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What is The Higher Standard Safer Streets Act?
The Higher Standards, Safer Streets Act is a comprehensive policy proposal designed to fundamentally restructure law enforcement and increase the quality of policing in America through 3 core pillars: Education, Accountability, and Leadership Development.
Pillar I
The first pillar of the Higher Standards, Safer Streets Act is all about putting education first—specifically, requiring officers to truly understand the Constitution before they’re allowed to enforce the law.
Under this pillar, anyone who wants to become a police officer has to successfully complete at least 12 credit hours of college-level constitutional law before they are handed a badge, a gun, or the power to arrest someone or use force.
A massive part of this requirement is that these classes have to be taught by actual college professors at an independent college, not by veteran cops inside a police academy. The idea here is that “police teaching police” often devolves into teaching recruits tactical loopholes or just what they can get away with to make an arrest stick. By keeping the classroom separate from the precinct, recruits get an objective, rigorous education on our civil rights, specifically the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
The ultimate goal of this pillar is genuine de-escalation. When officers actually know the legal limits of their power, they don’t have to rely on panic, assumptions, or emotion in the heat of the moment. It gives them the legal foundation to clearly tell the difference between someone who is actually breaking the law and someone who is just being annoying or making the officer uncomfortable. Basically, it makes sure that ignorance of the law is no longer an acceptable excuse for the people we trust to patrol our neighborhoods.
Pillar II
The second pillar of the Higher Standards, Safer Streets Act is all about personal financial accountability—specifically, requiring every police officer to carry their own individual malpractice insurance, just like doctors and lawyers have to do.
Right now, when an officer steps over the line and violates someone’s rights, they almost never pay a dime out of their own pocket. Instead, the taxpayers foot the bill for those multimillion-dollar misconduct settlements, which drains money away from our public schools, parks, and community services. This pillar flips that broken system on its head. By making officers carry personal liability insurance, the financial risk is shifted off the taxpayers’ backs and directly onto the officers themselves.
Here is the really powerful part of how it works in practice: the insurance companies will step in as objective regulators. If an officer does their job the right way, their insurance rates stay low. But if a bad cop starts acting recklessly, using excessive force, or racking up a bunch of citizen complaints, their insurance premiums will absolutely skyrocket. While a city might agree to cover a standard base rate for its officers, it won’t subsidize those penalty hikes, meaning the problem officer has to pay the massive difference out of pocket.
Eventually, repeat offenders will generate so much financial risk that insurance companies will simply refuse to cover them, making them completely uninsurable. Since holding this insurance is a mandatory requirement to keep the badge, an uninsurable cop instantly becomes unemployable everywhere. Basically, this pillar uses the free market to permanently weed out the bad apples, ensuring they can’t just resign and move to a new town’s police department to repeat their dangerous behavior.
Pillar III
The third pillar of the Higher Standards, Safer Streets Act is all about keeping police officers moving forward in their careers by putting a strict 10-year time limit on working as a street-level beat cop.
Right now, it’s totally possible for an officer to stay in the exact same high-stress patrol role for decades. The problem is that spending that long on the street often leads to serious burnout, complacency, and a lot of cynicism. Over time, that takes a huge toll on how they interact with the community. It turns what should be a dynamic profession into a stagnant job where people just get stuck in a rut.
Under this third pillar, once an officer hits that 10-year cap on the street, they are structurally forced to advance. They have to keep growing by getting promoted to a leadership rank, moving into a specialized unit like becoming a detective, or stepping into a role where they mentor and train younger recruits.
The coolest part is how this naturally ties into the malpractice insurance requirement from the second pillar. When officers move off the high-risk streets and into leadership or specialized roles, their liability risk naturally drops. Because their risk goes down, their personal insurance premiums get cheaper. Basically, this pillar prevents burnout by forcing cops to keep developing their skills, and it gives them a built-in financial reward for moving up the ladder and doing their job well.
Why Cities Should Adopt The Higher Standard Safer Streets Act
For cities, adopting the Higher Standards, Safer Streets Act is basically the ultimate budget-saving and risk-management strategy. Right now, the system is financially punishing for local governments, but this Act flips the script in a few highly practical ways:
It stops the massive drain on taxpayer money. Currently, when an officer steps over the line, the city and the taxpayers foot the bill. Cities regularly shell out millions—sometimes millions they have to borrow—to pay for misconduct settlements. That is money being drained directly away from public schools, mental health clinics, fixing potholes, and other community services. By requiring officers to carry their own personal malpractice insurance, the financial risk is shifted off the city’s back and onto the individual officers. If a mistake is made, the insurance pays for it, protecting the city’s budget.
It gives the city a hassle-free way to fire bad cops. City leaders know how notoriously difficult and expensive it is to fire a problem officer because of union red tape and prolonged legal battles. This Act uses the free market to do the heavy lifting. If an officer acts recklessly or racks up complaints, their personal insurance rates will skyrocket. The city can simply agree to pay a standard base rate for everyone, but refuse to pay the penalty hikes for bad behavior. When a reckless cop can’t afford their sky-high premium, they become uninsurable. And since you have to be insured to keep the job, they are automatically unemployable. It gives the city a clean, objective way to permanently weed out the bad apples.
It prevents lawsuits before they even happen. Cities get sued heavily for “failure to train” their police forces. By demanding that all recruits pass 12 credit hours of college-level constitutional law before they get a badge, the city is guaranteeing its officers actually know the legal limits of their power. We know that college-educated cops use force a lot less often, get far fewer civilian complaints, and write much better reports. Better decision-making on the street means fewer false arrests and excessive force claims that the city’s legal department has to deal with later.
It stops burnout and builds better leadership. Leaving an officer on the exact same high-stress street beat for decades is a recipe for severe burnout, complacency, and cynicism, which eventually leads to bad interactions with the public. By capping street patrol time at 10 years, the city structurally forces its officers to keep growing. They have to move up into leadership, become detectives, or mentor younger recruits. This gives the city a constant pipeline of fresh, upwardly mobile leaders who are much more likely to support safer, modern policing practices.
In short, cities should adopt the Act because it protects their taxpayers from footing the bill for police mistakes, gives them the leverage they need to easily get rid of dangerous officers, and ensures their police force is filled with educated professionals who actually understand the rights of the people they are policing.
How Cities Can Adopt The Higher Standard Safer Streets Act Now
Cities can adopt the Higher Standards, Safer Streets Act right now without waiting for the federal government, simply by using the power they already have over local budgets and police union contracts. Mayors and city councils control hiring standards and funding, so here is the practical, step-by-step playbook for how they can make it a reality:
Reallocate existing money to pay for the education To implement the 12 credit hours of constitutional law without pricing out lower-income recruits, cities don’t need to find new money—they just need to move it to the front end. Right now, police departments across the country spend millions on tuition reimbursement for cops after they are already on the force. Cities can restructure those existing department funds, along with federal COPS grants, to pay for a recruit’s college classes upfront. If an applicant qualifies for the job, the city covers the classes before they get a badge, ensuring that minority and lower-income candidates aren’t financially blocked from joining the profession.
Use a “split-premium” model for the malpractice insurance To roll out the mandatory personal liability insurance, the city can strike a brilliant compromise. The city agrees to pay the standard “base premium” for all its officers, ensuring that good cops aren’t financially burdened just for doing their jobs. However, the city writes into the contract that it absolutely will not subsidize any penalty rate hikes. If an officer gets too many complaints or uses excessive force, their insurance rates will skyrocket. Since the city refuses to pay the difference, the bad officer has to pay it out of pocket. If they can’t afford it, they become uninsurable and instantly unemployable. This gives the city a hassle-free way to fire dangerous cops without fighting prolonged union battles.
Enforce an “up or out” policy for street patrol To make the 10-year limit on beat policing work, the city simply ties career advancement to the department’s educational support. Once an officer hits a decade on the high-stress street beat, they must step up into a leadership rank, become a specialized detective, or move into a role mentoring younger recruits. If an officer refuses to grow and doesn’t meet the requirements to advance off the street, they are released from duty. The best part is that as officers do move up into these specialized or leadership roles, their daily risk of being sued goes down, which naturally makes their personal insurance premiums cheaper.
By updating hiring standards locally and tweaking employment contracts, city leaders can completely overhaul their police departments using the free market and money that is already sitting in the budget.