for the first time in nearly 20 years
the department of justice has updated
its use of force policy the new policy
outlined by attorney general merrick
garland on friday instructs federal law
enforcement to intervene if they see
officers using excessive force officers
must also be ready and willing to act
when someone needs medical care this
update to our federal policing comes
after years of protests and just days
before we mark two years since the
murder of george floyd and here to
discuss is basis michael he's
distinguished lecturer and director of
the public policy program at hunter
college so what do you think is the
significance of this new policy change
it's been a long time there have been a
lot of protests since the last time they
changed this
that's exactly right and you know as as
even though we could say that it has
been a long time and it really has um
i'm glad to see some movement you know
there is a concern that all these
attempts to
nationalize policy and procedure have
fallen on deaf ears we saw that after
george floyd when the house passed the
legislation to try to curb uh police
brutality and that did not uh did not go
anywhere so i'm glad that there are new
guidelines that are being presented um i
i want to say better late than never i
hate to have to say that because these
are people's lives that are affected um
but but this but the fact of the matter
is uh it it it needs to happen look
there are
over 18 000 law enforcement agencies in
the country and any opportunity um to
nationalize policy and procedure is is
an important a very very important step
because uh trying to do it piecemeal is
is uh
is prohibitive and daunting to see the
least
you're right so this is on the federal
level this is the justice department
directing federal law enforcement this
doesn't apply to state and localities
and as you mentioned 18 000 separate law
enforcement agencies in america i mean
if you think about it that's like local
sheriffs and all of uh the different
iterations so so do you think that a
policy like this one on the federal
level could trickle down
to those local law enforcement agencies
at least in terms of somebody writing
down somewhere that if you see your
fellow officers killing someone you
should tell them to stop and intervene
yeah you know this is incredibly
important point because on the one hand
um it will take state action and local
sort of city municipal county action to
have this trickle down and that's why
elections matter state legislative
elections which are notoriously low
turnout really matter because that is
where you elect sheriffs county
executives and the like and so yeah i do
see that there is going to be momentum
for this to trickle down uh whether it's
in in democratic states and localities
first fine but it needs to happen and
this other point about
about officers uh reporting what they
see this is a really really important
issue because we saw it in george floyd
we saw it in the case of eric garner
where officers were just sort of
standing around and watched that that
death unfold it is one of the most
tragic aspects of those incidents that
you know you you people who were there
to defend life were essentially watching
people die and
uh and you know one of the things that
we study is that you know there is
substantial substantial peer pressure
and culture within these departments to
not
uh not you know sort of curb the
behavior of your fellow officer there
was an incident i think it was in
florida
where a female officer was trying to
stop her partner from uh from going too
hard on uh on a suspect and the officer
turned around and choked her um and so
and so
we we realized that these are these are
really substantial changes that if they
can trickle down at the local agencies
has an impact on lives it has an impact
on peer pressure and culture within
departments which is that thing that we
haven't been able to share
hi i'm zerlina maxwell thanks for
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