The Future of Policing Reform: The Way Forward?

• Author: Charles H. Ramsey,Laurie O. Robinson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12736
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

162 Public Administration Review • March | April 2017

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 2, pp. 162–163. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12736.

Charles H. Ramsey is former police

commissioner of Philadelphia and

co-chaired the President ’ s Task Force on

21st Century Policing. He is currently a

distinguished visiting fellow at the Lindy

Institute for Urban Innovation, Drexel

University.

E-mail: charles.h.ramsey@gmail.com

Laurie O. Robinson is the Clarence J.

Robinson professor of criminology, law, and

society at George Mason University and

co-chaired the President ’ s Task Force on

21st Century Policing. She formerly served

as assistant attorney general in the U.S.

Department of Justice.

E-mail: lrobin17@gmu.edu

Perspective

W e are two and a half years past Michael

Brown ’ s death in Ferguson and two years

since the White House Task Force on 21st

Century Policing called for measures to build greater

trust between police and communities—and issues of

race and policing continue to reverberate across the

country. But with a new administration arriving in

Washington on a “law and order” platform, is policing

reform still alive? We are cautiously optimistic that the

answer is “yes.”

It is clear that the tragic shooting incidents of the

last several years have galvanized public and media

attention. But they have also focused police leaders

around the country on the need for action in bringing

needed change to the field. No one would dispute

that leadership from Washington has played a helpful

role. As co-chairs of the Task Force on 21st Century

Policing, we had the opportunity to sit around a

table with President Obama in the White House

Roosevelt Room and debate policing issues. He was

deeply engaged. But that kind of involvement from a

president is highly unusual. Policing, with our 18,000

state and local law enforcement agencies, is a local

business in the United States. And it is clear that in

the Trump Administration, a high Washington profile

on these issues is unlikely—whether from “pattern

or practice” lawsuits from the Justice Department ’ s

Civil Rights Division, or from White House or COPS

Office engagement or innovative federal funding

initiatives. But as a local enterprise, local policing

leadership can remain strong with or without a “bully

pulpit” in Washington.

Despite the challenges, it is promising to see evidence

of the Task Force report ’ s penetration in the field.

What has struck us over the past two years—a time

that has not been easy for policing—is how much

attention the White House report has garnered from

police chiefs in a profession that is very tradition-

bound, and how many chiefs have already quietly

taken steps to embrace change, demonstrate a

commitment to fair and procedurally just policing,

to “own the problem,” and to work with citizens

to “co-produce” public safety through community-

oriented policing. While most Washington

commission reports get a brief flurry of attention

after their release, and then quickly fade from view,

this Task Force report has had unusual staying

power—and it would be hard to find a police chief

in the United States who is not at least aware of the

report. While there is not yet data available on this

(although colleagues at George Mason University and

elsewhere have this on the drawing board), there is

strong anecdotal information that police chiefs are

well aware of the recommendations and using them

as a checklist to assess how their own departments

stand.

The backing from leadership organizations in the

field has supported this. The White House Task

Force report has been largely embraced by the major

players—the International Association of Chiefs

of Police (IACP), Major City Chiefs Association,

Major County Sheriffs Association, and the National

Organization of Blacks in Law Enforcement. These

groups have sent it to their members and they are

urging, and working on, its adoption. Significantly,

the IACP President, at the organization ’ s conference

last October, issued a formal apology for the role that

the policing profession has played in mistreatment of

communities of color, a step that garnered front page

news coverage across the United States. And IACP,

which is the largest law enforcement organization

in the world with more than 25,000 members,

has launched a new Institute on Community–

Police Relations to assist agencies, especially small

and rural ones, in implementing the Task Force

recommendations.

Finally, we can see examples of change occurring

in the field. According to the U.S. Department

of Justice COPS Office, for example, since the

issuance of the Task Force report, thousands of

officers have been trained on fair and impartial

policing and procedural justice. Early last year, the

Laurie O. Robinson

George Mason University

Charles H. Ramsey

Drexel University

The Future of Policing Reform:

The Way Forward?