One Way To Deal With Cops Who Lie? Blacklist Them, Some DAs Say

Arkansas’ judicial oversight agency has the staffing and persistence to hold bad judges accountable in ways that counter a nationwide pattern of weak enforcement and judicial impunity. The Arkansas Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission has a staff that’s almost three times as large as the national per-judge average and it publicly disciplines judges more than twice the national rate. It is one of the few such agencies that will investigate anonymous complaints, frequently a barrier to starting judicial misconduct probes.

In Washington, D.C., defendants appear in court within 24 hours of their arrest and many are freed from jail without having to make bail. The process is efficient, relying on a coordinated system of risk assessment and supervision that saves money and supports defendants’ right to timely due process.

Georgia and Ukraine offer cautionary advice to Americans whose mass protests seek structural changes in policing, even abolishing entire police forces. The same was true in those two countries. But, in both cases, initial successes at replacing corrupt police forces ended up reversed or at least limited by backsliding, as other parts of government and society resisted the changes.

The way in which Kentucky’s Louisville Metro Police Department handles rape cases has come into question. The department’s low level of cases being brought to trial is because of the extra step police officers take: checking with prosecutors to see if they’ll take the case to court. If prosecutors won’t, the police don’t make arrests. The policy is justified as victim-centered. But experts say this, combined with other problematic practices by the LMPD, can leave survivors feeling as though they aren’t believed and alone with their trauma.

An amendment passed in Louisiana does away with non-unanimous jury verdicts that have helped solidify racial discrimination in the criminal justice system since they were implemented in response to Reconstruction. Data shows black defendants were more likely to be convicted in the non-unanimous system and the votes of black jurors more likely to be silenced. Advocates said the amendment is a huge game changer against mass incarceration in Louisiana and racial discrimination.

If not properly investigated, sexual assault claims can be dismissed prematurely, disrupting the justice process and allowing offenders to continue hurting people. In Philadelphia, after an audit revealed more than 2,000 mishandled sexual offense claims in five years, police officers and women’s rights advocates began sitting together once a year to review police files and catch procedural problems. Now 17 years strong, the collaboration continues to hold law enforcement accountable and catch mishandled claims.

Historically, police interrogations of suspects have been brutal and have involved torture. These strategies have also produced a high rate of false confessions. The HIG method, which encourages conversation in a comfortable environment, has shown to be successful in revealing the truth and incarcerating the convicted with confidence.

With human injustices affecting people on the streets around the world, camera phones have become important tools to document crimes. However, the video may not adequately capture the crime to be persuasive in court. The global organization WITNESS has formed as Video As Evidence Program to instruct citizens how to best document crimes with their cameras so that the evidence will stand in court.

In just one year, the Sacramento County Criminal Justice System reduced its backlog of court cases from 1000 to 100. To do so, they increased and prioritized efficiencies like night court, collaboration with prosecutors, and bringing in judges out of retirement.

A growing number of prosecutors compile lists of police officers deemed untrustworthy witnesses, information they disclose to defense lawyers to prevent unjust criminal convictions. Called "Brady lists" or "do not call" lists, the practice is arguably a constitutional requirement for a fair trial. Broad disclosure of such a list in Philadelphia led to the dismissal of more than 2,000 convictions. Yet many prosecutors fail to keep such lists or ignore categories of misconduct like the use of excessive force. Police unions and privacy laws have helped block the effective use of Brady lists in some places.