• Hold Police Accountable in Court

 We must remove the shield of qualified immunity to hold police accountable in court. We need Congressional action to amend the federal criminal statute to lower the “mens rea” (state of mind) threshold for an officer to be prosecuted from “willfulness” to “recklessness.” This will rebalance the scales of justice in our public safety system. Additionally, it should be illegal for law enforcement officers to engage in sexual acts with people in their custody regardless of alleged consent.

• Prevent Police Union Contracts From Blocking Accountability

 Police union contracts should not shield officers from fair discipline by removing all disciplinary matters from the union contract negotiations. We must give community members a seat at the table at union contract negotiations by requiring community representation in union contract negotiations. States and cities should prevent police unions from blocking accountability by repealing Law Enforcement Police Bill of Rights and eliminating police union influence over politics by limiting union political contributions.

• Revise Use of Force Policies

Use of force policies must respect the dignity of life by permitting the use of deadly force only as a last resort and meeting the use of force test for proportionality.  All agencies should adopt a de-escalation policy requiring verbal and non-verbal techniques. The force used by an officer should be evaluated and justified based on whether it was “necessary” rather than “reasonable.”

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• Ban Chokeholds, No-Knock Warrants and Shooting at Moving Vehicles 

Police department manuals and practices must be examined to uproot divisive policies that put lives at risk. We must ban chokeholds and strangleholds, no knock-warrants, and shooting at moving vehicles. 

• Collect Data on Police Misconduct and Use of Force 

We must improve transparency by developing a national police misconduct registry, that includes, amongst other things, excessive force, racial profiling, sexual assault, perjury and falsifying a police report, and creating a national citizen database of complaints against police. Improving transparency also calls for collecting data on actions and detentions by law enforcement agencies and requiring states and local agencies to report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, and age.

• Mandate Use of Dashboard and Body-Worn Cameras and Provide Access to Footage

 We need national standards on the adoption, use and activation of body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras. Body-worn cameras have been critical in shedding a light on police brutality, and they are useful tools for justice. All police departments should be outfitted with a body-worn camera usage and storage program. All officers must be required to wear functioning body-worn cameras, and all police cars should have functioning dash cameras. Prosecutorial and oversight bodies should have direct access to the relevant footage. Policies should also strictly prohibit the tampering of footage or unauthorized access to footage.

• Expand The National Decertification Index 

 The National Decertification Index, which tracks all decertified police officers, must be expanded to track data on officers who have been fired or resigned due to police misconduct. Agencies should be required to contribute to the Index and use it as a metric for all hiring decisions. This is an important step to prevent problematic officers from moving from one department to the next.