This whole situation just makes me see red.
Well, at least you would still be alive. 
A horribly clueless response. The police are showing no recognition of the reality that they are the problem that needs to be addressed in this situation.
Here’s what needs to be done:
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An external watchdog agency that is independent of the police and has the authority to investigate allegations of police misconduct and take actions against police officers who are found guilty of misconduct.
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A policy of holding responsible not just the police officers who commit crimes but also the officers who help conceal crimes committed by other officers.
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Some kind of ongoing screening process that monitors police officers and watches for signs of escalating criminal behavior.
I think this is the key point. I’m an old white guy raised on TV shows like The FBI, SWAT, and Hawaii 5-0, so I’m conditioned to think that the cops are the good guys. And most of them (like most people) probably are.
But their first loyalty is not to the people they serve, but to their fellow officers. So they look for reasons to ignore bad behavior, which leads to more bad behavior (remember “broken windows policing”?). The problem I see is that it is so ingrained now (and all the bad press really has them circling the wagons) that I don’t know how you change it.
Some would say “fire them all and start over”, but we tried that in Iraq and look how well that worked. I guess maybe we’re fucked.
Here in Chicago, Mayor Long John Wentworth fired the entire police department when they threatened to strike. Nothing bad happened.
Of course, that was in the 1800’s…
I don’t think we need to start over, but officers should be governed like other professions. For example, an independent body whose sole purpose is to find bad police officers. Cooperating with the agency should be a requirement and failure to do so should be treated as a violation subject to severe disciplinary action itself. No more departments investigating it’s own officers. No more officers quitting during an investigation just to move two towns over. No more hiding behind collective bargaining agreements which keep personnel and punishment decisions private. Police policy should be set by the state based on federal guidelines. All of these proposals are how pilots, doctors, lawyers, etc. are governed. Certainly it doesn’t find all the bad actors, but I think for the most part, people have confidence that when they report these professionals to the disciple board, their allegations will be fully examined and dealt with, in a way that’s not “we have investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong.”
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I’d add that police officers should require licensing and insurance. Doctors need insurance. Accountants. Heck, the person who cuts your hair has a license and insurance. Licensing should require regular continuing education credits - and those credits shouldn’t be in “how to kneel on someone’s neck” but in critical race theory, de-escalation, psychology, etc…
I believe that police are required to be licensed. It just requires FAR less to be licensed than in most professions and other countries. Police officer certification and licensure in the United States - Wikipedia
As your link says, depends on the state…although this case was in the U.K. and I don’t know what their licensing requirements are. Apparently their internal investigation processes are crap.
I like it. We can trust an insurance investigator to be on the side of the insurance agency, not the department.