> The solution is that the police should live in the neighborhood in which they're assigned,
There is a very good reason why most cops don't live in the area that they are assigned to.
It's called pay back.
If a cop arrests a gang member and they happen to be neighbours how long do you think it will be before something happens to the cop's wife or children when he is at work?
Cops, by design, don't patrol area's where they live.
1. In this world, it's a lot easier to find someone's address and phone number, making payback much easier no matter where one lives.
2. While I understand the concern about the gang members and payback, the fundamental piece missing is that there is no accountability to one's community if you are an outsider to it. It breeds contempt, and it leads to the abuses of power that we see.
There's a fundamental difference between "that gangbanger" and "Rosa's kid." (Reminding us of the recent XKCD comment.)
Of course, crack changes everything and makes this ideal much harder, but the comments in the article show how disconnected from the communities these cops were. They no longer saw criminals even as human!
There is a very good reason why most cops don't live in the area that they are assigned to.
It's called pay back.
If a cop arrests a gang member and they happen to be neighbours how long do you think it will be before something happens to the cop's wife or children when he is at work?
Cops, by design, don't patrol area's where they live.