Part 2: Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Emergency Amendment Act of 2020
Following the murder of George Floyd and the mass protests that he inspired, DC passed the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Emergency Amendment Act of 2020. The act includes the following provisions:
- prohibits the use of neck restraints like chokeholds
- increases access to body-worn camera videos
- limits consent searches
- created the Police Reform Commission
- restricts MPD’s purchasing and use of military weapons, as well as limits the use of “internationally banned chemical weapons (tear gas), riot gear, and less-lethal weapons (rubber bullets)”
Limiting consent searches, restricting military weapons, and prohibiting neck restraints are changes that immediately impact how police officers carry out their jobs. Decreasing the use of tear gas, riot gear, and rubber bullets is a step to protect people’s first amendment right to freedom of assembly. It is unfortunate that the Act didn’t go into effect until a month after US Park Police came down hard on activists protesting the murder of George Floyd, as is clear in the two, age-restricted videos below.
But even if the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Emergency Amendment Act had been officially on the books, there’s no guarantee it would have kept protestors safe. The law has a loophole that states that aggressive items like tear gas and rubber bullets can be used if there is “an immediate risk to officers of significant bodily injury.” Considering that cops use this excuse all the time, this effort to reform policing in the District might not be as helpful as it seems. Nevertheless, these are changes we should ensure are carried out.
One of the most interesting parts of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Emergency Amendment Act was the creation of the Police Reform Commission (PRC). The Commission was composed of 20 representatives, none of whom were affiliated with MPD in any way, who would examine the policing practices in DC and recommend reforms. Formed in July of 2020, they would only have until the end of the year to report to Mayor Bowser.
Although they did not have much time, the Police Reform Commission published a lengthy report with many great recommendations to change how police operate within DC. They recommended replacing police with behavioral healthcare professionals as “the default first responders to individuals in crises.” Calling on police only in dangerous crises where weapons are involved, and even then, the response is in conjunction with the behavioral health professional.
Many of the recommendations in the Police Reform Commission’s report resemble provisions included in the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act of 2016. The NEAR Act establishes a new program that pairs mental and behavioral health professionals with MPD officers. The teams will identify and serve individuals with unmet needs who frequently interact with the police. It also places trained personnel in emergency rooms around the District to help de-escalate retaliatory violence and directly connect trauma victims to needed social services.
It took a coalition of organizations, including Stop Police Terror Project-DC, Black Lives Matter-DC and the American Civil Liberties Union of DC, three years to convince the city to pass the NEAR Act and another year to get it fully funded. The argument can be made that if the city expanded NEAR Act programs, some of the suggestions made in the Police Reform Commission’s report might not feel quite so necessary.
The PRC also recommended strengthening social safety nets by increasing funding for the Department Of Behavioral Health, addressing the housing needs of all DC’s residents, and decriminalizing low-level offenses like panhandling, among other recommendations. Rather than criminalizing certain behaviors, the PRC calls on DC “to expand and create community-based services and other resources that meet people’s underlying needs.” Many of their recommendations spring from what they called “Reducing and Realigning,” meaning that the size of the MPD should be reduced, and that money that usually goes to policing should go to building community programs that help people instead. As they pointed out in their report,
“While many cities have significantly reduced funding for police, MPD funding has increased by 12 percent since 2015. MPD’s budget dwarfs the District’s budgets for affordable housing, employment services, physical and behavioral health (and is less than human services).”
Police Reform Commission Report
Black Lives Matter-DC activists have been demanding these kind of reforms almost since the groups inception in 2015. Unfortunately, their demand to Fund Black Futures didn’t get much traction.
Reduction and realignment are in their proposals through removing police from schools and taking special measures to protect young people from over-policing and criminalization, funding the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE), holding police accountable, and building a community-centered MPD with a harm reduction approach to policing.
This report is very long and goes much further into detail than this article. There is a move away from policing communities and towards building communities. Policing has never worked to bring about material improvements for working-class people. Community-based approaches like the ONSE are proven to work. Adopting the suggestions of the Police Reform Commission could be an important step in this direction. Their recommendations should be put into effect.
