In January 2023, the Los Angeles Police Department Board of Police Commissioners decided to enact a new policy: to stop police officers from carrying their service weapons while drinking alcohol.
Incredibly, this policy didn’t exist before.
From just late November to mid-December 2022, seven LAPD officers were arrested for alcohol-related offenses. And in the past few years, it’s been a persistent issue – and a poorly kept secret.
In 2021, the LA Times called out cops for being “armed and drunk” with no clear policy to prevent it. In response, the LAPD said they’d “think about” making a change. How long does it take to think? When drunk police were crashing their cars? Threatening to kill their own family members? Shooting at random civilians?
Police have gotten away with this behavior as they do with so much of their violence. They received paid leave and grace for their “mistakes,” while criminalizing and brutalizing civilians for substance use.
A clear policy to prevent police from endangering others while drinking should have been obvious from the beginning. But that’s the problem. Their lack of a policy until now means that keeping us safe is just an afterthought and wasn’t the intention in the first place.