Qualified Immunity

My father was a New York City police officer for 21 years. My brother was a New York City police sergeant, ending his 25+ year career as a homicide detective. Guys that I grew up with were police officers as well.  I officiated a wedding a few years ago for a Lincoln police office who had been shot in the line of duty and had to retire because his injury prevented him from doing the job. I respect the officers who do their jobs oftentimes in very difficult circumstances and  put their lives on the line sometimes losing their lives in the process. It's a tough job. I'd like to see every police officer make it safely home to their family at the end of their shift.

Unfortunately that has often become the overriding goal: protecting the safety of the police. Don't misunderstand, the safety of each individual officer is important. Police departments must have policies in place so as not to place officers in unnecessary danger. There are going to be times when the absolute only way for a police officer to protect their life, or the life of innocent bystanders, is to use lethal force, i.e. to kill someone. It's fair to point out that it's easy for me, who has never been in a situation where a decision whether or not to shoot another human being is necessary, to pass judgement. To be clear, I'm not referring to situation where someone is threatening the police or civilians with a gun (or even another weapon), but how many times have we heard about scenarios where a cop shot someone who was reaching for their drivers license, or made a move that the officer thought was aggressive? Times where the subject was unarmed? And the justification was that the officer "feared for their life"? And this action was completely within acceptable department policy? One can only conclude that the preferred tactic is to take preemptive action just in case the person that was stopped for a broken tail light, or an illegal air freshener was going to shoot the cop with that gun he didn't have. It's a weird twist on the plot of Minority Report, but instead of legal action being taken for a crime that the perpetrator was thinking about committing, lethal action is taken based on what the police officer was thinking about might happen. People who have done nothing worse than appearing threatening are shot without a second thought. 

Qualified immunity, the principle where these kind of killings are deemed justified if the officer followed department procedure, or subjectively feared for their life, has to end. We're finally starting to see police who kill people being held to account by the courts, but verdicts still depend upon whether the officer's action conformed to policy or whether the jury believed that there was a genuine fear on the part of the cop. The system needs to change so that the default position isn't to shoot someone "just in case".