As you well know by now, many cities all across the nation are looking at police and law enforcement in a very different, and usually not so positive light. As a result, many of those are looking for ways to “defund the police” or at least limit their effects on communities.
They claim the usual racial profiling and social injustice malarky. And their solutions have been to generally make it harder for police to do their jobs.
However, not all proposed bills or “reform” ideas are all that bad. In fact, some of them, like a recently agreed upon one in New Jersey, are downright ingenious.
Enter Senate Bill No. 1322.
On the surface, it’s a rather straightforward and simple change. It simply eliminates arrest numbers from being a factor.
According to the Washington Examiner, “A New Jersey Senate committee had advanced a bill that would bar law enforcement from looking at arrest numbers when evaluating an officer’s overall performance or making decisions about whether to promote or fire an officer.”
This means neither local nor state law enforcement agencies will be allowed to force or even encourage officers to meet arrest or citation quotas. And more importantly, these numbers will not be allowed for use when hiring or considering raises and promotions.
Of course, New Jersey State Senator Shirley Turner, who is a staunch Democrat, claims the usual talking points when discussing the proposed bill.
She states that keeping track of arrest numbers and filling quotas “have a detrimental effect on our communities,” particularly the “low-income individuals and people of color.” And so she cites that this is an effort to “advance issues of social justice and create a more equitable justice system.”
And while she discusses the issue in a rather liberal manner, the issue is one that could do some good if changed.
As I am sure you are aware, most police offices and departments give their officers monthly quotas to fill, whether writing tickets for traffic violations or making arrests. And not meeting those quotas can often hurt an officer’s future in that line of work, bringing down reprimands or disqualifying them from receiving yearly raises or promotions.
Unfortunately, this causes or at least tempts some officers to go “find” some crime being done or violation being crossed – often where there really isn’t one.
It’s why people going only two over the speed limit or not coming to a complete stop at a sign where no one else is at get pulled over. On a good day, or at the beginning of the month, the officer might have just given them a warning.
But instead, citations are written and a bad image of police officers everywhere is given.
No one wants to be put in that situation. No officer in their right mind wants to be a jerk to nearly everyone they come across just to keep their job or make sure they get a raise next year.
And I also bet that if they were asked, those making the quotas wouldn’t like the idea of their underlings being this way either. They certainly don’t want them inventing crime where it wasn’t before. After all, police are there to deter crime, not given evidence of more.
No wonder, when this bill was proposed, it was immediately seized upon as a good idea for all parties involved. Police unions in the state liked the proposal just as much as those proposing it.
According to the Washington Examiner, “The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee voted 6-0 to advance Senate Bill No. 1322.”
If the political left in the state was out to constrict police and limit their functions, this bill is a miserable failure, no matter what they intended to do. Perhaps not all Democrats are blithering fools out to ruin America and what she stands for after all.
Then again, this is the same state that just fined a gym over $1.2 million for trying to keep their doors open and stay financially stable through a time of national crisis.