Coaches and players: Transform policing

We can’t wait for more George Floyds to die

The coronavirus has taught the nation how fragile life is. We all feel deeply the impermanence of our world and realize that the people we cling to for security, stability and love can disappear in a single moment. But this realization has long been apparent to Black America, as they’ve watched law enforcement unjustly take the lives of black people for decades, ending futures in an instant.

In 2015, we watched a video of police gunning down a schizophrenic man, Jason Harrison, after his mother called for a mental health check. In 2014, we watched law enforcement place Eric Garner in a chokehold as he repeated “I can’t breathe” until he died.

In the past few weeks, these examples have come at hyperspeed. We’ve witnessed the killing by law enforcement, or former law enforcement stand-ins for police, of George Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed and no danger to anyone. Of Ahmaud Arbery, also unarmed, who dared to take an afternoon jog. Of Breonna Taylor, shot and killed as she slept in her apartment. Impermanence has been part of many people’s lives for some time.

When these killings occur, we tweet, we write letters, we make videos demanding accountability. We protest and we vow to change hearts and minds so that our young men can run through the streets without fear.

And soon after, we see another officer kill a black person, usually a man, and usually without consequence. Where, we wonder, is the “accountability” allegedly so important when it comes to arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating young people of color?

We cannot wait to change hearts and minds — too many people will die while we try. We need to transform American policing now. We need changes that will actually alter behavior, prevent officers from harming people, and allow officials to hold officers and departments accountable when they do.

Don’t protect bad officers

First, police chiefs need the ability to get bad officers off the street. When officers are caught using racial slurs, engaging in illegal searches and seizures, fabricating evidence or using severe, unlawful force, they should lose their badges. But they don’t. A USA TODAY investigation last year found widespread failure to track problem officers whose testimony had helped charge and imprison thousands.

Police union contracts, which hamstring officials’ ability to fire officers who engage in bad and even deadly behavior, are a chief obstacle to cleaning up departments. Those contracts, nearly always negotiated behind closed doors, have clauses that determine how misbehavior may be disciplined. Many prevent departments from investigating reports from anonymous civilians. They allow officers accused of serious misconduct to review the complaint and the evidence before making statements to investigators, ensuring that they can craft their story to best explain whatever the evidence will show. When these investigations are complete (or simply not pursued), many contracts require departments to destroy personnel records or evidence of civilian complaints after a period of time.

In the rare case that a department pursues disciplinary action, many contracts require arbitration, which almost always results in reduced sanctions. In a survey of data compiled from 37 police departments in 2017, The Washington Post found that of 1,881 officers fired since 2006, 451 appealed and received their jobs back — nearly 25%.

Every few years we have the chance to improve these contracts. In Philadelphia, for example, the mayor renegotiates the police union contract next year. In Minneapolis, it is renegotiated every three years and is in negotiations now. We must demand that our elected officials remove terms explicitly designed to protect officers from investigation and discipline.

Prevent future carnage

Second, if the Supreme Court won’t do it, we need Congress to end “qualified immunity” that protects police officers from legal liability for even the most outrageous conduct. Qualified immunity prevents harmed individuals from receiving compensation unless there is another case, already decided, that involved basically identical facts.

The likelihood of this type of similarity between acts of wrongdoing is scant at best. Without it, qualified immunity completely shields officers from civil consequences for their illegal acts. One court, for example, found an officer had qualified immunity after he let his dog maul a homeless man. In another case, officers who tried to steal $225,000 while on the job received immunity.

Other changes would help. Police should end stops for car equipment problems or quality-of-life offenses, for example, and the FBI and Department of Justice should be involved whenever federal law allows because it’s hard for police to police themselves.

But the two steps we have laid out, getting bad officers off the street and ending qualified immunity, are critically important. If we are going to achieve a safer future for our children, we need to implement them now. By doing so, we can prevent future carnage, and honor the lives of those we’ve lost.

Steve Kerr is head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Gregg Popovich is head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. Anquan Boldin is a Super Bowl champion. Demario Davis is a New Orleans Saints linebacker. Andrew McCutchen is a Philadelphia Phillies outfielder. All support the Players Coalition. Boldin is co-founder, and Davis is on the board.