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Lessening Lack of Trust In Criminal Justice System

From the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, to the heavily militarized police response, to the protests in the wake of Brown’s death, to the failure of the grand jury to indict Officer Darren Wilson for his role in the shooting, the events in Ferguson, Mo., have turned up the heat on a long simmering debate over the persistent inequalities in our criminal justice system. Other recent events have made the urgent need to act even more clear: In Staten Island, New York, a grand jury decided not to indict New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo for causing the death of another unarmed black man, Eric Garner, even though the officer’s actions were caught on tape. Days earlier, a police officer shot and killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old in Cleveland, Ohio, while he played with a toy gun.

At the center of this debate has been a conversation about inequities in the basic functioning of the criminal justice system – including police practices, the use of force and aggressive policing, arrest and prosecution policies, the severity of criminal sentences, and the disparate impact many of these policies have on communities of color. Little wonder there is a deep-seated sentiment within communities of color that the criminal justice system is inherently rigged against them and that the institutions supposedly designed to protect them are failing them, or even worse, targeting them. Moreover, the gap between black and white views on law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and race relations in this country only seems to be growing. This ever-widening gulf further complicates our attempts to understand exactly what is at issue in cases such as the deaths of Brown and Garner, the failure of the grand juries in those cases to indict the officers responsible, and the opportunity to think through ideas and options for concrete solutions to address the underlying problems.

While reflection is important after moments such as this, we are now tasked with the obligation of figuring out how to move forward, learn from these incidents, and turn a moment of anger and frustration into an opportunity to make positive change in our criminal justice system.

Here are four ideas to reform the criminal justice system, including improved police training; data collection and accountability; repairing the fractured relationship between police and community; and, in instances where lives are taken, the promise of a diligent, independent, and thorough investigation and prosecution, when appropriate. This is certainly not intended as a final assessment of what needs to be done to reform policing and the criminal justice system in the United States, but rather as an opening salvo in an ongoing conversation about crime and justice in this country.

1. Increase the use of special prosecutors in police misconduct investigations.

In recent weeks, the role of the prosecutor and the grand jury system has come under intense scrutiny. The failure of grand juries to indict either Officer Darren Wilson for his role in Brown’s death or Staten Island Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in Garner’s death have raised significant questions about the ability of local prosecutors to remain impartial in cases involving local law enforcement in the same jurisdiction.

2. Enhance the collection of data on fatalities involving police.

In the immediate aftermath of the deaths of Brown and Garner, many commentators, community members, and policymakers around the country asked what should be relatively easy questions to answer: How often do police officers kill unarmed individuals? Are the deaths of Brown and Garner isolated incidents or examples of a larger trend of inappropriate use of force by police officers in communities around the country, and are communities of color disproportionately affected?

Unfortunately, these are not easy questions to answer. As a number of reporters discovered over the past few months, there are significant gaps in the collection and analysis of data related to fatalities involving officers.

In order to develop smart laws and policies to address law enforcement’s inappropriate and illegal use of force, we need to understand the scope and nature of the problem. The federal government must improve data collection and require state and local law enforcement to provide detailed information about deaths caused by police officers.

3. Implement implicit bias training for all federal law-enforcement officers and state and local police involved in federal task forces.

Police departments should be encouraged to take steps to increase diversity among law-enforcement professionals. The federal government should condition receipt of certain grant funding by state and local law-enforcement agencies – perhaps funding for surplus military equipment – on the implementation of hiring and retention policies designed to increase diversity in police departments.

4. Increase the federal government’s oversight of police conduct.

The day-to-day operations of police departments across the country are largely handled at the state and local level. The Department of Justice should take a more active approach in setting expectations for police conduct nationwide and ensure compliance with those standards by conditioning participation in federal task forces on the adoption of certain standards, policies, and training and through penalties in federal funding. These four recommendations, along with President Obama’s recent actions, are among a set of reforms that are needed to address injustice and inequalities in the criminal justice system, particularly with respect to police misconduct.

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