Re: [sudo-discuss] Hack Tha Police

YOs- It's well known in cog sci & experimental psych, that adverse scrutiny causes a decline in many human performance measures. This should come as no surprise: trying to accomplish any task becomes more difficult when someone in the background is laughing at you, saying you can't do it, finding fault, and ready to impose some kind of penalty for mistakes. It's also the case in employment situations: employees who are under adverse scrutiny tend to make more mistakes on the job. Some attention that would otherwise be focused on the primary task, is diverted to being aware of the boss who might suddenly impose a punishment. So here we are in the robbery capital of America, with our police department in a logical double-bind (damned if you do, damned if you don't) between four conflicting demands: a) stop the crime wave, b) but do it with 1/4 to 1/3 fewer officers than a comparable-sized city should have, c) and don't go overboard on suspects, d) all of this while we keep you under adverse scrutiny. So is it any surprise that OPD isn't functioning as it should? The first response of a culture with deep roots in puritanism is to assert moral righteousness and seek to punish. This is true in our response to crime, and it's also true in our response to police misconduct and other faults of LE agencies. These dynamics can become more extreme when their underlying causes are more extreme: Oakland has a long history as a violent town, and America has a long history as a violent culture. Our popular entertainment ceaselessly offers up a river of gore for our "viewing pleasure." So, a few modest proposals: One: A major source of crime is in systematic denial of opportunity to urban youth, beginning with inadequate education, followed by no access to college, systemic unemployment, and no opportunities for small business start-ups. What's needed here is reform on all three fronts. One thing that can be done from the community level, is microenterprise development: helping people get started in small business that employ a up to a half dozen people. Very often this takes relatively little capital, but much hands-on to educate people who are seeking to start microenterprises, and work with them over time to help them succeed. When it succeeds, it has a multiplier effect: it also attracts conventional capital to an area, as a "good bet" for more conventional small business startups. Two: The fact that Oakland needs to hire approx. another 200 officers, is also an opportunity for a culture change at OPD. An incentive structure should be put in place to hire officers who have 4-year college degrees in any field that's even remotely relevant, including history and the social sciences. The same incentives should be offered to current employees of OPD: including payment of tuition as well as higher pay upon completion of a 4-year degree. If that sounds unrealistic, add up the cost of the crime itself, and compare to the cost of a college-educated police department. There's one other change that might bring in more candidates from backgrounds that are more suitable to the realities of the Bay Area. This is going to sound like a liberal stereotype, but none the less the reasoning is sound: At present, OPD rejects any applicant with a history of illegal drug use, and fires any employee who tests positive for illegal drugs. Let's take marijuana off that list, to enable hiring and retaining officers who smoke pot. Even recreational use is quasi-legal in the Bay Area, and ruling out pot smokers from joining OPD is depriving the city of candidates who could otherwise be successful on the job. Three: In general, seek to reward good behaviors, rather than seeking to punish bad behaviors. That's also a culture-change. Four: As far as surveillance goes, video cameras have not made a significant difference in street crime in England, which has the highest density of surveillance cameras of any nation on Earth. That's the empirical fact, that should be used to put to rest any idea that video is a magical cure for crime. With crime, as with disease, prevention is the best cure: a functional economy with opportunity for all, and a police department that has good relationships with the communities it serves. -G. ===== On 13-05-12-Sun 10:41 AM, Romy Snowyla wrote: