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ARTICLE: "11 Years of Police Gunfire, in Painstaking Detail," by Al Baker, New York Times, 8 May 2008, p. A1.
A theory of my brother Jerome: eventually the U.S. must be willing and able to document all kills internationally just like cops do here at home.
NYC, as so often in history, leads the way in such innovation. Every single police gun ever discharged, accounting for every single bullet, all packaged up in reports used for "lesson plans."
More than that, though, is the public's sense of responsibility for its police: you own every single bullet, every single death.
What's so cool about such analytical efforts and how they change both the training and the culture: in 1966 NYC cops fire 1,292 bullets. In 2006, they shoot only 540 bullets, including all the accidents and even the suicides. Only 60 times in 2006 do police fire at people, killing 13.
Amazing stuff.
Ultimately, this is the standard our military will adhere to: every single round.
I know it sounds fantastic from today's perspective, but the technology is not, just the policy and the effort.
Meet that standard and we're talking a far different global security culture. Just moving in that direction will speak volumes to the world about who we are as a nation.
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