Pay More, Train More, Standardize Use-of-Force

The devastating death of Tyre Nichols should serve as a clarion call to do everything we can to prevent an incident like this from happening again. Last month, President Biden urged Congress during his State of the Union address to come together to finish the job on police reform and make something good come of this tragic death.

As I reflect on my decades of experience in law enforcement and ask myself, what will make the biggest difference? What will truly improve public safety outcomes across the country? the answer for me is clear – we need to recruit the best officers, require improved training, and map to a single national use-of-force standard.

A recent study published in the American Political Science Review found that protests after the death of George Floyd quickly and negatively impacted public attitudes towards the police. But you don’t need a PhD to see the damage that this has done towards public perception of law enforcement, nor do you need to be an officer to appreciate the profound impact on officer recruitment, retirements, mental health, job performance, and public safety outcomes. An essential step towards restoring trust in law enforcement and keeping our communities safe is to ensure we license, train, and retain the best people for our profession.

But we can’t recruit the best if we don’t pay them competitive, fair wages. According to the U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics (BLS), the national average annual wage for police officers is $67,600. That’s about $15,000 more than the average annual salary for all occupations, $51,960. The average length of basic training for all state and local law enforcement academies is about 833 hours. And roughly 70% of departments require only a high school diploma or GED.

Policework is an honorable blue-collar profession and must remain an option for those aspiring to a career in law enforcement, with or without a college degree. But the expectation that an individual making less than $67,600 per year with only 833 hours of training will be prepared to meet the increased expectations we place on officers in today’s environment is simply unreasonable.

If you talk to law enforcement professionals across California and the country, there’s a common theme you’ll hear: the job today isn’t what it used to be. For all the training officers receive, they are not full-time mental health professionals or social workers. But officers are often held responsible for addressing these societal challenges. Use-of-force, de-escalation, conflict resolution, and interacting with individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health issues, addiction, and other personal crises are all examples of opportunities to improve and increase training for law enforcement.

As badly as change is needed, we can’t afford to wait for a deeply divided government to come to an agreement on a holistic training reform package. It is simply too broad in scope to expect lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to agree.

That’s why as the largest law enforcement organization in California and the largest statewide association in the nation, PORAC is calling for lawmakers to limit their focus and work from there – it is time for America to adopt a single use-of-force standard for all federal, state, and local law enforcement.

Increasing the standard across the country for the authorized use of deadly force to only be allowable in defense of human life – as was done here in California when AB 392 became law in 2019 – can we begin to increase training specifically designed to address use-of-force incidents in our communities based on this improved standard. This uniform minimum use-of-force standard would serve as the basis from which states could choose to increase and expand upon it.

This standard would set specific policy requirements on de-escalation, an officer’s duty to intercede, rendering medical aid, proportional response to resistance, interacting with vulnerable populations, and more. Lastly, it increases transparency by setting forth detailed, standardized requirements for reporting all instances of use-of-force.

Officers have a tremendous responsibility to make split-second decisions with potential life-or-death consequences under intense scrutiny. It is time their training and pay reflect that awesome responsibility. It is time for America to acknowledge that use of force employed by law enforcement as they seek to protect and serve our communities is a national issue. It is time to come together and establish a minimum standard that applies to all states.

Public safety isn’t a partisan issue. All Americans deserve to feel safe in their communities and trust that their local law enforcement is committed to preserving life wherever and however possible. We have a real opportunity here to move the needle in the right direction.

If we are serious about police reform, pay officers more, train them more, and establish a national use-of-force standard.