SAN FRANCISCO -- Police unions from San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles are unveiling a reform agenda to find racist officers among their ranks and "root those individuals out of the law enforcement profession," according to a statement released early Sunday morning.
The San Jose Police Officers Association, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League are announcing this effort with full-page ads in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News.
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The unions' national reform plan, coming after protests of the May 25 killing of a Minneapolis man by a police officer there, and other recent deaths at the hands of law enforcement, begins with a national database of former police officers fired for gross misconduct to help prevent other agencies from hiring them; a national use-of-force standard that emphasizes a reverence for life, de-escalation, a duty to intercede if witnessing excessive force or misconduct, proportional responses to dangerous incidents and strong accountability provisions; an early warning system to identify officers that may need more training and mentoring; ongoing and frequent crisis intervention and de-escalation training of police officers; and a transparent and publicly accessible use-of-force analysis website that allows the public to monitor when and how force is used.
The three unions are also issuing a joint statement acknowledging that there are racist police officers, and the unions' commitment to find and get rid of those officers.
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"Our unions are committed to the continuous improvement of policing in America," the statement reads, in part. " We believe that each of our departments has made tremendous strides in strengthening accountability, transparency and adopting policies that reduce the number and severity of uses-of-force.
However, we can do more, and we believe this agenda should be adopted across our nation as an important step toward improving police and community outcomes."