Latest in Policing in America
The report found no evidence that the Park Police cleared the park of racial justice marchers so that then-President Trump could walk through the park for a photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
In use-of-force trainings, police departments impose hard and fast rules on their officers despite departmental claims that such rules are unworkable. These rules, invisible to the public, often distribute risks of harm to the very civilians police are sworn to protect.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act will use federal grants to regulate police departments. Will this be enough to undo a century of policies and practices that have shielded local police from state and federal oversight?
It's been a year since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and there have been a lot of police reform efforts since then. A lot of them have come to nothing, but some of them have been very productive—at the state level, in certain cities and even, to a certain extent, at the federal level. To discuss the police reform successes and failures of the last year, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Rashawn Ray, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and the David M.
In its effort to address qualified immunity, Congress should distinguish between civil actions that seek to encourage agency reform and civil actions that serve to punish wrongdoers who engage in extreme conduct. This post offers a path forward for achieving those twin goals.
It's time to apply vicarious liability to local governments whose police officers violate the civil rights of residents. The change would be a more important reform for Section 1983 litigation than getting rid of qualified immunity for individual officers.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced pattern-or-practice investigations into police in both Minneapolis and Louisville after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. What are these investigations, and what can they do?
Abolishing qualified immunity, moving police misconduct payouts to police department insurance policies and having individual officers carry liability insurance could help transform policing in the United States.
Join us for a discussion about reforming civil settlements for police misconduct.
Join us for a discussion about qualified immunity in the federal courts.