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Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
Agreed. Policing is a state or local responsibility. Rules, regulations, organization, even penalties for poor performance or malfeasance, are for local elected officials to create and administer. The federal government can and should provide assistance with either materials or funding. But the federal government should not be in the business of creating laws which define how local police departments are managed.
So in the end, guess what, it will require everyone to make demands on their local elected officials responsible for policing.
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The federal government can - and should - require that state police abide by existing federal law with regards to discrimination, with search and seizure, warrants, use of deadly force, etc. The point of the state and local police is to protect citizens. When it's working right, that's all that's happening. Citizens are being protected. When it's not working right, there's a failure in the state or municipality, and the buck stops with its leader. But if its leader rejects change, rejects enforcement, rejects the protection of citizens, then there NEEDS to be a next level of authority to step in and say "hey - that ain't right. That's not what this country is about. We have some MINIMUM standards that we expect you to comply with."