The Chauvin guilty verdicts are the first step, but they are not the end.

That’s the overarching message you’re hearing from media, from rational political figures and from cultural leaders.  (Fox News is calling this “mob justice” that maybe might’ve come to the right verdict but for very, very bad reasons, they say.  More on that in a different piece.)  George Floyd will not be brought back, and neither will the countless people, particularly people of color, killed by police over decades.  These people and their families saw officers held to a lower standard of justice:  the level of proof to convict a police officer has incredibly high.

According to a 2019 study by Bowling Green State University, approximately 15,000 people were killed in shootings by on-duty police officers between 2005-2019.  Of those cases, only 104 case led to one or more officer being charged with murder or manslaughter.  That’s a rate of 0.72% of cases that led to charges.  Only 35 of those cases ended with convictions; 45 were acquitted; and 24 cases were still pending at the time the paper was published.

More shockingly, of the 104 cases brought against officers, only 33 involved victims who were armed. Of the 35 convictions, 25 were for shootings when the victims were unarmed.

Of course, Chauvin didn’t shoot Floyd, and this case was prominent because the prolonged suffering and death of Floyd was caught on tape which was played on the internet around the world.

To me, however, the key to gaining the convictions came down to the destruction of the Blue Wall, the unofficial code that police officers have each other’s backs and never turn on each other.  In the Chauvin case, the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department testified that Chauvin’s actions violated police protocols and that they were not, in fact, part of training.  Other Minneapolis police officers also testified, including a police dispatcher, a captain who arrived at the scene, a lieutenant, an inspector who runs the training division, a sergeant and a retired sergeant who was contacted by the dispatcher because of her concerns about how the case would turn out.

It was a virtually unprecedented turnout for officers testifying against one of their own.

The destruction of the Blue Wall is vital to rebuilding the public’s trust in police.  It’s key to holding bad officers accountable.  Good officers must stand up for victims and for the rule of law.  For this to happen, the leadership of the police department must make it clear that withholding evidence and information will not be tolerated.

I understand this is not easy.  I have police officers–on federal, state and local levels–as friends and family.  The hesitation comes from the genuine fear that their fellow officers won’t support them when they’re in need.  There’s a concern about second-guessing a fellow officer’s judgement in a life-or-death situation.  And finally, there’s a bond officers have in an “us against the world” attitude.

I’m not one who thinks all–or even most–cops are bad.   There are bad ones, there are good ones, and most are somewhere in between.  But what has to happen is that the middling and good cops need to be supported in making reports of questionable actions by their colleagues.

This, obviously, will require a reworking of how police departments operate and how officers are trained.  From top down, every officer needs to not fear accountability, but desire it, for themselves and their peers.  Metrics for good policing need to be changed from calls answered to community crime reduction.

There will likely be huge changes in policing in the coming decade.  Part of that is due to increasing decriminalization of cannabis, but also to communities putting more resources into emergency social services as opposed to an armed officer responding.

Of course, stronger gun control laws will greatly reduce risks faced by police and emergency responders, but that’s a whole other subject.