21st Century Civil Rights: Community Empowerment in Police Reform

November 20, 2015 Law Review Symposium 

As a national discussion around police, race, and reform is underway, I am proud to have contributed to the discussion. As the symposium editor for my law journal, I composed our Fall 2015 symposium in response to the Presidents' Task Force Report on 21st Century Policing (available at: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/TaskForce_FinalReport.pdf). I focused specifically on recommendations regarding community participation.

The symposium featured a keynote by Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods who gave a comprehensive overview of the trajectory from slavery to the current police state. The event opened with an address from Monica Ramirez, Assistant CA Attorney General, who spoke about the Open Justice program to make policing data publicly available. (http://openjustice.doj.ca.gov). The three panels focused on: (1) body camera policies, (2) community oversight structures, (3) and prosecutorial discretion vs grand juries. We also hosted a special guest speaker Cephus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson who is the uncle of the late Oscar Grant III, cofounder of the Oscar Grant Foundation (http://www.oscargrantfoundation.info/page/page/8959714.htm), and current head of Love Not Blood Campaign (http://www.lovenotbloodcampaign.com).

For the full length symposium recording, keynote powerpoint, and article compilations, visit: hastingsracepoverylaw.org.

My takeaways from the symposium:

1. Oversight bodies are not uniform and some carry great power and others do not. They are also tasked with an extremely time-instensive job limited by people capacity and resource limits.

2. The Oakland Police Dept. (OPD) is one of the more progressive in body camera technology with policies that do not permit officers to view the footage before giving official statements in cases of misconduct. The OPD also is tasked with the issue of technology itself: storage, confidentiality, cataloguing, and control of the data keep from cameras. However, considering we are minutes from silicon valley and the tech boom in San Francisco, innovative solutions seem available. No policy is tested nor officially endorsed.

3. SB 227 outlaws the use of grand juries in cases of officer-involved homicides. (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB227). The bill was championed by Senator Holly Mitchell and approved on August 11, 2015. Senator Mitchell spoke at the UCLA Critical Race Studies Symposium on Race and Police Violence, sharing the extreme emotional burden and taxing work required to tackle the magnitude of the policing system. However, at my symposium many speakers discussed the fact that removing grand juries increases prosecutorial discretion. This does not equate to a higher rate of indictment of officers implicated in misconduct.

Bay Area and statewide law enforcement is already implementing and/or preparing for reform in ways that are endorsed by the President's Task Force. However, this is all new and developing with little guidance of what is effective, efficient, and sustainable for longevity. There are many questions raised by these new projects such as privacy rights of police officers with automatic and/or 24/7 body camera recording.  However, the many families like Mr. Johnson's cannot wait for legal interventions so we see grassroots organizing and direct action until the law and policy align with social, economic, and racial justice.