Policing in U.S. vs Europe

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Correspondent Seth Doane asked Lawrence Sherman, a professor of criminology at the University of Cambridge in England, "How different is policing in America from Europe?"

"Oh, it's just like night and day," Sherman replied. In the United States, "If somebody doesn't drop a knife when an officer tells them to, even if they're not threatening somebody, the police can shoot and kill them. It would be murder in Europe."

"Are you saying the law in the U.S. is on the police officer's side and it's the reverse in Europe?"

"I would say that the law in the United States goes to extraordinary lengths to justify police preemptive use of shooting," he said.

Sherman notes that while U.S. police are quicker to use deadly force and kill far more people per officer than those in Europe, more guns on U.S. streets mean law enforcement faces more threats. In fact, police in several European countries (including England, Ireland and Norway) do not carry firearms while on regular patrol.

Sherman said, "It really helps to have a disarmed population. You can't blame the American police, because they don't have one."

But policing, he explained, is also not as strictly regulated in the U.S. For example, Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, had more than a dozen misconduct complaints … and he was training other officers.

"You would not have a field training officer with a very bad disciplinary record in the English police system. That's inconceivable," Sherman said.

Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, describes policing in America today as "in complete chaos."

How is it chaotic? "Because we have 18,000 different police departments. We have 50 states with 50 different minimal standards for training and recruitment."

Haberfeld feels many police are willing, but not ready to do their job, because of insufficient training. In the U.S., the average police academy runs 17 weeks, whereas in Norway and Finland, police training runs three years; in Germany, between two and three years.

According to a recent survey, police in the U.S. spend more than 20 percent of their time responding to people with mental illness. Sweden, facing similar problems, developed a "mental health ambulance," which is dispatched with a police unit when there is a mental health call. Andreas Carlborg explained their service works, in part, because health workers have access to medical records that police do not

Calls for reform in the U.S. are growing louder, but in a country with roughly 18,000 police departments, the hurdles to reform are structural and systemic.

Americans and Europeans are not the same people. We place a greater premium on individual liberty here.

Where does murdering innocent civilians factor into personal liberty? Isn't liberty about life and the pursuit of happiness, which are eradicated the moment a corrupt cop kills an innocent civilian, such as here:

Sovereign citizens have a right to self defense.

Americans and Europeans are not the same people. We place a greater premium on individual liberty here.

How does self defense against being abused by a police officer look in your country?

That is a matter to take to court not the streets.

Because of what's going on, the image of American police is not exactly a good one. And deservedly so.

However....I work with the police, and I know that there are some who are idiots (and make it bad for the rest), but most cops are decent people who just want to get home to their families alive after their shift.

Provided you're:
1. still alive
2. wealthy enough to hire really good lawyers.

News that reach me suggest lower-caste citizens tend to badly lose their cases against the police, even in situations like the police targetting the wrong camper.