Before Sacramento police officers on March 18, 2018 killed Stephon Clark in his backyard with 20 rounds of bullets they yelled “gun, gun, gun”. Clark only had an iPhone on him. According to The Washington Post in 2018 alone 289 people have been fatally shot by police officers. This is about 1/3 of police fatalities in both the entire years of 2017 and 2016. There has been many talks of changing police procedures, including new technologies like body cameras, and integrating community policing in many different communities. However, the statistics do not seem to change significantly. But why?

Junior Deborah Omotoso says that “As long as society still criminalizes and demonizes African American children, women, and men, the “valid” excuse for brutality being a product of fear still stands.”  Before George Zimmerman was tried in court (and eventually was deemed as not guilty) News headlines reported Trayvon was a “drug dealer” or “smoked weed”. In reality Trayvon was walking from Seven Eleven with skittles and an Iced Tea in his hand and Zimmerman used the protection of the Florida Stand your ground law to fatal shoot Trayvon. Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, released a statement to the local Orlando Press saying “They’ve killed my son and now they’re trying to kill his reputation.”

The force used on Stephon Clark has been called into question and an investigation has been launched on the two officers involved, Terrence Mercadal and  Jared Robinet. Junior Sabrina Moorer explains that she feels “Police have many weapons at their disposal to stop a potential threat and a gun shouldn’t be their first response.” The police’s history with excessive force is infamous for the amount of frustration and distrust it causes among many communities. There has been calls for police training reforms from communities across the nation and new methods of hiring police officers to prevent future similar events.

Police training reforms have been difficult to push for since the qualifications for police officers can vary between different states and communities.

According to CBS News writer Tyler Lewis police can take a virtual reality police training class to receive their certification to be a police officer, while other police officers are required to take a diversity class. When it comes to specific qualifications for police officers it is often left to individual state counties.

Junior Trey Freeland says “I feel comfortable that if something were to happen there are people to protect us”. There has been a push for character based hiring in police departments and some departments are asking for more funding for community policing.