The Texas conference of the NAACP is calling for stricter guidelines for conduct and training in police departments to prevent incidents like the killing of George Floyd from happening in the future.
The organization announced its new "Change the World Restorative Criminal Justice Plan" in a Thursday conference call. The plan has the support of State Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso.
"We clearly need policing reform," Rodríguez wrote in an email, "It's important for the community to be able to trust officers, and there are simply too many stories, and now videos, that demonstrate significant issues with how police use force, especially against people of color."
The plan calls for psychological screening tools to weed out potentially harmful officers and anti-racism training for current officers. Other suggestions include police departments instituting more stringent education requirements for police officers and urging departments to increase recruitment from historically Black colleges and universities. In addition to recruitment, the plan also calls for a state center at a black college or university that would collect data on police use of force and shape officer training programs.
"Police academies put too much focus on warrior-like culture and train officers to say they fear for their lives in nonviolent circumstances to justify unnecessary use of force," Texas NAACP president Gary Bledsoe said in a news release.
Bledsoe cited a recent study from Texas A&M University that found that white police officers use force more frequently, especially in minority neighborhoods, and said that having more Black police officers would lead to positive change in communities.
Police internal affairs departments should no longer have jurisdiction over complaints made against officers by community members, according to the plan. Instead, that authority should be given to an independent entity, such as a citizens evaluation board.
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The Texas NAACP wants to see the establishment of a new state office in charge of criminal prosecutions of police killings in counties of under 250,000 people. This change is meant to mitigate the effect of close relationships between police and prosecutors which, the organization says, prevent many officers from being appropriately prosecuted for violence. The plan also calls on prosecutors to make less frequent use of grand juries in cases against police officers, instead opting to charge them directly as permitted by state law.
The president of the El Paso Municipal Police Officer's Association could not be reached for comment.
Bledsoe stressed that the plan is not meant to be interpreted as anti-police.
"We're pro-police," he said. "By and large, the vast majority of officers are good officers and we are very supportive of police because we need them."
Rodríguez sees police reform as a way of keeping El Paso safer.
"Prioritizing public safety means investing in the community, not just expecting police to take care of problems that could be prevented," he wrote. "It also means taking a harder look at the police union contract, which undergoes too little public scrutiny and goes too far in protecting bad officers with a record of abuse."
Rodríguez said that he and his staff have been working with Black-led community organizations in the region, including the local branch of the NAACP, student groups and religious leadership in order to advocate for police reform locally.
"With the latest black lives lost, there is renewed momentum to make substantial changes that protect the public and establish trust from highly policed communities," he wrote.
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Texas NAACP unveils criminal justice plan, emphasizing police training and accountability - El Paso Times
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