Final Report Of The Presidents Task Force On 21st Century Policing

Recommendations on improving policing in the United States contained in the Final Report of The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing May 2015. Trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential in a democracy. It is key to the stability of our communities, the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services. In light of recent events that have exposed rifts in the relationships between local police and the communities they protect and serve, on December 18, 2014, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The President charged the task force with identifying best practices and offering recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. This executive summary provides an overview of the recommendations of the task force, which met seven times in January and February of 2015. These listening sessions, held in Washington, D.C.; Phoenix, Arizona; and Cincinnati, Ohio, brought the 11 members of the task force together with more than 100 individuals from diverse stakeholder groups-law enforcement officers and executives, community members, civic leaders, advocates, researchers, academics, and others-in addition to many others who submitted written testimony to study the problems from all perspectives. The task force recommendations, each with action items, are organized around six main topic areas or "pillars: " Building Trust and Legitimacy, Policy and Oversight, Technology and Social Media, Community Policing and Crime Reduction, Officer Training and Education, and Officer Safety and Wellness. The task force also offered two overarching recommendations: the President should support the creation of a National Crime and Justice Task Force to examine all areas of criminal justice and pro¬pose reforms; as a corollary to this effort, the task force also recommends that the President support programs that take a comprehensive and inclusive look at community-based initiatives addressing core issues such as poverty, education, and health and safety.

Trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential in a democracy. It is key to the stability of our communities, the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services. In light of the recent events that have exposed rifts in the relationships between local police and the communities they protect and serve, on December 18, 2014, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. In establishing the task force, the President spoke of the distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities-the sense that in a country where our basic principle is equality under the law, too many individuals, particularly young people of color, do not feel as if they are being treated fairly. "When any part of the American family does not feel like it is being treated fairly, that's a problem for all of us," said the President. "It's not just a problem for some. It's not just a problem for a particular community or a particular demographic. It means that we are not as strong as a country as we can be. And when applied to the criminal justice system, it means we're not as effective in fighting crime as we could be." These remarks underpin 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. Decades of research and practice tell us that the public cares as much about how police interact with them as they care about the outcomes that legal actions produce. People are more likely to obey the law when they believe those who are enforcing it have the right-the legitimate authority-to tell them what to do.2 Building trust and legitimacy, therefore, is not just a policing issue. It involves all components of the criminal justice system and is inextricably bound to bedrock issues affecting the community such as poverty, education, and public health. 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. The president selected members of the task force based on their ability to contribute to its mission because of their relevant perspective, experience, or subject matter expertise in policing, law enforcement and community relations, civil rights, and civil liberties.

Trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential in a democracy. It is key to the stability of our communi­ties, the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services. In light of events that exposed rifts in the relationships between local police and the communities they protect and serve, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The President charged the task force with identifying best practices and offering recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. The recommendations issued by the task force are organised around six main topic areas or "pillars:" Building Trust and Legitimacy, Policy and Oversight, Technology and Social Media, Commu­nity Policing and Crime Reduction, Officer Training and Education, and Officer Safety and Wellness. This book provides an overview of the recommendations of the task force.

This paper outlines the Government's proposals for reform of policing, with a move away from bureaucracy towards more democratic accountability. There will be directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners, representing their communities and understanding their crime and anti-social behaviour priorities. They will hold chief constables to account for achieving them, and will be able to fire her or him if they do not. Chief constables will be responsible for the day to day operations of their police force but accountable to the public via these individuals and not Whitehall. Regular beat meetings will allow people to challenge the police's performance and accessible 'street level' crime data will shine a light on local crime trends and concerns. Central targets will be abolished, and the police will be encouraged to use their professional judgment in performing their job. The Government will create a new National Crime Agency to lead the fight against organised crime, protect the borders and provide services best delivered at national level.

Listen to the History Repeating Itself podcast with the author. Watch this short YouTube clip of the author discussing Vollmer's use of bicycles in the Berkeley police department. August Vollmer was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected town marshal and appointed police chief in American history. It was Vollmer who brought policing out of its wholly corrupt and often brutal era of politics, by professionalizing not only his own police department in Berkeley, California, but police departments across the country and around the world. He was instrumental in the creation of the polygraph machine (lie detector), patrol car radio communication systems, and, as the Los Angeles Police Chief, the first crime lab in America. His greatest legacy, however, was the higher education program he created at UC Berkeley, which developed into the disciplines of criminal justice and criminology that are so widespread today. This riveting biography by Willard M. Oliver, ten years in the making, is the first single-volume, full-length biography of marshal, police chief, and Professor August Vollmer. It is a profound work of both biography and history, and brings to life the man who forever changed American policing and police education, reaffirming Vollmer's rightful title as "The Father of American Policing." Meticulously researched, the book draws upon newly discovered material, interviews, and writings of Vollmer's never before used, allowing Oliver to craft a richly detailed and fascinating narrative of Vollmer's life story. This magisterial portrait of one of policing's greatest leaders promises to reshape our understanding of both the man and his era and to rightfully restore August Vollmer as a household name.

Aimed at anyone seeking to understand the causes and distributions of excessive police violence—and to develop interventions to end it—From Enforcers to Guardians frames excessive police violence so that it can be understood, researched, and taught about through a public health lens.

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred. Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing. Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.