Most police officers do excellent work in an often thankless job that at best is difficult and can be dangerous. They are to be commended, and deserve our wholehearted support. But police work isn’t for everyone, some people just aren’t suitable for its demands, and like any other occupation policing has bad eggs. And they cost taxpayers huge sums.
Derek Chauvin was a bad egg, and a very costly one. He had 17 prior complaints against him, and should have removed from police work long before he murdered George Floyd. The millions his trial and incarceration will end up costing isn’t the biggest expense he inflicted on the public. The settlement paid to George Floyd’s family cost taxpayers $27 million.
In Paterson, New Jersey, a cop named Spencer Finch (photo, above left) has been sued four times, and at least one of those lawsuits was settled for over $600,000. Amazingly, he’s still on the police force. Last week, he also was in jail — for kicking a helpless handcuffed black man in the face, and then lying about it in a police report. He was caught by another officer’s bodycam. His own bodycam was turned off. (Read story here and watch video below.)
Sometimes cities know they have bad cops, but their hands are tied. That needs to change. Police unions have too much power; cities need to regain control of disciplinary processes. Too often, when bad cops do get fired, they go to work for another police agency. That, too, needs to change; there needs to be a comprehensive database of police misconduct, licensing oversight, and effective ways to kick bad cops out of the profession permanently.
If we don’t do those things, the abuses will continue, and the costs to taxpayers will keep piling up. Above all, the good cops deserve better than to be dragged down by the Derek Chauvins and Spencer Finches of the world.
And let’s stop making excuses for bad cops. Sticking up for bad cops under the rubric of “supporting the police” or “blue lives matter” (of course they do) is nonsense. Even Clint Eastwood, who’s no cop-hater, made an entire movie about rogue cops that portrayed them for what they are. While the movie is fiction, real-life bad cops are all too real.
We’ll be doing ourselves, and our good police, a big favor by getting them out of police work.