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Editor's Note: Eric Adams is the President of Brooklyn County. He served in the New York Police for 22 years before retiring as a captain in 2005. The views expressed in this comment are his. See more opinion at CNNe.com/opinion.
(CNN) - The death of George Floyd has sparked important conversations about the effectiveness of the protest and how our country systematically devalues the lives of blacks.
A well-known police debate has also resurfaced. I am no stranger to these conversations. My entire career, dating back to my time at the New York City Police Department, has been devoted to combating police misconduct. I remember the days when I marched in protests against the stop, ask and search policy, then put on my uniform and patrol those same protests at night.
As protests have spread across the United States in the wake of Floyd's death, we have seen skirmishes break out between protesters and police in city after city. In many cases, officers have acted with unprovoked aggression, using weapons of war against their American fellow citizens.
In others, a small group of agitators has allegedly deliberately targeted law enforcement, seeking to provoke them for its own ends, and not for those of the broader justice movement.
However, we legitimately have the police at a higher level. The police have two powers that no one else in the country, not even the president, has: the right to take life and the right to liberty.
All professions, particularly those involving high levels of stress, have different levels of specialization. Some doctors are not prepared to be emergency room doctors. Some educators are unfit to teach kindergarten children. That's not to say they lack professionalism or skill, but rather that they need to find a role within their field that matches their skill set and temperament.
The same applies to surveillance. In the New York Police, as in various departments across the country, mobilizations (how many officers are deployed at any given time) are classified by level: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each implies a greater police response . But when we carry out mobilizations, we don't think enough about who we are deploying, and whether it is likely to cool the situation or inflame an already tense environment. Some officers, for example, may be better at carrying out drug attacks, where greater force is warranted, than a protest, where a lighter touch is needed.
Of course, we cannot excuse any form of police misconduct. The story of the complaints against Derek Chauvin before his encounter with George Floyd is a painful reminder that failure to eliminate bad agents often leads to fatal results. If a policeman shows some form of unprovoked aggression, let alone if it is contempt for human life, he must be held accountable.
Any experienced member of the police will tell you that the most important thing to do during a protest is to scale down. With an unprovoked assault, a peaceful demonstration can quickly turn into a riot. That is why each department must proactively identify a body of officers that can serve as a front-line response to protests. These agents must have stellar communication skills and know how to exercise an appropriate level of restraint, regardless of the circumstances. When new recruits first join the force, each department must have standardized assessments to determine the best tasks for each agent.
As we evaluate temperament, we must also look for ways to alleviate mental health problems. A growing body of research links poor mental health to poor job performance in a variety of fields, and police officers are no exception. A police officer who faces significant stress is at greater risk of harming himself and others. Departments must improve psychological evaluations for new agents, reevaluate every three years, and offer six-month licenses for a 50% fee, or 66% if an agent chooses to use his license to work in a community organization, providing services to the residents.
In recent years, unprecedented funding from the federal government has been channeled to police departments across the country. Those dollars often come unconditionally and have incurred significant spending on military-style equipment for police officers, as we've seen up close on countless broadcasts across the country. Congress should mandate that future federal funding for departments be conditional on the adoption of implicit biases and phased-out training.
Ultimately, reforming law enforcement is just one piece of the bigger puzzle. The current riots across the country represent more than George Floyd's knee in the neck. It's about the widespread understanding among black Americans, as the Rev. Al Sharpton acknowledged during the recent memorial service, that this country has had its collective knee in the neck for far too long. Before patrolling any protests during my time with the NYPD, I would tell my officers that they are your brother's guardians. If we can begin to see our fellow Americans with the same sense of mutual obligation, George Floyd's death will not have been in vain.
George FloydPolice