May, 18 2020, 12:00am EDT
Civil Rights, Law Enforcement Leaders Urge Police to Protect Public Health while Safeguarding Rights
New principles provide roadmap for public safety during COVID-19 and beyond.
WASHINGTON
Noting an increase in discriminatory policing practices during COVID-19, The Leadership Conference Education Fund released principles that provide actionable recommendations for law enforcement agencies across the country to better protect the health and safety of communities and officers during the pandemic and beyond. The principles, Public Safety During COVID-19 and Beyond: Recommendations for Protecting Public Health and Our Civil Rights, received endorsements from more than 100 civil rights organizations and law enforcement groups, including The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), Carmen Best, Chief of the Seattle Police Department, Washington and Rashall Brackney, Chief of the Charlottesville Police Department, Virginia.
"This crisis risks further criminalizing already marginalized communities, especially communities of color, but it has also forced us to revisit policing priorities and practices," said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Education Fund. "These principles can help law enforcement agencies root out discriminatory, outdated, and unsafe policies and practices amid this pandemic, and replace them with ones that prioritize public health, equity, and accountability. We urge police departments around the country to adopt this roadmap to achieve equitable and effective policing practices that advance public safety."
"A global pandemic is a public health issue, not a criminal justice one," said Carmen Best, chief of the Seattle Police Department, Washington. "Police departments across the country, including Seattle, have done so much work to build trust in our communities, we must be thoughtful in the role we play in protecting the health of community members and officers. Our role as law enforcement officers includes protecting the civil rights of every community member, and that doesn't change during a pandemic."
"Public health and public safety are not competing priorities," said Rashall Brackney, chief of the Charlottesville Police Department, Virginia "To benefit both communities and police, the criminal justice system must acknowledge historical and institutional biases that target, alienate, and punish people of color and other vulnerable populations. The coproduction of public health and safety mandates a shift in power and perspective from an authoritarian lens to one of shared responsibilities. COVID-19 is devastating our black communities; the policing profession cannot continue to carry the contagion of racism for which our country has no vaccine."
"Public health and public safety are not competing priorities," said Rashall Brackney, chief of police for Charlottesville, Virginia. "To benefit both communities and police, the criminal justice system must acknowledge historical and institutional biases that target, alienate, and punish people of color and other vulnerable populations. The coproduction of public health and safety mandates a shift in power and perspective from an authoritarian lens to one of shared responsibilities. COVID-19 is devastating our black communities; the policing profession cannot continue to carry the contagion of racism for which our country has no vaccine."
"Every police officer worth his or her badge got into this profession to help people, not to arrest people for the minor mistakes that bring most people into the justice system," said Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), 34-year police veteran and executive director for Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP). "The COVID-19 crisis poses a unique opportunity for police and courts to re-examine what's really important. Our profession stands to gain much respect if we rethink how we interact with people every day, reconsider our proper role in society, and carry these lessons over into the post-pandemic world."
The principles fall under three main categories:
- Prioritize a Public Health Response to a Public Health Crisis: State and local health agencies should take the lead in enforcing public health orders, not police. Law enforcement can support health agencies through community education and awareness about the directives and referring community members to social services providers and programs.
- Practice Fairness, Promote Equity: Police should prioritize bias-free policing policies and practices and stop making arrests and detentions for offenses that pose no imminent harm to others and are not a threat to public safety, including immigration, to the maximum extent possible.
- Commit to Accountability and Transparency: In addition to holding officers accountable for proper COVID-19 responses, police departments should collect and publish data to learn more for future crises.
The following list has endorsed the principles to date:
The Leadership Conference Education Fund
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP)
Current Law Enforcement
Carmen Best, Chief of the Seattle Police Department, WA
RaShall Brackney, Chief of the Charlottesville Police Department, VA
Branville Bard, Commissioner of the Cambridge Police Department, MA
Former Law Enforcement
Det. Justin Boardman (Fmr.), West Valley City Police Department, UT
Commander Marc Buslik (Ret.), Chicago Police Department, IL
Deputy Chief Stephen Downing (Ret.), Los Angeles Police Department, CA
Officer Dave Franco (Ret.), Chicago Police Department, IL
Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), Maryland State and Baltimore Police Departments, MD/ Executive Director, LEAP
Special Agent Jamie Haase (Fmr.), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, VA
Lucy Lang, Assistant District Attorney (Fmr.), New York, NY
Sheriff James Manfre (Ret.), Flagler County Sheriff's Office, FL
Deputy Inspector Corey Pegues (Ret.), New York Police Department, NY
Detective Debbie Ramsey (Ret.), Baltimore Police Department, MD
Chief Norm Stamper (Ret.), Seattle Police Department, WA
Special Agent Ray Strack (Ret.), Dept. of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Allison Watson, Assistant District Attorney (Fmr.), Knoxville, TN
Organizations
A Little Piece of Light
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas
Alternate ROOTS
American Atheists
American Civil Liberties Union
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Arab American Institute
Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Austin Justice Coalition
Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network
Black and Pink
California Legal Research
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Justice
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU Law
Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School
Chicago Urban League
Cities United
Civil Rights Corps
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Dallas Community Police Oversight Coalition
Defending Rights & Dissent
Dignity & Power NOW
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
Equal Justice Society
Equal Justice USA
Equal Rights Advocates
Equality California
Equity And Transformation
Fair and Just Prosecution
Faith in Texas
Fathers Who Care
FREE! Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment
Futures Without Violence
Harm Reduction Coalition
Hip Hop Caucus
HIPS
HIRE Network
Housing Choice Partners
IBW Police Reform and Accountability Task Force
Interfaith Alliance
International Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Ithaca Prisoner Justice Network
Justice For Housing
Juvenile Law Center
Kentucky Council of Churches
King County Department of Public Defense
Lambda Legal
Law Enforcement Action Partnership
Legal Action Center
Massachusetts Against Solitary Confinement
Matthew Shepard Foundation
Media Alliance
MomsRising
NAACP
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
National Action Network
National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE)
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
National Association of Human Rights Workers
National Association of Social Workers
National Black Justice Coalition
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Council of Churches
National Education Association
National Employment Law Project
Not In Our Town
Open MIC
OVEC-Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition
People For the American Way
PFLAG National
Prison Policy Initiative
Public Defender Association
Reclaim Philadelphia
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Safer Foundation
Silver State Equality-Nevada
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
SPLC Action Fund
Starting Over, Inc.
Tash
The Black Sex Worker Collective (The BSWC)
UnidosUS
Union for Reform Judaism
United Church of Christ
Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
We Got Us Now
Workers Center of Central NY
YWFC
*Last updated on May 15, 2020.
The Education Fund previously launched a "New Era of Public Safety" initiative featuring groundbreaking tools to increase trust, fairness, justice, and mutual respect between police departments and the communities they serve. The guidebook and toolkit offer community-centered policy solutions to equip U.S. communities and police departments with best practices and recommendations for adopting 21st century policing models, including tools for advocacy. More information on the initiative is available here.
The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for federal policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. The Education Fund's campaigns empower and mobilize advocates around the country to push for progressive change in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the education and research arm of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. For more information on The Education Fund, visit civilrights.org/edfund/
New Era of Public Safety is an initiative of The Leadership Conference Education Fund for 21st Century data-driven best practices in policing.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, The Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society - an America as good as its ideals.
(202) 466-3311LATEST NEWS
Bondi Shreds Biden-Era Protections for Journalists as Trump White House Hunts Leakers
One critic warned that President Donald Trump "almost certainly will abuse the legal system to investigate and prosecute his critics and the journalists they talk to."
Apr 28, 2025
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has scrapped a Biden-era policy that sharply restricted the Justice Department's ability to seize journalists' records and force them to testify in leak investigations, an alarming move that press freedom advocates said carries dire implications for reporters and whistleblowers.
In an internal memo first reported Friday by CBS News, Bondi wrote that the Justice Department "will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President [Donald] Trump's policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people."
"The perpetrators of these leaks aid our foreign adversaries by spilling sensitive and sometimes classified information onto the Internet. The damage is significant and irreversible," Bondi continued. "Accountability, including criminal prosecutions, is necessary to set a new course."
As part of a renewed crackdown on leaks, Bondi said she is issuing revised Justice Department regulations stating that media outlets "must answer subpoenas" related to efforts to uncover sources of unauthorized disclosures within the federal government.
"The policy contemplates the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to compel production of information and testimony by and relating to members of the news media, subject to the Privacy Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000aa, and the approval of the department's leadership in some instances," the memo states. "The attorney general must also approve efforts to question or arrest members of the news media."
"Some of the most consequential reporting in U.S. history—from Watergate to warrantless wiretapping after 9/11—was and continues to be made possible because reporters have been able to protect the identities of confidential sources."
The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF)—a group co-founded by the late Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked classified documents that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers—noted in a statement that Bondi's memo followed "news that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard asked the Department of Justice to investigate recent leaks to reporters."
Seth Stern, FPF's advocacy director, said Bondi's move was made possible by lawmakers' failure to pass the PRESS Act, bipartisan legislation would have codified into law rules prohibiting the federal government from forcing journalists or telecom companies from disclosing information about their sources.
"Every Democrat who put the PRESS Act on the back burner when they had the opportunity to pass a bipartisan bill codifying journalist-source confidentiality should be ashamed," said Stern. "Everyone predicted this would happen in a second Trump administration, yet politicians in a position to prevent it prioritized empty rhetoric over putting up a meaningful fight."
"Because of them," Stern added, "a president who threatens journalists with prison rape for protecting their sources and says reporting critically on his administration should be illegal can and almost certainly will abuse the legal system to investigate and prosecute his critics and the journalists they talk to."
After his victory in the 2024 presidential election, Trump instructed Republicans to block the PRESS Act, writing on his social media platform, "REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!"
Since the start of his second term, Trump has launched what Reporters Without Borders (RSF) characterized as "a monumental assault on press freedom," including by engaging in "legal intimidation" against media outlets.
"When you step back and look at the whole picture, the pattern of blows to press freedom is quite clear," Clayton Weimers, executive director of RSF North America, said late last week. "RSF refuses to accept this massive attack on press freedom as the new normal. We will continue to call out these assaults against the press and use every means at our disposal to fight back against them. We urge every American who values press freedom to do the same."
Earlier this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a safety advisory to journalists planning to visit the United States, warning "journalists who are at high risk of being detained at the border" to "consider leaving their personal and/or work devices at home and instead carry separate devices and a new SIM card."
Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement following Bondi's memo that "strong protections for journalists serve the American public by safeguarding the free flow of information."
"Some of the most consequential reporting in U.S. history—from Watergate to warrantless wiretapping after 9/11—was and continues to be made possible because reporters have been able to protect the identities of confidential sources and uncover and report stories that matter to people across the political spectrum," Brown said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
GOP Unveils Plan to Give $150 Billion More to Pentagon
"Any additional money pumped into this system is likely to be wasted," said one analyst. "The only beneficiaries will be weapons contractors."
Apr 28, 2025
Congressional Republicans on Sunday released legislation that would pump an additional $150 billion into the Pentagon—a morass of waste and profiteering—over the next decade as part of a sweeping reconciliation package that's also expected to include deep cuts to Medicaid and tax breaks for the wealthy.
The House Armed Services Committee, a major target of weapons industry lobbying, unveiled the plan for what it called "a historic investment of $150 billion to restore America's military capabilities and strengthen our national defense." The panel said the legislation was developed "in close conjunction" with Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, who is separately pursuing a $1 trillion U.S. military budget for the next fiscal year.
The legislation would direct the new Pentagon funding toward a number of initiatives backed by the president, including a "Golden Dome" missile defense system that experts have called a massive boondoggle that could benefit Elon Musk.
The bill, which is scheduled for a committee markup on Tuesday, also includes $4.5 billion to speed production of the B-21 stealth bomber, a Northrop Grumman-made aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Sunday that the GOP's proposed Pentagon spending increase is "a glaring example of misplaced priorities."
"This is no time to throw more money at a weapons manufacturing base that is already maxed out," said Hartung. "Any additional money pumped into this system is likely to be wasted. The only beneficiaries will be weapons contractors, who will be glad to accept the new funds whether they can use them effectively or not."
"Given that the Pentagon and its contractor network are having a hard time spending existing funds well," Hartung added, "Congress should think twice before sending more taxpayer money their way."
The Republican push for additional Pentagon funding comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing calls to resign for sharing plans for a U.S. military attack on Yemen in at least two private group chats.
Earlier this month, as Common Dreamsreported, Hegseth endorsed Trump's push for a $1 trillion U.S. military budget, which would mark the highest level of spending since the Second World War.
Keep ReadingShow Less
100 Palestinians Killed in Weekend of Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza
Victims include 22 members of one family massacred in their Gaza City home.
Apr 27, 2025
Israel Defense Forces bombing killed at least 100 Palestinians including numerous women and children in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, while the IDF also renewed airstrikes on Lebanon as cease-fire talks between senior Hamas and Egyptian officials wrapped up in Cairo without any breakthrough.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that Israeli strikes killed at least 51 Palestinians over the previous 24 hours. Among the victims were eight people, including three women and two children, killed in an IDF bombing of a tent in Khan Younis; a man and four children slain in another strike on a tent in Deir al-Balah; and at least six people who died when a coffee shop near the Bureij refugee camp was hit.
The ministry said Saturday that at least 49 Palestinians were killed during the preceding 24 hours, including 22 members of the al-Khour family who were sheltering in their Gaza City home when it was bombed.
The IDF said the strike targeted a Hamas militant. Israel's military relaxed rules of engagement after the October 7, 2023 attack to allow an unlimited number of civilians to be killed when targeting a single Hamas member, no matter how low-ranking.
Saed al-Khour, who is grieving the loss of his family, refuted Israel's claim, tellingThe Associated Press that "there is no one from the resistance" among the victims.
"We have been pulling out the remains of children, women, and elderly people," al-Khour added.
Israel's U.S.-backed 569-day assault on Gaza has left at least 183,800 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing. Nearly all of Gaza's more than 2 million people have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened amid a "complete siege" that is cited in an International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are also fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for the pair last year.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces unleashed a wave of bombing attacks in Lebanon in what critics called a blatant violation of a November cease-fire agreement with the resistance group Hezbollah. The IDF bombed targets in southern Lebanon and in suburbs of the capital city of Beirut.
The IDF, which said it warned residents ahead of the Beirut airstrike, claimed it attacked "an infrastructure where precision missiles" were being stored by Hezbollah, without providing any supporting evidence.
Israel says it will continue its assault and siege on Gaza until Hamas releases the two dozen Israeli and other hostages it has imprisoned since October 2023. Hamas counters that it will only free the hostages in an exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a complete withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza, and a new cease-fire agreement. Israel unilaterally broke a January cease-fire last month.
A senior Hamas delegation left Cairo late Saturday following days of talks regarding a possible deal for a multi-year truce and the release of all remaining hostages. The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency was also in Qatar earlier this week for separate cease-fire talks. Qatari mediators said they believed there has been "some progress" in both sides' willingness to reach an agreement.
United Nations agencies and international humanitarian groups—many of which have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war—have warned in recent days of the imminent risk of renewed famine in Gaza as food stocks run out.
"Children in Gaza are starving," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
said on social media Sunday. "The government of Israel continues to block the entry of food and other basics. [This is a] man-made and politically motivated starvation."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular