"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" spent the major part of his show discussing police accountability. As the number of protests and celebrities voice out against police brutality, Oliver focused on a subject he sees as the reason why fatal shootings happen more often than expected.
According to Time, the host started his segment discussing the responsibilities of the police highlighting the challenge and difficulties police officers have to do in order to protect the society. It is a challenging job and even though there are those who do their job in the best way possible, there are some considered as "bad apples" that ultimately destroy the reputation of the police force.
Naturally, the solution would be to weed out the bad cops in order to improve the image of the police force but those looking to remove the bad cops around the country are in for an uphill battle. There are factors written and unwritten that could hinder police accountability.
The biggest challenge is the massive number of police stations scattered around the country. With more than 18,000 police stations, monitoring the actions of each police officer would be very difficult. Oliver also noted that police officers who spoke against fellow officers are ostracized and ultimately left out of the team.
Oliver also criticized the practice of transferring a police officer to another station due to misconduct. There are also some cases wherein excessive action maybe frowned upon but still legal - "lawful but awful."
Of course, there are some proposed changes in different cities that could discourage unnecessary action. According to Wall Street Journal, Oliver cited the use of body cameras in police officers as it has curved the need to use force and decreased the number of complaints. Oliver even cited a city that conducted trial run on body cameras and the police chief openly acknowledged that their police officers want it back.
Oliver's segment that focuses on police accountability stems from the various incidents that ended the lives of civilians at the hands of police officers. The issue also became a public discussion when various celebrities took notice and spoke out against these tragedies.
Watch the entire segment here:
