TLDR: Key recommendations from Obama's policing task force
Expect to see many of these points restated in the Department of Justice's report on the use of deadly force by Philadelphia police officers. That report is scheduled to be released on Friday morning
Recommendations for police departments from the lengthy President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
Expect to see many of these points restated in the Department of Justice's report on the use of deadly force by Philadelphia police officers. That report is scheduled to be released on Friday morning. Several of these recommendations already have been implemented by Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey following the DOJ's review of the department.
1. Embrace a guardian mindset to build public trust and legitimacy.
2. Acknowledge the role of policing in past and present injustice and discrimination and how it is a hurdle to the promotion of community trust.
3. Establish a culture of transparency and accountability in order to build public trust and legitimacy.
4. Law enforcement agencies should promote legitimacy internally within the organization by applying the principles of procedural justice.
5. Proactively promote public trust by initiating positive nonenforcement activities.
6. Consider the potential damage to public trust when implementing crime fighting strategies.
7. Track the level of trust in police by their communities just as changes in crime are measured.
8. Strive to create a workforce that contains a broad range of diversity
9. Build relationships based on trust with immigrant communities.
10. Collaborate to develop policies and strategies in communities disproportionately affected by crime.
11. Develop comprehensive policies on the use of force that include training, investigations, prosecutions, data collection, and information sharing.
12. Mandate external and independent criminal investigations in cases of police use of force resulting in death, officer-involved shootings resulting in injury or death, or in-custody deaths. Report data on all officer-involved shootings to the Federal Government.
13. Adopt identification procedures that eliminate or minimize presenter bias or influence.
14. Release department's demographic data.
15. Collect demographic data on all stops and arrests.
16. Implement response protocols to mass demonstrations that prioritize de-escalation.
17. Use civilian oversight of law enforcement to strengthen trust with the community
18. Refrain from quotas for arrests, tickets or summonses. Don't use quotas to generate revenue.
19. Seek consent before a search and explain that a person has the right to refuse consent when there is no warrant or probable cause.
20. Adopt and enforce policies prohibiting profiling and discrimination
21. Federal agencies should provide technical assistance and incentive funding to jurisdictions with small police agencies and encourage small departments to consolidate.
22. Establish national standards for the research and development of new technology, for instance, body-worn cameras and social media.
23. The Department of Justice should develop best practices that can be adopted by state legislative bodies to govern the acquisition, use, retention, and dissemination of auditory, visual, and biometric data by law enforcement.
24. Update public record laws.
25. Federal government should support the development of new "less than lethal" technology to help control combative suspects.
26. Require both basic recruit and in-service training on policing in a democratic society.
- Sam Wood