Concrete Advice for Police Reform: An Interview with Marc Morial

• Author: James D. Ward
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12756
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

166 Public Administration Review • March | April 2017

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 2, pp. 166–167. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12756.

James D. Ward teaches in the School of

Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers

University-Newark, and has published

extensively on issues of social justice, racial

profiling, and local government reform. A

former National Council Member of the

American Society of Public Administration,

he is a founding member of ASPA ’ s Ethics

and Standards Implementation Committee,

and was chief organizer and chair of the

Mini-Conference on Policing and Race,

January 29–30, 2016, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

E-mail: james.ward@rutgers.edu

Perspective

O n January 20, 2017, James D. Ward, co-guest

editor for the Policing and Race Symposium

in Public Administration Review , interviewed

Mr. Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National

Urban League. The National Urban League has

established itself as the nation ’ s largest civil rights

organization, with Mr. Morial leading its efforts since

2003.

Ward: Going forward, what advice would you give to

the incoming presidential administration of Donald J.

Trump, for reducing racial disparities in police use of

force, the role of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and

improving overall relations between law enforcement and

the African American community?

Morial: The National Urban League has issued a

10-point Plan for Police Reform and Accountability,

which we suggest the administration use as a

blueprint. These reforms include a national

comprehensive anti-racial profiling law, widespread

use of body cameras and dashboard cameras,

comprehensive retraining of all police officers, and

strengthening of police hiring standards.

Ward: Public officials have called for the hiring of more

black police officers to reduce racial disparities in police

use of force. However, research by Nicholson-Crotty et

al., and as reported in the Washington Post , suggests

that it takes a critical mass of black police officers to show

noticeable signs of explicit representation toward black

citizens, and that black officers in some instances may

be more willing to abuse power, as they acquiesce toward

acceptable norms of the organization. Are you surprised

by this finding? What advice would you give to black

police officers in departments where they make up less

than 40 percent of the police force?

Morial: Introducing police officers of color into a

dysfunctional culture will have little to no effect on

changing the culture. The burden of change cannot

be placed upon individual officers, particularly

when they make up a minority of the police force.

The diversification of police departments must be

accompanied by a comprehensive program of culture

reform. Recruitment alone will not solve the problem.

Ward: Critics argue that pretextual stops, where a

motorist (or pedestrian) is stopped on the pretext of

a minor traffic violation (or suspicion), but the true

motivating factor is the race of the person stopped, has

contributed to the proliferation of racial profiling. Epp

et al. found that African-Americans are 2.7 times more

likely to be stopped than white drivers, while young black

men were the most likely to be stopped. Yet, only the

state of Washington has declared pretextual stops illegal.

Do you believe this institutionalized practice by law

enforcement should be revisited and/or discontinued?

Morial: Yes.

Ward: Please explain.

Morial: There is no question that pretextual stops

primarily target African-Americans and Latinos.

The basis for detaining a motorist or pedestrian

should and must be probable cause or a primary

offense. That is why the National Urban League has

advocated for a national anti-racial profiling law, and

the issue of probable cause must be addressed in any

such law.

Ward: Research by Jennings and Rubado found that one

policy—the requirement that officers file a report when

they point their gun at people but do not fire—may

significantly reduce the rate of gun deaths, as officers

build habits of caution in displaying their weapons, even

if it is to avoid the completion of onerous paper work.

Are you surprised by this finding? Do you believe such a

policy, if adopted nationally, would also help to reduce

police shootings of unarmed black men and boys?

Morial: I believe such a policy should go even

further—incident reports should be mandatory any

time an officer unholsters his or her gun. While it is

true that avoidance of annoying paperwork may be a

James D. Ward

Rutgers University-Newark

Concrete Advice for Police Reform:

An Interview with Marc Morial