Mac Muir, former senior investigator with New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board and author of Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing, joined Everyday Injustice to discuss his years of investigating misconduct and the systemic failures he witnessed firsthand. Muir, who later directed Oakland’s Police Oversight Agency, explained that his book grew out of a desire to document what he and co-author Greg Finch saw daily: officers engaged in misconduct, victims left without justice, and an accountability system designed to protect the institution rather than the public.

Reflecting on the years after George Floyd’s murder, Muir described the public conversation as focused on extreme incidents like Derek Chauvin’s, while the more pervasive harm lies in “everyday injustice.” He highlighted the stops, frisks, harassment, and surveillance that disproportionately target Black and Brown communities. These practices, he said, create a culture where officers become cynical, disconnected from public service, and shielded from accountability—even when their actions cause unnecessary harm.

Muir also spoke about the limitations of asking police to serve as default first responders to mental health crises, family disputes, and social problems they are neither trained nor equipped to handle. He emphasized the importance of investing in alternatives—such as community safety programs and mediation—rather than relying on police as a blunt instrument in situations that require empathy and specialized care. “We’re asking a single profession to do everything,” he noted, calling for structural reforms that expand community-based responses.

The conversation closed with Muir outlining six proposals from his book, including hiring more women in policing, ending the war on drugs, expanding civilian oversight, and building truth and reconciliation processes between communities and officers. These ideas, he argued, move the debate beyond slogans like “defund the police” toward practical reforms that could reduce harm and rebuild public trust. For Muir, real accountability means both exposing misconduct and creating conditions where good officers can thrive while communities feel safe and respected.