In the context of the future of policing in the United States, explain the President's Task Force Report on 21st Century Policing.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.Much of the most recent evidence and thinking about contemporary policing was captured in a recent task force report: President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015. In December 2014, the then President Barack Obama signed an executive order commissioning a task force to identify best practices in policing and make recommendations on how policing practices can both promote effective crime reduction and build public trust. Through seven meetings in January and February 2015, the Task Force's 11 members met with over 100 individuals from law enforcement and the community-with civic leaders, advocates, researchers, scholars, and others-and reviewed other information (including written testimony). They produced a final report (President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015) that may serve as an important guide for changes in police work over the coming decades. We describe this report in some detail, both for its scholarly and practical value, and because it offers a valuable perspective on the stability of the trends and evidence discussed in this chapter.There were two overarching recommendations. First, the Task Force recommended that the President support the creation of another task force (the National Crime and Justice Task Force) to consider criminal justice reforms in the wake of the report. Second, members recommended support for programs that are community-based, addressing important issues such as poverty, education, health, and safety. In this respect, the Task Force clearly placed policing in the broader context of our communities and criminal justice system, identifying risk factors for crime and seeking to reduce them.The report also made more specific recommendations in six topic areas: Building Trust and Legitimacy, Policy and Oversight, Technology and Social Media, Community Policing and Crime Reduction, Officer Training and Education, and Officer Safety and Wellness. We describe each of these and discuss them in the context of other material in this chapter.