The mindset of American city police

Growing up in England I had impressed upon me a Victorian model of policing. The General Instructions issued to the Metropolitan Police in 1829 include,

To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.

To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police.

I was thus disturbed in more recent times to learn of incidents where the Metropolitan Police had failed to display shoulder numbers in handling protests.

Cynical though I have learned to become, recent news from the US has appalled me. I don't know what I might already had experienced there had I been black rather than white but the widespread protests support the hypothesis that, for many citizens, protect and serve has often not been the byword in American policing. It disturbed me to hear of police hiding their badge numbers in dealing with current protests. More alarming still is the brazenness of the police in firing upon peaceful witnesses from the press.

It is bad enough to suspect what happens behind closed doors but for the police to be openly acting as they have speaks to a pervasive sense, at least among some, that they are separate from ordinary civilians of whatever beliefs, that closing ranks makes them unaccountable.

I don't know what the standard American formulation is of the Victorian to use only the minimum degree of physical force but I find myself wondering about those who join American city police departments, if they begin with good intentions and are corrupted on the job, at least cowed into acquiescence about how to handle difficult realities. It is as shameful as it is alarming; fixing it will require profound change.