The Thin Blue Line Between Virtue and Vice: Confronting the Moral Harms of Policing

Abstract

Scholarship on policing has exploded in recent years as bystanders increasingly record and circulate videos of police brutality, much of it directed at civilians of color. These incidents have drawn significant attention to the culture of police departments and police unions, generating widespread calls for the reform, or even the abolition, of police forces. The traditional considerations at the center of these debates include the practical challenges to enacting reforms, the expected efficacy of proposed changes for curtailing abuses, and the possible costs of these changes (whether measured in dollars or crime rates). The moral premises that are inherently embedded in reform arguments typically remain unstated and undefended, obscuring Associate Professor, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to present this project at an annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools and the University of Richmond School of Law Junior Faculty Forum, as well as to audiences at the Temple University Beasley School of Law, the William S. Richardson School f Law at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, and the Quinnipiac University School of Law. The paper benefitted from exchanges with Jon Abel, Alice Abreu, Scott Burris, Baruch Bush, Bill Chang, Robin Charlow, Erin Collins, Ron Colombo, Michelle Cosby, Randle DeFalco, Margaret deGuzman, Neal Feigenson, Brenner Fissell, Leslie Francis, Eric Freedman, Betsy Ginsberg, Lauryn Gouldin, Dan Greenwood, Paul Gugliuzza, Daniel Harawa, Ben Heath, Jen Herbst, Alex Klein, Stan Krauss, Guha Krishnamurthi, Julian Ku, Jamie Macleod, Jane Manners, Linda Meyer, Mark Niles, Alex Nunn, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Rachel Rebouch6, Alan Rozenshtein, Shelley Sadin, Jim Shellenberger, Norm Silber, Jocelyn Simonson, Barbara Stark, Stewart Sterk, Victoria Szymczak, Janani Umamaheswar, Louis Virelli, Richard Wallsgrove, and S. Lisa Washington. Finally, I am indebted to Kaylyn Fagan and Shannon Palm for their invaluable research assistance. All errors are my own. ISSN 0041-9915 (print) 1942-8405 (online) * DOI 10.5195/lawreview.2022.907 httR://lawreviewlaw.pitt.edu U NIV E R S I T Y OF P IT T S B U R G H LAW R E V I E W