Jul 21, 20203 min
Updated: Feb 9, 2021
"The Equality in Policing Act (formally named The Uniform Reporting Law
Enforcement Improvement Act (URLEIA)) has everything we need to retool
America's system of policing on a national level," states Jerroll Sanders-
President of non-profit, ONUS, Inc.
According to Sanders, URLEIA overcomes the constitutional bars that have
complicated efforts to compel local policing jurisdictions to adopt national
policing standards. "URLEIA does it by creating a super robust Pattern or Practice
(POP) data bank that acts as a long arm of the federal government, reaching into
local policing jurisdictions to track the individual actions of law enforcement
officers working for policing jurisdictions, prisons, jails and juvenile facilities," says
Sanders.
She explains that the POP data bank will provide a treasure trove of data to
characterize the performance of individual officers and policing entities, including
the nature of police stops, tickets issued, use-of-force events, complaints, officer
disciplinary actions and other important data, broken down by race, age, and
gender.
Sanders says police officers will log into the POP data bank using smart
devices and furnish real-time data on their interactions with the subjects of their
policing actions. The public also will be encouraged to use POP's online function
to lodge complaints against officers who violate citizens' rights and commend
those who protect and serve.
Sanders contends that the data gathering function in POP will be far more
reliable than the function proposed in the Democrats' Justice in Policing Act when
it comes to identifying and weeding out problem officers. The POP data bank will
analyze data entered, identify problem officers and use the "unfit indicator" to
prevent problem officers from ever again working in law enforcement anywhere
in the United States, Sanders adds.
She goes on to explain that URLEIA expands The United States Department
of Justice's (DOJ)'s policing oversight capabilities by deputizing licensed attorneys
and empowering them to help DOJ combat unconstitutional policing. She adds
that "URLEIA places at attorneys' disposal the same tools DOJ has used for
decades to curtail unconstitutional policing."
Sanders says that URLEIA also introduces a national use-of-force statute,
imposes limitations on the number of hours police officers can work, ends for
profit policing, establishes and tracks completion of rigorous training
requirements, penalizes officers who fail to disclose misdeeds of other officers,
portrays financially how policing is impacting communities of color and stems the
tide of mass incarceration.
Another huge benefit of URLEIA is its accountability mechanisms, which
Sanders explains includes in-field monitoring to prevent officers from fraudulently
laying claim to contraband and transporting "throw-downs." She says that UREIA
also prescribes inventory management standards for safeguarding seized
property and evidence stored at policing entities.
With respect to citizen involvement in policing, Sanders asserts that
URLEIA's Office of Civilian Oversight and Accountability (OCOA) provision amounts
to community control of the police on steroids. She also notes that foes of
policing reform will likely attempt to erode URLEIA's effectiveness over time. In
anticipation of such efforts, Sanders reveals that URLEIA has built-in safeguards to
combat and defeat such efforts.
According to Sanders, who drafted URLEIA in 2015, she and parents of
children slain by police officers lobbied Democrats and Republicans numerous
times on Capitol Hill seeking sponsors for URLEIA. She adds that the Democrats
recently introduced Justice in Policing Act harvested some of the "shiny"
provisions of URLEIA but left on the cutting-room floor provisions that would save
black people's lives. "We must right size the solution to fit the problem," Sanders
states.
She adds that "America's policing culture is cemented in dysfunction. To
structurally change policing, we must dig into the bedrock of America's policing
foundation, install new pillars and standards and build, day-by-day, a new policing
structure based upon URLEIA's abiding principle," which is The Obligation to
Preserve Life and Prevent Injury, Sanders concludes.
Learn more by visiting www.changeisonus.org. Learn about Jerroll Sanders