Despite furor, accountability lags for police. Here’s why it might change.

It’s not his phrase, but former Seattle police Chief Norm Stamper covets it when describing police officers: “tiny principalities of power.”

Armored with immunity for a wide swath of behavior, protected by unions and friends and demands for civic order, and beholden more to a beat cop code than to the chief’s orders, the 900,000-strong American police force cuts a unique profile: They aren’t mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.

On even the best day, officers say, they have immensely difficult and dangerous jobs. Nearly every social problem is theirs to deal with, to the best – and sometimes worst – of their abilities.

“The power of that institution to shape behavior of so many police officers is almost to the point that supervision and management and leadership seem not to count,” says Mr. Stamper, author of “To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police.” “What really counts is the opinion of your fellow cops on the beat. It is in fact axiomatic that the structure produces this culture and that culture gives rise to behavior.”

Hardly alone, Mr. Stamper is wrestling with how that blue wall contributed to four Minneapolis police officers committing what he considers the murder of George Floyd, kneeling on his neck despite pleas of help from the man and bystanders. On Friday, former Officer Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

To be sure, their near-immediate firing was “unprecedented” and warranted, says Mr. Stamper.