Changes to prosecutors' handling of officer-involved shootings and the training of police officers are receiving national attention as deadly incidents keep piling up, one year after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. In response, California will soon hold officers, and now prosecutors, more accountable.
A new law signed by California Governor Jerry Brown will prohibit secret grand juries from determining whether to charge an officer with a crime following the death of a suspect. This is a major step forward. After grand juries in the Brown and Eric Garner cases declined to indict white police officers in Missouri and New York, respectively, it became apparent to lawmakers here that fundamental change in the judicial process was necessary. Other states should consider similar legislation.
While protests by Black Lives Matter and other groups have garnered attention in the cases of unarmed black men (and women) who are killed by officers or die in custody, systemic change is needed not only in police departments but in district attorneys' offices as well. Not surprisingly, most prosecutors, like most police officers, are white. It's been reported that cities like Oakland are having difficulty recruiting African American police officers. The same is true in cities like Ferguson, where a year after Brown's death, only one additional black officer has been hired.
But it's in prosecutors' offices that the biggest changes are needed. Too often, district attorneys have a bias �" either implicit or explicit �" in favor of law enforcement and this comes to bear in an officer-involved shooting when they will often opt to convene a grand jury to determine whether the officer should face charges. This will change in California beginning in January. The new law, Senate Bill 227, forces prosecutors to decide themselves whether to file criminal charges against police officers after fatal shootings or death from excessive force.
State Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), authored the bill after grand juries declined to indict officers in the Brown and Garner cases. "The use of the criminal grand jury process, and the refusal to indict as occurred in Ferguson and other communities of color, has fostered an atmosphere of suspicion that threatens to compromise our entire justice system," she said in a statement.
As we saw in those cities last year, the grand juries' decisions not to indict fostered mistrust of the system and the evidence authorities presented to those grand juries.
The spotlight on these deaths over the past year has revealed the shortcomings of the grand jury process to determine whether or not to indict a police officer. The proceedings are secret, and in some cases, prosecutors use their discretion to push for no indictment. That's not the way the system should work. Many times, officers have seconds to sum up a situation, but as recent accounts have shown, they also make mistakes. It's frustrating that after more than a year since Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, these deaths keep reoccurring. This month in Arlington, Texas, Christian Taylor, an unarmed black college football player, was shot by Brad Miller, a white officer-in-training. News accounts quoting police experts have said that Miller did not follow proper procedure. If he had, the situation may have had a different outcome.
And yet there's little evidence that police training has changed, or that departments are undertaking comprehensive evaluations to help them deal with citizens more effectively. You shouldn't be pulled over for a minor traffic infraction and end up dead, and yet that's what happened in two recent cases, that of Sandra Bland, who later died in jail, and Samuel De Bose, who was shot while in his car. (In that case, it appears that University of Cincinnati Officer Ray Tensing misrepresented his interaction with De Bose, as video contradicts his report. He's been fired and charged with murder in the case.)
Changes in the justice system are needed both for officers and prosecutors. By signing SB 227, Brown has sent a clear signal to Californians that the state can and will improve procedures for holding officers accountable for crimes committed in the line of duty. We don't expect every officer-involved shooting to result in criminal charges; but when incidents occur, they will be investigated. Now, prosecutors also will be held accountable as the authority to decide to file charges in these cases will rest with them.