Category: Police Accountability Project

Essay: Defining good policing and building a framework for collaborative change

Policing is an essential component of public safety, but it has become hyper-politicized and polarized to the detriment of the profession and the people it serves.  If you think Black lives matter, you must think blue lives don’t, and vice versa.  If you work with the police you must be a racist, and if you…

Op-Ed: Police act as catalysts for more perfect union 

Policing has become hyperpoliticized and polarized to the detriment of the profession and the people it serves. Problematic messages include If you work with or for the police, you must be a racist; If you criticize an officer’s actions, you must be an anarchist; If Black lives matter, blue lives don’t (and vice versa); The only…

City of St. Louis ‘betrays’ its pledge to alter legal positions protecting abusive police, critics say

Six months after St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ administration promised to reconsider its defense of legal doctrines that protect abusive police, it is continuing to defend them, prompting charges of “betrayal” from civil rights lawyers. In campaigning for office, Jones spoke frequently about the need for greater police accountability, citing the deaths of George Floyd…

Qualified immunity: A get out of court free card for abusive police

Police officers almost always avoid legal liability for abusing citizens because of the doctrine of qualified immunity. The doctrine has its roots in ugly chapters of American history — from enforcement of racial segregation at a lunch counter in Mississippi; to the National Guard killings of students at Kent State; to President Nixon’s firing of…

Police misconduct biggest single cause of 2,900 wrongful convictions

Police misconduct is a leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Just over 2,900 people have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1989 according to data from the National Registry of Exonerations. That amounts to 25,900 lost years for those stuck behind bars. Over 37% of those cases involve police misconduct, and over…