By Jeffrey A. Fagan and Alexis D. Campbell

Police officers in the United States have killed over 1000 civilians each year since 2013. The constitutional landscape that regulates these encounters defaults to the judgments of the reasonable police officer at the time of a civilian encounter based on the officer’s assessment of whether threats to their safety or the safety of others requires deadly force. As many of these killings have begun to occur under similar circumstances, scholars have renewed a contentious debate on whether police disproportionately use deadly force against African Americans and other nonwhite civilians and whether such killings reflect racial bias. We analyze data on 3933 killings to examine this intersection of race and reasonableness in police killings. First, we describe the objective circumstances and interactions of police killings and map those event characteristics to the elements of reasonableness articulated in case law. Second, we assess whether inherently vague constitutional regulation of lethal force is applied differently by officers depending on the civilian’s race, giving rise to a disproportionate rate of deaths among racial and ethnic minority groups. We then assess the prospects for remediation of racialized police killings by testing the effects of an existing evidence-based training curricula designed to reduce police use of deadly force towards persons experiencing mental illness. We find that, across several circumstances of police killings and their objective reasonableness, Black suspects are more than twice as likely to be killed by police than are persons of other racial or ethnic groups; even when there are no other obvious circumstances during the encounter that would make the use of deadly force reasonable. Police killings of Latinx civilians are higher compared to whites and other racial or ethnic groups in some but not all circumstances. We find no evidence that enhanced police training focused on mental health crises can reduce the incidence of fatal police shootings of persons in mental health crisis or racial and ethnic disparities generally in police killings. Our findings suggest that the standards in constitutional case law fail to anticipate the circumstances of fatal police shootings and are therefore seemingly irrelevant in preventing racial disparities in police fatal police shootings. In light of this constitutional landscape, we argue that the ineffectiveness of enhanced police training to reduce shootings overall and racial disparity within these shootings may reflect the absence of race-specific components in their curricula. We suggest that the addition of training components that specifically address the role of race in officers’ perceptions of risk and their decision-making in potentially dangerous interactions with citizens may remediate both the incidence of police shootings and their apparent racial and ethnic disparity.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 100:951 2020.

By Foster & Associates

  In January 2022 York Regional Police (YRP or ‘the Service’) contracted Foster & Associates to ‘review and report on the provision of recommendations and best practices to enable York Regional Police to build and improve relationships with Black, Indigenous and other racialized communities’. The York Regional Police Board (YRPB or ‘Board’) identified recommendations made at its meeting on September 23, 2022 with the Black community and developed a list of 51 recommendations in total, 43 of which fell within the responsibilities of the Service. A preliminary document was tabled by the Chief with the Board on April 14, 2021 that identified activities already undertaken and in progress, signaling the intent to continue consulting with the Black community to advance positive change that builds trust and confidence in policing  

  Foster & Associates, 2023. 98p.  

By The White House

President Biden has made clear that all Americans deserve the full benefits and potential of our digital future. The Biden-Harris Administration’s recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy calls for two fundamental shifts in how the United States allocates roles, responsibilities, and resources in cyberspace:

1. Ensuring that the biggest, most capable, and best-positioned entities – in the public and private sectors – assume a greater share of the burden for mitigating cyber risk

2. Increasing incentives to favor long-term investments into cybersecurity

Today, the Administration is announcing a roadmap to realize this bold, affirmative vision. It is taking the novel step of publishing the National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan (NCSIP) to ensure transparency and a continued path for coordination. This plan details more than 65 high-impact Federal initiatives, from protecting American jobs by combatting cybercrimes to building a skilled cyber workforce equipped to excel in our increasingly digital economy. The NCSIP, along with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, and other major Administration initiatives, will protect our investments in rebuilding America’s infrastructure, developing our clean energy sector, and re-shoring America’s technology and manufacturing base.

Washington, DC: White House, 2023. 57p.

By The White House (U.S.)

Digital technologies today touch nearly every aspect of American life. The openness and connection enabled by access to the Internet are game-changers for communities everywhere, as we have all experienced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why, thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, my Administration is investing $65 billion to make sure every American has access to reliable, high-speed Internet. And when we pick up our smart phones to keep in touch with loved ones, log on to social media to share our ideas with one another, or connect to the Internet to run a business or take care of any of our basic needs, we need to be able to trust that the underlying digital ecosystem is safe, reliable, and secure. This National Cybersecurity Strategy details the comprehensive approach my Administration is taking to better secure cyberspace and ensure the United States is in the strongest possible position to realize all the benefits and potential of our digital future. Cybersecurity is essential to the basic functioning of our economy, the operation of our critical infrastructure, the strength of our democracy and democratic institutions, the privacy of our data and communications, and our national defense. From the very beginning of my Administration, we have moved decisively to strengthen cybersecurity. I appointed senior cybersecurity officials at the White House and issued an Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. Working in close cooperation with the private sector, my Administration has taken steps to protect the American people from hackers, hold bad actors and cybercriminals accountable, and defend against the increasingly malicious cyber campaigns targeting our security and privacy. And we’ve worked with our allies and partners around the world to improve our capacity to collectively defend against and respond to cyber threats from authoritarian states that go against our national interests. This strategy recognizes that robust collaboration, particularly between the public and private sectors, is essential to securing cyberspace. It also takes on the systemic challenge that too much of the responsibility for cybersecurity has fallen on individual users and small organizations. By working in partnership with industry; civil society; and State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments, we will rebalance the responsibility for cybersecurity to be more effective and more equitable. We will realign incentives to favor long-term investments in security, resilience, and promising new technologies. We will collaborate with our allies and partners to strengthen norms of responsible state behavior, hold countries accountable for irresponsible behavior in cyberspace, and disrupt the networks of criminals behind dangerous cyberattacks around the globe. And we will work with the Congress to provide the resources and tools necessary to ensure effective cybersecurity practices are implemented across our most critical infrastructure.

Washington, DC: White House, 2023. 39p.

By The City of Minneapolis

The City of Minneapolis is reexamining what being just looks like and acts like. In today’s world, the concept of justice is by most accounts expanding. In the United States, for example, courts have broadened the scope of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which reads in part, “nor shall any state deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Thus, we’re in an environment with a larger and more complex set of issues and challenges requiring “equal protection” by public institutions – particularly law enforcement and public safety organizations. Compounding the challenge of achieving justice is the degree to which changing societal conditions impact what community members and stakeholders view as “just” and “valuable.” As crime and safety trends shift, as public sentiment changes, and as society expands the scope of equal protection, the nature and definition of “value” shifts accordingly. For public safety leaders, this means that achieving justice, and the resulting value and legitimacy of policing and public safety institutions, is based on three interdependent demands: One, equally protecting people from increasingly complex crime. Two, equally protecting access to ever more robust rights, freedoms, and liberties. And three, engaging with communities to continually define value and co-create solutions that build trust. The resulting imperative is that public safety leaders and stakeholders must continually adapt their policing organizations to new value propositions and methods of producing that value. To accomplish this, Minneapolis public safety organizations must increase organizational capacity – the structures, systems, processes, and people that enable an organization to meet goals effectively and efficiently. And this capacity needs to not only be activated in real-time, but also dynamic – able to grow and adapt over time. The Safe and Thriving Communities report provides a pathway to this future of enhanced justice, value, and legitimacy

Minneapolis: City of Minneapolis, 2023. 143p.

By The City of Dallas,

A three-year study released Thursday from the Dallas Office of Community Police Oversight looked at low-level offense arrests and showed there were disparities in those types of arrests for Black people compared to the city's Black population. The study from the oversight office looked at public data to analyze low-level arrests in Dallas and shared recommendations to lessen the impact of misdemeanor enforcement on the community, police department and city resources, the report said. Most low-level custodial arrests during the three-year study period were public intoxication, possession of marijuana, and criminal trespass, the report said. The report outlined how Black residents are more often arrested for low-level offenses like public intoxication, low-level drug-related arrests, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass which the report claims "are not a public safety threat." It also recommended that the Dallas Police Department should officially de-prioritize low-level arrests in their policy, including marijuana, possession, public intoxication and criminal trespass arrests when the offense doesn't involve a felony charge or Class A or Class B offense.

Office of Community Police Oversight

By The Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

On February 18, 2021, the Virginia Advisory Committee (Committee) to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Commission) adopted a proposal to undertake a study of police oversight and accountability in the Commonwealth. The focus of the Committee’s inquiry was to examine law enforcement accountability and oversight structures in Virginia to better understand their effectiveness and impact. From a civil rights perspective, the Committee sought to consider the role such accountability structures have in ensuring equal protection of the laws and in the administration of justice, and the impact they may have on any disparities in police contact and use of force based on race, color, sex, disability, and national origin. As part of this inquiry the Committee heard testimony via video conference held in a series of eight public meetings that took place between July 2021 and May 2022.1 The following report results from a review of testimony provided at these meetings, combined with written testimony submitted during this timeframe. It begins with a brief background of the issues to be considered by the Committee. It then identifies primary findings as they emerged from this testimony. Finally, it makes recommendations that address related civil rights concerns. This report focuses on civil rights and police accountability structures in Virginia. While other important topics may have surfaced throughout the Committee’s inquiry, matters that are outside the scope of this specific civil rights mandate are left for another discussion. This report and the recommendations included within it were adopted by a unanimous vote of the Committee members present at the Committee meeting on May 31, 2023. 2

Washington, DC: USCCR, 2023. 57p.