Letter to the next president

Can you think of how many lawsuits there have been in 2015 against the police? Well let me tell you, in Chicago there have been 56,000 misconduct complaint records for more than 8,500 Chicago police officers, according to the Invisible Institute.

I will be addressing four main problems with the police.

The first increasing problem is Racial Profiling. Police chiefs don't deny that it might occur on an occasional basis, but they say it's not an institutional or systematic problem. Racial profiling, as well as profiling based on religion and ethnicity continues to ruin our nation despite the constitutional guarantee of equal treatment under the law. In a 2011 report, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights found evidence of widespread racial profiling, showing that African Americans and Hispanics are most likely to be stopped and searched by police, even though they’re less likely to be found possessing contraband or committing a criminal act. The police should stop assuming that someone is always a criminal based on their ethnicity or race.

The second problem is Guns. Many chiefs want gun laws tightened. Several chiefs said they are seizing many more assault rifles since a federal ban lapsed several years ago. "We're going to crime scenes where it's not just one or two rounds being fired, it's 30 or 40," said Garry McCarthy, Newark's police chief. The government should tighten gun laws and limit the number of guns each household has for the safety of the people in the U.S.

The next problem is the Crime. Some police departments, once widely praised for their crime-fighting skill, are struggling with spiking crime numbers. In Chicago, the city's number of murders has jumped 16 percent this year (2008), leading to a "homicide capital" label. "It's a huge gun and gang problem we're facing," said a Chicago deputy police superintendent. The best way to decrease crime numbers is to add more police officers. There has been a low amount of police officers due to budget cuts but people may have to pay property taxes to make this happen. You could say that adding more police officers can lead to more racial profiling but, if the departments choose wisely on who the department recruits it could potentially lower racial profiling and crime numbers.

The last problem I want to discuss is the Immigration. Chiefs feel yanked around and placed in the middle of a political tug of war that they should not have to fight. "No matter what we do, the strong advocacy groups (on either side) are attacking us at every turn," said an assistant chief from a major Virginia police agency. Mesa Police Chief George Gascon, expressing what seemed to be the prevailing view among the chiefs, said the "solution is not at the local level" and said police agencies need to push the federal government to come up with a comprehensive solution. The government and police departments need to come up with a compromise that will satisfy both sides of the argument. I suggest giving a fair chance for immigrants for citizenship.

Dear next president, I hope you understood what I was trying to say. Things that need to be done just aren’t, and it will get worse if we just ignore it. The crime numbers, numbers of rounds being shot and a lot more should not be this big of a problem. I don’t think anyone wants to live in a world with these increasing problems with the people who protect us. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Kaitlyn V.