Q&A with former police officer about tension in America after George Floyd's death - Part 2

Dr. David Thomas is a Forensic Studies professor who was a police officer for 20 years.

He is also black, so he offers a unique perspective as to what our country is seeing after the death of George Floyd.

MYERS.:00-:19:27-:332:20-2:34(LISA LL INTRO)DR. DAVID THOMAS IS A PROFESSOROF FORENSIC STUDIES AT F-G-C-U,BUT BEFORE THAT, HE WAS A POLICEOFFICER FOR 20 YEARS.

DR. THOMASIS ALSO AN AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN,SO HE HAS A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVEON THE TENSION IN OUR COUNTRYRIGHT NOW.

I SPENT AN HOURASKING DR. THOMAS *YOURQUESTIONS.

HERE’S A BIT OF THATCONVERSATION.LISA " is this issue gettingworse, in your opinion, or isthis something that’s alwaysbeen Around, we’re just seeing aspotlight on it?"THOMAS "It’s always been around.And with the advent of videothat has exacerbated it, but ithas brought this whole thing tolight."LISA "now that there’s this Thismicroscope on police officersand heightened tension betwethe African American communityand police officers, what do youthink that police officers needto do now to kind of de escalatethat tension in their dailylives?"THOMAS "there really has to be asense an attitude change.officers kind of have lost theidea of who they’re here for.

Weserve a community.

The communitysets the standard, and we needto abide by that standard.

Thereare times when and I’m going totell you where profanity isneeded.

And you’re gonna haveto, you know, you got to do whatyou need to do in order to getcontrol of a situation.

Andthere are time there tons oftimes where there’s empathythat’s needed.

And thoseofficers have to find it withinthemselves to have that empathy.this generation doesn’t have thecommunication skills.

They’relacking in that becauseeverything they do is technologybased.

When they tell somebodyto do something, and the persondoesn’t do it, then the firstthing they want to do is puthands on and arrest them.

Comeon."LISA "how big of an issue isthis within police departments?Is it you know, just 1% of thebad guys getting caught oncamera or is this a bigger issuein police departments?"THOMAS "the larger thedepartment the more difficult itis to police.

By that I mean tosupervise.

There’s no way todetermine what the numbers are.I just know that there are badguys.

And when they find the badguys, they discipline them, butthey don’t necessarily terminatethem.

The unions play such avery strong role in that.

Ithink even the police recognizethat this has gone too farafield.

Law enforcement has beenforced to watch that video aswell.

And they know they knowthat they have people like that.A lot of agencies have peoplelike that.

And, um, what theyhaven’t done though is theyhaven’t bothered to clean thatgroup out."(LL TAG)TOMORROW MORNING ON FOX 4MORNING NEWS, I’M TALKING WITHDR. THOMAS ABOUT WHAT’S DONEWITHIN POLICE DEPARTMENTS TOCOMBAT RACISM, AND WHAT’S GIVINGHIM HOPE THAT THINGS WILL GETBETTER.

BACK TO YOU.THE LONG-RUNNING REALITY T-VSHOW "COPS" HAS BEEN CANCELED.THE PARAMOUNT NETWORK ANNOUNCEDIT’S CANCELING THE SHOW AFTERTHE RESPONSE TO GEORGE FLOYD’SDEATH WHILE IN POLICE CUSTODY.AFTER MORE THAN 30 YEARS...PARAMOUNT SAID IT HAS NO PLANSPARAMOUNT SAID 30 YEARS... AFTERMORE THAN POLICE CUS