Reports of people beaten and killed by police have periodically put the failures of our criminal justice system on the front pages of newspapers. In response, legislative committees have held hearings. Reports have been issued, documenting racist policing
further shields officers from liability when they make reasonable mistakes. But, in many places, the fears stoked by opponents of these reform bills have proved more powerful than facts on the ground.
Currently, several states, including New
York, Washington and
New Hampshire, have reintroduced police reform bills. I testified in favor of Washington’s bill last week and listened as opponents of the bill raised the very same groundless concerns that have led to other bills’ defeat.
The killing of Nichols should serve as a reminder of what is at stake in the continuing debate about police violence and reform. It’s not the phantom menace of more lawsuits against the police, but how our society allows these horrible injustices to happen again and again and what we owe to victims of government misconduct and abuse.
Ending qualified immunity won’t end all the problems in policing — far from it. There are many other legal protections shielding law enforcement officers from justice in the courts and from discipline and termination by their departments.
We also need to ask broader questions about what we empower police to do, and how to restore trust between law enforcement and communities they serve. But for now, eliminating qualified immunity is an important first step, given the egregious misconduct it protects.
I’d hoped that we wouldn’t have to see another killing on a viral video to restart the national conversation about police reform. Yet here we are. This time, we must focus on facts, not fear-mongering.
Myths about the dangers of making it too easy to sue police have made a mess of our system. We need a shared understanding of why officers must be held accountable for their actions, and a commitment to end senseless legal protections that embolden police and leave victims without a meaningful remedy.
Joanna Schwartz is a law professor at UCLA and the author of the forthcoming book “Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.”