GPI Global Policy Institute

Panelists:

Marcia K. Thompson, Esq., Vice President, Law Enforcement Consulting, Hillard Heintze

Marcia K. Thompson is an attorney and law enforcement practitioner with over 20 years working in the criminal justice field. Marcia has served as a law enforcement administrator at the University Of Chicago Police Department.

Marcia has served as an advisor to several law enforcement organizations on civil rights and law enforcement issues for over 15 years. She has been an active member of the IACP Civil and Human Rights Committee for over 10 years. In addition, she has provided insight and guidance on timely and novel civil rights and human rights matters impacting law enforcement nationally, including bias-free policing, tasers, use of force, stop and frisk, constitutional policing, procedural justice, hate crimes, and affinity group protections. She has also served as General Counsel and advisor to the National Organization of Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) for many years.

Johnnie Bond, Esq, Lawyer, Johnnie Bond Law

Johnnie Bond graduated from University of Tennessee College of Law in 2002. During law school he worked as an associate lawyer at HCA Healthcare Company in its General Counsel Office. After law school, Johnnie took a job in the transaction practice group at Armstrong Allen, a large mid-south regional law firm based in Memphis, Tennessee. At Armstrong, Johnnie worked with James McLaren.

After Armstrong Allen, Bond moved to Washington, DC to focus his entire career on his passion to become one of America’s top trial lawyers. Johnnie teamed up with Donald Temple, a trial lawyer who received national acclaim in 1997 after securing an unprecedented $1 Million verdict against the retail giant Eddie Bauer in US District Court for Southern Maryland.

Cynthia Deitle, Esq, Director of Civil Rights Reform, Matthew Shepard Foundation

Cynthia M. Deitle retired as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2017 after serving for 22 years specializing in the fields of hate crimes, police abuse and misconduct, and community outreach.

After entering on duty with the FBI, she spent twelve years in the New York Division working in the Civil Rights Program. While there, Deitle served as the lead investigative agent for many high-profile police brutality investigations involving the New York City Police Department, including the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell, and the sexual assault of Abner Louima.

Michael G. Tobin, Executive Director, Office of Police Complaints

Michael Tobin has worked in the criminal justice field for over 35 years. His past positions include police officer for two different police departments, municipal prosecutor, police legal advisor, trial attorney representing law enforcement agencies, and executive director of two civilian oversight agencies. He is currently the director of the Office of Police Complaints for the Government of the District of Columbia

Moderator:

Gina Rupert, Career Counselor, Bay Atlantic University

Welcoming remarks

Paolo von Schirach, President, Global Policy Institute and Chair Political Science and International Relations, Bay Atlantic University.

The entire nation was stunned and outraged by recent instances in which many African Americans have been killed for no reason while in police custody, or when police officers fired on them without cause. The genuine wave of revulsion against this degree of gratuitous police violence cut across all political and race boundaries in America, and prompted the beginning of a national debate on how police forces operate now, and how they should operate in America. Many have demanded that some funds allocated to law enforcement should be redirected by the local and state authorities to help building up minority communities, (defund the police). Others propose new, stringent rules and nationally enforced standards that –as a minimum– would prohibit certain abhorrent police practices, while they would also impose genuine accountability for individual officers guilty of brutality or worse. Under current rules, officers guilty of brutality or worse in most cases manage to avoid retribution for their misdeeds, thanks to police-friendly adjudication processes, (reform the police).

Tobin opened the discussion by pointing out that ideally there has to be a mix of both: defund and reform. Some funds currently budgeted for police operations can be successfully reallocated to other community support functions. But police reform has also to take place. Thompson added that there is no consensus on this issue. Funds can and should be reapportioned. Policing is only one component of a larger picture. A proper approach would look at all the underlying issues that may be at the source of crime. Deitle pointed out that it is impossible to defund. Reform is the right approach. However, one has to look at reform in a comprehensive way. Not just police operations, but the entire criminal justice system. Police work is only one aspect of the problem. Bond argued that defund proponents have come up with this more radical approach because past reform efforts have not worked. The new idea is to defund while reinvesting and reallocating funds to activities that will help build communities.

On training programs for police forces, Thompson said that training has been around for a long time. But the problem is that not all police forces receive training; and, even focusing on those who did and do have training programs, how do we know that instruction received via training sticks? America lacks a national standard when it comes to police conduct and a system to verify that training actually produced the desired effects. Tobin cautioned that training often times does not work because it cannot displace the established cultures of individual police departments. This is a real problem. When they are in the streets, police officers will do what they are told by their superior officers, and not what they learnt during a training program. We have to find a way to make training content truly enforceable. Bond added that unfortunately we have been down this road before. A major crisis happens, followed by a national outcry, and many propose reform as a remedy. And then nothing tangible happens. Therefore, those at the receiving end of police brutality have lost confidence. For reform to be credible, the end result has to be changing police culture.

When it comes to training, Thompson pointed out that there is a real problem in trying to measure the success of training programs. The ideal format of training would have to be co-training, that is police officers working in partnership with other professionals who share the goal of safer communities.

Deitle agreed that there is a disconnect between training and the dominant culture of police forces around the United States. She added that there should be complete openness about the content of training programs police forces receive. The general public should be able to know what police forces are taught.

Tobin agreed and added that there is a high level of distrust in Washington DC regarding police behavior. One way to improve this state of affairs is by involving the community in the handling of complaints against police officers. People have to be satisfied that there is genuine accountability. For this to happen, they must be directly involved. Civilian oversight has to be extended. Deitle pointed out that a big obstacle in all this is the gigantic loophole represented by “qualified immunity”. This shield was created to protect police officers from frivolous complaints. However, today in many cases qualified immunity in practice means lack of accountability. In most professions practitioners buy malpractice insurance. Something similar should exist for police officers. But they should not be shielded from accountability via blanket immunity. Finally, discussing a national database on police practices, it was noted by several panelists that many police departments do not participate, so we lack a complete picture of what is happening at a national level.

Deitle said that money can be an incentive. Federal funds should be withheld when police department do not cooperate. Tobin indicated that because of bodycams complaints are up. People are willing to come forward when they know that there is video evidence supporting their claims.

Bond summed it up by stating that the real point of the defund movement is to reinvent the role of police forces. Right now many see a war between police forces and the general public. Defund should include reinvent and reimagine.