now. we will be starting with brian stephenson. well let me just thank all of you for your testimony and for being here. i want to particularly thank peralta for the specific recommendations and stanic. chief berry i'd be interested because you work with national organizations. if you've heard from either other panelists or earlier today, specific recommendations that have been initiated by police chiefs that are doing innovative work in their department which you think would be positive things for the task force to recommend specifically in building better trust and better relationships within the community. the second part is if you could identify innovative leadership in communities that you've worked in or seen or you've heard about that you'd like to

draw attention to. i'd be really interested in hearing about places where people have done creative things specifically on this question of building trust between police and communities. i share your concerns on the broader issues. because we're not talking about them i don't want you to feel like you're not being heard. the questions of gun access and drug policy are very big issues that law enforcement have to bare the brunt of but i'm interested in any recommendations that you'd like to endorse either from your co-panelists or that you've heard here today. >> first and foremost i think the most important thing that we've heard from day one is collaborating communication in our neighborhoods. we've got to work -- most of my associations have been doing community outreach for years. we've run the poa leagues in many places. we do christmas drives to help

feed the people in our neighborhoods. shop with a cop programs. a lot of the police departments don't have the resources or the ability to do that. the collaborative work with the churches and community groups is essentially. i think when community oriented policing became a buzzword in my career in the 1980s, it was fine for community oriented policing as long as i didn't get out of my car and then it started to where i better get out of my car. with current staffing levels being what they are, overtime compensation being cut back, it's very difficult for officers to do anything proactive in a neighborhood. we've become a reactive police force. it's sad. but since the major cuts in-law enforcement, we estimate we're down close to 100,000 police officers since the late 1990s. that's caused a huge void of

people getting out and doing what we're supposed to do. as far as innovation, i heard about some of the school resource information which shocks me because my state is a small southern state and we've had school resource officers in ef every middle school and high school in the state for the last eight or ten years. many run summer programs for at risk children in cooperation with the schools. those prove to be very affective in our communities. >> mr. stephenson, i would again take you back to this policy manual. i didn't get into them because we were pressed for time to try to make up lost ground. also, my commitwritten testimony contains a great detail on those issues. i have to say some of the

training -- the professor at the university of south florida in tampa. she's done a great deal of training in the state of florida on bias and she does great -- she does a great job. the other thing, it was mentioned earlier, there are a lot of locations that have great relationships with the clergy and work together. a perfect example is orange county florida the sheriff has done a great job of bringing that community together to work on issues. again, they do afterschool programs and programs for at risk youth. so there are a lot of great examples out there. but at the end of the day as chuck just mentioned, the funding. dollars for training. the state of florida right now currently authorizes $67 per officer per year for training. $67. now, that's up from $40 two years ago. okay? that's what we're up against

ladies and gentlemen. those are real numbers. that's what's going on across the country. the improvement in the economy that has happened across the nation has not made it to the local levels yet. a lot of the property values have not come back. so there are agencies still struggling. i say to you what kind of training can you do for $67 per employee? pretty tough? did any other witness want to weigh in on this question? >> sure. that's part of where we come in to try to fill that niche. we have chapters from alaska all wait to florida. we do a week long annual conference that we do that does provide police training. we have our own budgets because we know the police departments are strained. they really are. but the dues that we collect

throughout the country can be useful in that. >> as far as reaching out to the faith based community you're talking about things that happen in certain areas. we work choeslosely with our county commissioners. we think it's important to work with local government. you've got to reechbach out to the local government. we try to get them interested in being an officer. and it's interesting in a lot of communities, even now, maybe sichblsix to eight of the students that came through had interest in

being an officer. so we know we're falling short in those efforts so we think we need to continue the efforts. we're for"we're for" equal. we're proud to say that we've opened our doors to african-americans, white. a lot of our boards are very mixed. you can't fight equal if you're going to be prejudice yourself. so that's got to be mentions. >> okay. rich, anything you want to add. >> no, madam chairman. i'm going to try the second question when you're ready. >> okay. >> well, let me say this. i am going to talk a little bit about the community advisory boards because i think this is important. the whole thing about law enforcement in the community is about trust and partnership. how do you build that? i will go back to the best example i know which is in my own state. when my dentyputies swear to uphold

the constitution and laws of minnesota. those are the three things that govern the actions and duties and responsibilities of our deputies. we go one step further. that is the community advisory board made up of 38 members, the faith community, educators the joe and jane average citizens and business owners. i could say you're just a sounding board, thank you for your advise and guidguidance. we don't do that. we ask them and talk about our policies and funding. if i am looking to do something, i use their input. it isn't just a advisory capacity like in some organizations but we truly use the community advisory board. those partnerships don't come overnight. they don't just stop and start

and stop and start again. it's something that you build over years and years. many of these community advisory boards have served -- since i got sworn in 2006 some come back. some move back to outside of our country but at the end of the day, they want to come back. they like having a vested interest and stake in the community at large. i think that's a really important concept as you continue your work and recommendations back to the president that you highlight those things. thank you. >> thank you. moving on, connie rice and tracy mirrors following her. >> all right, gentlemen. thank you for your testimony. i am going to make sure i read it right and i don't think i did because three of you sounded extremely combative.

i could understand why you felt attacked attacked but i'm wondering if you disagree with chief bratten and chief charlie beck current chief of lapd when both of them testified that the future was not in handcuff and that police would have to change their mooindmind set and outlook if they were going to bond with these communities of color. do you disagree with that. >> i will start with that. the answer is no. that's why again, i go back to that for over 20 years has been trying to get a national commission on criminal justice to try to look at the entire system. we've been wanting this for a long time. we can't get anybody in congress that would take it forward. the answer is we've seen this train coming for a while and

we've been trying to be upfront and we have not been able to get people to actually take action so the answer is i absolute agree that the entire system needs to be looked at unfortunately law enforcement keeps taking the brunt of it. again sentencing and all of those type of things, we don't control those. the other thing i found interesting before with the schools and making arrests you know our hands have been tied. because of the fear of juvenile guns in schools, we don't have a choice. when i started in this business in 1977 you had discretion in cases. any anymore, that discretion is gone because if you don't make an arrest and that person hurts somebody, you're done. your agency is done. so it takes a system wide adjustment to make this thing better. >> but isn't it true sir that

that first contact with law enforcement is how most of our kids get funneled into this criminal justice system so there's a lot of discretion you hold? i mean, i guess i'm asking if you can agree with that or not because that first contact with the criminal justice system it comes from the conscious decision of an officer to place that child into that system. >> right. i would understand that -- it depends. look at the domestic violence laws across this country. the discretion of an officer is gone. i had a friend of mine whose 17-year-old son got arrested because him and his 18-year-old son got in a fight. if you don't make that arrest and something bad happens -- so officers are airing on the side

of protecting themselves and that agency. unfortunately anything to do with schools anymore, if you don't make an arrest and something bad happens, it's over. again, i don't think the officers have the discretion that they once had. that's my personal opinion. but i agree that that initial contact is crucial but it also depends on how that contact happens. if it's a voluntary encounter or if fall into one of those mandatory reporting areas, you don't have much discretion. >> right. they have both said that they have an obligation to change the mindset of the traditional police officer. how would you interpret that? do you disagree or agree that the mindset of officers is an area that needs to bell of these others that you've listed. >> well, while i'm up i will hit

on that one too and then i will turn the microphone over. i believe the nobility of policing and that is the constitution of values that go with it and the fairness and justice that go with it. do i think that we need to do a better job with that training, yes, ma'am i will not argue with you one bit. we have to. so there are great programs out there and we do have to change the mind set. but we have to have the public's help. accepting violence as the norm is unacceptable too. there are shared responsibilities. i think law enforcement will step up and do their part and the public needs to do their part and have shared responsibility. >> thank you. >> i think there's another segment of the population that we don't blame but police officers are used in this country by politicians to handle problems problems. going into areas of high crime

and vandalism the police department are the public serve servants are the servants that are responsible for making the contacts. i heard about earlier about incentivizing for arrests. nobody quotas for arrests should be illegal. police officers should have discretion. in st. louis county the fop took a position that they needed to consolidate police departments because you can't go from one burrow to the next without getting two traf iskfic tickets because they govern on the money provided by the tickets. they need to review the amount of discretion. video cameras and body cameras are now causing them to affect an arrest because someone will second guess every decision he makes. why didn't you put that person in jail. you had a clear violation, why didn't you put him in jail?

i thought that my discussion with that young man was fruitful. i believe he understood what he did was wrong. i also believe by allowing that subject to go away that i've left him with a good impression. well, that good impression will cost you three days off for not enforcing the law. i believe with the chief that officers must have their discretion returned but that starts with the politicians who pass the laws. we have zero tolerance policies in our high school. i live in an area where children go and hunt and fish before school. and if in the back of their pick up truck they leave an empty shotgun case, that's a criminal offense and they are expelled from school. that's ridiculous so the discretion should come back but with that the discretion should be taught that there's no proprizal for those who practice

the discretion. we have a limited amount of time in this segment. six members or five members still have questions to ask. thank you for your answers there. let me turn to tracy mirrors. >> thank you for your testimony. i will try to make this as pointed as i can. it follows from connie rice's question. i want to frame it by starting with the point that professor tyler brought up that crime has gone up subdown substantially yet the trust has gone down. it seems like there's agreement among all three panels that we need to improve the levels of trust that police have with communities. the question is how to get there. i want to echo with connie rice said and brian stephenson said in seeking for very specific

recommendations you want do that. you were less clear accept for chief peratla. i would like to hear your brief comments about your views on training but what about ideas of procedural justice. even if you believe that you don't have a choice in an arrest and you've all been just a little bit inconsistent about whether you think there's indiscretion oshtr not. you do have a choice in how you treat people. >> i think the chief addressed that in his testimony. there are 12 million arrests a year and the vast majority to without any incident. training is obviously key. training is the first thing that

got caught after 2008 in every police department in the country. the budget was sliced. our officers are in, in kind of training that will benefit the officers -- you got to remember that the officers out there don't make the rules in the police department. most of the time we're not included in the rule making. i think that as part of the collaborative effort, we have to be involved to. rank and file has to be involved. the issue of discretion being returned to the police officer is essential. >> let me answer, one of the things that's in our report, it's about getting everybody involved in-law enforcement. you need to know what we do. unfortunately people get their ideas from tvs and movies. that's not what cops do. we do a lot of at risk pro

programs -- the regular people who work 8:00 to 5:00, if you could come to a citizen academy and see the training and understand it and then be part of some of those advisory committees. those things are an incredible tool. unfortunately, many of us are putting in more hours for less money and at the end of the day do you really want to go to the police department and listen for two hours? unfortunately some don't. we hope that they are are and we hope that you as a team will come back with some great ideas that we can steal. we don't think we know-it-all. i mean i have always believed in highering people smarter than you. so the people who work for me are a lot smarter. whatever you have please we will run with your ideas. i can guarantee you that. >> jose lopez. >> yeah my myquestion -- we've

gone down this road but i want to come back to it. when i think of our prison system and the overwhelming numbers of people who have gone to prison over the past three decades and the fact that the majority of those look like myself and britney, it makes me think of the role of law enforcement and we heard of this notion or idea that law enforcement needs to serve as a function or does serve as a function to maintain racialize izeized social control. i just want to hear from the panel how you take that notion. this idea that law enforcement's function is to maintain racialized social control. >> well, i will start on that. that is the further thing from the truth. the fact is when you're a cop and you get the call -- you

don't get to pick who the victim is. you don't get to pick who the suspect is. when you take a report -- in drag net they used to say the facts ma'am. just the facts. that's how cops operate. are the numbers disproportional yes. is the victimization disproportional, yes it is. those are the facts. the cops didn't create those. that's why i said in my testimony, i really encourage you to dig into the real facts and come up with a plan. because again, we don't pick and choose our cases. they come to us. to think that there's any kind of institutional -- anything for putting people in prison is absolutely false and the disproportion alt a, i agree with. it needs to be examined but the disproportional -- is

embarrassing. >> britney. thank you all for your testimony and lieutenant peralta thank you for your very thoughtful suggestions and solutions. i have a two part question. the first part i think is pretty basic because like attorney rice i think i might be misunderstanding something and i'm looking for some charity. so the first three of you your testimony seemed to suggest that the burden of responsibility is equal on parts of the police and the community. in my community i think the community would disagree given that police officers swear an only, arelicensed to carry a gun, et cetera. i want to know if you agree that the burden of responsibility is heavier on law enforce. >> i think there's a perception that it is but it shouldn't be. we all have the same responsibility towards society.

i don't think that police officers should be held to any kind of a higher standard. but we should take the lead. we should work with the communities to help build that trust. none of us have sat up here and said that we think that there's not a trust issue. we all there is. but it's both ways. and until we get into communities and work together and talk about it. i mean, one of the worst things in a police department is you never, ever -- you can be accused of a lot of things with you you don't want to ever be accused of arresting somebody for -- because of their race. which is an accusation that's made a lot. so i don't know a police officer out there that wants to arrest somebody because of color because it's just not what we do. it's just like the chief said, we get the call and we respond. i think there's a disproportionate number of people of color in prison. i think the whole core issue

goes back again to poverty. i hate to say it but those who have, have good lawyers and those who don't, don't. i think that's a problem. i think the disparity in sentencing is a problem in this country. it's something that needs to be adjusted but that's not a law enforcement issue. we don't make recommendations on sentencing. most of the time we have no say on any of that in-law enforcement so i don't think we have any more responsibility than anybody else. >> sure. so let me quickly ask my second question. i don't honestly think that you and i would agree on that point because i'm the child of a pivotor andpivot yoor pivotor pastor and to whom much is given, much is required so because law enforcement is operating with higher authority there's a higher level of authority but you did say something that we have common ground on and that is that law enforcement should take the lead. so my question like tracy, i'm wondering what are some specific

suggestions from many of you, honestly around not just programmatic one on one solutions but systemic solutions. >> i will take a stab at that one. having been a long time trainer both as a sergeant and now as a lieutenant. one of the things that we like to look at is when budgets are cut what is left behind. the mandatory training are rely around high relyiabilityreliability, less frequent stuff tactics. so when you're training is all around training, shooting the physical part and less on the verbal part. we cannot ignore that training. we have a 40 hour mandatory but without support without funds, i can't get to anything else. i have to cover the high liability things first. i think we can start with the

academies. recognize discussion, policing interpersonal communications. i was pointing out that highest point, that ignition point is with that new officer out on the street having that confrontation and how he applies that discretion. he's going to grab what he knows. and if he hasn'ted been trained in that yet he's going to go right to something he does know handcuffing, defensive tactics or maybe shooting. so we believe that those communication skills -- we need to swing that pendulum back we need to balance that back as much as there's training in the physical, there needs to be training in that verbal communication arena as well to help change mind sets. >> we will have to condense the remaining questions. about one minute to two minutes each. quickly. >> yeah. so one of the things that i think we've heard over the

course of today and first of all thank you all for testifying and we appreciate what you and your members to for us everyday is that there are a lot of people in the community who don't understand what the police do, how they do it and why they do it the way they do. and so, my question for you and to any of you is if you could identify one department, one jurisdiction jurisdiction, one program that you're aware of that does it right. that makes that explanation to the public in the right way. >> i will say las vegas. my sheriff is very proactive. we saw that. we saw shootings happening and we weren't quite sure what to do about it so reaching out to resources like the doj i think, are vital to come in and help

reset the scale to zero so to speak and get you back going on that right road. we have done we well with it. i think also, it's also habit in our commands if there's a shooting. our command staff comes out. the captain comes out and walks the neighborhood. knocks on doors and asks the neighbors while that shooting went on if they are okay. do they need anything? those kind of grass root things that we do. we set up hoping that we're going to see riots in vegas and it just didn't happen. i think that that's because of the community involvement that that department has. >> does anybody else want to weigh in on the panel. >> i will once again say the iacp. we jumped on and put the summit together. we didn't ask for any funding. we did it ourselves because we knew it was an important topic and we needed to get the information out to our 23,000

members so they can start building the trusts and alliances so we took the lead on it. >> is there a circumstanceurriculum in the materials, chief. >> this is the initial draft and then we plan on a follow-up. we turned this document around pretty quickly. i have to say probably a lot quicker than a federal publication. >> we're familiar in being on time lines and having to turn things around quickly. >> we will have to wrap up quickly. >> thank you all for being here. i just have a question. post 9/11, it seems that a lost of the federal funding that we were receiving, shifted from community oriented policing funding to a homeland security, more of a defense type investigative funding to stopper

rix , terrorism but do you feel that transitioning back to that pre9/11 philosophy of getting out of the cars and talking would be a good tactic to employ? >> i move approval. >> i don't know if i necessarily agree that. i don't think we can ever go back to pre 9/11. over 90% of law enforcement is done by state and locals. i think the training we've seened in how to identify potential threats is important but yes, we've been pushing the justice department for my grant money and cop money. we were huge supporters of the 94 crime bill that president clinton pushed forward with the 100,000 police officers in the street. we supported it more than anybody else that i know and we continue to support that. part of our biggest problem now is our staffing levels.

it's hard to go back to community policing for instance in in new york city you're done 6,000. >> so reevaluating that balance again. >> well, thank you all. this has been a terrific panel. thank each of you. i know you have very busy schedules. [ applause ] despite the fact that we've run over but will be resuchblmeing right at 1:30 but before we ajournal ron davis has an important announcement. any deliberations or recommendations to the president will be suspended until after lunch till we reconvene so i will see you back here at 1:30.

>> we will hear from leaders from civil rights groups in a moment. the task force was established by president obama in an executive order in december after the police shooting of unarmed teen michael brown in ferguson missouri. the task force's initial report is due to the president in march. the cspan city tour takes book tv and american history tv on the road traveling to u.s. cities to learn about their history. this week we partnered with comcast with a visit to west virginia. >> i wrote these books the wheeling family. there are two volumes. the reason i felt they are important to collect these histories is because wheeling transformed into an industrial city in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. it's kind of uncommon in west

virginia in that it drew a lot of immigrants from europe here in search of jobs and opportunity. so that immigrant generation is pretty much gone. i thought it was important to record their stories to get the memories of the immigrant generation and the ethnic neighborhoods that they formed. it's an important part of our history. most people tend to focus on the font ear frontier history, the civil war history. of equal importance in my mind is this industrial period and the immigration that wheeling had. >> wheeling starts as an outpost on the frontier. that river was the western extent of the united states in the 1770s. the first project funded by the federal government for road

production was the national road that extended from cumberland maryland to wheeling, virginia. when it comes here to wheeling, which is about at that time 50 years old, the real spurt that it needs for growth. over the next 20 to 25 years, the population of wheeling will almost triple. >> watch all of our events from wheeling saturday at 12:00 eastern on book tv. >> now representatives from the aclu, naacp defense and education task force. the goal is to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the community

. so good afternoon. and welcome back. before we get started. i will hand it back over to the cochairs. i just wanted to let people know in the audience and those watching in the web cast, the time for comments for those in attendance will be at 3:30. for those online you can give comments and we're starting to receive them, thank you, through the website at the e-mail of comments@taskforcepolicing.us. you don't have to write your comment on there but if you could put your name on there so i can call people. we will have microphones floating so we will come to you and you can make your comment. that will be at 3:30. i wanted to give people an opportunity to fill our their cards. thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm laurie robertson.

a cochair of the task force. i'm delighted to welcome all of you to the afternoon session. we're now going into panel four of our witnesses from the civil rights, civil liberties community. we have four excellent witnesses with us this afternoon. i'll be introducing even of them in turn and a reminder that their full bios are both online and in the hand outs for those of you who are here with us in the awed convenience. all of them are very accomplished so reading their full bios again, would take up a great deal of time so i'll be introducing them very briefly. we'll be starting out with cherlynn, the president and director of the naacp legal defense and educational fund. pleased to have you with >> thank you so much.

thank you for the invitation to address the task force. this is the nation's oldest civil rights legal organization. as a result we've been engaged with the issue of excessive force and racial bias in policing since our inception 75 years ago. in fact the 2013 pulitzer prize winning book details thurgood martial in his effort to challenge the shooting of unarmed african-americans in florida in 1949. last year the public of police abuse and excessive force came to a head. the killings of mr. rice in ohio john crawford in ohio, mike brown in missouri, mr. powl

in missouri, mr. jones in south carolina, and many, many others has finally captured the outrage of americans of all races. the fact that these have been captured on cell phones and video has played an important role in convincing many people of what we have known for decades that there is a real problem of policing of unarmed african-americans. to demand an end to police brutality, to inaffective policing to violence against unarmed and peaceful individuals is not to demonnize the police. we recognize that policing is hard and dangerous work. the communities that we represent need good policing, trustworthy police officers and a relationship with police based

on trust and respect but in far so many communities and in far too many encounters there's neither trust or respect. we hold police officers to a higher standard than we impose on higher standards. that's because police officers are officers of the state with the sacred charge to protect and serve. we the people give them a night stick and pepper spray and it's a taser and gun and power to take human right. the brutal incidents we have seen this year where officers have killed unarmed africans is nearly new and reflects the reality of explicit and implicit bias in policing. we have a moment to address this

long-standing problem. we believe that if we take action now we can improve policing standards and community confidence in-law enforcement, increase safety in the community and safety for police officers. we've already called upon the department of justice to use its authority and substantial resources to address the problem and we will continue to engage with the department of justice on those issues. we also presented testimony before congress calling for federal reforms specifically focused on the elimination of government sponsored military style equipment in public schools. we're happy to furnish this task force with the earlier testimony and documents and of koshscourse a more comprehensive version has around been furnished to the task force. we believe there are three critical elements needed to address the crisis we're in. one is the need for data and transparency. one of the most disturbing dimensions is the absence of

reliable data. we need a national public database that documents police shootings, assaults and killings of unarmed individuals. second training and supervision. we believe all policing and community policing by its very nature must include training how to confront racial bias improve training in deescalation techniques and training with youth and those who exhibit mental health concerns and also proper supervision of officers who receive this training and finally, accountability for failure. accountability for failing to provide proper techniques is the single biggest problem of trust. so we recommend also that

prosecutors we brought into your discussion. we play a vital role in helping to improve policing and to building trust between law enforcement and communities. finally, we believe that much of what we have proposed as relates to data collection training, internal police standards for accountability is already required because we believe that this information and these standards are essential to fulfill the department's obligations of title six barring the provisions of federal funds to anyone engaging in racial discrimination. proper stuartship of this program in accordance with title 6 requires that the department of justice satisfy itself that individual police departments operate free from discrimination. it is our hope that the reform measures outlined in this

submission will prove useful to the task force as it engages in the important work of improving relationships between law enforcement and the community that's they protect and serve. and i welcome the opportunity to answer any questions that you may have. thank you. >> thank you so much. we're going to be holding questions until all of the witnesses have provided their testimony. next we're going to be hearing from laura murphy. long time director of the washington legislative office of the american civil liberties union. welcome. >> thank you. is it working? >> i think so. maybe switch over. >> thank you professor robinson and commissioner ramsey. and we are grateful for the opportunity to testify. let me start by saying something and make it really clear that even though the aclu probably

sues more police departments than any other organization, the aclu absolutely supports all rare minded law-abiding and courageous police officers who put their lives on the line everyday to keep us safe. however, we can no longer ignore the real crises that brought us here today. in some communities there's a deep distrust and lack of faith in-law enforcement of the just go a few miles over to anacostia and people will tell you about overzealous arrests for nonviolent offenses and the use of excessive and deadly force. these tactics have been used against children as well as persons with psychiatric disabilities. in new york city, 50% of those stopped and frisked are african-american. in maricopa county laut even

oes are nine times more likely to be stopped than whites. right here in the nation's capitol, ninety91% of those arrests here are black and we know usage is about the same. in florida where youth make up 20% of the population, they phrase 46% of all referrals to law enforcement. this data helps us explain why criminal justice reform is one of the most important civil rights issues of the 21st century. the aclu has five recommendations for change some of which police departments have already adopted and every police departmented department could adopt today. let me say i agree all of the recommendations that sherylle has made. our first recommendation is to

18 the to end the unkruksconstitutional act of profiling. we have to put an end to this. the task force should recommend that police departments adopt model policies that strictly prohibit law enforcement from profiling drivers, passengers pedestrians on the basis of race ethnicity, gender, national origin and sexual orientation. officers should be disciplined for infractions. second, we have to curb the excessive use of force. the choke hold has allegedly been banned in new york city but why are we seeing its use on national television? the task force must encourage police departments to adopt enforcement policies and training on these policies and

review disciplinary policies with with incidents that are unlawful. we should emphasize deescalation with the public and not swat teams. third, we absolutely need data collection. how do we hold police departments accountable if we do not have information. the task force should encourage them to collect and report useful data in a uniform manner that allows officers engaged in misconduct to be identified. we need data on stops frisks, searches, citations, arrests excessive use of force and homicide -- justifiable homicide. fourth, the task force should embrace civilian oversight of some kind of police department. the aclu supports independent

civilian review boards that have real board to investigate to issue subpoenas and to make findings that are binding. civilian review boards that are properly constituted reflect the needs of the community and are transparent. they should provide fair and timely processes for officers and residents and their decisions should be enforceable. finally, we ask the task force to do a top to bottom review of all federal policies and laws and grant programs that incentivize disproportionate arrests and incarceration of poor people and people of color including the cop's program and the burn jag program. even after 40 years of the war on drugs drug use has not declines in the united states.

it's time we call the war on drugs a failure and abandon these tactics that hurt minority communities disproportionately. in conclusion the current cultural policing demands far reaching and 70systemic reform and for that i am so grateful to all of you for participating in this spifsecific task force. we hope the recommendations of this task force will break new ground and help make new policies that will help end this policing crisis. the aclu stands to help all of you. >> thank you so much director murphy. our third panelist is the senior policy analyst of the texas policy foundation center for affective justice. thank you.

>> it's a real pleasure to be here. i have five minutes. i am here from texas from a conservative oriented think tank called the texas public policy foundation. our work on criminal justice at tppf folk ubscused on how to be restore a perspective on prison reform, one where we focus on costs, government accountability. we talk about this all the time in fields like health care and education but it was our perspective that many conservatives stopped asking the questions about criminal justice. they said lock them up and throw away the key. i don't care what the costs are. that didn't strike us as a limited government attitude. we launched a national campaign called ride on crime. i hope some of you are familiar with.

i would like to talk a little bit about one primary recommendation today that is not even directed at police officers or members of the public but that is directed at policy makers and legislatures. that is reversing the extraordinary amount of over-criminalization in american society. when the constitution was drafted, there were three federal crimes. treasure piracy and counterfeiting. now the number of federal crimes are 5,000. those are just the statutes. there are also agency regulations that can go up to 300,000. those are federal crimes. there are countless state and local crimes that are simply unnecessary. we have 11 different felonies in texas related to oyster harvesting. i used to think this was silly but i stopped laughing a few months ago when that awful tragedy occurred in new york city with eric garner. the chain of events that

occurred that led to mr. garner's death began when the police confronted him about the fact that he was selling individual cigarettes instead of packs of cigarettes. that's a crime in new york. i think the most profound thing i read about the eric garner case came from a law progressor at yale -- he's liberal -- i think he was spot on. he said that with all of his first year law students, he asks them on day one, not to support laws that you would not kill to enforce because -- i should quote him directly here. professor carter said the police go armed to enforce the will of the state. and if you resist they might kill you. those are the things that happen. i think professor's advice shouldn't just be directed at

people but policy makers. a friend of mine in texas who's a district attorney. i was talking to him once bay reform bill i was working on in texas. it some something to do with low level marijuana offenses. he thought that i thought i was going to impose him. he said you need to understand that i'm not going to instinctively be opposed to everything you argue because i'm a prosecutor. what you should understand is prosecuteors when we're in law school, this is not what we dream about. we want to catch killers raich rapist, drug kingpins. it got me thinking if we could apply that the same to police officers. i highly doubt they are dreaming about catching guy who's are

selling lucys on the corner of statten island. i think they want to capture murders, rapists and drug kingpins. i think so many people in our community have lost trust in police officers because they feel their sons and brothers are being harassed because police officers are confronting them and accosting them on issues that they feel at the end of the day, they don't really feel are crimes or traditionally have understood to be crimed. so i think we really should take a look at the number of offenses in our society that we've categorized as criminal. we should consider making some civil and eliminating some of them all together. we've had a lot of support on this issue from across the aisle. i can only spoke from my organization but on certain initiatives, the aclu the national association for criminal defense lawyers have been very supportive.

there were recommendations issued by congress on over-criminalization that came from representative bobby scott. although i approach the matters from a right/center prospective i don't think they have to necessarily be left or right oid yoe loj ik oidiologic oidiologicic generally speaking, don't go around supporting laws that you would not be willing to kill to enforce. thank you. >> thank you. >> and our final speaker on this panel a, is maria teresa kumar. president and ceo of voto latino latino. thank you very much for having me here today. i wanted to thank you for inviting us to speak on this issue. we're a national impartial organization working to impower

latinos everyday. today as topic is critical in our community. latinos respect the fact that police officers put their lives on the line everyday. police officers like the rest of us deserve to go home every night. while confrontations have directly impacted the african-american community. the latino community has a painful history ofincluding many deaths. lat those are latinos killed in the last two years at the hands of law enforcement. the recent practice of rogue arizona sheriffs plague the latino community and it is plaguing america. in preparation for this panel we reached out to both the latino latino audience to provide feedback on how to improve relations between law enforcement and the community that they serve. we received more than 430

responses in less than 24 hours which tells us this is an issue important to our community and one that we want to be engaged with. let's be clear. we want to cut off the deadline. we couldn't review them fast enough. first and foremost how our community views the role of law enforcement. the phrase used most important is to serve and protect our communities. a recent poll supports this. 84% of latino adults agree that police are there to protect and serve their families. unfortunately, that same poll showed 68% of latino adults worried law enforcement authorities will use excessive force against them. it's hard to cultivate a relationship of trust between a fearful population of the police. more than half of latino respondents indicated they or someone close to them had previously experienced police

harassment. many who said they had not declared no, i have not been harassed but i am white. case after case has been documented in racial profiling against the latino community. increased concerns about undocumented immigrants are to blame. there's a perception among nonlatinos that latinos are presumed to be immigrants and they are presumed to be undocumented until unproven otherwise. this has led them to fear immigration officers as well as traditional police officers. the reality is these fears are not without reason. african-americans and hispanics are disproportionately to be stopped by police. the nypd's controversial stop and frisk program shows similar evidence of racial profiling with police targeting blacks and latinos about 85% of the time.

in nearly 9 out of 10 searches police find nothing. our recommendations are based on what we poll from the latino awed convenience awed convenience audience. having police officers act as de facto police officers is detrimental to safety because they are unlikely to call the police for fear of deportation. police officers should live in the communities they serve. revise education requirements at minimum an aa. higher applicants to help bridge the trust gap. police should be more involved in neighborhood events, fair sporting events town halls community participation is very important. social media should be used to

leverage more improved communication between community members and police departments. offices should learn training so they know how to communicate with those of different races gender and sexual orientation. in anaheim california a city way majority of a latino population with protests broke out after two deadly shooting of two men, the city miled the first latino police chief last year. so there are areas that work. campaigns by conservative city council and some members of congress to propose legislation that makes local police responsible for immigration enforcement do more harm than good. these policies are opposed by the majority of police chiefs in

major u.s. cities. to further provide recommendations, revising existing policies, revise training at police academies to make sure officers can meet the needs of our diverse communities. use violence only as a last re-sort. we strongly urge the demalit demilitarization of our police departments. law enforcement officials should be held accountable by their actions by independent third parties agencies to get patterns of racial profiling. and officers should use body cameras at all tiles. 80% of latinos they they were concerned about the officer's ability to turn it on and off but overall body cameras will

benefit officers and commune the members. latinos understand and appreciate the role in our society but immigrants are likely to engage for fear of being deported. as a result the real police brutality may be unknown. the conversation is not one versus them but of community building and the community they serve together. there are too many examples of racial bias against latinos and i thank the latino community for sharing their input to help provide solutions. i think the task force marly particularly the need to improve between the two so our streets are safer and our communities are stronger. thank you. >> thank you. thanks to all of the witnesses here. i am going to start off by asking shawn, if he can lead with questions.