system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The most efficient way to end police brutality is to make cops criminally liable for their actions on the job and stop funding their legal defense with public money.

I think this is the fastest way to reduce incidents of police brutality. Simply make them accountable the same as everyone else for their choices.

If violent cops had to pay their own legal fees and were held to a higher standard of conduct there would be very few violent cops left on the street in six months.

The system is designed to insulate them against criminal and civil action to prevent frivolous lawsuits from causing decay to civil order, but this has led to an even worse problem, with an even bigger impact on civil order.

If police unions want to foot the bill, let them, but stop taking taxpayer money to defend violent cops accused of injuring/killing taxpayers. It's a broken system that needs to change.
gpt
The problem is that lawsuits against only the officer don't really happen. The city is included (and usually the main defendant) in the lawsuit. 

I think requiring the cops to carry insurance to cover legal fees would work better. It doesn't immediately cripple someone's finances if they are sued, and begins to force them out of the job as soon as questionable behaviour starts, as opposed to just going on admin leave the first few times. Treat it like car insurance where premiums go up very quickly even with relatively small infractions and have incentives for time without incident.

Better yet, have the insurance pooled between each precinct, or even each city, so that one guy being a shithead will cost all the other officers more money in insurance premiums. It would make people think twice about hiding smaller infractions since they show a propensity for worse behaviour. You just have to make sure that the premiums don't go up for the group if the bad officer is fired and that cover ups have huge premium increases, otherwise there is more incentive to hide bad behaviour.