During a congressional hearing earlier this week, FBI Director Kash Patel defended changes to the bureau’s hiring standards.
asserted
Patel → defend → standards
His testimony came just two weeks after reports surfaced of loosened hiring standards at another law enforcement agency in the US: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
asserted
reports → come → US
As a result, concerns have emerged about a retreat from standards intended to protect the public by offering a baseline of conduct for law enforcement officers.
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concerns → emerge → officers
The American public is right to worry.
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public → worry → ?
Loose hiring standards can put reckless individuals in positions of power.
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standards → put → power
But ensuring commitment to higher standards in law enforcement recruitment alone cannot solve the police violence problem in the US.
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ensuring → ensure → US
Research on police misconduct, which has considerably expanded in the wake of Black Lives Matter and related movements, offers useful parameters to guide how we approach the question of hiring standards.
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we → expand → standards
Studies have shown that most cases of use of force are concentrated among a relatively small proportion of officers, at least in the limited departments that track such incidents.
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that → show → incidents
That means there are officers who are repeat offenders and have the tendency to engage in such misconduct.
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who → mean → misconduct
So can risk individuals be identified before they are hired?
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they → identify → ?
One study of more than 12,000 police applicants found that specific responses on pre-employment psychological evaluations were associated with subsequent excessive force complaints and complaints alleging racial misconduct.
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responses → find → misconduct
However, another study of 642 first-year police officers found that markers for anti-social and borderline behaviour could predict the likelihood of engaging only in certain types of abuse – namely sexual misconduct.
uncertain
markers → find → abuse
There is also research that suggests abusive policing and officers’ psychological wellbeing may be intertwined, and that the harms of misconduct may extend beyond targeted civilians, possibly even to the offending officers themselves.
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harms → be → officers
In a sample of 137 active-duty US police officers, approximately 11 percent self-reported engaging in abusive policing.
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percent → report → policing
Abusive policing was associated with greater PTSD symptoms even after accounting for adverse childhood experiences and workplace trauma.
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policing → associate → experiences
The implication of all this is that hiring standards based on psychological profiling should neither be dismissed as irrelevant nor treated as a fully reliable way to eliminate all future risk.
asserted
standards → hire → risk
Standards should be evaluated according to what they actually predict, what they exclude, and what risks arise when they are removed.
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they → evaluate → what
The US has an exceptionally high rate of police violence compared with other wealthy democracies.
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US → have → democracies
For example, the rate of police killings is 33.5 per 10 million in the US, compared with 9.8 in Canada, 1.3 in Germany, and 0.5 in England and Wales.
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rate → compare → England
That cannot plausibly be explained simply by whom we happen to hire.
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we → explain → whom
American law enforcement gives officers extraordinary authority to detain, search, use force and, in some circumstances, take a life.
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enforcement → give → life
Those powers operate within institutions that have repeatedly struggled with racial bias, unnecessary antagonism of marginalised communities, and abuses of authority.
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that → operate → authority
There is also inadequate accountability for law enforcement misconduct, including through qualified immunity and other legal protections that can make it difficult to hold officers personally liable for certain constitutional violations.
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officers → be → violations
The problem, in other words, is not simply that some individuals enter policing who should not.
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who → enter → policing
It is also the system into which they enter, and the organisational cultures, incentives, and practices that can shape how they use the power they have been given.
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they → enter → power
Reducing police misconduct requires system-wide reform, including greater accountability not only for individual officers but for the agencies and institutions responsible for policing.
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Reducing → reduce → policing
Effective policing depends in part on public cooperation.
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policing → depend → cooperation
Global research across dozens of countries has linked perceived fairness, procedural justice and trust in police to people’s willingness to cooperate with law enforcement.
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research → link → enforcement
The credibility of hiring standards can be part of trust-building initiatives, but they must also include broader efforts to strengthen trust and legitimacy among marginalised communities by reducing racial profiling, unnecessary uses of force, and inequitable enforcement of laws.
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they → build → laws
The challenge is not simply to identify the “wrong” candidates and exclude them, but to build institutions in which selection is accompanied by effective training, supervision, and accountability.
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selection → identify → training
Ultimately, the institutions entrusted with extraordinary powers have to be structured to protect the people they serve.
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they → entrust → people
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
asserted
views → express → stance
The Aporia
