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| Official White House Photo by Pete Souza |
The interim report
recently released by President Obama’s task force on policing will shed some
light on their view of the public trust - a view that is not shared by those
who seek more than just a laundry list of recommendations to address police
violence. The report was released just
days before the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report of their
investigation into the Ferguson Police Department – a flashpoint of racial
frustrations and deep seated tensions unleashed in the face of aggressive and
excessive policing. A rather scathing
report that detailed the apparent racist activities engaged not just by the
Ferguson police officers but the Ferguson municipal government. However, the
explosiveness of DOJ’s Ferguson report on the Ferguson Police Department should
not be allowed to overshadow the president’s task force interim report because
as the president himself said: “This time will be different,” President Obama
said, regarding the effectiveness of the task force compared to prior ones, “because
the President of the United States is deeply vested in making it different.”
Since announcing the
formation of the task force in December 2014, the president has taken the
position that the public trust is the core issue to be addressed when it comes
to dealing with policing in America. President Obama says 21st Century policing
means building a culture of trust between the police and communities they serve
while ensuring crime is reduced.
According to the presidential executive order establishing the task
force: “…the task force was put together for the purposes of identifying the
best means to provide an effective partnership between law enforcement and
local communities that reduces crime and increase trust.” Consider what the
interim report states about public trust: The philosophical foundation for the
Task Force on 21st Century Policing: to build trust between citizens and their
peace officers so that all components of a community are treating one another
fairly and justly and are invested in maintaining public safety in an
atmosphere of mutual respect…”. Ron Davis, who served as Executive Director of
the Task Force had this to say about the task force: “The mission of the task
force was to examine how to foster strong, collaborative relationships between
local law enforcement and the communities they protect and to make
recommendations to the President on how policing practices can promote
effective crime reduction while building public trust.” You can see there is a clear and unmistakable
trend here that President and his Task Force continues to highlight over and
over – the public trust.
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| Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy |
The interim report
makes about 59 recommendations where the apparent theme is on repairing the
torn trust that exists between the police and primarily black and brown
communities across the country. The task force made recommendations for data
collection, more training, residency requirements, and a diverse
workforce. There’s a recommendation to
statistically track public trust such as how crime is tracked and reviewed
now. The task force also recommends a
marketing campaign of sorts that highlights and celebrates the “beneficial
outcomes of successful law enforcement agencies”. Although the task force made recommendations
against notorious practices such as quotas and racial profiling – there still
remains a number of concerns and questions about the report. Fundamentally the task force is rather
limited since they only have an advisory role as the states are under no obligation
to accept the reports’ recommendations.
But how does the
interim report address the issues that foster public distrust in the police -
issues such as the wanton use of excessive force, increasingly militarized
police departments as well as rare federal indictments and lack of special
independent prosecutors? Aren’t these the issues that have shattered the public
trust? Although the apparent focus of
the president and his task force is on the public trust – the report does not
fully address these issues that breached the trust between the police and those
black and brown communities subjected to routine police harassment and abuse.
Although the report "recommends" the use of independent prosecutors there is no
mention about the federal standard to bring civil rights charges. Consider what
the interim report had to say about soldiers in police uniforms: “Law
enforcement cannot build community trust if it is seen as an occupying force
coming in from outside to rule and control the community.” But later on in the
report, the task force recommends: “Law enforcement agencies should create
policies and procedures for policing mass demonstrations that employ a
continuum of managed tactical resources that are designed to minimize the
appearance of a military operation and avoid using provocative tactics and
equipment that undermine civilian trust.”
Now, how does this even begin to repair what the president calls the
“public trust”?
But the president
recognizes the dilemma on hand here – a federal task force making
recommendations to be adopted on the state and local level – and seeks to take
advantage of the moment created by the rebellious uprisings that emerged across
the country since last year. This is what President Obama had to say: Most of
the recommendations that have been made are directed at the 18,000 law
enforcement jurisdictions that are out there.
Law enforcement is largely a local function as opposed to a federal
function…” the President continues, “But a lot of our work is going to involve
local police chiefs, local elected officials, states recognizing that the
moment is now for us to make these changes.
We have a great opportunity, coming out of some great conflict and
tragedy, to really transform how we think about community law enforcement
relations so that everybody feels safer and our law enforcement officers feel,
rather than being embattled, feel fully supported. We need to seize that opportunity.” Yet the
interim report makes no mention of incentives (tax breaks, block grants, etc.,)
to make the report recommendations that much more attractive to the
states.
In addition, there’s
a political landscape that has become increasingly more Republican and more
hostile towards the President. The
president though is seeking to take advantage of the momentum created last year
by the nationwide protests that triggered a number of Ferguson-related
legislation proposed in state legislatures across the country. But there are bills such as SB 1445 in
Arizona - a controversial bill allowing the name of an officer involved in a deadly
or violent incident to be withheld for 90 days.
Or SB 331 in Missouri – another controversial bill that would exempt any
videos taken by police, including everything from body cameras to dashboard
cameras, from public release.
With respect to the “public
trust” - since the rebellious uprisings sparked by the deaths of Eric Garner
and Michael Brown last summer, poll after poll clearly shows a racial divide
where blacks have lower levels of confidence in the police, in their use of
excessive force, but also against militarizing
the police as well.
Yet, the president
has opted to take a politically safe and comfortable view of the public trust,
and what is needed to repair that public trust – thus maintaining the status
quo. The fact of the matter is that
holding such a view will certainly invite criticism from Black America
regarding his lukewarm response to the police violence issue. But more
importantly, the president’s view of the public trust will undoubtedly trigger
more resistance, more protests, more acts of civil disobedience and rebellious
uprisings. This will bring national and international attention to the
president’s view of the “public trust” as the movement to truly transform the
police culture of violence, harassment and abuse against primarily black and
brown communities continues unabated.
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