myAIPMUs and them: reimagining police culture
Susan Muldowney | Australian HR Institute
"Police culture is at the heart of a controversy that is rocking the world. What does it take to transform it?
On 16 July this year, the family of George Floyd filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis and the four police officers who were charged in his death. Floyd was killed on 25 May when police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. In those minutes he cried for his dead mother and shouted, “I can’t breathe!”. The lawsuit alleges that the officers violated Floyd’s human rights when they restrained him, and that the City of Minneapolis allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police department.
Announcing the litigation in a press conference, Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump summed up the allegations. “It was not just the knee of officer Derek Chauvin on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds,” he stated. “It was the knee of the entire Minneapolis Police Department on the neck of George Floyd that killed him.”
Floyd’s death intensified the Black Lives Matter movement across the globe and has strengthened calls for major reform of police departments, including the unwarranted use of force, which, in its most extreme cases, has been likened to that of the military.
However, a significant obstacle to reform lies at the very heart of certain police behaviour – organisational culture."
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Us and them: reimagining police culture, Susan Muldowney, Australian HR Institute, 2020
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