Oh dear, my eyes were crappy this morning! So sorry for my now corrected typo -- glad you could still follow me. :)
@lostforgottensoul - I so agree!
We need better training for our officers, but I don't think this is achieved by putting it under the control of the federal government. They still haven't sorted out how to run the dept of education effectively, and are failing at so many other federal programs. We federalized airport security and that has been a disaster! I don't think privatization of the police force is the solution either - but private security at airports has been shown to handle airport security so much better.
Feds can play a role by strengthening the prosecution of the handful of bad cops that are out there. We need an independent organization that does this. We can't continue to use prosecutors that rely on working relationships with the police to also handle prosecuting them when they willfully screw up and commit crimes. Too many conflicts of interest... We need to restore the trust that people have in law enforcement and the trust that the bad ones will be held accountable, and the good ones will be supported to do even better.
The fed could also offer grants to help cities fund better training - not with greater weapons training, but people skills. Not because all cops are bad at this, but because it's a really hard job and they get little training on this!
Turning community police officers into what will look like a militarized TSA force in our communities? It will destroy what little trust is left, and people respond with violence when they stop trusting the people in place to protect them and administer justice.
We have to do this for the sake of our communities, the very communities where our officers live and work, for the sake of the officers themselves. PTSD rates among officers are much higher than even combat vets. The more that officers become isolated from communities, the more that rate will rise. Which isn't going to help anything...
My heart breaks for the loss of life...