Friendly fire isn't

The New York Times has an editorial about a police problem:

Black police officers who work under cover or in plain clothing are at a disproportionate risk of being shot by white colleagues who mistake them for criminals. That danger was tragically underscored in New York City last month, when Omar Edwards, a young African-American officer who was chasing a suspect, was shot to death by another police officer. The New York Police Department, and police departments across the country, must do everything possible to prevent such tragedies. The New York New YorkPolice Department says such “friendly fire” killings are rare, and it could not provide accurate statistics on how often they happen. But a provisional list provided by the department of fatalities caused by mistaken identity offers some sense the problem. Of the five officers mistakenly killed by colleagues since the 1970s, three were black and one was Hispanic.
Christopher Cooper, a member of the National Black Police Association and a sociologist, lawyer and former police officer who studies this problem, says that incidents in which African-Americans are wounded or beaten up by colleagues occur about twice a year nationally. In addition to the toll on the victims and their families, such incidents inflame racial tensions and undermine faith in law enforcement in poor and minority communities. To fight this problem, police departments need to do a much better job of preparing officers to work in an environment where colleagues come in all colors and ethnicities— and of raising awareness about how even unconscious racial stereotypes affect how they see the world.
Governor David Paterson of New York is convening a task force to study the problem. And New York City, which has already taken important steps in this area, plans to survey undercover officers to determine how often they were misidentified by other officers. City officials will also give higher priority to training to try to prevent friendly fire incidents and will likely bring in outside experts to assess the effectiveness of the department’s programs. This sounds like a good start in the effort to combat a tragic and pernicious problem.

Rico says undercover cops should start wearing bulletproof vests, no matter what color they are...