Police should walk the streets, and have kiosks in neighborhoods where they are available. They should learn their neighborhood, and get to know the people within it. Crime and criminals are symptoms of broken communities. Police should serve and protect communities. To succeed in this, like teachers, they must be a part of the community. Our police have assumed the mentality and equipment of soldiers. Soldiers have enemies. Police should not have enemies.
I don't know. We are at a place where the relationship between the police and the communities they serve is a very unhealthy one. This is the problem that needs to be addressed first. Many professions require continuing education in order to maintain a license. Perhaps police should be required to perform a number of 'community engagement' hours every year to remain employable. For example, this could be serving a soup kitchen, reading to kids at a local library, helping with a community fair or festival, or coaching a local youth team. This isn't a fix, but it could be a start. Rules and 'sensitivity training' are not going to fix the us vs. them mentality that has poisoned the police/community relationship. It's not enough to prevent police from doing harm to a community, you need to create the conditions where they will not be willing to.
I swear I'm not trying to play devils advocate here, but I think there may be a lot of assumptions in your last comment. My guess, (and this is just a guess) is that police officers in most areas of the country are required to take some sort of continual training. Also, my guess is that the certain amount of community out reach, in the matter you suggest are already occurring and is mandatory.
It could be a matter of quality, or both.
without a doubt. Things like community service often become a box to be checked instead of something meaningful to engaged in.
Oakland in particular is an extreme example of complete disconnect between the people they are supposed to be serving and what they actually do. mk, "learn the neighborhood, get to know the residents?" psh. "Nah, let's double down and build our own data collection center, claim it's to help stop crime, and instead use it track local activist groups." And everyone wonders why windows get broken and cops are hated around these parts. Granted, Oakland has a looong activist and anti-cop history, but they're just pouring fuel on the fire at this point.