egregious police misconduct ever seen. As long as police know the current system protects even their worst behaviors, little change will happen.