Last week, the Department of Justice issued the report from the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
Here, I begin a discussion of those recommendations (section by section), together with some alternative (and I propose, better) recommendations for reform. The Task Force's Recommendations are in plain text, and I make "Revised Recommendations" in bold.
Remember, this is a diary, not a dissertation, so engage kindly :)
The Report is centered around six "pillars". The one I will discuss today is Pillar One: Building Trust & Legitimacy.
Task Force Recommendation 1.1
1.1 Recommendation: Law Enforcement culture should embrace a guardian mindset to build public trust and legitimacy. Toward that end, police and sheriffs' departments should adopt procedural justice as the guiding principle for internal and external policies and practices to guide their interactions with the citizens they serve.
No Action Items for Recommendation 1.1
The grounding of this recommendation (among others throughout the report) in the structure of 'procedural justice' is problematic. An excellent (and I mean, abolutely amazing) deconstruction of this concept can be found in Naomi Murakawa's excellent book,
The First Civil Right. Some day, I'll write a post summarizing her arguments.
In the mean time, one of Murakawa's premises is this: that the liberal focus on due process and the control of discretionary power within the criminal justice system "assumes [without challenging] the institutional structure of criminalizing, policing, and incarcerating...[and constrains] the ideological terrain for addressing racial violence."
The Task Force manages to avoid any meaningful conversation about broader, structural, political, societal issues and criminological arguments in its very first recommendation--and continues the trend, throughout. It addresses these issues briefly (and I mean
very briefly) in the "overarching recommendation" numbered 0.2 in the report:
As is evident from many of the recommendations in this report, the justice system alone cannot solve many of the underlying conditions that give rise to crime. It will be through partnerships across sectors and at every level of government that we will find the effective and legitimate long-term solutions to ensuring public safety.
Recommendation 1.1 is also an oblique reference to the pressing need we have to demilitarize our police forces. In failing to state the objection clearly and plainly, the Task Force has done us all a disservice. Articles referencing the "guardian mindset" use it in contrast to the 'warrior' mentality that pervades many law enforcement agencies.
That the report references a quote from Plato in this first section (that's where the 'guardian mindset' phrase originates)...only indicates how out of touch the authors are from the rest of us.
If Plato must be mentioned, emphasize that Plato's Guardians were to exercise four key virtues: wisdom, valor, courage, and temperence
It only takes an ounce of critical thought to connect the 'warrior' mentality common in civilian law enforcement today to the hyper-militarization of our entire society, our ongoing wars around the world, and the influence of the arrival and prior training of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans on our civilian law enforcement agencies.
Members of the Task Force have, as individuals, been very clear about the danger of militarization in law enforcement. Sue Rahr, quoted in the report, has worked tirelessly to combat the boot-camp style of police academy training. Tracey Meares speaks in her work of broad-based techniques to improve police legitimacy, police effectiveness and 'rightful policing', a much more expansive concept than anything addressed by this report.
Revised Recommendation 1.1: The entire government (federal, state, and local) should develop strategies to reduce the overall rates of involvement in the criminal justice system, and encourage non-arrest, treatment, and/or less-restrictive government involvement wherever possible. Such a strategy should also address racial disparity in policing strategy, police encounters, incarceration, etc., and also address 'push' factors such as education, health care, housing, and other areas where social support has been historically stratified by race.
Revised Recommendation 1.1a: The Department of Defense and Veterans Administration should ensure that military members returning to civilian life after a war zone deployment (any active duty?) are provided with thorough, appropriate, and ongoing medical care, including any needed treatment for PTSD.
Revised Recommendation 1.1b: The Department of Defense should immediately stop supplying any civilian law enforcement agency with military-grade equipment.
Revised Recommendation 1.1c: Law Enforcement agencies should consistently emphasize to officers and the community that they are at the service of the community.
Moving on to the Report's second recommendation:
Task Force Recommendation 1.2
1.2 Recommendation: Law enforcement agencies should acknowledge the role of policing in past and present injustice and discrimination and how it is a hurdle to the promotion of community trust.
1.2.1 Action Item: The U.S. Department of Justice should develop and disseminate case studies that provide examples where past injustices were publicly acknowledged by law enforcement agencies in a manner to help build community trust.
I've been involved in the writing of more than a few government reports, so this shouldn't surprise me: this recommendation is a vague direction to start the amends process with the communities that have been injured by the police, coupled with a non sequitur example, and no action items.
In other words: "hey, this is a great idea, we have no idea how to do it, but y'all figure it out."
Awesome.
Revised Recommendation 1.2: Law enforcement agencies and every government office involved in the criminal justice system should make reparations for the harms done to the black community by the criminal justice system, past and present.
That ought to keep us all busy for a while.
Task Force Recommendation 1.3
1.3 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should establish a culture of transparency and accountability in order to build public trust and legitimacy. This will help ensure decision making is understood and in accord with stated policy.
1.3.1 ACTION ITEM: To embrace a culture of transparency, law enforcement agencies should make all department policies available for public review and regularly post on the department’s website information about stops, summonses, arrests, reported crime, and other law enforcement data aggregated by demographics.
1.3.2 ACTION ITEM: When serious incidents occur, including those involving alleged police misconduct, agencies should communicate with citizens and the media swiftly, openly, and neutrally, respecting areas where the law requires confidentiality.
I am all for transparency and accountability in the criminal justice system. I can groove with the gist of these recommendations, though I think it is imperative to also include similar statistics from the prosecutor's offices (cases received, declined, pursued, result), corrections system (time served, location/facility where time was served, good conduct credit awarded, parole decisions, etc.), and probation/parole (time on supervision, minor/major violations, return to court, etc.). Limiting the scope of data collection just to the behavior of 'line cops' only gets at a part of the issue--because the racial disparities in treatment by the criminal justice system don't stop when you get transferred over to the jail or bond out.
A very practical issue to consider in this recommendation is cost. I'm not saying we shouldn't bear the cost--I absolutely think we should. But the 'criminal justice reform' folks who are keen on the idea only because of the system's excessive costs (cough) Koch Brothers (cough) really are not going to jump on board with funding to take care of the following, which would certainly follow any increase in transparency and accountability:
- Costs for defending class-action and other lawsuits alleging discriminatory practices, (think personnel costs for additional government attorneys to defend the agencies involved)
- Costs for payment of judgments arising from such lawsuits
- Costs for gathering, administrating, and analyzing any data collected (think additional police & FBI personnel)
I agree that transparency and accountability are part of any robust reparations/amends process. To be effective, though, it is not as simple as just gathering numbers or throwing a website up--particularly in areas where no-damn-body has decent internet access. We have to be prepared to invest--really invest our actual money--in making right the wrongs, inasmuch as we can.
Task Force Recommendation 1.4
1.4 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should promote legitimacy internally within the organization by applying the principles of procedural justice.
1.4.1 ACTION ITEM: In order to achieve internal legitimacy, law enforcement agencies should involve employees in the process of developing policies and procedures.
1.4.2 ACTION ITEM: Law enforcement agency leadership should examine opportunities to incorporate procedural justice into the internal discipline process, placing additional importance on values adherence rather than adherence to rules. Union leadership should be partners in this process.
Procedural justice, procedural justice, procedural justice. I'm all for cops being happier at their jobs and better equipped to do their jobs. But it still doesn't get at the root issues (see 1.1, above).
Task Force Recommendation 1.5
1.5 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should proactively promote public trust by initiating positive non-enforcement activities to engage communities that typically have high rates of investigative and enforcement involvement with government agencies.
1.5.1 ACTION ITEM: In order to achieve external legitimacy, law enforcement agencies should involve the community in the process of developing and evaluating policies and procedures.
1.5.2 ACTION ITEM: Law enforcement agencies should institute residency incentive programs such as Resident Officer Programs.
1.5.3 ACTION ITEM: Law enforcement agencies should create opportunities in schools and communities for positive, nonenforcement interactions with police. Agencies should also publicize the beneficial outcomes and images of positive, trust-building partnerships and initiatives.
1.5.4 ACTION ITEM: Use of physical control equipment and techniques against vulnerable populations—including children, elderly persons, pregnant women, people with physical and mental disabilities, limited English proficiency, and others—can undermine public trust and should be used as a last resort. Law enforcement agencies should carefully consider and review their policies towards these populations and adopt policies if none are in place.
I played soccer and basketball in the Fairfax Police Youth Club when I was a kid. Mind you, I was a white kid in the suburbs and never, not once, had a negative interaction with the police growing up. Ever. And I never saw the police in my schools. Ever.
Revised Recommendation/Action Item 1.5.1a: Law enforcement agencies should regularly meet with the communities they serve to develop the best ways for officers to engage with the community in non-enforcement activities, always deferring to the wishes of the community in such activities.
Revised Recommendation/Action Item 1.5b: Law enforcement, schools, and community members should develop strategies to maintain safety within schools while working to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline.
As to the last, kind of out-of-place recommendation--the thought that there might be no guidance to officers on how to physically restrain/control vulnerable populations is...just frightening. So, yes, I guess that's a good start there on action item 1.5.4.
Task Force Recommendation 1.6
1.6 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should consider the potential damage to public trust when implementing crime fighting strategies.
1.6.1 ACTION ITEM: Research conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of crime fighting strategies should specifically look at the potential for collateral damage of any given strategy on community trust and legitimacy.
Another throwaway recommendation: 'we need more research'. I'm all for good research, but they could do better than a two-sentence discussion here. Here's why: using crime rates, or incarceration rates, or arrest rates as the
only metric in determining whether a policing strategy is 'successful' overlooks other significant issues.
I think of the Sandtown neighborhood in Baltimore, where 458 of its residents are currently being held in Maryland State Prisons. How can we cross-hatch that incarceration rate against historical crime rates, arrest rates, stratification by race, SES, gentrification, and longitudinal studies of outcomes for formerly incarcerated folks?
How has that 'crime fighting' turned out for the neighborhood? 'Collateral Damage' is a term of war, and is always harmful--and very, very real--to those affected.
Public trust is an issue--but shooting hoops with the kids in the neighborhood won't solve it.
Its roots run very, very deep.
Hey, now that I think about it, centering the police in this conversation (by focusing on 'public trust' & legitimacy) rather than the community (cohesion & well-being) is kind of problematic, too. Gah!.
Task Force Recommendation 1.7
1.7 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should track the level of trust in police by their communities just as they measure changes in crime. Annual community surveys, ideally standardized across jurisdictions and with accepted sampling protocols, can measure how policing in that community affects public trust.
1.7.1 ACTION ITEM: The Federal Government should develop survey tools and instructions for use of such a model to prevent local departments from incurring the expense and to allow for consistency across jurisdictions.
But for why? We
already know that non-white communities generally do not trust law enforcement in the United States at the same rates or in the same way that white communities do. Let's save that money and devote it to some of the things I've outlined above. Surface surveys to say "hey, we're doing better" won't really do a damn bit of good for the folks most negatively affected by the criminal justice system.
Task Force Recommendation 1.8
1.8 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should strive to create a workforce that contains a broad range of diversity including race, gender, language, life experience, and cultural background to improve understanding and effectiveness in dealing with all communities.
1.8.1 ACTION ITEM: The Federal Government should create a Law Enforcement Diversity Initiative designed to help communities diversify law enforcement departments to reflect the demographics of the community.
1.8.2 ACTION ITEM: The department overseeing this initiative should help localities learn best practices for recruitment, training, and outreach to improve the diversity as well as the cultural and linguistic responsiveness of law enforcement agencies.
1.8.3 ACTION ITEM: Successful law enforcement agencies should be highlighted and celebrated and those with less diversity should be offered technical assistance to facilitate change.
1.8.4 ACTION ITEM: Discretionary federal funding for law enforcement programs could be influenced by that department’s efforts to improve their diversity and cultural and linguistic responsiveness.
1.8.5 ACTION ITEM: Law enforcement agencies should be encouraged to explore more flexible staffing models.
GAH! Just...read this. Please.
How to Uphold White Supremacy by Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion: Liberalism’s inherent racism
Task Force Recommendation 1.9
1.9 RECOMMENDATION: Law enforcement agencies should build relationships based on trust with immigrant communities. This is central to overall public safety.
1.9.1 ACTION ITEM: Decouple federal immigration enforcement from routine local policing for civil enforcement and non serious crime.
1.9.2 ACTION ITEM: Law enforcement agencies should ensure reasonable and equitable language access for all persons who have encounters with police or who enter the criminal justice system.
1.9.3 ACTION ITEM: The U.S. Department of Justice should remove civil immigration information from the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database.
For most of these, yes, I'm on board. In fact, I think I'm going to save my 'Immigration & Local Law Enforcement' post for another day because it really does deserve in-depth attention.
Secure Communities has been catastrophic in so many ways. As part of his Executive Action (the one tied up in court at the moment), President Obama has ended the program. Until the case is resolved, though, Secure Communities continues to be an ongoing threat to millions of folks in our country.
Action Item 1.9.3, though--this one needs some more thought. As a prosecutor, if I know that the target of my investigation is undocumented (which I would find out through my NCIC/III run), it could very well affect how I pursue a case. I might be more likely to speed up my investigation, arrest immediately rather than pursue an indictment first, etc. I think this information is truly valuable to law enforcement, and should not just be discarded. Do you have any idea how hard it is to do a Red Notice through INTERPOL and extradite someone back to the U.S.?
Next Time: Pillar Two: Policy & Oversight