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Police Reform - Overview

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Front Page / Issue Briefs / Justice, Crime and Public Safety / Police Reform / Overview

Issue Brief

Police Reform - Overview

Goal Statement one sentence that further defines the topic

To dismantle the systemically racist values within the American police force, to reevaluate the processes of training and funding the police, and to raise awareness of the misconduct enacted by local police on the public that has gone unseen.

Local/State/National Information additional information on this topic at the local, state, national, global level

Police Reform - USA

Police Reform - North Carolina

Police Reform - Greensboro, North Carolina

Police Reform - Tennessee

Police Reform - Virginia

Policy Options / Model Programs link to profiles of specific policies or program models, grouped by type

Accountability & Transparency

Civilian Review Boards - Civilian Review Boards (CRBs) are an alternate way to handle complaints of misconduct against law enforcement officers. The authority of CRBs are determined by the locality. A CRB in its weakest form simply conducts reviews of completed internal police investigations and reports their findings to the Chief of Police, and lacks the power to subpoena officers. More powerful boards have subpoena power, conduct independent investigations in addition to reviews, and/or are the sole investigators of police misconduct complaints in a locality.

Richmond, VA (ORD 2020-155): This ordinance creates a Task Force for establishing a Civilian Review Board. The Board will have subpoena powers to investigate civilian complaints of the Richmond Police Department. The Task Force as proposed contains 9 members appointed by City Council, including at least one minor, one person with a disability, and one person living in public housing. The creation of the Task Force has a majority of City Council serving as patrons, and thus is expected to pass as of July 2020.

Reports to the Public - Law enforcement agencies have the capacity to maintain records and gather information about the activity of their departments. By releasing critical information to the public, citizens are empowered to hold their local departments accountable through information.

Asset Forfeiture - Law enforcement agencies have the ability to seize "forfeited" assets from people. Information about these seizures, when made public, inform community members about what police are seizing from whom, and where the value derived from asset forfeitures is going.

Richmond, VA (RES 2020-R046): This resolution establishes a required quarterly report on the five asset forfeiture funds affecting the City of Richmond. Currently, the funds do not have to disclose any information regarding the source of or intended use for assets forfeited. This resolution would require information be made public regarding the source, date, type, and value of asset forfeiture seizures, and the intended use of the asset forfeiture funds. In the FY2021 budget, Richmond asset forfeiture funds approached $1 million in value.

Use of Force - Police departments maintain records of instances of "use of force," which generally includes any time an officer uses physical force on a civilian. This is often done with the aid of a tool or weapon, such as a firearm, pepper spray, taser. Public reports of uses of force show the public how frequently local police are being overtly violent with their community members.

Richmond, VA: Richmond Police are required to disclose any instances of a filed complaint or use of force internally. In 2018, political pressure from community groups like the Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project along with individuals initiated a policy change to make these reports public. A record of complaints and instances of use of force are now published monthly and can be found on the department website. The policy faces volume pressure at times, and reports are frequently delayed during periods when police frequently use force.

Budgets & Funding

Defunding Police Departments

Richmond, VA (RES. 2020-R047): This resolution, proposed in the wake of national protests against police brutality in the summer of 2020, requests a report identifying funding allocated to the city's Police Department used for various social service functions that could be re-appropriated to public safety alternatives elsewhere within the city which are better suited to respond to those services. Specific areas of response to be defunded include mental health and substance abuse. City Council would, under this proposal, allocate identified funds elsewhere in the FY2022 city budgets. The adopted FY2021 police budget can be found on page 91 of the city budget.

Demilitarization

Banning Non-Lethal Weapons

Richmond, VA (RES. 2020-R048): This resolution bars the Richmond Police Department from using a number of non-lethal and less lethal weapons in controlling unlawful assemblies. The list of banned weapons includes less lethal rounds like rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, and pepper balls, as well as flash-bang grenades and tear gas.

Public Safety Alternatives

Mental Health Response - Police officers are frequently tasked with responding to mental health crises. However, rank-and-file officers often lack the training and a requirement to deescalate mental health crises. Additionally, the appearance of an officer can elevate the severity of mental health crises. Many localities are turning to having trained social workers and similar professionals respond to mental health crises, either alone or in tandem with police depending on the situation. This response is more likely to properly deescalate a situation, get individuals treatment when necessary, and avoid the use of force.

Richmond, VA, "Marcus Alert" Program (RES. 2020-R045): This resolution is intended to create a working group that will coordinate the establishment of a program that has mental health professionals respond to "situations involving individuals with suspected or confirmed mental health issues." This program is named after Marcus-David Peters, a high school biology teacher and VCU graduate who was shot and killed by a Richmond Police Department officer in 2018 while he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Technology

As evaluated and stated in the ACLU's model act for regulating the use of wearable body cameras by Law Enforcement, body cams for police officers should be required and regulated under the following policy models (as obtained from Campaign Zero):

record all interactions with subjects who have not requested to be kept anonymous
notify subjects that they have the option to remain anonymous and stop recording/storing footage if they choose this option
allow civilians to review footage of themselves or their relatives and request this be released to the public and stored for at least two years
require body and dash cam footage to be stored externally and ensure district attorneys and civilian oversight structures have access to the footage
require police departments, whenever they want to deny a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for body or dash cam footage, to prove in court that the footage constitutes a legitimate FOIA exemption (Ex: Illinois House Bill 4355)
permanently delete footage after 6 months if this footage hasn't been specifically requested to be stored
include a disciplinary matrix clearly defining consequences for officers who fail to adhere to the agency's body camera policy.
consider whether cameras or mandated footage are tampered with or unavailable as a negative evidentiary factor in administrative and criminal proceedings
prevent officers from reviewing footage of an incident before completing initial reports, statements or interviews about an incident
prohibit footage from being used in tandem with facial recognition software, as fillers in photo arrays, or to create a database or pool of mugshots. (Ex: Baltimore PD Body Cam Policy)
update privacy laws to protect civilians from having video or audio recordings released publicly that do not contain potential evidence in a use-of-force incident, discharge of a weapon or death.
Ban police officers from taking cell phones or other recording devices without a person's consent or warrant and give people the right to sue police departments if they take or destroy these devices. (Ex: Colorado Law)