There are certainly tweaks to the system that could be addressed. I think first and foremost is that prosecutors should not be elected officials as they are in most state and local jurisdictions. It gives them every motivation to get a conviction even if they find out they were wrong. It gives them the motivation to charge people with crimes they know overstep the actual infraction in order to get them to plea deal down which shows as a conviction. Their conviction rate is all important in being re-elected and admitting they made a mistake certainly won't play well at election time.
It would be nice to expect the police to be better informed and educated in terms of the law. However, you can't expect people to get paid what cops get paid and then expect some super high standard from them. If you want better, more accountable police, then you would certainly have to up the pay. I do feel however making them more accountable for bad behavior on the part of law enforcement would be a good idea. I also think a national data base to stop bad cops from becoming a cop somewhere else would be important.
So I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. I doubt Peen and I would agree on the tweaks that need to be made, but to the extent between a complete overhaul and tweaks to the system, I'd say I come closer to siding with him.
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