Small size of most local law-enforcement agencies makes police reform harder for them, say experts

Police reform is a hot topic. Metropolitan police departments have gotten most of the attention, but most police forces serve smaller communities, and the smaller size may make reform more difficult.

"Experts say that while smaller departments have their benefits, including being able to adapt to their communities and hire officers with local ties, these agencies also are typically able to avoid the accountability being sought as part of the national movement to restructure and improve policing," Mark Berman reports for The Washington Post. "These departments’ often limited resources and the decentralized structure of American law enforcement complicate efforts to mandate widespread training and policy changes, experts say."

Smaller police departments are the norm: Almost half of local police departments have fewer than 10 officers, and three-quarters have fewer than 24 officers. Smaller departments often find it more difficult to schedule officers for training to learn newer practices or tactics because there are so few officers on the streets to begin with, according to former Charlotte police chief Darrel Stephens. "I don’t want to denigrate them, because there’s a lot of good people doing things in the right way for the right reasons," Stephens told Berman. "But their capacity is just limited."

Another issue that hampers change is the "remarkably localized nature of American policing," Berman reports. "Policies and practices can vary significantly from department to department. These differences can include how departments approach the use of force as well as the levels of training and specialization involved." Many other developed nations have national standards for policing, but policing in the U.S. is decentralized and has no national standards, according to Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based group that works with police departments. That fragmentation means it can take a lot longer for recommended changes in training or policies to reach smaller departments.