How can we make policing safer?

Following several high-profile police shootings, America is once again wrestling with how to change and reform policing. How to make policing safer for officers and communities alike and prevent tragedies from occurring. We speak with two experts in policing, both of whom agree something has to change, but they offer different solutions. Joel Fay, a former police officer and now public safety psychologist and expert in de-escalation and LaDoris Hazard Cordell, retired Superior Court Judge in the State of California, former independent police auditor for the City of San Jose and former Vice Provost of Stanford University. Body cams, more training, banning no-knock warrants, banning chokeholds, all suggestions designed to improve policing in America. Former police officer and public safety psychologist Joel Fay says, piecemeal attempts to reform policing won't work. Joel Fay the laws have not kept up with what society is saying and that's contributing to some of the problems, and law enforcement has no control over that that's handled by the Legislature. Fay says changing up the training is the better way. Instead of more time initially in class .. continuous updates and workshops, he says, will make a difference after cops get their badges at graduation. Joel Fay it's hard to explain to someone who's never dealt with someone who's having a psychotic episode or manic episode.How did they escalate that when there's no contextual experience in dealing with it? What we find is that it's better to come back a year, two years after the academy. One example cited as an area by change by experts: traffic stops. Traffic stops are the number one reason for contact between the public and the police and they can often go awry, most recently the tragic end to a traffic stop in Minnesota, when Daunte Wright was killed when a veteran officer mistook her gun for a taser. SOT Judge LaDoris Cordell former independent police auditor for the City of San Jose. We need to change the very essence of policing.No more traffic stops, no more pedestrian stops and no more responding when there are calls for people who are in crisis, mental health, they can be back up because there are people mentally ill and not who are a threat to people and a person might have a gun A controversial proposal ... but Judge Cordell argues that the trust in police is deteriorating and that bystanders may be less inclined to call on the police for help. LaDoris Cordell more and more of these individuals are not going to do that because the concern and the fear is we can't trust the police are going to come here and the person I'm calling about might end up dead. One thing Joel Fay makes sure to tell police in academies, empathy is everything, for the majority of Americans dealing with the police is an strange and traumatic occurence, police often meet people on the worst day of their lives. Joel Fay This is a major life crisis and just just remember to have that empathy with people because you never know what they're feeling on the inside. A complex question with many answers, but that seems like a good place to start.