The panel, the a. D. A. Annual Meeting Forum on justice and policing a path forward with senator tim scott of South Carolina. Thank you, senator scott, so very much. Its a privilege to have you join us for this program at the a. B. A. Annual meeting. Senator scott thank you for your leadership. Without any question america is better because of folks like yourself in strong powerful positions to make a difference of the thank you for having the investment to make the difference. Senator scott, what do you see as the role of congress in improving police and Community Relations and bridging the gap of trust, particularly with communities of color across our nation . Senator scott i think Congress Plays a role in that, even a significant role. But perhaps the most Important Role is the one on the local level, the mayors and county chairmen or chairwoman, those folks have the most direct path towards Police Reform, not those of us in congress. Will i say shared the story several times i have been stopped by officers 18 times in the last 20 years. Seven times in one year as an elected official. All of my 18 stops were either by city, county, or state Law Enforcement. Never by federal Law Enforcement officers. So literally while we know the president ial election is really important. And this year is another really important one. The truth is that your election for your mayor. A lot of citizens dont participate in. The election of ouritycy council members. Those are the folks directly in positions of power to determine the type of local Law Enforcement you have. When we dont vote in those elections, we are actually taking a step back from the one place where Police Reform comes to life immediately in your city. We are going to do all that we can, and i worked on legislation i think bipartisan legislation, having great conversation was the chairwoman of the congressional black caucus, karen bass. We are looking for a sweet spot and common ground. I have spoken in the last couple days with family members whose brothers died at the hands of Law Enforcement. So we want to see something done. But the more i spoke with the families of the victims, the more they kept saying, thats a local issue. It really is a very big way local issue. We are going to continue to play a prom nept role because we must. But our ability to ban choke holds, thats on the federal level. We can only induce or encourage behavior by what we do with grant dollars, which is an important part. Its really less than 5 of the average departments revenue stream. Thats an important part of the equation. Especially as someone who has felt discrimination at the hands of Law Enforcement, its really important for us to recognize that most of that is a local decision. There have been calls to defund the police. When you hear that term, defund the police, what does it mean to you . Do you think its appropriate to examine how resources are distributed to communities . Senator scott i think its important for us to exam how resources are distributed. The consetcht of defunding the police is the scariest thought i ever heard as relates to communities of color antivulnerable communities. I hosted several weeks ago a round table discussion with africanamerican leaders throughout South Carolina and attorney general barr. The one consensus in the room was, lets not defund the police. But lets talk about a better strategy of having Police Respond. A couple of ideas that came out of the room was consistent with the executive order that came out of the administration. One was coresponders. The importance of having Mental Health experts responding to homelessness. And Mental Health episodes. Responding to issues of addiction. Those are places where a Law Enforcement agency should have health care Mental Health care experts as a part of their team so when they are responding to these unique and specific circumstances, that they are responding with the type of expertise that is necessary to prevent an escalation of force when possible. Ill say it this way. Youre too young to remember these days, but in the 1980s we had 600,000 or 700,000 additional beds for Mental Health patients than we do today. I think that has a Significant Impact on what we are asking our officers to do today. So if we could find a way to embed within the response Mental Health experts, we might walk away with a lot of lives saved. Do you think that consideration should be given to altering our limiting or even removing the immunity currently enjoyed by Law Enforcement across the country . Do you believe that congress will act to address qualified immunity . Senator scott i just had conversations again with family members about this specific issue. When i say family members, family members of the deceased who lost their lives at the hands of Law Enforcement. What i told them was there are two ways to look at qualified immunity. One way, is there a way for us to provide recourse and restitution to the exten tenth possible for the life that was lost . That im all onboard. Lets figure out how to make it more punitive for cities and municipalities, departments, counties, even states to be responsible for the actions of their officers. At the same time, if we want to continue to recruit and attract highly talented, very motivated officers, you have to protect that officer and their personal possessions from those lawsuits. To the extent possible. And the current threshold we have i think i would support. I would also make it easier for a family to receive restitution and recourse by making it easier for them to sue cities and departments and or counties or states. How do you see the role in solving the crisis and confidence in Law Enforcement . Are you confident you can make a difference . How would you go about doing so that we can move to a better place in this country as we need to do . Senator scott i think im a part of the team that can make a difference. I hope i have made a difference. One of the things that we dont spend a lot of time talking about, and i cant for the life of me figure out why, is how do e break the cycle that the nearly a third of africanamerican boys who grew up to become men will have had some neckive interaction with Law Enforcement or incarcerated. The keys to that from everything that i have studied, education and poverty. So breaking those cycles should be a robust part of our ongoing conversation as we look to address the issue of social justice. Other things that i have been working on, frankly five years, i started this conversation after walter scott on making sure that we provide more resources for body cameras because i know personally that had it not been for the miracle of a bystander recording the incidents of walter scott was shot in the back five times, shot at eight times, had it not been for that camera, none of us would have ever secondguessed a Police Report that had been falsified to protect the officer. That is the situation that we have to overcome as quickly as possible. One of the way that is we do that is by putting as much pressure and force on the system to change. But being in that position, having lived in that same community, walked and played on those streets, i have taken it as a personal the odyssey of this journaly im on to provide more funding for body cameras, to work on legislation that has passed the senate like antilynching legislation, to work on opportunity zones to bring more money into the poorest neighborhoods. To continue to bring record breaking levels of funding for historically black colleges and university as i have done the last two years. There are a lot of things that we can do, a lot of things i think we should do that is not directly connected to Law Enforcement. It is absolutely connected to the pipeline of justice. If i want to reduce the number of incidents that people of color are having in the Justice System or footprint, i need to break that cycle as early as possible. Senator scott, thank you so very much for being with us. We very much appreciate the time you spent with us today. And now ill turn it back over to joey jackson and our panel. We will then discuss further your thoughts as well as their observations regarding policing in america and the board. Thank you so very much, sir. Senator scott thank you. Have a great day. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] welcome to justice and policing, a path forward. We have a lot to discuss. We are in very trying and difficult times. Those trying and difficult times of course have been brought about by what we have seen as injustices with our own eyes. And they have occurred primarily with police involving people of color. We are in a situation now where i think people have come to the conclusion that enough is enough. And are looking for paths forward that are right with reform. That are right with the issue equality and policing thats done in a way that treats all people of all races in a very equal way. A very sound and respectful way. So what we are seeing across this country are protests everywhere. And those protests consist of people not only who are black and brown, but they consist of people who are of all colors. I think that goes to the issue of people knowing that what they see is wrong. Knowing what they see is amiss. Knowing what they see needs to be altered, changed, reformed. Today as we gather to have this very important discussion, it was very appropriate and felt very important that we bring about a Diverse Group of people on this pam that could address the perspective from a court perspective, academic perspective, a policing perspective, a political perspective so we can really get to the root cause of the issue. Not only what the problem is, but discuss solutions. Discuss moving forward. Discussing in this time of opportunity, and i will call it a time of opportunity, because when we see these issues, there is a crossroads now. What are we going to do . How are we going to fix it . What measures are going to be put in place so that there are people who have died at the hands of the police who can have a legacy and that legacy will be that perhaps future lives can be changed. Perhaps policing again could be brought to a situation where there can be a gap bridge between communities and police, between police and communities, and then moving forward it can be done in a more compassionate way or in a way thats sort of acknowledges and represents that we have to Work Together. We have to Work Together in a way that respects everyones rights and certainly respects the rights of black and brown people across this country. In doing so, in putting together this panel, it was a dynamic panel, indeed, that was brought together from a Cross Section as i noted of people who just bring a wealth of knowledge and experience. I will start first of course and just introducing judge susi morgan. She is a Federal District court judge in louisiana. Shell be introducing herself momentarily. No stranger to this issue at all. Presiding over the decrees, having knowledge, information, understanding about the process as it relates to policing. And what the extent of those decrees does. What the effectiveness are. What it looks like moving forward. So it is a pleasure and privilege to have her here. If we look, we also have tracy birch, dr. Tracy birch, professor tracy birch. She brings an academic perspective. A perspective of wisdom. A perspective of having to teach people and speak to people and flush out these issues in a classroom. To develop and work with bright minds moving forward which will perhaps bring meaning and further meaning and dialogue to this discussion of how we fix a broken system. We know we have commissioner Michael Harrison here as well. A person who has been in the trenches on this issue. Who has rose amongst the ranks. Who has been a model of excellence, an example in issues of policing. Who was formerly in louisiana and now in baltimore as the 41st Police Commissioner. We will also be joined later by senator scott. He certainly brings a political perspective to this. The senator working on legislation and reform in many issues. Hopefully the senate will get it together with the house. We look forward to speaking with him as well. Just to get into this panel, i would like just for a minute for each of the panelists to just again say hello, introduce themselves, and speak to the issue why this is such an important issue of our day. And how we move forward in a better way. Judge, if we can just start with you because im smart enough to know that you always start with the judge. Take it away. Im a Federal District court judge in new orleans. I have a civil until 2012 when i was appointed to this by barack obama. And four months later i was assigned a case. And im coming up on eight years working by Consent Decree and i learned a lot about policing and about Police Reform. I definitely see a role for Consent Decree to play in Police Reform in our country. Its not the only way, but it is one way i found to be very effective. Thank you, judge, so very much. Professor birch, if we can turn to you. Hi, thank you so much. I am professor of political science. And also a professor at the american bar foundation. One of the major issues that research is criminal justice and the political effect of criminal justice on partial r participation. Im working on a project that exams how and when people respond politically through voting or froting or the like to olicing. We are happyier you are here. And bring the ire of the entire community as they should. I guessings commissioner, what i would say since we are looking at a path moving forward, how do we get our hands around this problem . Is it a Community Policing issue . Is it a training issue . Is a recruitment issue . Whats the issue and how do we ake it better . All of the above. Its everything to how we recruit, how we hire. How and who we train, how we create policies that support that training that turns into positive police performance. Its community engagement. I like to say heard you Say Community and police. I like to say we are not different from the community. E are a part of the community. In everything that we do that breaks the trust and breaks the relationship between the police and the community, we are doing it to ourselves. We are harming ourselves because we are part of that community. Its everything that we do. Ever single policy, the way we perform, the way we engage, the way we enforce, and the way we treat people with dignity and respect. Our policy should support that everyone is treated with dignity and respect and with equity. That is what a Consent Decree is. It is designed in new orleans as t is in baltimore to transfoorm the department to do all transform the department to do all those things so we are looking for the right people with the right temperament, the right will to do this work, who will be engaging and empathetic and compassionate. Tough on crime, soft on people. Joey very well said. You bring up the issue of Consent Decree. Judge morgan, if i could pivot to you on the issue as a person who knows so much about that issue. I guess i would ask of you, what could we expect with regard to Consent Decrees . Are they effective, can they be effective . How do you in your judicial role oversee them in a way to ensure things are made better . Judge morgan i will start with talking about why we have Consent Decrees. The crime bill gets criticized often because it increased penalties and increased penalties and incarceration, but a very good thing it did was empower the donnell dodge to initiate pattern and practice investigations of Police Departments to determine whether they are engaging in patterns or practices of unlawful conduct. Not only do they have the power to investigate, they are empowered to resolve those situations. What that means is they can attempt to negotiate a Consent Decree with a city or department or state. If they cant negotiate, they can actually file suit against that department. Fortunately, most departments, if presented with a doj investigation, agree to a Consent Decree. It becomes an order of the court, in federal court. The judge is an integral part of helping the city to implement that Consent Decree. A big part of it is the court typically hires a Monitoring Team to help them because it is not something a judge can do on her own. Thats a very big part of it. ve been very active, actively engaged both while he was here and after he left. What you need is someone who can bring the parties together. And when you get met with that response, why are we doing it that way . Because that is the way weve always done it. I can say that is not the way we are always doing it anymore and i can help them move forward. Because the citys g