End Policing of Minor "Broken Windows" Offenses
The following activities do not threaten public safety and are often used to police black communities. Decriminalize these activities or de-prioritize their enforcement:
Consumption of Alcohol on Streets
Marijuana Possession
Disorderly Conduct
Trespassing
Loitering
Disturbing the Peace (including Loud Music)
Spitting
Jaywalking
Bicycling on the Sidewalk
Prostitution
(Example: Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2015)
End Profiling and "Stop-and-Frisk"
Establish enforceable protections against profiling to prevent police from intervening in civilian lives for no reason other than the "suspicion" of their blackness or other aspects of their identity. This should include:
immigration status, age, housing status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, HIV status, race, religion and national origin as protected groups
the right for people to seek court orders to stop police departments from profiling
bans on both intentional profiling and practices that have a disparate impact on protected groups
ban stops for "furtive" movements such as a reaching for waistband or acting nervous
ban stops for being in a high-crime area
ban stops for matching a generalized description of a suspect (i.e. black male ages 15-25)
require officers to establish objective justification for making a stop and to report every stop including location, race, gender, whether force was used and whether a firearm was found.
end the use of predictive policing technology, which uses systematically biased data to enhance police profiling of black people and communities
prohibit police departments from using resources to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, report, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes.
prohibit police departments from transferring an individual to federal immigration authorities for purposes of immigration enforcement.
prohibit officers from being placed under the supervision of federal agencies or deputized as special federal officers or special federal deputies.
(Examples: End Racial Profiling Act of 2015; NYC Community Safety Act; NYC Stop-and-Frisk Reforms; California Senate Bill 54)
Establish Alternative Approaches to Mental Health Crises
Mental health crises should not be excuses for heavy-handed police interventions and are best handled by mental health professionals. Establish and fund Mental Health Response Teams to respond to crisis situations. These approaches have been proven to reduce police use of force in these situations by nearly 40 percent and should include:
establish a team of mental health professionals, social workers and/or crisis counselors to send as first responders to calls involving mental health crises, such as the CAHOOTS model implemented in Eugene, OR.
involvement of this multidisciplinary team in planning, implementation and response to crises
(Example: CRISES Act in California)
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Establish effective civilian oversight structures
Establish an all-civilian oversight structure with discipline power that includes a Police Commission and Civilian Complaints Office with the following powers:
The Police Commission should:
The Civilian Complaints Office should:
(Ex: San Francisco Charter Policies on Police Commission and Office of Citizen Complaints)
Remove barriers to reporting police misconduct
For all stops by a police officer, require officers to give civilians their name, badge number, reason for the stop and a card with instructions for filing a complaint to the civilian oversight structure.
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Establish standards and reporting of police use of deadly force
A. Authorize deadly force only when there is an imminent threat to an officer's life or the life of another person and such force is strictly unavoidable to protect life as required under International Law. Deadly force should only be authorized after all other reasonable alternatives have been exhausted. (Ex: International Deadly Force Standard; Tennessee Deadly Force Law)
B. Require that an officer's tactical conduct and decisions leading up to using deadly force be considered in judgements of whether such force was necessary. (Ex: LAPD Use of Force Policy)
C. Require officers give a verbal warning, when possible, before using deadly force and give people a reasonable amount of time to comply with the warning (Ex: Las Vegas Metro PD Policy)
D. Require reporting of police killings and serious injuries of civilians (Ex: The PRIDE Act; Colorado law; CA DOJ OpenJustice database)
E. Require the names of both the officer(s) involved and victim(s) to be released within 72 hours of a deadly force incident (Ex: Philadelphia PD Policy)
Revise and strengthen local police department use of force policies
Revised police use of force policies should protect human life and rights. Policies should include guidance on reporting, investigation, discipline, and accountability and increase transparency by making the policies available online. This use of force policy should require officers to:
restrict officers from using deadly force unless all reasonable alternatives have been exhausted (Ex: Philadelphia PD Policy)
use minimum amount of force to apprehend a subject, with specific guidelines for the types of force and tools authorized for a given level of resistance (Ex: Seattle PD Policy)
utilize de-escalation tactics (verbalization; creating distance, time and space; tactical repositioning, etc.) whenever possible instead of using force (Ex: Seattle PD Policy)
carry a less-lethal weapon (Ex: Seattle PD Policy)
ban using force on a person for talking back or as punishment for running away (Ex: Cleveland PD Policy)
ban chokeholds, strangleholds (i.e. carotid restraints), hog-tying and transporting people face down in a vehicle (Ex: NYPD Policy)
intervene to stop other officers who are using excessive force and report them to a supervisor (Ex: Las Vegas Metro PD Policy)
have first aid kits and immediately render medical assistance to anyone in police custody who is injured or who complains of an injury (Ex: New Baltimore PD Policy)
End traffic-related police killings and dangerous high-speed police chases
Prohibit police officers from:
shooting at moving vehicles (Ex: Denver PD Policy)
moving in front of moving vehicles (Ex: Denver PD Policy)
high-speed chases of people who have not and are not about to commit a violent felony (Ex: Milwaukee PD Policy)
Monitor how police use force and proactively hold officers accountable for excessive force
A. Report all uses of force to a database with information on related injuries and demographics of the victims. (Ex: Seattle PD Policy; Indianapolis Metropolitan PD reporting website)
B. Establish an early intervention system to correct officers who use excessive force. These systems have been shown to reduce the average number of complaints against officers in a police department by more than 50%. This system should:
report officers who receive two or more complaints in the past month
report officers who have two or more use of force incidents or complaints in the past quarter
require officers to attend re-training and be monitored by an immediate supervisor after their first quarterly report and terminate an officer following multiple reports
C. Require police departments to notify the state when an officer is found to have willfully violated department policy or the law, committed official misconduct, or resigned while under investigation for these offenses. Maintain this information in a database accessible to the public (Ex: Illinois Law) and prohibit these officers from serving as police officers, teachers or other governmental employees (Ex: Connecticut Law).
Campaign Zero reviewed police department use of force policies in the 100 largest U.S. cities. More restrictive use of force policies are associated with fewer police-involved killings. Learn more at UseofForceProject.org.
We have developed this model use of force policy based on our review and analysis of effective use of force policies across the nation. The policy includes evidence-informed restrictions on police use of force that are designed to significantly reduce police violence in communities. It should be adopted by police chiefs and local elected officials without delay.
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Lower the standard of proof for Department of Justice civil rights investigations of police officers
Allow federal prosecutors to successfully prosecute police officers for misconduct by passing legislation to eliminate the requirement that an officer must "willfully" deprive another's rights in order to violate Section 242.
Use federal funds to encourage independent investigations and prosecutions
Pass legislation such as the Police Training and Independent Review Act of 2015 or use of existing federal funds to encourage external, independent investigations and prosecution of police killings (see Action Items 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 of the President’s Task Force Report).
Establish a permanent Special Prosecutor's Office at the State level for cases of police violence
The Special Prosecutor's Office should be:
Require independent investigations of all cases where police kill or seriously injure civilians
The independent investigators should be:
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Increase the number of civilian first responders who reflect the communities they serve
⚠️While racial and gender diversity within law enforcement has increased nationwide and many police departments have implemented “community policing” models, recent research suggests these approaches are not effective at reducing police violence. As such, we caution cities against emphasizing these strategies as solutions. Rather, cities should prioritize shifting resources to instead hire more civilian first responders, conflict de-escalators, and violence interruptors from underrepresented communities.
Use community feedback to inform police department policies and practices
Require a regular survey (Ex: Milwaukee survey) to be fielded to the community to gauge their experiences and perceptions of the police and use this information to inform:
police department policies and practices
police officer evaluations and discipline
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Body cameras
⚠️Due to a range of research studies finding no evidence that body cameras reduce police use of force, we caution cities against adopting new body camera programs. Places that have already implemented body cameras should ensure they are governed by the following policies reinforcing accountability:
require officers with body cams to record all law enforcement interactions and prevent officers from having discretion to turn the cameras off
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 direct 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)
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, misconduct incident, discharge of a weapon or death.
(Ex: ACLU Model Policy)
The Right to Record Police
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)
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Invest in Rigorous and Sustained Training
⚠️The existing research literature is inconclusive on the effectiveness of training at reducing police violence. While some trainings - like procedural justice training - have some research support, other trainings like implicit bias and mental health training have not been found to be effective. As such, we caution cities against emphasizing more training as a solution. Rather, existing training programs should be replaced with programs that de-emphasize firearms and use of force and that empower communities to design and implement new training paradigms for first responders including, but not limited to, the following topics:
Procedural justice
Relationship-based policing
Crisis intervention, mediation, and conflict resolution
Appropriate engagement with youth
Appropriate engagement with LGBTQ, transgender and gender nonconforming individuals
Appropriate engagement with individuals who are english language learners
Appropriate engagement with individuals from different religious affiliations
Appropriate engagement with individuals who are differently abled
De-escalation and minimizing the use of force
Intentionally consider 'unconscious' or 'implicit' racial bias
Require current and prospective police officers to undergo mandatory anti-bias testing, including testing for bias in shoot/don't shoot decision-making, and develop a clear policy for considering an officer's level of bias in:
law enforcement certification
the hiring process
performance evaluations
decisions about where officers are deployed
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End police department quotas for tickets and arrests
Ban police departments from using ticket or arrest quotas to evaluate the performance of police officers
(Ex: Illinois law)
Limit fines and fees for low-income people
Pass policies requiring local governments to:
Prevent police from taking the money or property of innocent people
Prohibit police from:
(Ex: New Mexico law)
Require police departments to bear the cost of misconduct
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End the Federal Government's 1033 Program Providing Military Weaponry to Local Police Departments
End the supply of federal military weaponry to local police departments under the 1033 program. (Ex: Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act)
Establish Local Restrictions to Prevent Police Departments from Purchasing or Using Military Weaponry
Restrict police departments from:
using federal grant money to purchase military equipment (Ex: Montana law)
deploying armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft, drones, Stingray surveillance equipment, camouflage uniforms, and grenade launchers
using SWAT teams unless there is an emergency situation or imminent threat to life and high-ranking officers have given approval (Ex: Cincinnati PD Policy)
conducting no-knock raids (Ex: Oregon law bans all no-knock raids)
accessing federal grant money or purchasing military equipment if the department has been recently found to demonstrate a "pattern or practice" of discriminatory policing
in addition to these restrictions, wherever possible agencies should seek to return to the federal government the military equipment that has already been received (Ex: San Jose)
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Remove barriers to effective misconduct investigations and civilian oversight
Remove contract provisions, local policies, and provisions in state Law Enforcement Officers' Bills of Rights laws that:
allow officers to wait 48 hours or more before being interrogated after an incident
prevent investigators from pursuing other cases of misconduct revealed during an investigation
prevent an officer's name or picture from being released to the public
prohibit civilians from having the power to discipline, subpoena or interrogate police officers
state that the Police Chief has the sole authority to discipline police officers
enable officers to appeal a disciplinary decision to a hearing board of other police officers
enable officers to use the contract grievance process to have an outside arbitrator reverse disciplinary decisions and reinstate officers who have committed misconduct
prevent an officer from being investigated for an incident that happened 100 or more days prior
allow an officer to choose not to take a lie detector test without being punished, require the civilian who is accusing that officer of misconduct to pass a lie detector first, or prevent the officer's test results from being considered as evidence of misconduct
Keep officers' disciplinary history accessible to police departments and the public
Remove contract provisions, local and state policies, and provisions in state Law Enforcement Officers' Bills of Rights laws that allow police officers to:
expunge or destroy records of past misconduct (both sustained and unsustained) from their disciplinary file
prevent their disciplinary records from being released to the public via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
Ensure financial accountability for officers and police departments that kill or seriously injure civilians
Remove contract provisions, local policies, and provisions in state Law Enforcement Officers' Bills of Rights laws that:
require officers to be given paid administrative leave or paid desk-duty during an investigation following a police shooting or other use of deadly force
prevent officers from receiving unpaid suspensions as discipline for misconduct or allow officers to use vacation or discretionary time to pay themselves while on suspension
allow officers to receive paid leave or paid desk-duty after being charged with a felony offense
DC Council recently passed legislation that bans the inclusion of “all matters pertaining to the discipline of law enforcement officers” in their police union contract. This policy banning police union contracts from including language that impacts the investigation and discipline of law enforcement is a model that other cities and states should adopt. Police accountability should be non-negotiable.
Campaign Zero reviewed the police union contracts in nearly 600 U.S. cities. 84% of police union contracts imposed at least one barrier to holding police accountable. Learn more at Nixthe6.org.
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