Policing report urges independent inquiries

Every state should require its police departments to have an independent agency investigate all fatal shootings and other serious use- of- force incidents by officers, as one way of restoring public faith in American policing, according to the final report of a commission created by President Donald Trump to examine ways to improve the criminal justice system.

The report also calls for expanding the use of various technologies to fight crime, improving recruitment and training of officers, maintaining qualified immunity for officers who are sued for their actions, and reining in reform-minded prosecutors who declare they will not enforce certain laws such as marijuana possession.

And to further reduce the use of police force, the report suggests that police improve the investigations into complaints by civilians. That way, more people might “Comply, then complain” against officers who use excessive force, rather than resist an officer’s commands, the commission concluded.

The 332- page report by the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice was compiled by 18 police, prosecution and Justice Department officials aided by 15 working groups composed of 120 members who are also mostly police and prosecutors. The all-law enforcement composition of the main commission was criticized by members of the defense bar, the civil-rights community and others for its lack of diversity.

After the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund sued then-Attorney General William Barr and the commission alleging the panel violated federal law on advisory committees, a federal judge in Washington found the commission did violate the law, and ordered a disclaimer included in the report saying its membership was not fairly balanced, and that it did not file a charter or provide timely notice of its meetings.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he will form his own policing commission, leaving the fate of the new report uncertain. Terry McAuliffe, deputy executive director of the chiefs association, which helped persuade Trump to launch the commission by executive order after Congress repeatedly failed to do so, said of the report, “Don’t throw out the good work that’s already been done.” He pointed to numerous suggestions for police handling mental illness on the streets, expanding the technology that tracks bullet casings to solve shootings, and the call for independent probes of police shootings as evidence-based strategies that would improve public safety.

Barr said the report was not “an academic exercise” and that he hoped “its many recommendations will be implemented by policymakers, legislatures, and law enforcement agencies.” Phil Keith, chair of the commission and head of the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, said nearly 200 witnesses provided oral testimony in more than 50 hearings, and another 190 individuals or groups submitted public statements.

Justice Department officials declined to comment on the substance of the report. Jay Town, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama who headed one of the commission’s working groups, said the report was “chock full of game-changing solutions that move the needle positively for every American.” He cited proposals such as allowing officers to issue summonses for low-level offenses rather than making arrests; adjusting felony thresholds for nonviolent offenses such as theft and drug possession; and allowing state prisons to jam inmates’ cellphone traffic as practical examples.

Miriam Krinsky, executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, a group dedicated to justice reform, said: “While the Commission’s report gives a nod to the importance of trust in keeping communities safe, and also acknowledges that law enforcement cannot address these issues alone, the group’s membership, focus and process failed to embrace these all-important starting points.”

The head of the Justice in Public Safety Project for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Puneet Cheema, said “the Biden administration should immediately disavow and rescind the report.” She said it “fails entirely to consider the role of bias and discrimination in policing,” and instead “promotes an increase in criminalization of youth,” referring to a section which recommends increased accountability for juveniles, “while increasing the barriers to accountability for officers” by supporting qualified immunity and “officers’ bills of rights.”

A federal judge in Washington found the commission did violate the law, and ordered a disclaimer included in the report saying its membership was not fairly balanced, and that it did not file a charter or provide timely notice of its meetings.