Written Testimony and Recommendation of the National Urban League and Its CEO, Marc Morial, to the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing
The recommendations of the National Urban League correspond to the “10 Point Justice Plan” publicly released in December 2014.
1. WIDESPREAD USE OF BODY CAMERAS AND DASHBOARD CAMERAS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Pass Legislation to make the use of cameras mandatory for DOJ grant recipients, subject to appropriate standards and safeguards to ensure their effectiveness and to protect the privacy rights of citizens. For example, the “Camera Authorization and Maintenance Act (CAM Act), introduced in the 113th Congress by Representative Emanuel Cleaver.
- Safeguards recommended by the American Civil Liberties Union include: ensuring that all encounters are recorded, the public should easily know when they are recorded (e.g. a recording light), footage should be limited to authorized use and logged by officers.
FEDERAL:
Endorse the Obama Administration’s new Community Policing Initiative Body Worn Camera Partnership Program, which would provide a 50 percent match to States/localities that purchase body worn cameras and requisite storage. Overall, the proposed $75 million investment over three years could help purchase 50,000 body worn cameras.
STATE/COUNTY/LOCAL:
Mayors, City Councils, and Police Chiefs should adopt policies that implement body and/or dashboard camera programs.
RATIONALE:
In the case of officer-involved homicides, there is no living injured party available to present his/her testimony to a jury. Body cameras may serve to provide necessary “objective” evidence of incidents.
Studies indicate that Body-Worn Cameras have improved the effectiveness of police operations by: (1) increasing transparency to the public; (2) helping resolve questions following an encounter between an officer and a citizen; (3) serving as a deterrent to misconduct; (4) allowing agencies to identify and correct larger structural problems within the department.[i]
As a result, various stakeholders have called for the implementation of mandatory body cameras and dashboard cameras, including US Conference of Mayors, a coalition of 14 national civil and human rights organizations and the Coalition of Civil Rights Organizations on Police Reform. However, experts caution that – in the absence of appropriate safeguards – the use of body cameras could lead to significant privacy concerns that could offset available benefits.
2. BROKEN WINDOWS REFORM AND IMPLEMENTATION OF 21ST CENTURY COMMUNITY POLICING MODEL
RECOMMENDATIONS:
FEDERAL:
- Endorse the Attorney General’s position to eliminate broken windows reform as a policing model in favor of a Smart on Crime Initiative that focuses attention and resources on the most significant and severe crimes.
- Congress should reauthorize the Department of Justice COPS program with policies to strengthen community-engaged policing rather than policing that criminalizes the poor and people of color. For example, Senator Amy Klobuchar’s bill, S. 2254, the “COPS Improvements Act of 2014.”
STATE/COUNTY/LOCAL:
- Mayors and Police Chiefs should embrace a community policing model of law enforcement, and provide visible leadership to bring communities together to support this new approach.
RATIONALE:
The broken windows model calls for heightened policing in communities evidencing visible neglect (e.g. broken windows, yet has been found to be not only ineffective in reducing crime, but contributing to the exacerbation of mistrust between communities and police officers. In fact, studies find that broken windows policy overcriminalizes the poor and homeless, covers racist behavior and targets communities of color. Instead, evidence shows that proactively and comprehensively engaging communities in policing practices yields positive results in crime reduction and the building of trust between law enforcement and citizens.
3. REVIEW AND REVISION OF POLICE USE OF DEADLY FORCE POLICIES
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Develop a best practices “Use of Deadly Force Policy.”[ii] Revise training and accountability measures to match the policy that is transparent to all law enforcement, and citizens.
FEDERAL:
- Federal Law Enforcement Agencies should lead by example by following a best practice “Use of Deadly Force Policy.” This includes the FBI, DEA, ATF, IRS, as well as Border and Customs Patrol Officers.
STATE/COUNTY/LOCAL:
- Comprehensive review of current “use of deadly force policies” in effect to ensure that it matches the best practices “Use of Deadly Force Policy” above, and officers have the appropriate training to properly manage a situation.
RATIONALE:
Recent reviews, such as the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) review of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ongoing review of the Cleveland Police Division (CPD) both found that “structural and systemic deficiencies and practices—including insufficient accountability, inadequate training, ineffective policies and inadequate engagement with the community contribute to the use of unreasonable force.”[iii]
4. COMPREHENSIVE RETRAINING OF ALL POLICE OFFICERS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Comprehensive review and redesign of basic training curriculums to integrate implicit and explicit racial bias training at all ranks of law enforcement.
FEDERAL:
- Endorse legislation that ties federal funding streams to local law enforcement to a robust training that includes explicit and implicit racial bias training
STATE/LOCAL:
- Redesign training programs for police officer, and continuing education for law enforcement, curricula to include mandatory racial bias training.
RATIONALE:
Experts have suggested racial bias training is essential as a part of ongoing professional development.[iv] In cases where there have been incidents of police misconduct, a remedy by the Department of Justice’s consent decrees has been the training of officers, which has grown to include implicit and explicit racial bias. One of the first cities to address the training of officer in its descent decree was Cincinnati. [v] It has been reported that Cincinnati is a national model.[vi] Moreover, in a study of the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into local law enforcement, it has been argued that the key reforms for a police department to avoid a federal investigation are to have strong policies, ensure the policies are followed, and to have strong management and supervision of the measures.[vii]
5. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW AND STRENGTHENING OF POLICE HIRING STANDARDS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Develop and require the adoption of best practices of national minimal standards for police hiring and an accompanying national database of officers who have been hired in accordance with these standards.
- Officers that are fired from policing should not practice policing again. The Task Force should consider whether there should be a lifetime ban by taking into consideration what led to the firing.
- Require the use of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as one of several mental tests officers are required to take. The IAT is a methodologically sound instrument as shown by nearly a decade of research. [viii]
STATE/LOCAL:
- The variations in standards and procedures in hiring police officers make it difficult to review whether an officer has met standards if he/she should choose to move to another jurisdiction. This could be minimized if states simply shared the same minimal standards and a database of candidates that have passed these standards. As such, officers can move from state to state and have met the same standards, and not be required to spend precious dollars on going through the tests again in a new jurisdiction.
RATIONALE:
There is much variation on how each department implements their hiring policies and which policies they include. National hiring standards based on strong best practices will help ensure high quality police officers in every city.
