Чему США могут научиться в странах, где копы не носят оружие?

Last year, an armed man in Oslo, Norway stole an ambulance, injuring four folk and firing shots as he drove. Law enforcement officers chasing the car fired their weapons—but no longer at him. As a alternative, they shot the wheels of the ambulance to slow the car and arrested the armed man.

“Police in Norway attach locate very awful scenarios—albeit less veritably than American police,” says Paul Hirschfield, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University who makes a speciality of policing. “But when in likelihood, they’re unparalleled more reluctant to resort to deadly pressure.”

Norway is one in all19 international locationsworldwide where police officers are in total unarmed, and permitted to make spend of weapons only in distinctive circumstances. These international locations, which consist of the United Kingdom, Finland, and Iceland, seldom peep deadly incidents provocative police officers. Whereas1090 folk were killedby police within the United States in 2019, Norway noticed no deaths by the fingers of police officers for the equivalent year.

In many ways, it’s no longer honest to examine the U.S. with a country cherish Norway — they’ve vastly diverse economies, crime rates, historic cultures of gun possession, inhabitants sizes, and social problems. “It’s seemingly that if police in Norway encountered the equivalent ranges of poverty and homelessness, crime, gun prevalence, untreated mental illness, and racial tensions and discrimination as American police attach that their policing policies and practices could well be diverse,” Hirschfield says.

But tension is rising to commerce the U.S. model of policing — led by the Minneapolis Metropolis Council, which on June 12voted“to connect a transformative fresh model for cultivating safety” after the death of George Floyd by a city officer. Right here’s how officers put law and tell without carrying firearms:

Policing By Consent

Whereas the19 international locationswithin the field that attach no longer arm officers fluctuate critically of their technique to policing, they share an recurring thread. “What we can identify in these international locations is that folk like a convention—and an expectation—that officers will police by consent as an various of with the likelihood of pressure,” says Guðmundur Ævar Oddsson, partner professor of sociology at Iceland’s University of Akureyri who specializes at college inequality and forms of social adjust such as policing.

Countries with a philosophy ofpolicing by consent,such because the United Kingdom, hang that police ought to peaceful no longer put their energy by instilling distress within the inhabitants but reasonably, ought to peaceful put legitimacy and authority by striking forward the honor and approval of the public. This model of policing maintains that uses of pressure desires to be restrained and success is measured no longer in how many arrests officers like made but reasonably, by the absence of crime itself.

Better Training

In many international locations where police are unarmed, governments make investments in developed stage of coaching for law enforcement. In Norway, for instance, policing is an elite occupation, where only the most qualified candidates are selected. In 2015, only 14% of candidates who applied to police colleges were permitted.

Once admitted, doable officers rating more intensive coaching than officers within the United States. Norwegian scholar officers ought to full a 3-year bachelor’s stage where they utilize 12 months studying society and ethics, yet one more shadowing officers, and a closing year specializing in investigations and finishing a thesis (In the United States, officers utilize only on moderate21 weeksin coaching which are modelled onmilitia bootcamps).

“I hang that the United States ought to learn that it takes time to coach folk,” says Rune Glomseth, a professor at Norweigan police college college. “Police are a extremely particular feature in society and that it is most likely you’ll’t fair put together them for just a few weeks. You wish time.” Even once college students like graduated, they’re required to full fifty hours of operational coaching per year. “If our officers were educated as broadly as police in Norway, they might be less reliant on deadly pressure,” says Hirschfield.

Officers in each Norway and Finland additionally work in tandem with scientific mavens, critically psychiatric specialists that accompany officers when coping with these that are exhibiting signs of mental illness. In distinction, funding for psychiatric services and products within the United States has been decrease in most up-to-date years, leading to police officers handling cases of these that are mentally sick veritably without needing the background recordsdata to connect so. The tip result is striking: AWashington Post diagnosisfound that 25% of folk shot by police officers for the length of a six months length in 2015 were experiencing excessive mental health components.

The absolute top talent a police officer can like is “excessive reflection,” says Oddsson. “We need folk [on the streets] who’re cognizant of the fact that being a police officer is cherish being a social worker.”

Guidelines Enforced on Police

In most of the international locations where police are unarmed, officers ought to abide by stricter licensed guidelines.

Below the European Convention of Human Rights, officers can only shoot if it’s “absolutely needed.” In Finland and Norway, officers can not pull the trigger in any circumstances sooner than getting permission from a more senior real. In the U.S., by distinction, “the overriding dreams of new law, policy, and training on utilizing pressure … [are] to guard the safety of police,” says Hirschfield.

Experts squawk that the command and federal governments within the United States could well learn from Europe, by adopting licensed guidelines that secure it more uncomplicated to prosecute and brush off police officers for misconduct, alongside creating more rigorous licensure and training requirements.

Stricter gun licensed guidelines can additionally aid reduce the preference of fatalities introduced on by law enforcement. The United States is home to40% of the field’s firearms,a likelihood each to police officers and these they locate.Reportslike found that weaker gun licensed guidelines correlate with increased rates of killings by police officers, who distress civilians could well be carrying a weapon.

It stays a stubborn advise within the U.S., mired in deadlock even after describe numbers of mass shootings, and roam to loom noteworthy within the nascent effort to re-imagine public safety. For its share, New Zealand launched stricter gun legislations following themosque taking picturesin 2019 and this week, its Police Commissioner Andrew Coster announced that he’s committed toretaining police officers unarmed.

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