:: our work ::
RESTORATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY >> Police Accountability
Campaign Brief:
Holding Police Accountable
:: campaign overview ::
Background
Vision
We envision a Michigan in which all are safe in their communities, and our police forces are an integral part of that vision. However, the public’s trust in police is eroded when people hear about the use of excessive force or officers who were fired for cause being rehired by other police departments. Everyone wants to know that the police entrusted with enforcing the law can, in fact, be trusted.
The purpose of these reforms is not to make police officers feel that they are under extra scrutiny or at odds with the communities they serve. Instead, clearer and better-defined rules will spell out the expectations we have of our law enforcement officers and the standards we expect them to uphold. This approach will protect the officers and departments who abide by them as well as build trust with the communities they protect and serve.
Solution
We support legislation that was developed with many other stakeholders that would:
- Reduce the ability of a police officer who has been fired for cause to easily find a new police job in a different jurisdiction
- Eliminate the use of no-knock warrants, which can pose a safety risk to both civilians and police officers
- Reduce or eliminate use-of-force policies that can result in severe injuries or even deaths
- Require ongoing training in de-escalation tactics, implicit bias and crisis response techniques
- Allow the state to revoke the professional licenses of officers whose on-duty use of excessive force resulted in the death or serious injury of someone
- Protect the anonymity of some misconduct complaints made against a police officers
- Prohibit police officers from removing their body cams or tampering with footage
- Improve the state’s tracking of for-cause firing of police officers
- Establish a duty to intervene when a police officer sees a colleague use excessive force
In the 2023-24 legislative session, bills that would require police departments to adopt use-of-force policies; require ongoing de-escalation, implicit bias and crisis response training; and limit the use of no-knock warrants were voted off the floor of the Senate but did not receive a vote in the House.
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