The Civil Rights Division’s Pattern and Practice Police Reform Work: 1994-Present Civil Rights Division U.S. Department of Justice January 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 II. BACKGROUND – THE HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF SECTION 14141 ........................................ 3 III. INITIATING A PATTERN-OR-PRACTICE INVESTIGATION ...................................................... 5 Identifying the Need for a Pattern-or-Practice Investigation ................................................................................. 5 Prioritizing Among Viable Pattern-or-Practice Investigations Across the United States................................... 6 Opening an Investigation .............................................................................................................................................. 8 IV. CONDUCTING AN INVESTIGATION ....................................................................................... 9 The Role of Policing Experts in Pattern-or-Practice Investigations .................................................................... 10 The Role of Data Analysis in Pattern-or-Practice Investigations ......................................................................... 11 The Role of the Law Enforcement Agency in Pattern-or-Practice Investigations ............................................ 11 The Role of the Community in Pattern-or-Practice Investigations ..................................................................... 13 The Role of United States Attorney’s Offices in Pattern-or-Practice Investigations ........................................ 14 The Length of Pattern-or-Practice Investigations .................................................................................................. 14 Concluding a Pattern-or-Practice Investigation ...................................................................................................... 15 V. NEGOTIATING REFORM AGREEMENTS ................................................................................ 17 VI. THE CURRENT REFORM MODEL AND ITS RATIONALE ..................................................... 20 A) The Structure of the Division’s Police Reform Agreements ............................................................................... 20 Court-Enforceable Consent Decrees ........................................................................................................................ 20 An Independent Monitoring Team ........................................................................................................................... 21 Outcome Measures to Assess Progress .................................................................................................................... 23 B) The Substance of the Division’s Police Reform Agreements ............................................................................... 25 Advancing a Community and Problem-Oriented Policing Strategy .................................................................... 26 Promoting Bias-Free Policing .................................................................................................................................... 26 Use of Force Principles ............................................................................................................................................... 27 Community Engagement ............................................................................................................................................ 29 Departmental Policy Changes and Re-training ........................................................................................................ 30 Reforming Accountability Systems............................................................................................................................ 30 Officer Wellness and Support .................................................................................................................................... 33 Recognizing the Link Between Policing and Other Criminal Justice and Social Systems ................................ 33 VII. CONCLUDING THE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION’S POLICE REFORM AGREEMENTS ................ 35 VIII. CONCLUSION: ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF PATTERN-OR-PRACTICE ENFORCEMENT ON POLICE REFORM ................................................................................................................. 38 APPENDIX A: SUMMARIES OF THE DIVISION’S PATTERN-OR-PRACTICE CASES ........................ 41 Other Open Pattern-or-Practice Cases ..................................................................................................................... 47 APPENDIX B: OTHER DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE POLICE REFORM TOOLS .............................. 49 Criminal Civil Rights Prosecutions ............................................................................................................................ 49 Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance .................................................................................................................................................... 50 OJP Bureau of Justice Assistance and Diagnostic Center ..................................................................................... 50 I. INTRODUCTION There are more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. Law enforcement is a demanding, rigorous, and – at times – dangerous profession. The vast majority of men and women who police our communities do so with professionalism, respect, bravery, and integrity. But as we have seen around the country, when police departments engage in unconstitutional policing, their actions can severely undermine both community trust and public safety. Today, our country is engaged in a critically important conversation about community-police relations. This report describes one of the United States Department of Justice’s central tools for accomplishing police reform, restoring police-community trust, and strengthening officer and public safety – the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of the civil prohibition on a “pattern or practice” of policing that violates the Constitution or other federal laws (the Department’s other tools are described later in this document). Pattern-or-practice cases begin with investigations of allegations of systemic police misconduct and, when the allegations are substantiated, end with comprehensive agreements designed to support constitutional and effective policing and restore trust between police and communities. The Division has opened 11 new pattern-or-practice investigations and negotiated 19 new reform agreements since 2012 alone, often with the substantial assistance of the local United States Attorney’s Offices. The purpose of this report to make the Division’s police reform work more accessible and transparent. The usual course of a pattern-or-practice case, with examples and explanations for why the Division approaches this work the way it does, is set forth in this report. The following is a brief summary of its major themes: The Division’s pattern-or-practice cases focus on systemic police misconduct rather than isolated instances of wrongdoing. They also focus on the responsibilities of law enforcement agencies and local governments rather than on individual officers. The Division’s pattern-or-practice cases begin with the launch of a formal investigation into a law enforcement agency to determine whether the agency is engaged in a pattern or practice of violating federal law. An investigation most often consists of a comprehensive analysis of the policies and practices of policing in a particular community, although an investigation may also focus on a specific area of policing practice. If the Division finds a pattern or practice of police misconduct, it issues public findings in the form of a letter or report made available to the local jurisdiction and the public. The Division conducts a thorough and independent investigation into allegations of police misconduct and substantiates any conclusions it draws with evidence set forth in its public findings. After making findings, the Division negotiates reform agreements resolving those findings, usually in the form of a “consent decree” overseen by a federal court and an independent monitoring team. The lead independent monitor is appointed by the court, and usually agreed upon by both the Division and the investigated party, but reports directly to the 1 court. If an agreement cannot be negotiated, the Division will bring a lawsuit to compel needed reforms. When the court finds that the law enforcement agency has accomplished and sustained the requirements of the reform agreement, the case is terminated. In recent years, the Division’s reform agreements have included data-driven outcome measures designed to provide clear and objective standards for measuring success and determining whether the law enforcement agency has met the objectives of the agreement. At all stages of a pattern-or-practice case, from investigation through resolution, the Division emphasizes engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders, including community members and people who have been victims of police misconduct or live in the neighborhoods most impacted by police misconduct, police leadership, rank and file officers, police labor organizations, and local political