Put the Community Back in Community Policing

Police abuse has captured media attention throughout the past year — from the case of Mike Brown in Ferguson, to those of Eric Garner in New York, Zachary Hammond in South Carolina, and Samuel Dubose in Cincinnati, among many others. The notion is that police are failing our communities.

There's a perception that, instead of aiming to keep residents safe, police are militarizing, engaging in trigger-happy tactics, and taking the lives of innocent individuals — and are quick to defend their actions with the "I felt threatened" excuse. In some cases this explanation does seem reasonable. In other cases, video evidence shows that it is not.

The question for many is: Why are police failing us?