naacp chapter. contact your councilperson. contact your county commissioners or county judge or state representatives or state senators or whoever your congressperson is. there are many, many activities for all citizens that they can be involved with. host: congresswoman eddie bernice johnson. i appreciate your time on this martin luther king junior holiday. guest: thank you very much. host: very much. a great holiday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> a live look at the martin luther -- at the martin luther king junior memorial on -- in washington, d.c. the holiday was signed into law by ronald reagan and was celebrated by all states inure to thousand. crowds gathered her early this morning for a reef laying ceremony and remarks from jeh johnson. we will show you battle ceremony this evening at 7:00 p.m. eastern. today at 12:30 p.m., coverage of the annual national action network rockfest honoring martin luther king jr. which will feature the reverend al sharpton and others.

coming up today, president obama will take part in an mlk service project at the boys and girls club of greater washington d.c. we will show you that as well later in our program. ming. we are hearing from members of congress commenting on the holiday today from twitter --

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[no audio] >> tuesday night, president obama delivers his state of the union address would live coverage at 8:00 p.m. eastern including the president speech the gop response delivered by newly elected iowa senator joni ernst and your reaction through

open phones live on c-span and c-span radio. on c-span two, watch the president speech and congressional reaction from statuary hall in the u.s. capitol. the state of the union address live on c-span, c-span2, c-span radio and c-span.org. >> the white house has announced a list of invited guest to vcd with first lady michelle obama during tomorrow night's state of the union. the guests will range from allen gross newly released from cuba to a dreamer and the chief executive of cvs. the guests reflect white house priorities from trinity college to health care. the most hope for -- high profile guest allen gross jailed for bringing internet equipment was released from cuba last month. president obama announced a move to normalize relations with the country and reminder that our coverage of the state of the union address begins tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. with the speech itself at 9:00 p.m. and

we will take your calls and reactions on facebook and twitter. now a form on ways to improve the relationship between law and horsemen 10 communities. the panel features the mayors of sacramento, california philadelphia, and baltimore and they talk about urban initiatives to address police issues. the president's task force on 21st century policing is the host of the event. the group was established by executive order back in december, following the deadly police shooting of teenager michael brown. members were asked to come up with improvements in the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the community. >> ok, we're going to get started with their fifth and final panel this afternoon. we will be hearing from three mayors from three of our great cities here in america. we will start with kevin johnson, mayor of city of sacramento california and the current president of the u.s. conference of mayors.

mr. mayor? >> thank you very much, it's an honor and a pleasure to be here. i would like to think that i flew the furthest, 3000 miles to get here, on a redeye, that's how much we care about this issue. i want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this afternoon to discuss a topic of great concern for the nation's mayors. we are charged with developing recommendations, you are charged with developing recommendations that will be critical to the future of our cities and the nation. we appreciate president obama's leadership on this issue. and the quick action he took by appointing this outstanding task force and setting a tight timeline for your report. we also appreciate the efforts of the u.s. department of justice and its cops for its support on this task force and for the strong and productive partnership they have had with the nation's mayors. attorney general eric holder and director ron davis have

exhibited real leadership during this difficult time. we'd know that loretta lynch will provide that leadership once she is confirmed as attorney general. i am honored to serve this year as the president of the u.s. conference of mayors and glad to be joined on this panel bypassed president michael nutter and vice president stephanie rawlings blake. these are two outstanding leaders for our organization and their respective cities. the conference's leadership had an initial discussion on what we can learn from what happened in ferguson during a leadership meeting in sacramento in september. we discussed this further at a mayor and police chiefs meeting on the 20th anniversary of the cops program in little rock arkansas. that meeting was attended by president clinton and made possible to the -- through the generous support of the cops office. following little rock, i

appointed a working group of mayors and police chiefs chaired by gary with developing recommendations for local actions and intended to improve policing in america. among the members of this working group come all of whom were present in little rock, are your cochair and commissioner charles ramsey and distinguished mayors seated to my left. our group is hard at work and will be finalizing our recommendations during a call tomorrow. and that the winter conference in a couple of weeks. here is the six areas they are focusing on. we will give you a preview -- it's confidential so don't share. they want to presented it to you the first time next week. [laughter] six areas are -- 1-building police and community trust which is what we are here for today improving police department practices three

assuring timely and accurate communication, conducting independent investigations, five addressing racial and economic disparities and lastly, providing national leadership. we are very pleased that your cochair's, chuck ramsey and lori robinson along with your executive director ron davis will be with us at the winter meeting on thursday, january 22 to receive and discuss the recommendations from the full panel of mayors. we have 15 mayors and she's part of that working group. it is also very important to hear from the u.s. mayors because the issues we are discussing here today are primarily local issues. despite the similarities and the challenges we face, each of the challenges must be dealt with within the context of the cities we serve. we cannot pretend there is a one size fits all model.

i think you have heard that from each of the previous panels. there are uniqueness and nuances that reflect each of the cities. i am so proud of our community in sacramento. our elected officials, or law enforcement, our clergy, her community leaders and their young people for coming together to discuss these issues proactively and productively. after ferguson, we have had three meetings each month and i am proud of the work we are doing in sacramento. i have taken the feedback shared at each of these meetings and created a public safety task force in sacramento comprised of elected officials in our community. we are working to implement

those in the coming year. there are four parts of this framework. training diversity accountability, and engagement. these will be consistent themes you will hear throughout. in terms of training, we are targeting recruitment strategies around cultural sensitivity implicit bias, and dissemination recognition and certainly de-escalation techniques. none of these things are rocket science but the cities that do them and implement them with fidelity are the ones i think it will create the thrust we all need going forward. that is training. in terms of diversity, we want diversity among our line officers and we also want diversity among our command structure. we want diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, and we want diversity of thought so our police department reflects the community in which it serves. most of you know this but the city of sacramento is one of the most diverse cities in the

united states of america. unfortunately, the diversity of our police department does not reflect the community in which we are it. if you have questions on that, we can talk about that later. certainly, diversity is important. in terms of accountability, the cornerstone of trust and legitimacy -- we want to make sure that technology is prevalent in sacramento. we are looking at transparency reforms and open data from a body cameras are something that is important for all of us around the country and the hot topic you guys are addressing is the independent investigations or a ducting a special prosecutor in the of unarmed civilians. there is an opportunity here for all of us. if we can get out in front of this and build a relationship and bridge with meaningful conversations come i think we can advance this topic forward in a respectable manner. the last area's outreach and engagement -- i established a steering committee of community

leaders that includes law enforcement some of faith leaders, and aa cp, protest organizers, and youth leaders. you have a group in the committee that will be debt -- that will meet every month. that communication and information flow comes to the task force we created as elected officials and you have something that's real and productive. i appointed this public safety test forced to oversee this framework. in terms of sacramento, i think this is consistent with what we are doing today. we want sacramento to be the safest big city in california. i know that elidel thea and baltimore would challenge me so i tailored my remarks to say the safest big city in california. [laughter] i would not weigh in with those two but we want to be the safest big city in california, a model for 21st century community policing demonstrated by a major decrease in crime and a

measurable increase in community engagement. that to me is the core. you want a situation where crime goes down and community engagement goes up. i will close with this general codification: when you think about what took place in new york and i might be an elephant in the room were 2 -- what mayor diblasio and what happened with the unions to new york is a travesty for all of us. i don't know what the unique challenges are in those respective cities. all i can say is that i want sacramento to be an example in leading the way by partnering with our local police unions. i know you had a law enforcement panel earlier and i'm not sure how that went because i got here recently. our police unit in our line officers have to he a vital role in sacramento's effort to build trust and legitimacy. i am especially proud today that

dustin smith is joining me for this meeting. he is president of the sacramento police officers association and i would like him to stand up. give him a round of applause. they never get the applause they deserve. [applause] i believe second mento has one of the strongest police departments in this country. the members of our union are on the front lines of our public safety challenges day in and day out. we must have their support and a must-have hours. we have learned that sacramento we cannot make real progress unless the police and community are truly working in lockstep. this is why we are so proud honor to be here today -- we stand at the crossroads of our community. we are the leaders best positioned to bridge the gap in trust and understanding among our residents all of whom want the best for our cities. the city of sacramento and the u.s. conference of mayors, thank you for your leadership. we stand ready to work with you over the coming months to provide any assistance we can

that will contribute to efforts and i stand ready to answer any questions you might have. i thank you for the opportunity to present and i would like to turn it over to our past president from the great city of brotherly love, the one and only, michael leonard. >> thank you. very much. to all of the members of the task force and thank you on behalf of our citizens to have the opportunity to give testimony. it's a great honor for our city. police commissioner ramsey and professor robinson on our cochairs come all the members of the test horse and my fellow panelists, president johnson and vice president stephanie rawlings blake. as i mentioned, it is an honor to testify before this task force on such an important issue of utmost concern is significance in america today. i also want to thank ron davis

a great leader at the cops office and staff, you are great team members and partners with mayors all of us the united states. i want to thank you for your support as well. our focus here today is strengthening public trust in building strong relationships between and among law enforcement and the communities they protect and serve while also promoting prime -- crime reduction. i have been the mayor of philadelphia or a little more than seven years. in that time, arid ministration has accomplish a number of rings on behalf of and working with our citizens. i am proud of every step we have taken to improve the algae of life in our great city but none more so than what we have done to increase the feeling and the actual day today at trinity that goes on our streets in the field to look safety, creating an environment of shared trust and values between police officers

and our residents. i cannot talk about public safety strategy without talking about the roach i took to governing when i became mayor in 2008. i came into office knowing that public safety would be the number one issue facing philadelphia. i needed to address that issue because without it, none of my other goals, job creation increase graduation rates growing our population attracting businesses and creating jobs would ever be possible. i took this approach not only because insuring public safety is one of the primary functions of municipal government but also because through my nearly 50 years of serving on the city council, that reinforced for me the idea that no city and rate without mutual respect between the government and its citizens. one of my first administration appointments other than hiring a director of announced to put our city on fiscally solid ground was the appointment of our great

please commissioner, charles ramsey. when i was searching for a please commissioner, i looked at many candidates within the department across the country knowing that i needed someone to who shared my values and visions for its safer smarter police force and a safer philadelphia. the entire public safety team that was assembled including deputy mayor for public safety and my chief of staff, the director of public safety, commissioner ramsey and his deputy commissioners. they have worked together entirely for the last seven years to make this vision a reality. as a matter of fact, please commissioner ramsey is the longest-serving police commissioner in 35 years in philadelphia. my emphasis on public safety is the number one priority and that's what i declared a crime emergency in philadelphia on inauguration day. shortly after being sworn in as the 98 mayor of my hometown.

i asked police commissioner ramsey to come up with a went to increase safety and our streets within 30 days of inauguration day. the commissioners plan has grown and evolved into a strategy that has reshaped how the job of policing is approached by our brave men and women in uniform and is ultimately made lavelle theus safer than it was -- may philadelphia savor that it was my came into office. safe is a relative term especially if you are a resident who heard gunshots outside your home less night which means our work is never truly completely done. furthermore, with 248 homicides in our city last year, we still have a long way to go. however, this number represents a 36% decrease in homicides since 2007, the year before we began our holistic approach to crime prevention. we have seen a dramatic reduction in shootings and all

violent crime in the city of philadelphia. every category of part one crime is down in our city. it's because of these measurable statistic and i believe the city of philadelphia hasn't acted developed an effective and replicable approach to policing and community engagement. it's an approach which i will share with you today as well as my observations as the mayor of what more can be done. i grew up at 55th and large wood in west philadelphia at a time when there is a great level of mistrust between the police department and the communities which they are sworn to serve and protect especially the black community. as a member of that trinity when i became mayor, i knew in my heart that any corporation or ownership between citizens and the police needed to be born out of an understanding of that history but also with an emphasis on moving forward. we developed philadelphia's version of a community policing strategy which began with an

examination of what good policing meant to us. the police could not be seen as an occupying force. it cannot ostracize or treat our citizens with contempt. they could not just drive by in their vehicles allowing for little to no interaction with their citizens. this type of hands off policing does nothing to foster personal relationships or trust between citizens and police and police and citizens, both of whom are critical elements to protecting lives in solving crimes. we wanted to bring about a universal understanding as much as our citizens rely on police keep them safe, the police rely on citizens for the information they need to do their jobs. there needed to be in and to us versus them mentality. our believe in working with the community led to listening to residents about their desires for their neighborhoods which led to our community policing

strategy. to build public trust and the professionalism police officers, we focused on the training officers received and our administration's communication with those officers. training officers to engage respect to lay with citizens creates confidence in both groups. it goes further in producing a safe environment than any tech knowledge he or equipment ever could. just as in porch and as the rapport, we also needed trust and understanding between the administration leadership and the rank-and-file officers. we found a partner in this effort in the fraternal order of police lodge five president john nesbitt. officers know must now perform on the go to work, the fine line that will be the debt between being respect on taking precautions to protect themselves and they have arid ministrations deep respect for the risk these brave men and women take every day when they put on their uniforms.

at the same time, they demonstrated -- we demonstrated our intelligence for abuse corruption, illegal behavior from our officers. even a difficult economic and socially turbulent times, we have kept the lines of medication open with our union leaders and police force. i believe as a result, we are stronger and more resilient for it. out of this new approach to training and leading our officers came inspiration to develop a new program which was piloted with a group of young technology savvy officers dubbed listen first. these officers went into the community they serve not just when they were performing traditional law enforcement duties that also to ask residents about neighborhood issues that remained on addressed and if they can help resident solve them. the officers took ride and how they help neighbors fix most small issues like broken streetlights, potholes and residents saw the police officers help see police

officers as people who can and i change, not just as uniforms who appeared when terrible events occurred. this concept is not revolutionary. this is the way policing was done for many years, decades ago. somewhere along the way, local police forces became almost militarized in their missions and operations and the distance literal and figuratively between officers and citizens unfortunately grew. in philadelphia, we saw a different way and wanted the best of all worlds, the old way of community engaged policing to be married with modern uses of technology and metrics to measure success. commissioner ramsey reinstated put patrols for all rookie officers and re-implemented gsi systems to use data to make assignments pray we created an entirely new politic approach to reducing crime with partners at every stage of the criminal justice process including the district attorney, the courts, the prisons, the parole system and even our community development corporations and

neighborhood town watch organizations. this led finally to new city initiatives. community engagement reduces crime in the most dangerous neighborhoods in our city and is providing residents with education have to access city services. there is a metric space partnership with the district attorney's office to target the most dangerous offenders and the use of violence reduction partnership and cease-fire, both of which bring citizens together who have made mistakes, served their time, and i now considered often at risk young people with whom we often intervene and set them on the right path. with these new programs in place, we continue to listen to the voices of our city's and xoma continue to learn from what the facts tell us. we know that the overwhelming majority of homicide victims and robert edition perpetrators are young, black men are it i partnered with new orleans mayor mary landrieu to form cities

united that seeks to address this disparity and improve opportunities for young men of color similar to president obama's my brother's keeper initiative which i'm proud to us of port. we have already hosted a workshop in philadelphia. we have formed a youth violence prevention collaborative assisted by a grant with united states department of justice which partners with the lees, courts social service agencies to review the entire youth justice system in philadelphia and institute changes to keep youth from ali into the devastating and hard to escape criminal justice cycle. president johnson has established my brother's keeper task force in which i'm a proud cochair with mayor bell in birmingham, alabama. what if what i've learned is that nothing can be a cop was without mutual respect and a shared sense of destiny. the idea that we are all in this

together, i believe this is how we will move forward as a nation into the world of 21st century policing under the leadership of president barack obama and this task force. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. mayor. next we will hear from stephanie rawlings blake, the mayor of baltimore and the current vice president of the u.s. conference of mayors. >> thank you very much. thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today of this first public listings session. -- public listening section. i want to thank the cochairs for your service and i want to rank -- thank my fellow panelists who have been on the forefront of this issue nationwide. i want to give a special shout out to mr. davis, thank you very much for working with baltimore city. today's topic on building trust and legitimacy are at the forefront of what we have been working on to improve the city of baltimore. i am eager to share with you

some of our successes as well as how the federal government and be a partner in some of our initiatives we are working on to implement moving forward. over the past several months, we have seen where the need to build trust between communities of color and law enforcement is an area in need of constant attention. we must remain vigilant in our quest to insure our police officers are respectful and accountable while remaining -- while maintaining our focus on providing safe unities for residents, businesses, and visitors. baltimore has made to medicine progress reducing violent crime but we still struggle to read their the breach between community and police. four years ago, baltimore city reached a pivotal moment in the city's crime fight when for the first time in many years our year end homicide number was less than 2003 . as i toured communities, i expected residents to feel good about the progress being made and acknowledged that baltimore

was turning a corner in the decades long history of violence that plagued our city for generations. instead, i heard that while residents acknowledged a significance of the homicide reductions, they were equally concerned about the tactics used by police officers in order to achieve crime reduction. four years later baltimore is in a much better place with finding the right balance between being tough on crime and building bridges of trust within the community. in 2014, baltimore experienced a 10% decline in homicides as well as a drop in every major crime category including shootings robberies, and burglaries. we have seen significant decreases in the number of police force complaints and a significant decrease in lawsuits filed against that the police department. at the same time, more residents are reaching out to law enforcement with helpful tips to take violent criminals off the streets. we have demonstrated that baltimore can learn from its

past. previously, baltimore had experienced decreases in crime yet many of the neighborhood similar to what has been said by mayor nutter, many of the neighborhoods felt under siege to to the high numbers of arrest. recent statistics show we are striking a better balance in the community police relationships. this past year, we achieved both reduction in violent crime as well as reduction in the number of arrests that the police department made. in 2015, my administration will continue to work aggressively at ridding our streets of violence and building better relationships between the police and the community. we will implement our new police scheduled to put more cops on the street during the periods of crime. we will work with partnerships with the department of justice cops program to bring additional transparency and transparency -- and accountability.

we will implement a thoughtful and comprehensive body camera program. the federal government can be a strong partner in our efforts in building better relationships between the police and the community. a good start as a focus on better training for our police officers. they need to learn more than logistics of policing but also, the broader significance of their role in society. my administration has focused police interaction with the community on three core principles -- import reality -- impartiality, legitimacy, and procedural justice and training for the entire apartment centers on those principles. our department is adding ethics lessons and situational training exercises, more opportunities for officers to get hands-on experience in the proper ways to work with members of the community. the goal is building the belief in every officer that a safe neighborhood cannot be achieved without the trust and confidence

that comes from community engagement. there is more work that needs to be done when it comes to training. our police commanders are constantly seeking additional dollars to develop better -- best practices and then to teach those taxes to our officers and developing leaders. if there is any place where the federal government and he was department of justice could produce a tangible impact on our officers and our residences, it would be to provide resources in this area and additional grant ending should also be made available to help local jurisdictions expand their internal affairs division to better hold law of orson accountable when they act unlawfully. when a baltimore strategic goals is to have an internal affairs comprised entirely of supervisors. this creates a higher level of accountability in the investigation and ensure that officers are being held accountable for their actions. having grant funding pay for those positions would expedite the process. the key focus should also

include better utilization of technology to build trust between local committees and the police. body cameras are the next step in policing. to purchase, issue maintain, and replace body cameras will be expensive. the bigger expense will be the storage of all the way to set the record. it is no longer a luxury but a necessity to hold that officers accountable and defend good officers from false accusations. body cameras are a necessary tool for restoring trust and something i know the obama administration has indicated a commitment to. having access to federal running set aside the cameras will help baltimore become one of the first major cities to implement a body camera program citywide. let me conclude by reiterating that the deeper tree she asian and admiration that i have for all of the men and women that work so hard every day to help create the good can unities in

baltimore. i know they face tremendous challenges and i know the vast majority of them believed that dignity and respect are integral. thank you for the opportunity to share along with my fellow mayors my experiences in baltimore and i look forward to answering any questions. >> thank you very much and thank you all for your testimony. we will now turn to the task force members for questions beginning with cedric alexander followed by brian stevens. >> good afternoon and welcome. i must say i am very delighted to be in the company of all three of you and three of america's most popular and wonderful cities. i don't say that, i mean that sincerely. >> can you say that again? [laughter] >> yes, i have a question for mayor johnson, if you would from sacramento. first of all, let me make a statement -- i you have your

union representative present today? >> correct. >> i want to personally applaud you on that because i think that truly role models the type of relationship that management and union have to have together as we confront many of the challenges that are faced in this country every day. that is just a wonderful gesture that both of you are here together. now to my question -- you alluded to the fact early on, mr. mayor am a that in a graphic we, you have one of the most diverse communities in the country. that being said, i think you also indicated you would share some of the demographics of your department. more importantly, for all of us who are listening to the recommendations you all are making and for the millions of folks who may be watching today it would be great to hear how

you and your union president who i'm sure are working together to diversify your department. typically, that is not something we very often hear from union presidents. that is generally not their mission. clearly, you all have a working relationship. i think it would be helpful for us maybe for the rest of the nation as well how you are moving forward in terms of that process of diversifying. >> thanks and i appreciate it. dustin is here. it's interesting. i have been elected. i got elected mayor in 2008. when i first got elected mayor our police department went from 800 officers because of the economy down to 600. we have all felt that. sacramento was already below where it should be meaning you should have come in theory, to

officers per 1000 residents. we were at like 1.56 and the economy hit and we went down to 1.3. public safety is our number one priority but that was real. i got elected and i was thinking i wanted to make public safety a top priority. when we looked at some of the crime data over the last six years, let me give you this context -- since 2008, our crime rates have gone down by 28%. since 2008, our homicide rates have gone down 39%. in 2013, it was our lowest homicide rate and 41 years. it was only 29. how did that happen with less resources? and less officers question mark it's because i made a priority to work with our chief and union to say that we are all in this together. there is three of us and we have

a critical role to play. over six years, we have been depositing goodwill and trust and investment working together so that when a situation like ferguson happens, we had already had a history of working well together. that is my first point. as good as that history and working relationship is, we're supposed to be frank here today -- you did not just want us to be politically correct question mark >> you are fine. >> i talked about us having these community meetings after ferguson. november 24, we happened to have our fourth community meeting on the same day that the ferguson verdict was coming down. we are in this committee meeting and we are to start the meeting and we stopped the meeting point all watched the verdict together, 250 people am a

primarily african-americans in the room with law enforcement. the verdict comes down and i've got to make a comment. now you are in a moment of truth. what you want to say and what you should say and how you say it the right way, you don't have time to have it scripted. i just said what was in my heart. i said that number one mr. brown, the father of michael brown, wants all of us to protest if we don't agree with something in a piece for manner. let's try to do that in his honor and their honor and let's have it be beautiful. secondly, i said there was something about that heard it that did not feel right. that does not mean the jurors did not do their job. it does not mean the process was not followed to a certain extent the way it should have been but something just did not feel right to me. i said that and by the time we left of the room, everybody in

the room was calm, we did at the right way and everyone felt good. i got home and my phone was blowing up. i look at it and it's dustin. he was going at me like crazy. he said you cannot say that. what did i say? what ended up happening is they live-streamed my comments. when i said i did not only agree with what happened in ferguson, our local police officers took that as a slap in the face that i was not supporting them. so we had this conversation. he and i met the next morning. we set down had an honest conversation and here's what i learned -- when i make a comment, i have to be extremely mindful of our men and women in uniform regardless of what i decide to say. the second thing from their standpoint is they have to let me be mayor and let me be honest

in my remarks as well and together, you can find a way that you can say what you want to do and still be mindful. you can question and challenge a process without implicating or indicting every police force around the country for every local officer. because of that, that was the beginning of our relationship becoming real. for six years it was good but until he gets tested -- that's why we are here today. we want to show the country that we have had some hiccups and some challenges but because we made a commitment in terms of a diversity -- here's the data -- in 2001, sacramento, time magazine label sacraments of the most diverse city in america. in terms of our city, 45% white police department, 75% white. blacks in our city 15%, police department, 4%.

latino in our city, 27%, police department, 10%. in terms of asians in our city, 18%, police department 8%. that is our reality. those are the brutal facts. the union and their chief, the mayor -- we are committed to laying out a plan and a strategy that aggressively gets up these numbers and we need to find out how we can measure the targets and strategies around the country so that we can have our community be reflected in our police department. if you look at ferguson, that was one of the biggest red lacks for all of us. you had nearly 70% african-americans and 4% represented in the police department. we are different in secondment of. that is being honest with their brutal acts. to say we will commit to change those numbers going forward --

arm in arm. >> i say this sincerely second mentor should be very proud to have you as their mayor, thank you very much. >> next we will hear from brian stephenson olive died tracy mirrors. >> i want to thank you all for your time. i have two particular specific questions. i want to put anybody on this lot but i'm interested in how you would define the preferred citizen review board, civilian review board, basically every panelist talked about trinity engagement but there are different models. i would like to hear talk about the maximum authority that a civilian review board should have in its relationship with the police? you stand at that intersection between the police and the community. the second question, you talked

about independent investigations. i think mayors are in a unique position because typical you don't have jurisdiction over prosecutions and what happens even though you have responsibility for police department. s. what is the optimal model for who should have investigative authority when these issues of abuse of force come up? do you want a prosecutor outside the county? do you want internal affairs within the department or outside? what is your thinking about how these kind of independent investigations should be structured and who should have the authority? >> i was elected to the city council in 1991 and took office in 1992 with the new mayor at that time who was a former

district attorney. in september of 1992, eight or nine months into the position, i put forward the idea that we should have a civilian oversight entity. sam walker was on the panel and i talked to him on the phone and had never met him until today. i thanked him for his work. i survey the entire country of all of the civilian oversight agencies at the time. as a legislator, i took its and pieces from a number of them and that was 20 years ago. i'm sure a number of others have been created. you have to have engaged citizens, the entity has to be properly staffed, a proper amount of budget and hours -- and their budget was cut like a run else's during the recession.

when you talk about authority and how far it can go, from my perspective and for our city, the police action committee can do an independent investigation. they are independent from the police department. i appoint a number of citizens and the city council appoints a number of citizens. they are all civilians and you cannot be an employee of the city of philadelphia. they make a recommendation. it goes to the managing director and the police commissioner but from my perspective, given the nature of police work, the ultimate authority about discipline must rest with the police commissioner. the police commissioner is in charge of the police department. he has to run that police department has to be able to give out discipline and if there is a disagreemen between what

the advisory committee recommends and what he does, the end line of that responsibility is me. i think that properly staffed and budgeted in every department having no made that statement everyone of our department wants more money but no one thinks they are properly staffed or have enough resources. for this kind of work, i do believe in a civilian oversight. i have always believed in it. but the buck has to stop with the police commissioner and ultimately with the mayor in terms of actual discipline for officers. >> i will take a stab at the second issue of independent investigation. we have taken multiple approaches. i think it's difficult as we talked earlier -- it difficult to have a one size fits all solution. there can be high-profile

incidents whether it is an in custody death or an officer involved shooting that may not be controversial. the goal for me is to make sure that when there is an issue of trust at the core that we let it run the normal course -- the city's prosecutor does their investigation, we have our internal investigation and what i have done throughout my time as mayor -- throughout the normal course of business, there is still a lack of confidence in the community. people are not shy about making that known. if there is still a lack of trust, on multiple occasions, we have comprised and pull together

independent panels, criminal justice experts, policing experts, to take a look -- to do that investigation and review everything, review all the material and the data that's out there and then make an independent assessment. that being said, does that change the minds of everyone that had a problem with it? of course not but when you put together that independent panel and you make sure -- i have been very clear everything we have done it -- there is no one on here that works for me. i am not looking for anything but a true assessment. i don't -- i am not asking them to go into this to validate what the police investigation found or to support what the prosecutor decides. it is an independent review. because of that, whether that is custody deaths or police shootings, to take that up broach helps -- to take that

approach helps build trust and when people in authority do not allow independent lives to take a look to investigate and review and incidents, that is when read lags go up -- red flags go up in the community. >> i will just say a variation of what everyone else has said. our ultimate goal is to make sure that there is public confidence when investigations take place. they want them euro and transparent and -- they want them euro and transparent. this is an opportunity to make something better than it was. if law enforcement on the other side can understand this is not an indictment of you or a lack of support but if we want trust -- if the public is not feeling

that were when you look at this procedural justice that does not deal right, when something does not feel right, we have to take a hard, honest look at it and that's what we are getting at. one of our fellow mayors in akron, ohio has been talking about this issue for as long as i have been mayor, literally for eight years, six years. >> he's been mayor 28 years. >> he's been mayor a long time. [laughter] i did not understand the depth of what he was getting at until the ferguson situation happened. as president of the u.s. council of mayors we had an emergency call and he says that's exactly what i was talking about. we will present to you -- i called you mayor. [laughter] >> it could happen. talk about your phone blowing up.

>> our task force will present on this issue. what i would say is we are honestly, in sacramento, trying to look at what best practices are. i don't know what the answer is yes, honestly. i know something needs to change. we are acknowledging that there is an awareness on our part. there is a national movement for looking at an independent investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor. when there is the death of an unarmed civilian. i think the police department needs to have a very strong relationship with the da and those you prosecute so we are not saying that should be lessened or preempted. maybe 98% of things stay the exact same because they need a

strong relationship. but in the event when there are issues like ferguson and garner it might give us an opportunity to do things differently in a way that is responsible and productive and everyone signs off on in a real way. in birmingham, the mayor of birmingham, bill bell who is president of the african-american mayors association, because of the history and birmingham with the police department, if you just saw of vote selma" it's a reminder for all of us. any time a police officer shoots a civilian who was unarmed, it automatically injects the fbi. that goes out of the hands of the local jurisdiction ago to the fbi and they run their process at the state level and beyond. that is similar to what the mayor of akron was talking about. i cannot tell you honestly what the right answer is but i think

this is an opportunity for us not to waste the tragedy here but to seize the moment and figure out how we improve this process and it will be partly what the u.s. council of mayors will present a week from now. >> thank you very much. >> good afternoon and thank you so much for your testimony and providing really shining examples of how to build procedural justice and trust at the local level. i think it's true that you -- how do i want to say this? i think it's true you are over performers. i am a social scientist, sort of. if there is a normal distribution of cities, i'm guessing you guys would not call yourselves median cities. if you don't call yourself a

median city, my question is -- to take on some of the remarks that may or stephanie rawlings blake was making about how the federal government can be a partner. i'm interested in ideas you have about what the federal government can do so that your cities are the norm and not the folks who are at the and of the distribution. one ideas offering more resources but i'm wondering how you think about balancing what you need to do as leaders of your own these but also trying to achieve more uniformity and standardization in trying to get all of the cities in the united states to be able to have police department strategies that look like yours? >> i will make a general comment --

in the interest of full disclosure, we all want to get more federal resources. we will let stephanie rawlings blake say it because it will be received the best. i will let her start off. [laughter] we are putting our best foot forward. >> in order to get that standardization, in order to get -- to address cities that find themselves in the position of ferguson where there is the diversity that is not there it's important for the conference of mayors to take the lead in hosting conversations but i also think there is a role for the cops office and the federal government to help to educate cities and police chiefs on what happens. the notion of diversity can fall

on deaf years and commodities were they do not understand the value of it. don't want communities to understand the value of diversity and the value of bridge building after the fact. it's the resources of people and training and conversation and education to cities across the country. you want to say we have a diverse department in law enforcement. it's the right thing to do but these are the operational benefits. unfortunately, unless people see an operational benefit, they will not seek diversity for

diversities sake. the thing i talk about all the time as the orton's of building the bonds of trust. as president johnson talked about and learning the lesson from this tragedy, that should be a major lesson of theirs. that you cannot deal with a diverse community without a diverse force -- diverse police force. you have to do things all across the board, whether as -- it is from recruitment on from promoting within the department. what we are doing in the police and fire department is include committee members on the hiring panel. so, the committee leaders have a stake in who is out on the street. their voices are heard. when we are making decisions

about who will be in leadership. who is in leadership sets the tone for the department throughout the city. i think the resource of education would be very critical at this point in the history of our cities because we have to figure out a way to get that message out there. some of it can be peer-to-peer. i think the strength of the legacy of cops would be helpful in getting that message out there. >> i did think that i want to pick up there that there was actually a compliment for the three of us. i thought about what you said many times. >> i recorded it. >> it was in there. it was packed in tight. i'm not -- i was teasing. now she is embarrassed.

we want to enhance that relationship. yes, we do want more resources. it is also a closer partnership. i was part of the previous panel so i'm going to make a connection here. america suffered the most incredible tragedy on september 11, 2001. the country was in shock. the world was in shock. america responded. pretty quickly. within a couple days, there was within the white house a new office of homeland security which subsequently became the apartment of homeland security. we created that because the one to be safe and we also created the security administration just because we wanted to be safe. there has been in my view no comparable response. now the tragedy of course of 9/11 was that 2997 people were

killed that day in three different locations on one day. every year, in the united states of america, somewhere between 10 and 14,000 people are killed as a result of violence. we have not had a comparable national and i'm taking some the language from my good friend mayor mitch leger, we do not have a comparable national response to the new -- issue of violence to the issue of america. we have a violence problem in the united states of america and we need to acknowledge that. it's a weird knowledge upon -- until we acknowledge the problem, we cannot fully adjusted. it was found because america said we want to be safe. i would like to be safe on the ground. every day. in my neighborhood. i think that kind of approach, this budget was -- mayor

landrieu knows it. it is been severely reduced. a lot of what we see on the ground. we have great partners back home. the fbi, the secret service homeland security, atf the dea probation and parole. they go to catch folks that seem to have disappeared. they pop up with them and next thing you know they're being hauled them. we have great relationships back home. we do not have the relationships that we used to have. given the insanity over in paris and other places in the world, we cannot take our eye off the ball of terrorism. we have homegrown neighborhood tabor is -- terrorists who terrorize her children when they go to school every day. they terrorize her old folks and senior citizens when they are tried to go about their business and terrorize folks were just going to work each and every day

and feel like they can't go outside. where is their security administration for what it is their child to do with their lives? we want to be safe, at home and abroad. we are willing partners in this work. in the boston common situation -- bombing situation, i do not know what those two guys were all about. i've still not figure that out. with all the technology and all the resources, it was a camera in lower detail that gave us the best image of those individuals resulting in the death and the capture of the other. we fight crime every day. most days it will be philadelphia. one day, it could be someone from california or someone from halfway around the world. a closer partnership and relationship between all of our federal partners and us as

leaders on the ground. when we are fighting crime, we are fighting crime. each and every day. it would probably help in the terror shirts if we had more opportunity with tools and resources and a lot of discussion about body cameras. tasers as well. a nonlethal way of getting somebody to pay attention and behave themselves a little differently. consistent training across all the various departments and agencies across united states of america. the federal government and the congress would have to take on the issue of grand jury's. it is one thing in ferguson and his different thing in staten island and probably something else in philadelphia or sacramento or baltimore depending on what the state wants to do and what their rules and regulations are people. do not understand it -- people do not understand it. after it is done, people cannot

figure out what world does happen in front of them. as mayor thompson said, you know that something did not feel right. we're going to have to trust and open some of that up. have a better understanding of what is going on out there and see an investment being made in their personal safety every day. >> i will say two things because i know time is of the s&p up in been here all day. one is we believe very strongly that there is got to be more bipartisanship. something to really challenge the federal level. there have the be certain things that transcend politics and safeties of our communities is one of them. that would be the first thing. secondly, we believe very strongly -- and we have had a lot of opportunities share this with this administration, they have done a great job. we have to continue to have a message that is loud and clear.

you talk about resources being disseminated. a lot of the time some of it goes to the state and the more of the cops program get those resources directly to the city because where rubber meets the road and the rule way. we want to be accountable. i know this panel gets it. for the record, i wanted to say those two points. >> thank you very much. next roberto. >> thank you very much. i'm the chief of tucson. it is real obvious to me to now why they all speak so highly of you, including commissioner ramsey. i have a question on a local level. in all of our jurisdictions there is competition for available resources. you all have brought up the issue of the need to fund law enforcement, find all the proper things.

how you get the community and the rest of your fellow politicians to agree with that with transportation parks and rec and at the same time crime throughout the country has been falling for the past decade? what arguments do you use to get that need across? >> i think you start off by having a strong mayoral form of government. that is always helpful. >> it is almost a joke. for me and i cannot speak for the other two mayors, we set the budget. with respect to how the resources are allocated, the council cannot re-appropriate any of those funds. they can only cut it out of the budget. it is about making it clear up

front. when we talk about the fact that public safety is our priority. when we are saying that we are together, we are saying that everywhere. if you have front and that this is a top priority. we make those programs and resources a top priority as well. it is reflected in the budget and everybody understands up front where you are. there are competing -- there are a competition for resources with some of these programs. at least in baltimore, because we are very clear and i've been clear up front with public safety and reducing violence as a priority, that is off the table. we look for allocating resources and other areas. >> you just have to make it clear. repetition penetrates the dullest of mines. i talked about public safety every day.

in the audience, no matter who are my talking to, that is what we are talking about. and fairness of our city council. they are always competing interests. every department once more. everyone to make the case for why. it is our job to make those tough decisions. it has never been -- oh it is police versus the park system. we had 248 murders last year. we are not living in shangri-la in philadelphia. we had a 25% reduction in shootings. people see the trends. if you gunshot last night some heard it too. if the worst of the recession, i suddenly came in and hired 400 more police officers. didn't happen. we never laid off a police officer. we do not lay off a firefighter.

we do not laugh off a sanitation worker health care worker. we do not a comment on anybody else. i didn't hire the 400 officers. we had to cut the commissioners overtime budget. we had a 15% reduction budget and homicides. in the midst of a recession. everyone understood. the fundamental aspect of a local government is that citizens have to be safe. everybody took a cut. but we never compromise public safety and we still reduce crime in philadelphia with less police officers then we had in recent cuts. you have to stay focused on that . it is not a trade-off. i'm not trading public safety for anything. >> i would say for us, very consistent. i look at it in couple of ways. you know this and we appreciate you asking the question. public safety when you talk about resources, public safety goes through every department in

his city. you cannot just look at it as the police officers and fire departments. what does every department in a city do to make sure you have alignment and a perspective on how we can make our city saved her -- safer in every department? that oftentimes cost money. secondly, when you think about the health and the vitality of the city, public safety -- when you're talking about jobs and economic development -- everything that we all want to see and our community is hinging on how safer city is. everybody has a self-interest and that whether they want to knowledge it or not. i think once we do that. then we create week a shared vision of where we want to go. i share an example earlier. if we do not articulate our vision and get that out there publicly, we will never work toward that. it is a vision.

it cost 1.5 million dollars for 15 new officers. we have a surplus and we do not have the vision out there. those dollars are going to get spent or lobby for somewhere else. if everybody signs of on the shared vision when the economy is doing well we have a surplus we are going to our $1.5 million towards 15 more police officers which gets toys that vision. that is very important because we underestimate the public sometimes. if we lay this out there, the public is going to say that is exactly what we want. if you want that are community policing, and you need a few more police officers to get that happened and get out of the car and walked the beat and come to the picnic and barbecue and not in a police officer's role, you have to have more focus to be able to do that. the last thing i need to modest all of us. -- admonish all of us. we need to tell the story and then articulated so that people

know that there is a return on that investment. >> think you very much. the last question of the task force will come from connie rice and for the sake of time i would encourage everyone to be as concise as they can be. >> trying to be concise. can you hear me? i need to know from you expert mayors. your assessment of how we are communicating with the union leadership of the cops. there are days when i think i am ok and there are days like today where i'm completely not. they are talking this way and i'm talking this way. do the unions understand what the communities are saying about the need for more understanding from police or do they see it as just an attack on their rank-and-file? >> one of the things -- when i

talked about legitimacy, this is work that has to be done. i often talk. i had a community meeting with leaders yesterday. i talked about building these relationships of trust between the community and the police. i said we have to think about this like a marriage. he can be married for a long time and not talk. it happens. if you wanted to be solids, -- >> i would not be married for a long time if i had to the talking. >> i'm not saying that i am either. >> i'm going to get in trouble when i get home. [laughter] >> i've suggesting that you can't have a healthy relationship or you can have an unhealthy relationship. you're going to be in relationships. it is going to be there. as just a matter of whether you choose it is healthy or not. for us to talk, we have to hear each other and we have to be

willing to put in the work. we have to -- the police have to hear from communities what they feel. i talked about it before when we were able to get the homicide rate under 200 for the first time in decades. i do not think i was going to be hoisted up on their shoulders, but i thought it would of gotten a better reception. i would go on communities and they were mad. they were like -- my son is not a criminal. when i sent him to school, he is getting straight a's. i do not want him to feel that he is under siege by the people who are supposed to protect them. yes to be on guard when i sent him to the store. police officers have to say here that. >> do you think they do? >> i do not know if enough communities are entertaining those conversations. you have to put into place

opportunities for people to hear those conversations. you have to make an important and you have to foster that honest communication. and communities need to hear from police. they are putting their lives on the line every single day and they have families at home. you want to be able to go home to. when they come into a community and they feel that there is no help the community is absent. i've heard that the community is apathetic to crime and resistant to them. the community needs to hear that. we cannot do it -- we are to be in this relationship. there is nothing that the police can do on their own. there's nothing that the community can do on their own. we are married. it is just a matter of whether we agree on whether we commit to having a healthy relationship. >> i know you clearly recognize

the complexity of your question. it would be impossible for us to characterize. i do not know how many officers are in each of the other two cities. we have 63 or 6400 police officers. they will have 6400 different views and ideas. i mentioned in my testimony our president john mcnasty. on a best day, it would be impossible to be in the hearts and souls and minds of everyone of those officers. and union leaders and i respect them. there are union leaders because they were elected. just like us. they have a constituency, just a slightly larger one. they often either do or try to or feel that they have to

reflect some of the things that are on their members mines. or they will not be the union leader. then there is the local chapter and then there are -- i do not know thousands of chapters across the country and they all get the talking. there is a lot of conversation out there. the officer on the street wants to do his or her job, be engaged with the good people the neighborhood, protect themselves from the folks that mean them on -- them harm. i've lost seven police officers killed in the line of duty, a number of them shot to that. you want to talk about it a bad day at work. i'm not sure what his second, but the absolute worst moment of my entire time being mayor is to

be at the hospital when a police officer has been shot or a firefighter dies in a fire or pdw worker dies an explosion. be in that hospital. see that family. talk to them about what is going on at that moment. they want to go home too. we have to bridges divide. i do not know what is in the head and heart of all these officers. we cannot legislate them. we can train. we can talk. we can provide leadership on both sides. the mayor and the union leadership and all those other folks. when you're in that moment, and someone is staring at you down 10 feet away with a gun in your hand -- in their hand, and you're not sure what they're going to do, you're going to do what you're trained to do. community people want good police officers.

i do not think that is the totality of what the protests are about. we are all against bad policing. most good police officers do not want their officers on the fourth -- four font. i think the message is getting out there and the things that mayor johnson talked about -- ferguson, staten island, in a hundred others that are not on cnn and msnbc. people are talking about these issues. everyone wants to go home safe. >> miss robinson, i will make mine pretty succinct. i think two things. one, i do think that officers by large feel like they're being attacked and i do feel like the community by large doesn't feel like it is being heard to the degree that it would like to be. i think the onus is on all of us to really do a better job. i have my union president here

in the front row. we are modeling what can happen. our sets of circumstances may be unique in sacramento to some other cities. if we can create a framework for what works in sacramento and then share it, you mentioned earlier how do you make sure other cities are benefiting as well? we have to share those practices. you have to create an honest dialogue. people do not like to talk about economic disparities. those are real issues. if he and i can't talk about them then our community is want to suffer because of it. there are words like justice and fairness and respect. it goes both ways. i mean to lead with -- i need to lead with letting my men and women in uniform know how much i appreciate what they do. i lead with that. once i say that, then they will hear me when i start saying some things that we can do differently. here's a one sentence i've learned.

if i sit down with us in here and he says we are doing everything what -- right with a plea syrian, i have a problem with that. if you says to me that we are very good police union and we're doing a lot of good things, but we want to be better, then we just created an environment where we can work together. >> thank you all very much. let us please give a round of applause. [laughter] [applause]

inan

and inmortal>> votes on amendments will take place later the afternoon. >> tuesday night, president obama delivers his state of the union address. the gop response delivered by newly elected iowa senator joni ernst. the reaction on open phones live on c-span radio. watched the speech and congressional reaction. the state of the union address. live on c-span, c-span2, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> tonight on c-span students and activists will discuss racism in america. this is in cleveland after the

killing of two african-americans in november. >> i do not think that black funeral -- people are brown people have a power to be racist. what i mean is, if you slap me and i'm upset that you slap me, and i'm not telling anybody to slap anybody. i'm reacting to what you have done to me. that is exactly what is going on here. we do not have the power. you can see what shakira has been talking about, we are talking about institutionalized racism. you have the power to create any that laws. we have the power to stop a person from doing something or allowing them to do it. there is discriminate across the tire globe. look at what is happening in places in europe and parts of asia. there are all types of people. it is not just that what we see

across the globe there is hatred that exists and hatred of other people. it is not just going on in america. it is not just the start -- it did not just start. we cannot forget about all the people who have been impacted by the idea that i am better than you. that is what it really boils down to. i better to be you -- i'm better than you and you are beneath me. it is not just happen with race, it happens with men and women. and happens with religion. it happens with all types of cultures. you can go to places in africa and pakistan and others where there are tribal issues. my tribe is better than your tribe. once we understand that and look at it from a global perspective, we can be successful. >> you can see the full uniform on racism, hosted by the city club of cleveland, tonight on abc in at c-span.

we have more now from the president task force. in this panel, aclu representatives talk about improving relationships between law enforcement communities -- law-enforcement and committees they serve. the task force met scheduled public hearing is wednesday. this is about an hour. >> good afternoon. welcome back. before we get started i want to let people in the audience and those listing on the webcast that your comments will be online at 3:30. we are starting to receive those comments online. thank you for the website and the e-mail comments and the task force policing. u.s.. for those in the audience, the

cards are being passed around. you do not have the right your comment on there. if you could just put your name on there i can call people and we will have microphones floating and we can come to you and get your comment. that will be at 3:30. i want people to have opportunities to fill up the cards. >> good afternoon. i'm lori robinson, a cochair of the task force. i'm delighted to welcome all of you to the afternoon session. we are now going into panel for of our witnesses from the civil rights and civil liberties community. we have four excellent witnesses with us as afternoon. i will be introducing each of them in turn. and a reminder that their full bios are both online and in the handouts for those of you who are with us in the audience. all them are very accomplished. reading their full bios would

take up a great deal time. i will be introducing them very briefly. we'll be starting out with sherilyn eiffel, who is president and director of counsel of the naacp legal defense and education fund. sherilyn eiffel i'm pleased to have you with us and please begin. >> think you so much and thank you for the task force. the naacp legal defense and education fund is the nation's oldest civil rights organization. we have addressed the issue of racial bias and policing since our inception 75 years ago. in fact, the 2013 who lives or flies with winning book details the efforts to challenge the shooting of unarmed african

americans in florida in 1939. last year, the long-standing problem of police abuse and committees of colors came to a head. the killings of tenure rise in ohio, john crawford the third in ohio, mike brown in missouri, jimmy powell in missouri, and the assaults on marlene kinnock in california, lavar jones in south carolina, and many others. this is finally captured the attention of outrage of americans of all races. the fact that many of these encounters have been captured on cell phones or videos has played an important role in convincing many people of what we as a legal defense fund have known for decades -- that there is a real problem of racial bias and policing and violence against unarmed african americans by police officers. acknowledging this problem does not constitute an act of war or

hostility toward the men and women of law enforcement. to demand an end to police brutality, to ineffective policing and violence against unarmed individuals is not to demonize the police force. we recognize the policing is hard and dangerous work. the communities of people that we represent new good policing. trustworthy police officers in a relationship with police based on trust and respect. and far too many communities and far too many counters with law enforcement, there is neither trust nor respect. we hauled police officers to a higher standard than we impose on average citizens. that is because police officers are officers of the state with a sacred charge to protect and serve. we the people give them a nightstick and pepper stray and a taser and a shield of honor and the power to take human life. with these awesome weapons comes awesome responsibility.

the horrific series of brutal incidents that we have seen this year, in which officers have killed unarmed african americans, is neither isolated nor knew. it is deeply rooted in deficiencies in law-enforcement policies, practices, account ability structures, training and transparency, and reflects the reality of both explicit and implicit bias and policing. we have a moment to address this long standing problem. we believe that every take action now, we can improve policing standards and confidence in law-enforcement and increase safety for police officers. we are far to called upon the department of justice to use its authority in substantial resources to adjust the problem. we will continue to engage with the department of justice on those issues. we also presented testimony before congress, calling for federal forms, specifically focused on the elimination of government-sponsored military style equipment in public schools.

we are happy to the furnaces task force of that earlier testimony in those documents and of course the more copperheads a version of the testimony that i presented today has argument furnish to the task force. we are in believe that there are three elements that are needed to be addressed. one is the need for data and transparency. one of the most disturbing and truly astonishing things of this problem is the absence of reliable data. we need a national publicly available database that documents police shootings assaults, and killings of unarmed individuals. second is training and supervision. we believe that all policing and certainly community policing by terry nation must include training and how to confront and manage and place it -- implicit racial bias. and fruit -- improved de-escalation techniques. training alone is insufficient. there must be proper supervision of officers who have received this training. finally, there must be accountability for failure.

accountability for failing to apply the techniques provided in the training. from use of excessive force and killing innocent is an essential part of building trust within the committee. the single biggest source of mistrust within the committee as it relates to the system of law enforcement is a seeming impunity of officers who violate the law or take the lives of unarmed citizens. we recommend also that prosecutors be brought in to your discussion. they play a vital role in helping to improve policing and communities. finally, we believe that much of what we have proposed as it relates to data collection, training, internal police standards for accountability, is already required because we believe that these standards are central to fulfill the department of justice's obligation under title vi of the civil rights act of 1960 four. title vi bars the provision of federal funds to any program

that engages and dissemination. each year, police jurisdictions received more than half $1 billion in federal grants from the federal assistance program and other programs. stewardship of this program in accordance with title vi requires that the department of justice satisfied self that individual police departments operate free from discrimination. it is our hope that the reform measures outlined in this admission will prove useful to the task force as it engages in the critically important work of improving the relationship between law enforcement and the communities that they protect and serve. i welcome the opportunity to answer any questions that you may have. thank you. >> excuse me. thank you so much. we are going to be holding questions until all the witnesses have provided their testimony. next we are going to be hearing from laura murphy, longtime director of the log -- washington legislation office of

the american civil liberties union. welcome. >> may be switchover. thank you, for fresher -- professor robinson. we are grateful for the opportunity to testify. let me start by saying something and make it really clear. even though the aclu probably sues more police departments than any other organization, the aclu supports all fair-minded, law-abiding and pleaded -- courageous police officers who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe. however, we can no longer ignore the real crises that brought us here today. in some communities, there is a deep distrust and lack of faith in law-enforcement. just go a few miles over to anacostia and people 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 against persons with psychiatric disabilities. in new york city 50% of those stopped in first african-american. and maricopa county, arizona latino jobbers are nine times more likely to be stopped than whites. right here the nation's capital, 91% of those arrested here for marijuana possession are black and we know usage is about the same. in florida, where youth make up 20% of the population, they comprised 46% of all referrals to law enforcement. this data helps us to 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 everyone does every police department could adopt today. let me say, i agree with all the recommendations that sherilyn eiffel has made. our first recommendation is to end the unconstitutional and dehumanizing act of profiling. we have to begin with this because it is a gateway to many dangerous and life-changing police encounters. the task force should recommend that police departments at. model policies that strictly prohibit law-enforcement for profiling gyroscope of passengers, pedestrians on the base of races, ethnicity, gender , national origin, and sexual orientation. complaints of profiling should be investigated in a thorough and timely manner. officers should be disciplined for infractions. second, we have to curb the

excessive use of force. the chokehold has allegedly been banned in new york city, but why we seeing its use on national television? the task force must encourage police departments to adopt comprehensive use of force policies and to conduct training on these policies and to implement a review of disciplinary processes for these incidents that are unlawful. we should emphasize de-escalation in our encounters 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 police departments to collect and report useful data in a uniform manner that allows officers engaged in misconduct to be identified. vide 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 -- powered to investigate, to issue subpoenas and to make findings that are binding. civilian review boards that a properly constituted reflect the needs of the community and are transparent. they should provide fair and timely processes for officers and residents and the decisions should be enforceable. finally, we asked the task force to do a top to bottom review of all federal policies and laws

and grant programs that incentivize disproportion arrests and incarceration of poor people and people of color, including the cops program in the burn jack rant program. even after 40 years of the war on drugs jug use has not declined in the united states. it is time we call the war on drugs of failure and abandon these tactics that hurt minority communities disproportionately. in conclusion, the current cultural policing demands are fire reaching and warrant national attention and investment. for that reason, i'm so grateful to all of you for pizza and some painting and this important task force. we health of the recommendations of this task force will break new ground and result in policy changes that will help and this

policing and civil rights crisis. dsl you stands ready to help all of you. >> thank you so much, director murphy. our third witness on this panelist is vikrant reddy who is a senior policy analyst of the texas policy foundation center for effective justice. >> it is a real pleasure to be here. i'm here from texas from a conservative oriented think tate called the texas public policy foundation. i work on criminal justice asked -- at t ppf focuses on the question on how we restore a conservative perspective to prison reform, one where we focus on costs, we focus on results and government accountability. we talk about this all the time and feels like health care indication -- in education, but

it was our perspective that many conservatives stopped asking the questions about criminal justice. they said lot of them up and throw away the key. i don't care what the costs are. but do not strike us as a particularly limited government attitude. we fought for a lot of reforms in texas. we launched a national campaign called right on crime. i hope some of you are with. i like to talk in little bit about one primary recommendation today that is not directed at police officers or even at members of the public but that is directed at policymakers and legislatures. that is reversing the extraordinary amount of overcome ovation in american society. when the constitution was drafted, there were three federal crimes -- treasured -- treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. now, the number of federal crimes are 5000. those just the statutes. there also agency regulations that can be punish their criminal cases.

that can go up to 300 thousand. those are federal crimes. there are countless state and local crimes basically unnecessary. i tell you in texas, we have 11 different felonies listed -- related to oyster harvesting. i used to think that is as silly, but i stopped laughing a few months ago when i awful tragedy occurred in new york city with eric garner because the chain of events that occurred that led to mr. garner's death again when the police confronted him about the fact that you selling individual cigarettes instead of packs of cigarettes. that is a crime in new york. i think the most profound thing i've read about the eric garnered case from a law professor at yell. he is liberal and use the world differently than i do. i think you are spot on with what he said. he said that with all his first-year law students, he asked them on day one, not to support laws that you would not

kill two of force because and i should quote him directly here. professor carter said, "the police go on to enforce the will of the state. if you resist, they might kill you. " i think that professor carter as his vice should not be directed at law students. it should be directed at lawmakers. i want to do this by tying a quick story. a friend of mine in texas who is a district attorney. i was talking to him once about a reform buildout was working on in texas. i do not remember the exact issue. he thought that i thought that he was want to oppose me. you need to understand that i'm not going to argue everything because i'm a prosecutor. what you should understand about prosecutors is that when we are law school and we are dreaming about fighting for public safety this is not what we

spend our days daydreaming about. we want to catch killers rapists, and drug kingpin. that's what gets me up in the morning. a got me thinking about whether we could apply the same thing to police officers. i highly doubt when police officer in the academy are daydreaming hda about catching guys who are selling leases on the corner of staten island. i think they want to catch murderers, rapists, and junkie pins -- drug kingpin. i think we have so many are people -- so many of our people have lost trust and police officers because they feel their sons and their brothers of being harassed because police officers are confronting them and accosting them over issues that the end of the day, they don't really feel our crimes. they are things that traditionally we have not understood to be crimes. i think we should really take a closer look at the number of offenses in our society that we

have categorized as criminal. we should consider re-categorizing many of them a civil and consider eliminating some of them altogether. i should note that even though that i come from a conservative think tank, we have added a lot of support from across the aisle. i can only speak for my organization. what on certain initiatives the national association for camille defense lawyers has been very supportive. the recommendations from congress on over criminalization that came from representative bobby scott. although i purchased matters from a right of center perspective, i do not think they necessarily have to be left or right ideologically. the final thing that i would say is or might be all policymakers to please think about professor carter's extraordinary piece of advice to involve students -- to his law students. generally speaking do not go around supporting laws that you would not be willing to kill to enforce.

thank you. christ thank you. our final speaker on this panel is maria teresa kumar who is president and ceo of photo latino. thank you so much. >> thank you for having me here today. i would like to thank you for inviting latinos to speak today. we are national impartial organization who works on empowering latinas every day. today is a topic that is critical in the latino kennedy. latinos respect the fact that please officers put their lives online every day. police officers like them deserve to go home every night. bob evan cases that in directly impacted that african-american committee, latinas have also faced it. this includes the death of andy lopez and manual ds and cesar cruz. latinos killed just in the last two years at the hands of law enforcement. the recent immigration practices

of arizona sheriff's and documented racial profiling cases in connecticut to california play the latino community and it is plaguing america. the preparation for this panel we reached out to both the latino audience to social media and e-mail to provide feedback i have to improve relations between law-enforcement and the communities that they serve. receive more than 430 responses in less than twice rows which tells us that this is an issue important to our committee and one that they want to be engaged with. let us be clear. we ask you had to cut off the deadline. we could review them fast enough. we reversed a diverse array of comments. a few themes emerge. first and foremost, the community views the role of law-enforcement. the phrase he is most often was to serve and protect our communities. a recent poll conducted by it latino decisions supports this. 84% of latino adults agree that

police are there to protect and serve their families. unfortunately, that same poll showed 68% of the latino adults worried law-enforcement authorities would use excessive force against them. it is hard to cultivate a relationship of trust between a fearful population of police. while the half of latino respondents indicated that they are someone close to them have previously experienced police or. many said they had not declared no i'm not been harassed, but i am white. case after case has been documented in racial profiling against the latino community. racism, xenophobia increase concerns about undocumented immigrants are to blame. there is a perception among non-latinos that latinas are presumed to be immigrants and their present to be undocumented until proven otherwise. that has led 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 likely to be stopped and searched by police, even though they're less likely to be found possessing contraband. the nypd's controversial stopping first program shows similar evidence of racial profiling with police targeting lax and latinos about 85% of the time. and nearly nine out of 10 searches, please find nothing. recommendations for the task force are based on what we found from the latino audience. the first one was policing and immigration enforcement. having police officers act as immigration officers in session but public safety because undocumented immigrants are hesitant to call the police for fear deportation. please officers should live in the committees they serve. revised education requirements for officers. at a minimum, they should have

an associate degree studying psychology, anthropology, and adversity. higher from a diverse pool of applicants. improve board training and it should being police department's cross-country. police should be more involved in neighborhood events. community participation is very important. social media should be used to leverage more proof communication between police departments and community members. officers should receive training from the outreach so they can know how to interact with all members of community whether it is race, gender, or sexual orientation. there are ways to reach out to the latino community. in anaheim california, a city with a majority of the latino calculation, the city hired its first ever hispanic police chief last year. and las vegas, metro police are expanding the city's spanish

program to improve relations with the latino community. there are areas that work. campaigns by conservatives city councils and some of her of congress to can -- proposed legislation to make local police responsible for immigration 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, revising traditional racism, revising training in place i academies -- and please academies to make sure officers can meet our diverse primaries. we strongly urge the demilitarization of our police department. most officers should have no need to be armed with military grade weapons. this should be a third-party agency.

law-enforcement official should be held accountable by a third party. finally, the use of body cameras. officers should use body cameras at all times. 80% of latinos responded said that they were concerned about the police officer's ability to turn the device on and off. overall, the body cameras will benefit law officers and civilians and it is one benefit to improve relations. latinos understand and appreciate the role of law-enforcement our society. as a result, the real police brutality against latinos may be unknown. the conversation is not one of us versus them. it is community building. there are too many examples of relational profiling and i think the community for sharing.

i think the task force for taking the need to improve our relationships with law enforcement seriously. my hope is to continue to work toward solving what is clearly a problem so our streets are safer in our communities are stronger. course thank you to all the witnesses here. i want to start by asking sean if he can lead with the questions. >> thank you. thank you to all the panel members. i very much appreciate hearing your perspectives. we have had a problem identified not just in this panel but in previous ones which is a problem of creating a diverse law enforcement workforce. i am a very curious to know if any of you in particular have specific recommendations on how that can be done. i know it is something that depart