Invest in police

We’ve got to stop condemning “the police.” There is a justified basic purpose for police.

Basically, police are needed by everybody for protection, so we can conduct our lives with safety. There are many considerations necessary in order to provide this. Key considerations are: selection of suitable individuals to be appointed as police officers and appropriate training of those selected.

The reason those two considerations are so important is we need and want our police to be persons of good character who are fair-minded without prejudicial attitudes, agree with the principle that all humans are equal until their behavior proves them otherwise, do not possess the trait of authoritarianism, and have the physical and mental abilities to carry out the duties of a professional police officer.

The problem that is facing our country is not “the police.” It is the problem of some police departments and some individual officers who do not possess the traits described above, and have taken actions that have unnecessarily and seriously harmed some of us.

Many police departments do not have the resources or the leadership needed to be properly selective in their hiring and to provide proper training. There are some that do a better job at that than many others.

We should not “defund the police.” Instead, we should assure that all of our police departments have the necessary funds and personnel to carry out these essential elements of proper selection and proper training.

Henry P. Henson, retired chief of police for the Norfolk Police Department, Norfolk