Lori Falce: Good cops have power to demand change

I have never known a bad cop.

I’ve been a reporter for 33 years. I’ve known a lot of cops in that time.

I’ve known young cops who were enthusiastic and idealistic. I’ve known veterans who were still moved deeply at bad crime scenes. I’ve known retired cops who carried the job with them like a religious calling years into collecting a pension.

I’ve known cops who spent years determined to solve that one puzzle that had most of the pieces but none of the answers. I’ve known cops who met me at crime scene tape to quietly tell me I went to school with the victim of a crash. I’ve known cops that showed up at my house at 2 a.m. because they found my husband’s stolen wallet.

I’ve known cops that became lawyers who took pro bono cases no one else wanted. I’ve known cops who became judges who listened — really listened — to defendants out of a genuine understanding of not just the law but the circumstances.

But I have personally never known a bad cop. I know they exist, though. I know not just because there are good and bad people in every profession. I don’t just know from headlines and viral videos.

I know because good cops have told me.

And bad cops make me angry. Not just because of the women who have been pressured to have sex so they wouldn’t be arrested. Not just because of drugs stolen from a police evidence room by an officer who would arrest someone else for using those drugs. Not just because of the soul-sick pain of watching a man call out for his dead mother as he dies on a Minneapolis street under three police officers, a knee in his neck as he rasped “I can’t breathe.”

I am angry for all of those reasons.

But I am also angry because every bad cop is an indictment of all cops. Every bad cop is a rock thrown at all those good cops I have known. Good cops don’t deserve that.

And that is why I want to believe that good cops can be part of what brings about change.

I have confidence in the ability of a good cop to make a difference. If a good cop can place his body between an innocent person and danger, I have to believe a good cop can look at the bad cops in that blue brotherhood and demand better.

A good cop has that power. A lot of good cops together have that authority. All of the good cops — local and county, state and federal — could step up and do what good cops do best. They could help, they could resolve and they could diffuse.

Good cops can lobby their leadership for simple but potentially lifesaving changes like banning chokeholds and enforcing that ban. They can demand more training in de-escalation over militarization. They can call for more mental health support for their own ranks, something that has been championed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police.

Good cops can realize that the best way to protect all cops is to have police officers be the trusted helpers Fred Rogers told children to seek. Good cops can realize no cops are safe when a portion of the public fears them because of the actions of some police.

I have never known the bad cops who have caused so many problems, but I know so many good cops who have it in their power to be the solution.