Highlights
The White House is putting the creation of a national police oversight commission on hold.
Is there a need for another national crime and police commission?
Is President Biden’s decision not to proceed an admission that we do not have a clear path as to improved police practices and crime control measures?
The problem with crime control or police practices is that it remains a guessing game with advocates inserting their favorite philosophy without proof as to what works.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.
Article
The White House is putting the creation of a national police oversight commission on hold.
I covered the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement (under President Trump) but it seemed to indicate a lack of definitive research addressing crime and police practices. Nevertheless, it remains an interesting read. President Obama’s and Vice President Biden’s police and crime commission is here, President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Crime task forces go back to the 1930s.
The problem with crime control and/or police practices is that it remains a guessing game with advocates inserting their favorite philosophy without proof as to what works.
To my knowledge, proactive (self-initiated) policing is the only crime control endeavor that works, Proactive Policing Reduces Crime per the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Advocates continue to propose violence interrupters or social programs but the available evidence as to feasibility is limited or doesn’t exist per the US Department of Justice’s Crime Solutions.Gov.
After spending decades in the justice system, my biggest disappointment is that crime and criminal justice practices have such limited research to guide us, breaking the promise of previous crime commissions that data and evidence-based programs could and would partially solve our problems.
From The Crime Report
The White House is putting the creation of a national police oversight commission on hold, nixing a campaign pledge made by President Joe Biden to establish one within his first 100 days, reports Politico. Before coming to the decision, the White House said it consulted with national civil rights organizations and police unions.
Both entities made clear to the administration that they thought a commission was not necessary and likely redundant. Biden first promised to set up an oversight commission last June, roughly one week after Floyd’s killing, calling for reforms to policing, including a national database of police misconduct and a ban on the use of chokeholds, but refraining from endorsing the biggest policy demands from the Black Lives Matter movement on issues like police liability, and declining to embrace their call to “defund the police” and reallocate funding to social programs and community priorities.
Civil rights advocates were especially concerned that a commission would be used as an excuse by lawmakers in the Senate — both Republicans and skeptical Democrats — to stall action on the House-passed police reform bill.
There was clear “commission fatigue” in all the meetings the White House held with civil rights groups and police unions in the wake of task forces established by both Obama and Trump that recommended and defended much, but resulted in no viable policy changes.
Conclusions
Law enforcement and crime control practices are consistently in the news yet the conclusions of “experts” make it clear that promising practices are little more than conjecture.
Cities are throwing much against the wall in the hope that something sticks. Most focus on social work endeavors. Where I believe that everything should be on the table for discussion and examination, my fear is that violent crime will continue to grow and that citizens living in high crime communities will suffer the most.
Violent crime and fear of crime are going through the roof because people want officers to back off and not be aggressive (proactive). Firearm and security sales are skyrocketing. People are moving out of cities, US Crime Rates.
Have people accepted a new level of violence? Seems so. Thousands are dying or injured via violent crime but it’s negative encounters with cops that get the bulk of the attention. It’s African American communities that are being hurt the most, but again, no one seems to care.
News reports suggest that the cities where protests and or riots have occurred are being hit the hardest, Governing.Com.
It’s African American communities that are bearing the brunt of the violence, NBC News.
There are articles linking police defunding and lack of proactive policing to increased homicides and violence, Washington Times.
There were 722 more homicides in nine U.S. cities last year, according to police data. More than 85% of the increase was in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, The Marshall Project.
In my opinion, President Biden’s decision not to proceed with a national commission is an admission that we do not have a clear, proven path to improved police practices and crime control measures.
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National Offender Recidivism Rates at Offender Recidivism.
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