Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 5 July 2007 — Page 17

The Muncie Times • July 5, 2007 • Page 17

NAACP kicks off campaign to reduce police brutality against blacks

A 12-year-old boy in Uniontown, Pa.; a frightened 88-year-old woman in Atlanta, Ga.; and an unarmed man on the eve of his wedding in New York City. These are the faces of racially biased police shootings. In these worst-case scenarios, innocent lives were lost because the police, on some level, the police who shot out acted from an instinct that the victims' dark skin signaled guilt and danger. Each new case of an innocent African American who pays with his or her life is a grim reminder of the urgent need for reform in the use of force against black people. Though the lives of victims like Amadou Diallou or Sean Bell are lost to us forever, their deaths must serve as a call to reform a broken and racially biased system of law enforcement. The NAACP is committed to a proactive approach to police shootings and all other forms of police brutality. We will not wait for the next inevitable violation only to decry after the fact that it should not have happened. We must push for solutions that will help to keep the next officer from needlessly reaching for his or her gun to use against an innocent person simply because of the color of their skin.

Quick Statistics * A study of police use of force in Texas found that force was used against African Ameri can citizens twice as often as against whites citizens. Hispanic citizens experienced 25 percent more incidents of police use of force. * One study of police officers in Illinois found that 25 percent admitted having seen a fellow officer harass an individual "most likely" because of his or her race. * Any use of force among police is relatively rare, occurring in less than 1 percent of all police contacts, but excessive use of force has been found to occur in up to 35 percent of all encounters that involved any force. * About 25 percent of police agreed with the statement that whistleblowing against other officers is "not worth it" and 60 percent agreed that officers do not report even serious abuse of authority by their colleagues. * About 90 percent of police agreed that frontline supervisors could be effective in preventing the officers under their command from abusin g their authority.

* A study of 6,447 reports of use of force in Austin, Texas, found only one incident where a supervisor suggested any wrongdoing by the officer. * About 50 percent of all officers and 65 percent of African American officers believe that community policing is effective in reducing police abuse of tyNAACP Policy Recommendations The following policies are promising ways for the police to address police shootings and brutality based on race, before they happen: * Data: Every police department should keep detailed records of police contacts and incidents of use of force by race and gender. These statistics are already kept by many departments in the form of "Stop, Question and Frisk Report Worksheets" which should be more widely adopted * Accountability: Incidents of excessive use of force and disparities in arrest data should be tracked for individual officers and used as a factor in promotion and retention of officers.

* Leadership: Police chiefs and other leaders must lead by example in condemning racial profiling and excessive use of force at every opportunity and never engaging in it themselves. * Prosecution: Cases of police brutality must be prosecuted with a better record of success and the code of silence that protects officers who abuse their authority must be challenged. * Citizen oversight: Citizen oversight in the form of community review boards must become a more standard practice. * Training: Law enforcement officers of all races must be trained to acknowledge and confront their racial biases. Developing a

conscious awareness of bias will inform better decision making in moments of crisis. * Intervention: A small number of officers are responsible for a disproportionate share of uses of excessive force. Early intervention is needed with these officers. The NAACP be lieves that instead of waiting for the next victim, people should get engaged and organized in their communities to make a proactive push for reforms at the local level. For further information, contact: Hilary Shelton, NAACP Washington bureau director At 202-463-2950 or hshelton @ naacpnet. org

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