From the Vera Institute

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Eric Garner, and so many others should be alive today. The systems we look to for safety and justice weren’t designed to protect us all.
The dehumanization and criminalization of Black people and the use of unnecessary and excessive police force are legacies of slavery and white supremacy. They are the same legacies that continue to traumatize communities of color and fuel the uniquely American crisis of mass incarceration:
• Despite making up 13% of the population in the United States, Black people account for 27% of all arrests.
• Police kill Black people at twice the rate of white people, with over 1,250 documented incidents of police officers shooting and killing Black people in the past five years.
• 10.5 million arrests are made every year in the U.S. That’s one arrest every 3 seconds, each with the possibility of a dangerous and deadly encounter.
Real accountability in policing is long overdue. We’re calling on leaders in law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and elected officials to understand the true scope of the problem and respond by:
• Collecting real-time data and information about police overreach in enforcement, especially against Black people and in communities of color, to address the drivers of police brutality and misconduct.
• Developing strategies to defund the police by some measure to rein in militarization and misconduct, and to incentivize immediate changes in department policy and practice.
• Using the power of the pen, in Congress and statehouses, to pass laws that ensure that the 18,000 police departments across the country deliver safety to all communities.
At Vera, we’re investing in the long-term solutions that our criminal justice system needs:
• Using data on arrests and policing to empower communities and educate elected officials about over-policing and over-enforcement, especially in Black communities.
• Conducting cost benefit analyses and blueprinting a new model of local budgeting that prioritizes investments in communities over punitive enforcement.
• Supporting federal and local legislative strategies for meaningful and effective accountability in policing, including reforms to use-of-force policies, enacting immediate responses to incidents of officer misconduct, and making officer disciplinary records available to the public.
Now is not the time to tinker around the edges when it comes to policing reform and reforms to our criminal justice system. Now is the time for wholesale changes.
Thank you,
Nick
—
Nicholas Turner
President
Vera Institute of Justice