July 1, 2020
…the Police had to have their own malpractice insurance and be legally liable (instead of the city) for lawsuits against them? I dare say that doctors get more education and training than your average cop — and the doctor still has to worry about lawsuits.
I\’m betting a cop would think twice before shooting an unarmed Black man (or anyone in the back) if adjudicated monies came out of his pension and/or the precinct/force they work for (instead of my tax dollars being used to support criminal behavior!).
I have talked to a number of doctors who have settled on careers in managed health care along with a much more modest salary than they might have collected in private practice. These doctors reported that carrying their own malpractice insurance was simply too expensive (not to mention the overhead) and one lawsuit could economically cripple them (pun intended).
The beauty of managed health care for the health care professional is that the health care provider (say, Kaiser) picks up the tab for a successful lawsuit against a given doctor. These lawsuits can run in the many millions — but they make no difference to a $70 billion plus organization such as Kaiser!
Similarly, cops can hide behind the shield that is the city! Even if guilty in a lawsuit — they don\’t pay a dime — and their pensions are protected.
But why not make EVERY cop a private practitioner serving the city! I\’m betting that multi-million-dollar lawsuits levied against individual cops (or their precincts) would make a huge difference in police malpractice!
And don\’t go telling me that the police would be fearful of doing their jobs — because I\’m not so sure I see them doing much of anything these days (See \’Where are the Cops?\’); and, wouldn\’t it be cool to be able to sue the police for NOT protecting and serving? As-it-is, police already \”pump\” unarmed people (mostly Black men) full of lead — because they are in \”fear for their lives.\”
Just the other evening I was engaged in a rather fractious (and passionate) discussion with very conservative friends who bewailed liberals calling for the defunding of police forces: I proffered my aforementioned potential solution to them: where police would be defunding themselves through malpractice, which, in turn, should curtail police violence! We are essentially killing 2 birds with one stone (a bad use of idiom, I know).
Lo-and-behold — my conservative friends found my solution to be sensible and viable. I may have stumbled upon a bipartisan solution to the problems of police brutality while maintaining their budgets!
Now let\’s see police unions truly step-to-the-plate — and instead of aggrandizing the already bloated salaries and pockets of government officials — let these unions work with their constituents/precincts and pay the settlements when cops are found to be guilty! Time to turn off the city spigots!
We don\’t see teachers who injure children getting away with their crimes: they do the time — like any other criminal.
How is it that a policeman\’s uniform seems to be the sheep\’s clothing masking the wolf within?
*I was very pleased to read Ron Sorace\’s letter to my beloved Times to know that another would like the police to shoulder the costs of their malfeasance. It seems Ron submitted his letter at about the same time I did. I feel that more-and-more-of-us are becoming part of that necessay critical mass needed to evoke social change.
The more I thought about my (and Ron\’s) proposed model — the more I realized that police academies should offer 4-year programs and have competitions with each other (to lose that \’fear\’ a policeman [who fires too many bullets is always talking about]). There could be an annual national police draft for prospective cops wishing to belong to the best precincts and precincts can see which \”graduates\” are best suited for them. Newbie cops would naturally start at a salary based on their academy performance (but not greater than a police officer with 3 years and tenure) with additional training to move up the ladder — like educators are forced to do.
This puts capitalism to work in police force pay — instead of the sweet socialistic deal they currently have!