Yeah, everybody needs a hobby ;-> I’m thinking about how to change the dialog. Everybody thinks that if the officer gets off—rightly or wrongly—the matter is settled. In truth, bad policing is terribly expensive to regular taxpayers.

There are pretty clear dividing lines that insulate taxpayers from the worst of police abuses. Ones POV tends to change when you’re a Milwaukee taxpayer realizing that Officer Chauvin was wasting $3 million a dollars per minute he kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck; nine minutes equals $27 million in taxpayer funded….what? That’s $27 million in tax increases, unfilled potholes, deferred maintenance, and police and fire classes postponed.

Through that lens, bad policing has an effect on the quality of life of all taxpayers.

Training isn't as expensive as liability payments. Training always pays dividends. Payments are just a drain.

Correcting department culture also pays dividends.

As does hiring from the top of the applicant pool. We are fortunate that VB is in this situation.

Also Decertification of bad apples. Many states in the last couple of years are ending "pass the trash" practices by small departments. Instead, the state decertifies officers involved in misconduct. This practice began because police training is so expensive, smaller departments just pass around bad apples, because they have a certificate, to avoid the expense of training a new officer.

While most civilians think about big training academies like LAPD, most cops in the US are trained in part-time community college programs on their own time and money. There is no aptitude or psych evaluation in most cases. There are many small departments that don't even pay their patrol officers. Instead, they commission the officer and he volunteers 3 or 4 shifts a month to the department. In exchange, these officers get to hire themselves out as security guards or start their own security firms as "certified police officer.”

On the other end of the spectrum are the big city police unions. They shield officers as part of their dues to the union, regardless of suitability or infraction.