How can you promote police accountability in your outreach and organizing work?

Nothing is more important than having universal policies and procedures for the basic rule of law, and a federal mandate for checks and balances to assure transparency and accountability.

Instead of complaining and blaming police for the actions that brought police to the situation, address the root cause. Instead of complaining, sit with police leaders to find solutions to the issue being complained about. Police Officers are members of your communities, they are human and like everyone prone to make mistakes. Remember the public is the police. Complaints are warranted and discipline will take place if needed. If you think, you have the answers to policing and what they should have done. Join the department in your community. If not volunteer to be an auxiliary or volunteer officer. Walk a mile before you judge the mile already walked.

I think this is very important to note because not only with the US but UK, France and other European nations, the way the police is governed is very different. For many folks from under represented communities, they may be apprehensive about what their rights are and how to follow up. This first step is crucial in information gathering.

It is important to know your rights but even more important to understand your responsibilities within those rights. Organizers are on the ground talking to people day in and out. The purpose of the police is to uphold the law and are held accountable in an instant when a person knows their rights and can exercise them without fear of immediate reprisal however any interaction with police in low income black and brown neighborhoods can lead to serious altercations with dangerous outcomes so it is important to keep calm and respectful and to end the interaction as quickly as possible. Your safety is part of your responsibility to ensure you go home to your loved ones. Record if you can and pay attention to body language. Always be safe!

Quarterly contact your local, state, and federal elected officials (easy to do on the internet) letting them know of your concerns and the need for increased de-escalation training and accountability practices, etc. Don't be ashamed, embarrassed, or tired of continuous communication on the same issues of importance. Rather, be the record that keeps on playing the same song until something is done to move the needle.

In our effort in community policing, we always focus on ensuring our stakeholders are engaged and have their voices listened to. There is no fixed solution for a community issue, one is required is a commitment to build a relationship that nurtures.

The common thread that weaves any community or profession together is people. This thread is only capable of staying strong through communication, respect and trust. All of which must be demonstrated by our collective actions and over time. Even when things become stressed or challenged. We must find ways to communicate respectfully and trust each other as we move forward. Creating opportunities for people and police to engage in the above is the hard part. It always takes longer than you think. Combining grass roots with technology might provide opportunities. How can we use today’s modern technology to connect us? I wonder what’s working and who has examples to share. Anyone?

Development of relationships with youth and youth serving organizations (i.e. Boy Scouts or Boys & Girls Club) to have the youth develop personal friendship with the police as people is critical to help youth trust their local police force.

Working with groups who have been most impacted by police misconduct or mass incarceration policies is critical. Nothing about us without us approach should be a driving organizing principle.

I believe community engagement with the police involving an educational series, continuous compassion training for the police that include community involvement, and more visibility of police involved in community events, activities, and gatherings where they are part of the community not policing the community. We can’t hate people up close - we can’t create stories in our head based on media frenzy when we are co-existing with our “neighbor” - we need to see our police officers in uniform as part of the community.

Data will be used to manipulate the public safety narrative so it must be used to inform the real situation by combining with qualitative data especially including stories of impacted residents.

To promote police accountability through research in outreach and organizing, start by gathering data on police practices and misconduct. Collaborate with academic institutions for credible analysis. Use this data to inform and engage the community, enhancing awareness and driving advocacy for policy reform. Present evidence-based recommendations to policymakers and law enforcement. Finally, establish ongoing monitoring to ensure effective and lasting change in policing practices, maintaining long-term accountability.

I think it's also important to have the data handy when you have organizing conversations in the community to back up your concerns. Not everyone is going to agree and having the data and it's source to back up your assertions is the best way to respond to people who disagree.

In my experience, there is no issue or need that can't be better understood or addressed through the lens of policy. What is it? How is it made? Who is responsible for making policy? Are existing policies effective? Why or why not? Raising awareness is just the beginning. Advocating for the revision, elimination, and/or creation of new policies is key for positive and sustainable change.

Understand your decision making targets. If it’s a close vote on a controversial policy chances are being loud and showing strong community support still won’t carry the day, it will be equally important to leverage individual influencers to secure the swing vote(s).

One thing, many system-impacted folks fail to consider as a tool for police accountability (specifically when facing death at the hands of police) is the disparities between who police systems target, AND (curve ball) who is more likely to have protections such as life insurance. We have all seen how inconsistent the system is with their standard for what warrants charges being brought against an officer who shoots to kill. You know who wants the truth more than anyone? Second only to the loved ones of the deceased? A life insurance company who doesn’t want to pay out. They have the right and the financial means to conduct their own, very thorough, investigation for however long it takes. And you can believe they will.

I think it's also tremendously important to be very clear about what specific policy changes you want. Just being angry or upset doesn't get you very far. Have clear, concise, concrete changes you want to achieve.

The most successful efforts for accountability include community-led boards of diverse voices that monitor the progress of changes. The measures of success need to be developed by community leaders and department members - and the progress toward success needs to be publicly monitored.

This question is mostly fraudulent in its implications (through no fault of Linkedin). In my VERY extensive experience as a minister interacting with the LAPD and sincerely listening to community complaints of institutionalized racism and brutality, objective analysis of the complaints has shown the prevalence to be greatly exaggerated or even completely fabricated. I am not an expert nationwide, but at least on the LAPD, the cops can't barely use ANY force whatsoever without extensive review and scrutiny and availability to the public of that information.

In advocating for police accountability, prioritize community education to provide know-your-rights training & awareness. Call for policy reforms to enhance law enforcement transparency. Encourage constructive conversations between police officers & community members to foster trust. Document law enforcement encounters, advocate for legal reforms to address misconduct & leverage civilian oversight boards' power to monitor police activities. Form strategic alliances with groups committed to civil rights & police accountability to press for structural reform. Take holistic approaches to demand fairness & transparency & for law enforcement to be in tune with the community's needs to ensure community safety & the preservation of civil rights.

Police crimes in the Netherlands is what I have experienced and they operate like criminal organisations together with the Ministry of Justice and Security. They are kidnapping children for CPS and they have abducted me and dumped me on an island I was not born claiming I am not dutch while i was born in Aruba and claimed that I have voluntarily taken on another nationality. A birth right cannot be changed to another country. Identity theft has been done and forcing me to identify as the stolen person while given a new identity as an immigrant with no social security number.

I have been beaten, handcuffed, incarcerated for saving my heirs out of closed institutions and sexual abusive children farms, at gun point separated from my children for years now. There are no proof for any of their claims. These are war crimes. It has nothing to do with a so called job.

Make them pay money for waste, fraud, misuse and abuse that is not tax payer funded. Accountability has to equal dollars for there to be accountability in a public service.