A police officer talks with a protester in New York, June 20.
Photo: Corine Sciboz/Zuma PressSuppose Congress wanted to seize the moment and make real progress on police reform. What would the two chambers do?
They would begin by taking to heart the words of Abraham Lincoln, spoken at Ottawa, Ill., during an epic 1858 debate with Stephen Douglas: “In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.”
Today, 57% of Americans believe police in dangerous situations are more likely to use excessive force against black people, up from 34% in 2016. The finding comes in a June poll from Monmouth University. In the same survey, 76%, including 71% of whites, say that discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. is a “big problem.”
Within the African-American community, 30% in a June Kaiser Family Foundation poll say they were treated unfairly because of their race during the past year. Forty-one percent say they have at some point been stopped or detained by the police on account of their race, and 21% say they were victims of police violence for this reason. As South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham remarked during a recent Senate hearing, there is something wrong when his home state colleague, Sen. Tim Scott, has been stopped and questioned by Capitol Hill police on multiple occasions—including while wearing his official Senate pin—while it has never happened to him.
It is impossible for officers to do their jobs effectively when they don’t enjoy the trust of the communities they are sworn to serve and protect. But without significant changes in police practices, this trust can’t be rebuilt.
Some of these changes will require federal legislation. And here again the American people have spoken clearly, across party lines. A ban on chokeholds and strangleholds is supported by 68% of all Americans and 52% of Republicans, according to the Kaiser poll. Requiring police to give a verbal warning, when possible, before shooting at a civilian is favored by 89% of Americans, including 83% of Republicans. More than three-quarters of Americans, and more than 6 in 10 Republicans, favor requiring states to release officers’ disciplinary records, a measure that might have saved George Floyd’s life.
Most Americans want to create stronger incentives for police to do the right thing—and to pay a price when they don’t. A remarkable 95% would require police to intervene against, and report, the excessive use of force by fellow officers, a measure that could help tear down the “wall of silence” protecting wrongdoers from scrutiny.
Seventy-three percent of Americans, including 55% of Republicans, favor allowing individuals to sue police officers when they believe excessive force has been used against them. Given this consensus, legislators should be able to reach agreement on the court-created doctrine of qualified immunity, which makes it hard to hold officers accountable when they violate constitutional rights.
Mr. Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has opened the door to this discussion. “We don’t want to deter people from going into law enforcement,” he says. “But we do want to have a sense of accountability. And to the extent that qualified immunity fosters a sense of ‘It’s really not my problem,’ let’s take a look at it.” Although President Trump has reportedly called this issue a “red line,” Senate Republicans shouldn’t allow him to preclude its consideration.
While federal legislation should reform policing, it shouldn’t punish the police, who are trying to do their jobs under difficult conditions. For example, my Brookings Institution colleague Rashawn Ray has proposed housing subsidies to enable more officers to live within the communities they serve. His research also finds that many officers have excessive workloads, forcing them to make high-stakes decisions while not at their best. Reducing workloads and providing housing subsidies would cost money, diminishing the potential savings from transferring some current police functions to mental-health professionals and other social services.
Police feel besieged on all sides. Federal legislators should extend an olive branch by incorporating the Protect and Serve Act into compromise legislation. This bill, which would make targeting law-enforcement officers for violent attack a federal crime, is co-sponsored by Florida Rep. Val Demings, reportedly on the shortlist to be Joe Biden’s running mate.
Whatever may be done at the federal level, much of the burden of rebuilding the relationship between police and African-American communities will fall on states and localities. There’s an obvious place to start, by curtailing the practices that serve as daily irritants and foster a sense of injustice. These include stop-and-frisk, traffic stops for minor infractions such as broken taillights, and arrests for marijuana possession, which already has been decriminalized or legalized in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
We have arrived at a rare moment when meaningful change backed by both U.S. parties is within reach, and we dare not miss it.
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June 24, 2020 at 12:22AM
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The Police Reform Americans Want - The Wall Street Journal
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