Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Thank you, Regan, for your kind introduction, and huge thanks to the Special Litigation Team for your tireless work — the result of which has been to make this an anniversary that is truly worth celebrating. Your efforts and expertise have led to safer communities, improved services for people with behavioral health disabilities, greater trust between police and the communities they serve, better training and more support for police officers, and more effective policing. I want to also express my gratitude to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, under whose leadership the Civil Rights Division has opened 12 pattern-or-practice cases.
In 1991 the nation watched as four officers beat a Black motorist named Rodney King. In 1992, it watched as a jury containing zero Black people acquitted the officers of assault. Hours later, in disbelief, Los Angeles erupted into violence. During six days of rioting, more than 60 people died. More than 2300 people were injured. More than 7000 fires were set, and more than 3000 businesses were damaged. The people in the streets were outraged — about more than how the police had treated Rodney King. They understood he was not the first person to have been mistreated by police; his abuse was just the first to be captured by a bystander on home video and shared with the world.
The Justice Department prosecuted the officers who beat and failed to protect Mr. King for violating his federal civil rights, but we lacked a tool to allow us to address the underlying, systemic causes of those violations. Mr. King’s death galvanized civil rights activists, and Americans began to understand that police misconduct, while at times attributable to “a few bad apples,” often stemmed from — or was allowed to flourish by — institutional failures.
The vast majority of police do their difficult, dangerous jobs with honor and integrity. But in some agencies, ineffective supervision, ambiguous guidelines, insufficient complaint investigations and follow-up, and poor data collection, among other issues, yield a culture that permits constitutional violations to go unchecked. Such failures harm everyone: most directly, community members and their families, but also the hardworking officers who are unfairly tarnished by the actions of others, and those officers who might have chosen a different path if only the appropriate guardrails had been provided.
When Congress passed Section 12601 in 1994, it confirmed what many Americans already knew: individual criminal prosecutions are not enough to remedy systemic police misconduct.
Over the last 30 years, the Department has objectively, thoroughly, and rigorously investigated more than 80 law enforcement agencies — including the Los Angeles Police Department — for patterns or practices of unlawful policing.
We follow the facts where they lead, and we release reports that comprehensively describe what we find. Just shining this light on problematic practices often brings about improvements in police departments. Shortly after we launched our investigation in Trenton, New Jersey, for instance, the city disbanded two of the street enforcement units whose officers had committed unconstitutional stops and searches.
But we do not stop at assessing problems. Our reports contain specific minimal remedial measures, explaining in detail what departments must do in order to create constitutional policing. We work closely with police chiefs, mayors, community members, and other stakeholders to create a law enforcement climate that fosters trust, supports officers, and keeps people safe.
LAPD, for example, dramatically improved its practices and the impact of its policing under a consent decree. Use of serious force by police decreased. Serious crime decreased. Community engagement and partnership increased. And accountability and supervision increased.
A survey of public opinion taken near the end of the consent decree rated the police more highly and showed that more Angelenos felt respected by police.
When we need to, as a last resort, we file lawsuits to ensure agencies make necessary changes.
Under the provisions agreed upon in our settlement agreements and consent decrees, independent monitors evaluate law enforcement agencies’ implementation of reforms. My office has set forth principles for implementing these monitorships to ensure they benefit the community and law enforcement by being cost effective, accountable, responsive to the community, efficient, and consistent in assessing compliance. Another way we help agencies implement reform is through a “knowledge lab” — a resource hub our Bureau of Justice Assistance maintains — that identifies and publicly disseminates fair and effective policing practices, training, and technical assistance at no cost to agencies or communities.
Today, we have gathered people who are closely connected with and affected by this work to discuss its impact and potential. The program ahead promises to be enlightening, enriching, and inspiring for us all. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of it.
I also want to express my appreciation and gratitude for Deputy Assistant Attorney General Robert Moossy’s three decades of service and leadership in advancing constitutional policing across the country. Early in his career, Robert worked on some of the very first Section 12601 pattern or practice investigations. And for nearly a decade, he has provided invaluable guidance, advice, and leadership — always with good cheer — while supervising the Special Litigation Section’s work in this area from the Civil Rights Division’s Front Office. Thank you, Robert.
I’ll now welcome to the podium Deputy Assistant Attorney General Robert Moossy for a discussion with current and past Civil Rights Division leaders.