From The Crime Report:
For far too long, officer-involved fatalities and excessive use of force have occurred without any trace of accountability for the victims and families impacted by police violence. Prosecutors—as democratically elected officials directly accountable to the communities they serve—have the opportunity and the mandate to use their platform to demand justice, both within the legal system and beyond it.
In a new op-ed in The Crime Report, Institute for Innovation in Prosecution (IIP) Executive Director Meg Reiss analyzes systemic obstacles to holding law enforcement officers accountable, and a path forward to undo these hurdles and build measures that recognize the humanity and dignity of victims, families, and their communities. The path towards accountability for officer-involved fatalities and excessive use of force must move beyond body cameras and de-escalation training to confront the injustices that arise from systematic racism, both past and present.
This is the focus of a new working group on officer-involved fatalities at the IIP. Comprised of 35 experts—directly impacted individuals, prosecutors, police, academics, and activists from around the nation—the group was formed to examine pressing questions surrounding prosecutors’ role in addressing officer-involved fatalities, and to develop and implement mechanisms of accountability.
Read the op-ed here.
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